We're Not In Kansas Anymore........

Hey wait.....I don't think I went to Kansas.

But we sure went to about every other state in the Midwest.....Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Illinois.

Believe me......I sure WISHED I would have had those "Ruby Slippers" last night when we got so very lost on some crazy back roads in Missouri at 10:00 something last night night. I would have been clicking my heels big time.

Somehow something messed up with our GPS and instead of taking us to Branson once we left Springfield Mo. we ended up tired and lost on some dark and scary country roads going to God knows where.

Joshua was driving at that point and Ariel was up front beside him in the passenger seat. I was drifting in and out of sleep in the back seat of the truck.

By the time I woke up and realized......ummmm........"we should have hit Branson about an hour ago" (especially since it's only 45 minutes from Springfield) I asked Joshua and Ariel if they had seen any signs at all for Branson and they said they hadn't.

That is when....
I knew we were in some kind of a major FIX.

Long story short....we finally ended up stopping and sleeping in a small town called "West Plains" Missouri after going a completely different direction....totally south and EAST of Branson...out on some crooked and craggy country roads with names like "U" and "UU."

I know what those kinds of roads are since I grew up in Missouri and had family that lived on roads with alphabet names like that....so I knew that we would soon end up in some crazy maze in the "hollers" of the Ozarks somewhere.

That's when I told Joshua......."Turn us around and get us to the Interstate no matter what."

Let me give you all a huge TIP...."Always pack your trusty "road atlas" with you no matter what. Which was something I didn't do this trip....crazy me.

Because those GPS systems.....which I LOVE actually........often times go down in rural areas AND they also get messed up by humans that put wrong addresses in them and such. If you know what I mean.

Hummm...........
so it is true......"there's no place like home."

I will have TONS of photos of Baby Aaron, the "Cousins" and many other family members and other interesting tidbits of news and such from our 10 day road trip.......

I'm glad it's over.....even though I was sad to leave everyone I saw.

Now I need a cruise to relax.
And I need a road atlas at ALL times.