Howdy from Ft. Worth

Howdy Ya'll!

We arrived to Hickman, NE safe and sound 8:00ish Sunday night and spent the night at David and Vera Boender's. Super hospitable and comfy beds, too! We left their place Monday morning at 8:21 (thank you, Kyle) and headed south for a thankfully uneventful drive. . . except for the heat outside. Pastor's outdoor car thermometer read up to 110!! We stopped for a quaint pincic lunch at a reststop somewhere before Salinas, KS where we stretched, filled up on pb&j, used their immaculate bathrooms, inspected their really cool and totally clever swinging garbage cans, and called loved ones. (No offense if you were not called... We probably still love you, too.)

Hey, and speaking of Kansas, what's with the lack of sunflowers? It's supposed to be the sunflower state! According to someone in the van, "We have Mt. Rushmore available year round! If I'm in KS, I expect to see sunflowers whenever I want."

Pastor drove 80% of the time but let me (muhahaha) drive for a couple hours from Salinas, KS almost to Oklahoma City. From there, it was another straight shot south to Forth Worth, TX where the Baltzers miraculously beat us to the hotel. No confirmation yet on how fast Monte was driving... :) We met up in the downtown area and walked around beautiful Sundance Square; most everything "appropriate" was closed. After about 20 minutes, we headed to our hotel. Some of us swam. Some of us raided the cooler. Others watched football. Still, others crashed.

We will depart in a few minutes for the last leg of the trip--Ft. Worth to Laredo!

Hasta pronto,

Meghan on behalf of the group

PS: Please pray for Sherry Balter's health. She's still fighting flu/cold symptoms.