October | A Tour Through the South

As the title attests, the Waggoners were all over the southern part of the USA in October!

If I am to be technical, it started with a quick overnight trip to Lexington for the casting of Reni's sockets in Kentucky (no photos, at his request) -- but that was just Nathan and Reni (Ellie and I stayed in Illinois).

ILLINOIS

When we are home, we want to help our parents whenever we can. While the boys were in Kentucky, I helped Mom paint over the last of the original purple walls in her apartment (sorry, no 'before and after' pics)! Below, Nathan and I help Dad the itemize Mom Waggoner's clothes to donate. 

Ellie was pleased to choose a few of Nonna's pieces to keep for herself.  You can see she got a little emotional in the process of trying on her selections.

I was happy to meet up with my childhood friend, Jill, for dinner one evening.  Jill and her family are preparing to move to Liberia!

Ellie was thrilled to enjoy a piano lesson with our talented friend, Diana.  Diana taught Ellie a series of jazz chords that Ellie quickly picked up.  She's a sponge acquiring every bit of instruction she can absorb!

The Sunday before we started our big road trip, I picked up my Grandpa Van for a Sunday afternoon drive. Though he claims to have failing eyesight, he easily directed me up and down backroads from Manito to south of Hwy 136. I saw the site of his mother's birthplace, and learned new-to-me pieces of family history. The most significant was the fact that in 1958 he had briefly considered buying a house south of Forest City in the Mason City school district. Had he done so, my parents would have attended different schools and likely would have never met! Upon learning that another neighbor was also interested in the same property, he let the matter go and he ultimately built a new home on the same property his grandfather homesteaded.

After driving around the vanOrman family land, affectionately known as "Section 29"), we stopped by the cemetery to see where my grandmother and dad are buried.  I also learned the story of Grandpa's three aunts who all died within a year or so of each other as little girls, under the age of six.  His grandparents would go on to have three more daughters, of which his mother was one. 

We also stopped by James' Farm to buy some pumpkins for his friends at the Lodge.

It was a really memorable afternoon. I don't take it for granted that I still have my grandfather! Through him, I feel like I still have a piece of my Dad.

Roadtrip Begins!

Scheduling our travels for this fall's road trip proved especially challenging. I pride myself on my planning skills, but so much felt up in the air. Shortly after our return to the States in mid-August, it was confirmed that I would require cataract surgery. I had hoped to fit the procedure in before our extended fall road trip. However, with my eye doctor's previously-scheduled vacation and our frequent trips in and out of Illinois, I had to resign myself to the reality that my eye surgery would have to wait until we slowed down in December.  This felt a little too close to our departure for my comfort, but I had to trust that it would all work out. 

Then, Reni's casting appointment got pushed back several weeks to early October, bumping back subsequent fittings and I didn't feel so guilty about procrastinating on planning our travel details more thoroughly.  I would have had to rework our agenda entirely! Once our medical matters were settled, we were able to proceed with planning.  It's oddly satisfying to sketch out a schedule, calculate travel times between locations, and see the calendar fill up with Google Map pins!

After several days of Zoom calls with our team in Albania, we were finally ready to hit the road! It was fun to leave via a new-to-us route, traveling through St. Louis on to our first stop in Conway, Arkansas!

(Click here for a time-lapse video clip from the highway in Grandpa Van's Chevy Equinox: 
https://youtu.be/bcfDm_CFMw4?feature=shared)

Our first visit was dinner with the Lewis family! :-) It had been too long!

ChosenCon

While every visit with a friend is a lovely highlight that fills our emotional tank -- and that's primarily what we did on this trip -- it was a special last-minute surprise to kick off our travels with passes to ChosenCon in Dallas, a convention for fans of the television show, The Chosen. For two days we got to hang out at a hotel convention center with fellow superfans (who are just the nicest people) and meet a bunch of different folks involved in the production of the show. For someone like me, it was the equivalent of a 6-year-old taking her first trip to Disney World. Thankfully, the rest of the family seemed to enjoy it almost as much as me! I will try not to go overboard with photos... :-) However if you want to see more, you can see a brief video on my Instagram account.

First thing Saturday morning, we helped Uncle Jerry and Aunt Dianna prep for a book signing. If reading is more your thing, Uncle Jerry has written the novel equivalent of each season.  It was a treat to hang out with them throughout the weekend!

After Uncle Jerry signed them, we affixed stickers to the cover and stacked the books in cases.

Our passes included access to the green room, where we got to meet special folks like the Huffmans, above.  Dr. Huffman is a professor at Biola University and serves as a Biblical consultant on the show. We learned that we (Waggoners and Huffmans) had both attended Dallas and Amanda's wedding 25 years ago!

