Friday, I set off early for the relay and had a blast. It was far too short for me and I was sad at having to leave my team. Pictured is Margaret, Michelle, Rob and Rick. Steve is out running, so I included a photo of him driving the Yeti. I decided I wanted to increase my mileage because I'd miss three legs, so I ran 3.7 of Michelle's first leg with her and 1.5 miles of Rick's second leg with him. So I ran approximately 20.5 miles of the relay.
After my third leg of the relay into Rochester, my husband Paul came and picked me up. We grabbed a bite to eat and headed home. I took a shower and got some sleep for a few hours. By 3:00am we were on our way to the airport and Nashville, Tennessee.
The flights were thankfully uneventful and the 2 hour drive into McKenzie went quick. Paul and I did a quick change of clothes in the front seat of our car and headed into the funeral home for the viewing. It was good to see family and have a quick update since the last time we saw each other or spoke. My aunt and Uncle and cousins drove in from the Houston area, my older brother and his family drove in from the Atlanta area and Paul and I, as well as my brother flew in from Washington and my parents from Oregon. There were lots of other relatives form the local area, second cousins, great aunts and uncles etc... Family was surely one of the most important things to both my grandfather and grandmother. This value has been passed down through the generations and hopefully will be present in my own children's lives.
We had a great dinner after the viewing at a local Mexican restaurant. I really wanted a margarita after the long trip. It was then difficult to swallow that the establishment had no liquor license.
Sunday came and I managed to get my husband out for a run with me. Now the roads in the south have no shoulders. It's the white fog line and then grass or bushes of some sort. There is usually a steep grade into a deep ditch to collect the storm runoff. Paul was skeptical of running on these roads. I just told him to get behind me. Now we left at about 6:55am. It was already 80 degrees and quite humid. I had tried to get my twin brother to come out with us, but he wanted to run at about 8am. Later he commented on how hard it was to breathe. That's the humidity. It sucks the breath out of you. You never feel like you can get a full breath. Paul and I ran 6.2 miles at his pace. I was tired at the end. The road was rolling hills. I think the locals thought we were nuts. They went around us and I gave the customary wave and in the south they actually wave back without giving you the finger too.
When it was time to eat breakfast, we wanted to go to a restaurant. But the thing is, this is a pretty small rural town. EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays. Most restaurants don't open till 11am for the after church rush. We found our choices to be either Sonic or McDonald's. Since we had to be back at the funeral home by 11:30am, we chose Sonic. This one even has an inside sit down area in addition to the regular drive in areas.
We proceeded to the church for the funeral service after one last viewing session. My Dad, the eldest son spoke after the pastor and then my Uncle. Each of the grandchildren were given the opportunity to speak and most of us did. We relayed our thanks for teaching us the values of family, Church, frugality, education, travel, living by the Boy Scout law, community, volunteering, and loyalty. My grandfather was an amazing man. He lived a full 95 years, was married to my grandmother who passed away one year ago for 67 years. He was many things to many people. An amazing man.
After the internment service we headed back to the church for a meal. This is where I really needed to remember the phrase "portion control." I love southern food. I limited myself and let my brothers and cousins eat all the extra corn lite bread. I only had seconds on the delicious homegrown tomatoes and sweet tea.
It was time to say goodbye to my cousins who were headed home early in the morning to get home by 6pm the next evening. We plan on getting together in Estes Park, CO at the YMCA of the Rockies as we used to do so long ago in the summer of 2010. It will be great to play together again as we used to do as kids.
Paul and I helped my parents and aunt and uncle clean out my grandpa's apartment and move furniture into storage to be moved in about a month. Most of the work had already been done after my grandmother's death, but it was still a bittersweet job to do.
Paul and I then said our goodbyes to the rest of the family and drove back to Nashville to head home. Thankfully the flights were again uneventful and we made it safely home very late Monday night.
Tuesday was for recuperation. Today I hit the road again with Michelle, Rob, Jamal and Laurie. They filled me in on the rest of the relay and we pushed through the hill run. The kids and I spent some great time together today too. They had been with Paul's parents over the weekend. We went to story time at Borders and had ice cream treats afterwards, then came home for lunch and had some craft time. Yesterday we bought some treasure boxes to paint and decorate. It was good together time fun.
Grace and peace to you.
