In case you hadn’t heard, driving from SoCal to Southern Mizz is no joke.  I’m just going to start calling Missouri “Mizz”.  Because why not.  We rented a minivan, or – as my stepdad likes to call it – a Mormon Assault Vehicle so that we could have a little more space.  Five hours into our drive, we met up with Krista and the nephew in Arizona.  They hitched a ride the rest of the 22 hours.  Between Albuquerque and Oklahoma City, all the towns that we passed seemed to be named after Dr. Seuss characters.

And that was the only interesting thing about the I-40.

Well, that’s not entirely true.  We passed the Rio not-so-Grande, from what we could see.  And we drove by a lot of old mills and stuff like that.  We saw the blue, blue skies of Texas, along with a ginormous cross.  We took a break from driving to eat at a Sonic.  Which was a really stupid idea.  “Yay!  We just haven’t had enough sore butts or leg cramps yet!  Let’s eat inside the car!”  When we got into Oklahoma, there were some trees. So that was nice…

Anyway, we were in the car so long, I was thinking we might as well have gone all the way.  North Carolina would’ve been the end of the road.  But I think it’s safe to say we won’t be making that drive again anytime soon.  If we do, there will be a LOT of detours.  It’s boring.  And that’s all I have to say about that.

As much as I wish this trip were under different circumstances, it was nice to see everyone.  And we all felt some solace being together and experiencing the same sad feelings.  We had some nice times too.  Laughing and carrying on.  Then we’d all take a deep breath and remember how things had changed just a few days earlier.  But we’ll hang onto those happy moments.  I think it’s just the resilience of the human spirit.  We crave the laughter and remember the joyful times to get us through those shitty parts.  And it reminds us how love binds everyone together in this crazy life.  No matter how near or far, how different our beliefs, how different our backgrounds.  Whether you were born into this family or adopted into it.  The love is the same.  The love is unconditional.  Hanging onto that.

(Click images to enlarge)