Feed My Lambs Retreat Part 4

Traveling to and fro....or in the neighborhood, a journey of about 800 miles. Here are the children near the beginning of our drive. They are smiling. That is because they do not know that we are about to hit Chicago traffic on I-80 on a holiday weekend : ) My friend and fellow Looper, Ruth and her children picked my granddaughter and me up in the morning on July 1st. We traveled west for almost 180 miles and decided to have lunch at the first rest area in IN. While we're chomping down our packed lunch, I looked up and thought "Boy does that man look like my son Nick, wait a minute, it is Nick"! It was very odd to see Nick and Naomi at the rest area but it was a fitting way to begin this trip! They were on their way to South Bend to visit Sandy, another Looper...also Naomi's mom.

We stayed Saturday night in Bensenville IL which is Ruth's old stomping ground. Sunday morning found us at Zion Lutheran Church worshipping with other LCMSers using TLH. It was wonderful to travel and feel at home singing the liturgy in another place. I took many pictures which I will use on this blog in the future. Thank God for digital cameras!





Ruth was excited to take us to one of her favorite restaurants, Our Kitchen in Elmhurst so that I too could have the opportunity to taste a Baked Apple Pancake. Even though I've been eating a low carb diet, this was too good to pass up having a slice. So I didn't : )

Traveling west on I-90 we came to an area I thought I recognized as being Melody P's exit. I called her on my cell and told her we were in the neighborhood and asked if we could stop by. She was very gracious to invite us over. They had recently returned from taking a vacation out west. John showed us pictures of their trip and it was very odd for these OH Loopers to be sitting at a Looper table in IL, looking at pictures of Looper Jenn from NV visiting Looper Wendy in WY. We asked for directions back to I-90 and those directions just happened to go right by Susan G's home. I called again to let them know we were in the neighborhood and they invited us to stop by. We hadn't even arrived at the retreat yet but we were enjoying seeing Loopers. At this point, I'm sure Ruth wondered how many numbers I had in my cell phone : ) We left Susan's house about the time we expected to arrive at our next overnight.

July 3rd and it is the day we are scheduled to arrive at the retreat but we have more miles to drive. Ruth is doing all the driving and I am knitting. I was able to complete one dishcloth on my way to camp. Here are the children at our last eating stop before camp. They are in a quandry. We are at Baker's Square and they are trying to decide which kind of pie to have for dessert. When you eat at Baker's Square, you decide dessert first and then order your meal accordingly.

We tried to visit more Loopers, Lisa and David on our way to camp but they weren't home when I called to say we were in the neighborhood : ) We visited them on our way home.
David had just been installed as Pastor at his church. They had stopped at our house the week before on their way to Turtle Lake so I thought it only right to stop at their house on my way back to OH!


This is one of the pictures on our return trip. We saw this unusual rock formation on our way north but we drove by it before I could whip out my camera. We noted the area and Ruth stopped on our way home so I could get this shot across the highway. We don't see anything like this in OH.


Our drive on Thursday was very long but we were determined to make it home in 2 days instead of our leisurely three on the way there. Not to despair, we also visited another Looper on our way home. When we made it over the Skyway bridge, I realized that we would be near Sandy R's about lunch time. I just happened to have her number so I called her and told her we were in the neighborhood......you can imagine what happened after that ! Thanks Sandy for a great low carb lunch!