Road Trip 2014 part 1

     We packed up the car and left Syracuse by 10am on Saturday morning (two Saturday's ago now). I had no space to put my feet in the back seat so for most of the drive I sat cross-legged. Jacqueline, Katrina, Elizabeth and I were packed tightly in the car with adventure and many miles of road in front of us. We had already said goodbyes to Brendan and Paul the days before and to Paige that morning. We turned on happy tunes and hit the road. We were headed to Dayton, my house exactly, which was about 9 hours of driving. We switched drivers a few times and ended up at my house with no problems along the way at about dinner time. Aka grilled burgers and veggies and a bonfire! Thanks family!

     Even though we were only staying for the overnight, breakfast, and church on Sunday morning, one of my very best friends from college (who I hadn't seen since Christmas) decided to pop on over from Indianapolis. Erin, ironically enough, was about to begin a year of service through the Francis Corps program. Francis Corps has two placement sites in the world, Syracuse, NY and Costa Rica. Yes you heard me correctly. I had just finished a year of service in Syracuse and within two weeks after I had left Erin would be heading to the very same city to begin her year of service with an orientation before she actually moved to the Costa Rica house. As you can imagine, a photo shoot occurred since so many great people were all together!

    And then we were back on the road! By 1pm on Sunday we had begun another full day of driving, 8 hours to look forward to. During this drive we certainly had our fair share of both laughter (Disney song sing along) and tears (listening to our "community" songs) which were big highlights of the trip (well, the true driving portion) for me.We were going to stop in St. Louis about dinner time so we could refuel the car and our bodies. At this stop, Jacqueline would be departing from the road trip and heading home to Iowa with her mom who was to meet us in STL. We got to the city and had decided to go up into the arch since no one else besides me had before. (Quick side note: I LOVE ST. LOUIS!!!!!!!!! This is probably obvious because I went to school at SLU but for real, I love this city!) We enjoyed going to the top and seeing the city just as the sun was setting.

    As the evening came to a close we had to say goodbye to Jacqueline and get back on the road for two more hours to get to Boonville, MO where we would be staying the night. Next up, the trip to Denver....through Kansas...alllllll of Kansas!