Over The River ...

Greetings to all!  It's me, Mags.  As some of you know, we made a quick trip out to Illinois again to see our grandma.  Due to the snow/ice storm, it was even quicker than we had planned.  Anyway ... as the song goes, we went "over the river" - the Kansas, the Missouri, the Mississippi, others - and "through the woods". Trust me, Missouri and Illinois have way more trees than Kansas.

Anyway, we got in late that day, then got up the next morning and took a nice, long walk:

We knew there was bad weather on the way, so we headed over to Grandma's a little earlier than planned, and had a wonderful visit with her. It was her 90th birthday!!! We brought presents and cake and everything! Dad checked the radar while we were there, and knew we needed to get back to our hotel before the roads got nasty.

Once back at the hotel, I took on the role of Ao4 Meterologist. I checked in the the so-called professionals ...

"I don't like the way this storm is headed.  And please, Weather Channel. Stop naming everything!"

... then did what a smart meteorologist does:

"Let me check out the window.  Oh ... uh ... has anyone else looked out here lately?"

It was only round one of the storm, with lots more to come. In the middle of the night, Mom and Dad made the hard decision that if we didn't want to be stuck at the hotel in Illinois for a few more days, we needed to book out of there. We left shortly after 4 a.m.

Back over the river:

And unfortunately, yes, there was a LOT of black ice all over the roads - especially bridges and overpasses, of course. Dad took it slow and steady. We had some hairy moments along the way, ran into snow around Columbia, MO, and basically Kansas City was a nightmare, but DAD DID GREAT! God was truly watching over us!

Before we knew it, we were back in the Flint Hills:

The stretch of I70 by our exit had been closed due to a terrible accident all day the day before, but when we got there ...

Almost home!

... it was open and looking great!

It was wonderful seeing our grandma, but wow, are we thankful to be home!  Are any of you traveling this Christmas season?  If so, PLEASE stay safe!!!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher