Friday we drove from Keokuk, Iowa (where we found a motel) back to Wayland, Missouri to resume the ride at 6:20 am. The skies were clear and was already 72 degrees! We headed south on highway 61 and turned on 168 in Palmyra. We arrived in Hannibal late in the morning, we had lunch and looked around at the Mark Twain sites and were back on the road (highway 79) just before 1 pm. Russ had a MONSTER hill at one point, I would have a hard time WALKING up it and it seemed to last forever! Lots of hills today but when he went up, he also got to come down!
We ended the ride at road T where highway 79 was closed due to a washed out road. We found out how to get around to the other side of the wash out where we will resume on Monday. We loaded up the bike and drove to Sam's Club in Quincy, Illinois where we picked up the food for Saturday's ministry event in Fontanelle, Iowa. After shopping we made the 5 1/2 hour drive to Fontanelle where were greeted by Kristy (our niece) and her pastor husband Steven, their 3 adorable children, Carol's sister, Gloria, her granddaughter, Madison and our friend, KORNPOP the Clown!!! What a fun weekend!!
We spent the weekend at Kristy & Steven's house and enjoyed and appreciated their hospitality and the warm welcome we received at their church, Immauel Lutheran. After a great breakfast on Saturday morning, David (aka Kornpop), Gloria, Russ, Gene and I drove over a few miles to Madison county to visit the Roseman covered bridge.
In the afternoon two more of Carol's sister's arrived, Jan, Brenda & brother-in-law, Sieg and brother Wayne & sister-in-law Sharon came in the evening. We got everyone involved in preparations for the CROSSNAMERICA ministry event in the park at 6pm in Fontanelle. There was Immanuel's praise band, Kornpop the clown (a BIG hit!), a bounce house, facepaint, food and fun! It was a great community event with a big crowd and raised money for Immanuel Lutheran's mission efforts. Once again, we got everyone involved with clean up! We were tired but happy as we ended the day.
Sunday morning came with a happy houseful getting ready for church at 9:30. The service at Immanuel was awesome, a great combined service with many wonderful members involved under the leadership of Pastor Steven. Kornpop had us all laughing once again and looking to Jesus. Russ & I shared a message and enjoyed the warm welcome of the congregation. We were thrilled to look out in the congregation and see another niece, Katie and husband Oscar had come for the day, too. We enjoyed a wonderful family dinner and time to visit. I think we've adopted Kornpop into our family!! We had SO MUCH FUN and lots of laughs. The kids think Kornpop is AWESOME!!!
It was time to pack everything back in our vehicle and trailer and drive back to Hannibal where we are spending the night. Now that you've heard the play-by-play of our weekend, you probably understand why I didn't blog since Thursday! We are headed south toward St. Louis tomorrow.
Thank you SO much for your prayers and support, a fabulous ministry event happened because of it!
Until tomorrow...
Russ & Carol
Pictures of Hannibal...
Mississippi River Trail
Welcome to Fontanelle!!
Russ with David McCollough (aka, Kornpop) & the balloon bike he made
Great nieces & nephews!
Roseman bridge in Madison County
CROSSN'AMERICA Ministry event in Fontanelle
Sunday fun time with family
God did some AWESOME things this weekend!
Such great blogs...:). Always praying for safe travel and fun times for guys...God bless.....
ReplyDeleteLoved seeing pictures of everybody. Thanks for sharing. ; ) Darcy
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