Tuesday, March 17, 2009

We're Not in Kansas Any More

We flew into the KCMO airport, but went to the Kansas side of the river for the week-end. Our friend was our pastor's wife for 9 years and has been gone from us for 9 years. We had a great, delightful, relaxing week-end full of conversation and food - what could be better??

I was planning to take some pictures, but that didn't happen too much, so I will paint some word pictures.

I don't like sitting in the middle seat, but did both ways. I will say that Frontier's seats are not as tightly together as United's. So that was good. The flight there was less than half full, so we could have spread out, but for some reason we stayed put. My sis and I live 4 miles apart, but seldom have quality time to visit, so we did a lot of that on the flight. I hope the lady by the window didn't mind.

Carol has 4 daughters and 12 grandchildren. We had the fun of seeing all of these "girls," who had been a part of our lives. Seeing the grands was grand.

Sitting around various tables while we ate and chatted, sitting in the living room and chatting, driving down the street and chatting, visiting with the girls and chatting - getting the picture? The photos would have been quite boring!

We went to their very large church and really enjoyed Sunday school and worship. Monday we went to visit our denomination's new headquarters building - named Global Ministry Center. They recently moved the operation of our very international church from three crowded old buildings in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, to this wonderful facility in the plains of Kansas. I was impressed with the way they are using every inch effectively, nothing is ornate but very tastefully done, and the technology is fantastic - they are able to do video-conferencing with missionaries and national leaders anywhere in the world.

We saw several people who were part of the mission team on my trip to Brazil a few years ago, another former pastor's wife, and an attorney that used to go to our church and now works for the denomination. It was great fun.









It's funny. As I was thinking about leaving on this trip, I recalled that most of my prior trips to the Kansas City area have been quite traumatic.

  1. My first flight ever was to KC from my college in Oklahoma. I flew there for the quadrennial general convention. Leaving KC for Omaha for the rest of the summer, I was stuck on the runway for a long wait, totally fogged in. I remember it clearly, though it was 40 years ago - YIKES!

  2. When I was in college, my sister, brother, and I would get home by any means possible, since we didn't have a car until the last year. One Christmas we were traveling with an acquaintance who was headed our way. As happened more than I like to remember, it snowed heavily that day. We had to take a detour into KC that year to visit his uncle. Not a good idea, and I wasn't happy about it, but when you're begging a ride home, you go where the driver takes you. We got stuck there overnight because of snow. We all ended up sleeping on the floors of his uncle's house (because we always packed the car as full of people as possible to save gas expenses and to get everyone home). We didn't get home until the middle of the afternoon of Christmas Eve day. But at least we were safely there - eventually.

  3. I went to KC a few years later to visit a couple of friends - I was single and headed down there by myself in my little green Mustang. I was not intimidated by traveling alone in those days. Maybe I should have been. I must have taken a wrong turn off the Interstate, because suddenly I had no idea where I was. It was dark, late, and in a not-so-nice part of town. I saw a phone booth, so pulled over into this deserted parking lot to make a call to my friend for directions - with the phone booth out in plain sight, with no booth. YIKES! I quickly discovered that the receiver had been jerked from the box, rendering the phone totally useless. DOUBLE YIKES!! By this time I was, indeed, nervous and frightened. I sent up one of those quick prayers and headed down the road. Soon I saw what appeared to be a convenience store, so I pulled off, very relieved. When I got inside looking for a phone, I discovered, to my amazement, that it was a converted convenience store - now a police station! Amazing, and miraculous. The nice officers directed me to where I needed to go and it was very close by. Soon I was safely with my friends for the night.

  4. Fast forward quite a few years. We went to visit Kristen while she was in college. I forgot some of my clothes hanging on the door at home. I had to head to Wal-Mart for a couple of things to wear.

  5. Then there was the time that Kristen and I had to fly to KC at the end of January to pick up her car and her things and drive back to Colorado. It was a late evening flight and we sat in the waiting area wondering why we weren't boarding. Turns out that there were so many sick attendants that month that there wasn't a crew for our flight. They literally were meeting crews at planes as they came in and asked if anyone had any available hours left to work. Finally around 11:00 we took off, arriving in KC around 1:00 a.m. We went into a "game room" and tried to sleep, using our backpacks as pillows. The games gurgled and burbled all night. The automated announcement about watching out for your baggage kept on all night. It was horrible. Finally 6:00 came and we were able to get on the shuttle to go get her car, a tiny Geo Metro, load it with all her stuff, and head back to Colorado around 11:00 a.m. I made the remark that we'd better not have a flat, or we were in trouble getting the spare "donut" out of the back.