The hotel decor was incredible -- these portraits of the cast filled every window of a corridor between event spaces.

Dallas was so sweet to introduce Ellie to Matt Nelson and Dan Haseltine, the composers of the show's beautiful score.

Above, Reni poses with Shaan Sharma, who plays the role of the Pharisee Shmuel.  Note Reni's shirt, "Sons of Thunder."

It was an unexpected treat to meet Wendy H, a member of the French translation team.  She lived in France for 24 years and recently moved back to the States. We had a lovely conversation for a couple of hours!

Below, the kids pose with Dustin Tavella, who provided a magic show on Sunday afternoon.  Dustin won the hearts of many Americans when he won America's Got Talent in 2021 with his unique blend of storytelling and magic. He told us he served with YWAM for a few years before going into the entertainment business!

Over 3,000 folks attended the conference where we were treated to speaker panels, musical performances, performance art, special previews, and interviews.

Interestingly, starring in a show where everyone wears Bible-era costumes, it gives the cast a certain anonymity in the crowd.  Nevertheless, sometimes you would realize that you were standing next to "Atticus" or, in Ellie's case below, "Photina" (the woman at the well). 

Below, Ellie broke the ice for me so I could meet one of my favorite Christian podcasters, Annie F. Downs. She was incredibly kind and gracious in our meeting (see a video I posted on Facebook of Annie "interviewing" Ellie). Annie interviewed the female members of the cast for a live podcast recording Saturday evening.

It was a special treat to meet Tom and Sam from the YouTube channel, Grafted. They lend a special Messianic Jewish perspective in their reviews of Chosen episodes,  which I enjoy watching while I'm making dinner in my village kitchen. It was surreal to meet them in person!

TEXAS

Following ChosenCon, we made our way south and visited college friends, Silas and Kimberly, in Waco!

Then, from Waco we traveled to Kingsland!  Below we met with members of the Schranks' small group over Mexican food.

While in Kingsland, we spoke at the Wednesday night AWANA club meeting for kids (below).  We also attended a men's and women's Bible study and a fashion show fundraiser for a local faith-based women's rehabilitation center!

Of course, we also shared in the Sunday morning worship service and enjoyed lunch afterward with the missions committee.  

Special thanks to our hosts, Gordon and Carol, who hosted our family for several days, and treated us to an afternoon on Lake LBJ! God has been abundantly gracious to sprinkle so many special treats throughout our travels.  It was 96 degrees on our last day in Texas!  Keep this in mind as you consider the added challenge of packing for such a range of temps for a trip that wouldn't conclude until Thanksgiving!

We snuck in a quick trip down to San Antonio to see Jake and Renee`! It was a time of tasty BBQ, sweet conversation and special prayer with them. <3

Then we started the long trip up to Lexington!  We stopped in a hotel in Texas, about halfway to Nashville, our next visit, where Ellie enjoyed a waffle in the shape of Texas! 

Reni was a pro doing online school 'on the road!'  Each of his four classes meets for 90 minutes of live instruction each week...

Crossing the stateline as we approached Memphis! Probably the most difficult part of our travels is keeping such an aggressive schedule that we often didn't have time for unplanned stops...so much of America was enjoyed through our car windows.

We enjoyed dinner in Nashville with Joel and got to meet his wife Meghan, and their son!  I babysat Joel and his sisters when I was a university student!

The next morning we zipped up and over to Lexington for Reni's rough fit...

Below, Reni in his current legs...

Checking the fit of his sockets...

Standing next to dad to see his new height!

We enjoyed a coffee with Larry and Joy M before we left Lexington!

A few hours later, we were in Georgia!

GEORGIA

We enjoyed dinner with the Elders (not pictured) and Joneses in Alpharetta!

Then it was down to Milner, to see the George family!

Followed by a fun overnight in Savannah with the Wiersmas!

We had a lovely, restful weekend in Toccoa at the Santors!

My friend Margaret came down from Anderson, SC to have lunch and coffee with us after church.

Then we had the best biscuits and coffee at Bo and Annette's new shop, Cowboy Bob's, before we left town!  See you guys this fall in Albania!

On the last day of the month, we overnighted in Cary, North Carolina, at the home of my high school friend, Joy! Thanks for introducing us to the concept of a Mac-n-Cheese bar and breakfast cookies!

So grateful for good connections and safety over the miles!

November would bring more travel -- including Washington, D.C., New Jersey, Massachusettes, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky!