½ tank #11-13

When we stopped at the entrance to Nebraska there was a cow scratching its head on a sign for an upcoming city. It did stop to watch us as we took pictures of the sign, but was underway again as we pulled back onto the road.

At some point during the day we discovered that one of our headlights had gone out (the passenger’s side, which is of course the most difficult to change), so when it got late we began worrying about our visibility and about getting pulled over. The latter finally happened somewhere in Kansas, but luckily the officer was really nice and just gave us a warning.

We arrived in Selina around 10:30 p.m. (which was actually 9:30 according to the time zone we woke up in). Rachel, Hannah’s cousin, and her husband, Cody, were very welcoming despite the horrible day they had had. We learned that two of Cody’s employees at his hotel had been shot while at work that day, one lived and one didn’t make it. So I think our timing was actually really good, since we were able to help watch their children a little while they were trying to process everything. There was a meeting at the hotel the next day and Hannah and I went with Rachel and her four kids to help do childcare for other employees. Rachel did crafts with the older kids while Hannah tried to comfort a scared one-year-old (Calvin) and I read to a confused baby (Pearl) who was happy just suck on her Rice Krispy Treat.

Rachel has been really fun to talk/listen to. Hannah has really enjoyed getting to bond with this part of her family, and it’s really neat to see how passionate Rachel is about helping children. I think if she could adopt every child in the world, she would. Her own kids are simply fabulous. The oldest two are twins, Samantha and Tabitha, and I had a blast hanging out with them playing Rummy on Friday. They’re very smart, caring girls and are very helpful with caring for the younger kids. Samantha wants to be a clothing designer, and she’s already practicing with clothes for her Barbies. Tabitha wants to be a singer, but I haven’t heard here sing anything yet. Luke is about five years old and wants to be a pirate when he grows up. And pirates aren’t afraid of anything, so neither is he. Isabelle is the youngest, about three years old, I believe, and naturally she wants to be a princess when she grows up. At lunch one day she asked me want princesses eat and how they eat. My response was, “Whatever they want, and however they want.” Cody amended that so say that you had to have a pinky sticking out.

We stopped at NAPA to get a replacement headlight for the car, and after fumbling unsuccessfully for a bit we got help from one of the NAPA employees. We found out that he had moved to Selina because he had a daughter there, but he really wants to move to Montana. Hannah and I could both understand that desire.

The next day was spent hanging out with the kids while Rachel and Cody dealt with more of the final funeral preparations with their friends’ families. We had a ton-o-fun with bath time with the cat. That night we all watched “17 Again” and had pizza and cookies. Hannah had a great time spending one last night with her cousins.

When it finally came time to leave on Sunday morning, we were all a little sad. Isabelle however was the only one to cry. :) Cody and Rachel prayed with us before we took off, which was much appreciated.

We took a very roundabout way to get to I-70 (literally, I think we went in a large circle from where we started), but then we were on our way to Kansas City. We encountered our first toll road, and were very confused by the system, but never actually had to admit it to anyone.


God bless, over and out.
~Marissa