Welcome home.

A quick reflection on my first indoors, in-person worship service post-sabbatical...

Throughout the day yesterday, I was thinking about what it would be like to be back in worship today, in person and in the pews.  Though UPC was back on August 1, I was still on sabbatical, so I had still not experienced indoor, in-person worship since March 2020.  Would it be emotional?  Would it be joyful?  Would it feel strange?  I set my alarm last night... okay, truth be told, I set three alarms.  It was like the night before a time change, although in that case, I don't trust my phone.  In this case, I didn't trust myself to get up when the alarm went off.  It's been a while since I've had to do that on a Sunday morning!

From the minute I stepped in the church building this morning (to the sound of "NANCY!" and some hugs from small friends waiting to greet me), I felt it.  I wasn't sure what "it" was until somebody said it to me during the passing of the peace.  "Welcome home."  This person was not the only one to say it to me, but it got me.  Lots of people said, "Welcome back," which of course I appreciated, but it was the "Welcome home" that really struck me.  From beginning to end in worship, and from the time I stepped in the door this morning until the time I left, I felt it.  It felt like home.  It was truly a gift to have time away to be refreshed and renewed, and it's even more of a gift to be back home at UPC.

I could have missed it...

I am a beach walker.  I am generally not a beach sitter.  While I do love sitting on the beach for a bit to chat with friends and/or read a book, I am not one to go out to the beach and sit in the hot sun all day long.  I do, however, love to walk up and down the beach, and do so at least three times a day when I am oceanside.  The purpose of my walk depends on the day and on the beach.  If it is a beach that is known for its shells, you better believe I am always looking.  I also want to get exercise each day, so breaking a sweat is of high value as well.

Today, as I walked along the beach at low tide, I found that the purpose of my walk had shifted.  I had intentionally looked up the tide times so I was sure to be on the sand - on a shell hunt - when the tide was out.  Yet as I was walking along, I couldn't get something out of my head.  I read something recently that really stuck with me.  (And if one of you wrote it, or if you know where I read it, please remind me so I can give credit where it is due because I can't for the life of me remember where I read it!)  The author said something about looking down.  The author, in much more beautiful words than these, wrote that when we spend our time looking down as we walk, we miss seeing our surroundings.

On my low-tide-beach-walk, of course I was looking down!  I was at water's edge, and I was sure I was about to find "the shell I'd been waiting for."  Down, down, down I looked.  I looked straight ahead from time to time, of course, to avoid running into those walking toward me and small children running in all directions.  But it wasn't until those author's words raced into my brain that I looked up... and to the left... and to the right...

I could have missed it.  

Had I not looked up, I could have missed seeing the way the waves roll in continuously, one right after the other, like clockwork.  

I could have missed seeing the way the clouds were so low they looked like they were touching the ground.

I could have missed seeing the colors of the water as the sunlight reflects off of it.

I could have missed the sea turtle nests that have been safely staked off from unwelcome visitors.

I could have missed witnessing the pure joy that is present as people throw frisbees, play cornhole, jump waves, and dig in the sand.

I was so busy looking for shells, and counting shibumi shades (at least 40 in a 1 mile stretch of beach!) that I could have missed God’s handiwork all around me…

The good news is, I didn't.

One more state + a (brief!) stop where I grew up

On Sunday we entered the last new state of this trip... the picture is super blurry, but it was Minnesota!  State #42... or perhaps 48 if I've been to New England. :-D

Some of my good friends from college live in Rochester so we got to visit with them briefly, have dinner, and see the new optometry practice they opened just over a year ago!  We think it may have been 12 years since we'd seen each other... and promised it would be sooner next time.  After dinner Mom and I drove around near Mayo Clinic since we'd heard about it for years but had never been in the area.

Then yesterday (Monday) we traveled to Galesburg, Illinois, where I grew up.  We were there less than 24 hours, including sleeping, and there were SO many people we could have seen!  Of course I had to give preference to my childhood-and-beyond BFF and my second parents.  Super fun evening having dinner together and playing late night games.  I love that every time we're together, we pick up right where we left off.

Got to drive by the house where I grew up (right down the street from the friends...).  Looks much the same, except now it's a much prettier gray than the yellow it was when we lived there.  The cornfield in the backyard has corn as tall as ever!  Oh, memories.

Here we are this morning before we hit the road to drive back to Indianapolis.  Two weeks later, and what a fabulous trip it was!

I'll spend some time here before heading home to North Carolina.  I don't know what's on the calendar for the rest of sabbatical other than more rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation.  The blog likely won't be updated at least for a little while, although I will do a post with trip reflections at some point.  I continue to be so grateful for this gift of time away.

Adventures in South Dakota!

What a day!

I woke up this morning in our hotel in Rapid City to a "smoky" weather report.  Thankfully it didn't seem too bad once we got outside.

We left our hotel and headed straight to Mount Rushmore.  We hoped that by going early in the day, we might beat the worst of the crowds.  I can only imagine what it's like later in the day!

When we left Mount Rushmore, we decided to head to Crazy Horse Mountain.  It wasn't too far away.  We knew we didn't have time to do the museum, so we just pulled in to see it, took a couple of pictures, and went on our way.

Pretty tunnel between Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Mountain - Miner's Gateway Tunnel

We left Crazy Horse and drove back toward Rapid City.  As we got on the bypass around Rapid City, I said to Mom, "It's crazy to me that you can have cows across the street from Walmart!"  I guess that's South Dakota for you? 

