Avant Retirees Visit Northeast

419 miles
Total miles 6,326

We left Fisher Illinois as the sun was rising. Little Amanda always stays in her pack n play in our room, and this morning she didn’t stir at all as we were packing and leaving.

We had a delicious breakfast with Scott and Carol Boerckel. We prayed and we laughed and we laughed. It was fun to connect and enjoy telling stories. We talked about our recent trip to visit the 30+ retirees along the way and the lessons and observations that we learned.

We had a picnic lunch in a small town just before crossing the Mississippi River. We ate out on the picnic table and listened to live music that was being played in the square. We enjoyed a conversation with a couple that were packing up. They were curious as to our travels and all. Sorry no pictures of our picnic lunch, but it was the standard ham and cheese sandwich with carrots and applesauce.

Then later in the afternoon, we stopped at a Koch’s Country Store. This cute store had lots of homemade jams, jelly’s, fresh fruit stand, a small deli and bakery along with a sweet shop. I purchased an ice cream cone to share. We heard that there was a deal for “buy 1 get 1 free” of any of the bakery items. We looked over the beautiful and delicious items but decided against the scrumptious cinnamon rolls. Then as we were leaving the store, a young gal at the counter yelled to us and said “Go ahead and pick out a free item”. Hmm, I was intrigued why they would offer this to us for free. I found out the store was going to be closed on Sunday and they would otherwise have to throw the stuff away.

As I walked closer to the cashier counter 3 young gals asked if we were traveling. That was enough to start a fun conversation. “Yes, we are on day 33! And we’ve only stayed in 2 hotel rooms and we’ve gone over 6,000 miles”. Immediately they asked, where we had been and what are we doing? I explained that we were visiting retiree folks who had served most of their adult lives over-seas and have returned to live in the states. Their response was “Wow”. I also explained some of the lessons that we have learned along this journey up to Maine and over to Canada and back, which were that these folks are very grateful that we have made a special visit to them, and they’re grateful for their work overseas as missionaries and that the retirees sometimes are living in challenging circumstances such as waiting for a rest home to open up.

I concluded our conversation with a description about visiting Arnold. I described his living circumstances with his wife of 72 years and their modest apartment was crowded, old stacks of books and magazines in crooks and crannies of his small den, refrigerator was covered with dated missionary photos from countries all over the globe and half used. Kleenex boxes were on the ground. As we were leaving Arnold’s small apartment, we were stopped by Arnold who said, “No, you can’t leave now, we have to pray!”

I used this story to show how precious the folks are whom we have been visiting along this 33 day journey. The 3 gals were interesting. Their names were Ellie, Madison and Journey. I asked them where they lived and what college they were attending. We laughed as I mentioned, “Ok, I have an Ellen as a daughter, a Madison as a daughter-in-law” then they all said, “And Journey because you are on a journey”.

They asked if I would mention them in my travel blog. Of course. Koch’s Country Store in Macon, Missouri. https://kochsgeneralstore.com. Check them out. The store was very friendly, the food looked delicious and these 3 gals sure made my day by offering us free cinnamon rolls.

Summary, everyone has a story, everyone wants to be heard and we can share a little of Jesus with folks along the way.Lue lisää