    The worst happened - we both dozed off as Kristen was driving and we ended up bouncing through the ditch through the dried weeds. When we finally stopped, one of the tires was totally shredded. I headed up to the roadside to try to flag down some help. Eventually, a car stopped and a truck with a trailer came across the median from the other side. The truck pulled us out with a winch, and the car led us to the next town to get a new tire, after helping us unload and reload that tiny car. The man in the car offered to buy the tire. What a blessing as we realized that both vehicles had "Jesus" bumper stickers on the back. We felt without a doubt that we had been ministered to by angels.
So - Kansas City and I have quite the history. This week-end was the best.

Kristen finally had a chance to do a catch-up post at Smoke-Free Mama - check it out, if you have a minute!

16 comments:

Mary said...

Dawn,

What a brave soul you were to go back to KC after all the things that have happened to you there. Glad this time was different and that you were taken care of the other times. God is always watching.

Thanks for commenting on my book review. Like you, I would never put my daughters in the limelight. Michelle used to tap dance and went to a recital or two. That was it.

Take care and enjoy the nicer weather. It's overcast here today and we're expecting rain.

Blessings,
Mary

Susie said...

Hi Dawn,
So glad you had a nice relaxing trip this time!
You accounts of your other adventures certainly were quite the opposite. How fortunate you and Kristen were not to have been injured when you dozed off..
Welcome back!
xo

Karen H. said...

Good Morning Dawn,
So glad you had a safe adn relaxing trip and enjoyed visiting with friends. You have more patience than I would have had. If all that had happened to me, I would have never returned to KC again. LOL. GOD is alway with us and HE DOES TAKE CARE OF HIS CHILDREN."WELCOME BACK" by the way. Tqke care my friend and have a wonderful Wednesday. May GOD Bless you and yours.
Love,
Karen H.

Robin said...

My goodness. I can't believe you had the courage to try that trip again - you must have really wanted to go!
I'm glad it went well for you and that you had a great time!
I'll be talking to the kids tonight - to catch up on how they are doing. I think they are quite homesick.

Sam said...

Those are dreadful stories, Dawn, but #4 is definitely the worst! I'm so glad you had a nice trip this time! It sounds like it was just great.

I bet you're so happy for Kristen and her success! It's so wonderful!

Nadine said...

I think you're great for going back to place that so many awful things happened.

Wouldn't it be funny if the lady you sat next to on the plane read your blog and left a comment that she didn't mind the visiting you and your sister did and enjoyed listening to your stories.

nancygrayce said...

Wow! You and KC have a love/hate relationship!!! Glad you're back home o.k. this trip.

One of my worst flying fears is being stuck in the plane on the runway. I am very claustrophobic and I'm just not sure how I would handle it and you know they won't let you get off the plane!

Diane@Diane's Place said...

Good grief, you and KC do have a history, don't you? Glad this trip was a good experience and improved your impression of KC.

I'm still having computer woes and haven't been online much. I've got to mail off the bad router and wait on a new one to be mailed back from the manufacturer. On top of that, I think my desktop died.

Hope you have a great rest of your week, Dawn.

Love and hugs,

Diane

Hootin Anni said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hootin Anni said...

The trip sounds wonderful....tho a lot of history for you needless to say.

You ask what the population of Houston is? Well, if you consider the city limits boundaries, it's over 2 million....but with all the suburbs it's close to guesstimation here...I'd say 4 to 5 million. It's the 3rd or 4th largest city in America. Yes, F. C. WAS a dinky town when we moved from Colorado about 15 years ago.

Hootin Anni said...

Oh....okay. I thought you'd asked about Houston when you said comparing it. LOL

Well, duh!! The population around here in the city limits would be 300,000+ And then you have the suburbs of Robstown, Calallen, Ingleside, and more...so, I'd probably guess it to be near 1/2 million.

Laurie in Ca. said...

How did I miss this post? I am so glad you had a wonderful time on your trip!! You sure packed in a lot to do in a short period of time:)
Catching up on the grandkids, such a treasure. I am glad you had safe travel and the great company had to be "soul" refreshing. Good old fashioned chatting is the best medicine for us girls. I hope your week has been a good one and I am so glad to hear that Kevin got a job. I am praying for him too. Love you Dawn.

Love and Hugs, Laurie

SentimentsbyDenise said...

I've never been to KC. Emilee was there during her Senior Year at ONU, visiting. She ran into an old friend which was fun!
We're busy this week - revival at church in the evenings!

Hugs and Blessings!

Ms. Kathleen said...

What a great trip and rather healing in away. I do agree some planes seats or so cramped and UA is one of them. I try to avoid them if I can.

Nice to have you back!

Nancy said...

I'm glad you had a great time. I just love chatting with my sisters and I'm sure you are like me...you can always come up with something fun to talk or laugh about. I'm glad your trip this time was so much better than years past! I hope you have a great weekend! Hugs to the twins!

Sharon Lynne said...

How frightening to have fallen asleep. You and Kristin were definitely protected. One of my fears is falling asleep at the wheel, because I get so sleepy when I drive home from my parents home.

Enjoyed your post. I'm glad you had a nice time!

I'm glad for Kevin's job!