We drove about an hour until we came to Wall, South Dakota, the home of Wall Drug Store!  Mom had told me a few things about it, and there were a ZILLION billboards promoting it, but I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I did not need to be in there long before I could say, "Been there, done that.  Let's get out of here!"  No purchases made... I didn't even walk through the whole thing.  So crowded - and just not my favorite scene in general.  We headed out quickly!

Mom drove from Mount Rushmore to Crazy Horse Mountain and then to Wall, SD.  Somewhere along the way, she hit 81 mph (when the speed limit was 80)! We thought that deserved photographic evidence.

Beautiful South Dakota hills in transit

After Wall Drug we headed for Badlands National Park.  So many gorgeous views that made it hard to choose which pictures to share!  The Badlands reminded me a bit of the Grand Canyon - though on a much smaller scale.

Literally the first thing we saw upon entry to the park were prairie dogs.  We listened to Oliver, our GyPSy app host, again to tour us around.  He told us to keep an eye out for the prairie dogs and sure enough, there they were!  I found this especially funny because on our Red Bus tour in Glacier National Park, our jammer would stop the bus, put it in the park, and tell us we could "prairie dog" which meant we could stand up and take pictures out of the roof of the bus.  

Just under three hours after leaving the Badlands, we arrived in Mitchell, SD, where we'd be staying the night.  Do you know what's in Mitchell?  You can see on the water tower below it says "Home of the Corn Palace."  

Now many of you might not know this about me, but I love corn.  If you asked me what my favorite food is, from the time I was a little girl until now, I'd tell you it is corn.  For one of my birthdays when I was younger, my childhood best friend gave me a 10 lb. can of corn.  He knew it would make me laugh, AND he knew I would eat it.  So call me nerdy (I'm fine with that), but I was super excited about going to the corn palace.  They have murals on the outside made out of corn!

The murals on the left and right (and the USA) are all made out of corn cobs.  

Other parts are made from husks, etc.

The side of the building... all those murals are made out of corn!

A video close-up so perhaps you can see the corn murals better

Another banner day for sure!  Mom informed me that her part of the itinerary - things she wanted to show me on this trip - has now wrapped up.  Still have two nights on the road after tonight - will see some friends along the way - but we are definitely making our way back to Indianapolis now... with one more new state tomorrow. :)

Some travel days... beauty (mostly) all around!

Yesterday morning we packed our suitcases to get ready to leave and enjoyed a lovely breakfast in our lodge dining room where we'd had dinner the night before.  They are short-staffed this summer (like pretty much everywhere) but were working their tails off.  No problem - we weren't in a huge hurry!

French toast with huckleberry compote

We stopped at a Sinclair gas station in middle-of-nowhere Montana.  My grandpa (Dad's dad) worked there his whole career, so I told Mom we should support them at least once. :)

Apparently every Sinclair gas station has a green brontosaurus?

It was a LONG day of driving.  Perhaps because we were sad to be leaving Glacier, perhaps because it was mostly two-lane roads, and perhaps because it was boring with nothing super exciting to look at, but we finally made it to Billings, MT, where we'd be staying the night.

About ten minutes before this, I said to Mom, "I have no idea how a city will suddenly 

appear out of all this nothingness!"

We saw part of the campus of Montana State University at Billings

Painted on one of the overpasses in Billings - 99 degrees when we arrived at our hotel!

An aisle at Target in Billings!

After we arrived at our hotel and after I'd run some errands in Billings, I wasn't feeling well, so we both crashed early. I'm feeling fine today, so I'm chalking that one up to exhaustion and post-national-park letdown!

We left our hotel this morning and first drove to Miles City where we got some lunch.  

We stopped at a rest area just before Miles City, and I noticed that the toilet paper holder had a padlock on it.  I giggled to myself and snapped a picture.  I asked Mom about it later and said that not only was it locked up, but I thought that was the thinnest, cheapest toilet paper one could find!  She agreed.  Wonder if it's always been this way (looks like it's been there a while!) or if it was added during Covid when TP was so hard to find?  Kind of funny to think about...

For what it's worth, at that same rest area, the temperature showed something in the 90s, and yet I wasn't sweating even a little.  The beauty of low humidity!

On the way from the exit from the highway to our lunch stop in Miles City (less than a mile), we counted NINE casinos!

Statue on a roundabout in Miles City, MT

Beautiful views along the road today...

Although I got stuck behind this van for far longer than I would have liked!

Caught this temperature at one point today...

Got state #40!

More beautiful views.  Hard to take pictures from the car - and the pics just don't do it justice!

And then state #41!

As we got further along in South Dakota, skies got pretty dark...

But still gorgeous!

And so green.

We stopped briefly in Sturgis (well, drove through) so I could see where the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally is held.  I have no idea how that small town holds so many people!

Sturgis Motorcycle Museum & Hall of Fame

View from our hotel in Rapid City

My assessment so far of North Dakota and South Dakota is that North Dakota is just as barren as I expected (although to be fair, we didn't see much of it), and South Dakota is more beautiful than I predicted!  I still very much appreciate where I live... I like civilization and not having to drive crazy far distances between towns.

It was another banner day, in its own kind of way.  Thanks for following along on the journey.  Tomorrow is going to be full.  Mount Rushmore, Wall Drug, Badlands... looking forward to more than just driving! :)