Back to Missouri

We left Grand Harbor Marina about 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, September 28th to begin our journey back to Missouri to visit family and friends. Kelly and Caroline took us to Corinth, MS to pick up our rental car and we were on our way by 8:45 a.m. We had an uneventful trip and arrived at my parents cabin at Lake of the Ozarks about 4:00 p.m.

My brother, Dewayne, and his soon-to-be wife Penny, arrived Saturday with my nephew Greg, his girlfriend Crystal, and their almost two-week-old baby, Lily Juliet. The group all spent the night at the cabin feasting on mom's great home cooking and left Sunday afternoon after we had stuffed ourselves on mom's signature homemade black walnut ice cream - what a treat!

Todd and I spent the next few days hanging out at the cabin and then came back through Houston, MO (my home town) to visit my grandmother who is an amazing 92 years old! We then traveled on to Springfield, MO to spend time with friends there. We had dinner on Tuesday evening with Shelly and her sister Sherry who was visiting from Grand Junction, CO. Shelly was Todd's Director of Operations when he was General Manager of the food service operation at Missouri State University. Shelly is now the General Manager, and she and Sherry were leaving for a trip to New York the next morning.

After dinner, we made our way to the home of Nila and Everett Hayes to spend the night. We all worked together at the University, even though Everett is now retired, and boated together with the Teale's on Table Rock Lake. We sat up and visited for a few hours, and Everett was feeling no pain after having had one too many libations (Rusty Nails)! We stayed with the Hayes' through Wednesday evening and enjoyed a killer breakfast each morning prepared by Everett - homemade waffles one morning and omelets the next, with bacon and all the trimmings!

We were also treated to an Olive Garden dinner Wednesday evening since Everett was still a little under the weather from the Rusty Nails the previous evening and wasn't up to dealing with dinner. Todd assured Everett that his feeling bad was not the result of the liquor - he must have gotten hold of some bad ice!

During our days in Springfield, both Todd and I spent time at the University visiting friends and former coworkers and catching up. We also visited our old neighborhood and spent some time with Larry and Teresa and with Paul and Stephanie who lived on either side of us in the subdivision.

On Thursday and Friday evenings, we stayed with Bob and Linda Eckels, also friends from the University. We visited with Susan Teale on Friday and then went with her to meet Kelli and Jason (two of her children) for lunch. Bob had spread the word that there was going to be a get-together at Ebbet's Field Friday evening, and we were joined by a wonderful group of University and other friends to celebrate our final evening in town. What a great time! Below are some pictures that were sent to us since Todd didn't have his camera.

Nila Hayes, Controller for the University

Bob Eckels, Director of Physical Plant

LaDonna Hansen, Senior Purchasing Technician/Procurement Card Coordinator; and Debbie Donnellan, Executive Secretary to the Vice President for Administrative and Information Services
This group includes Doug Willson, Bursar (in the back center), Everett Hayes (to Doug's right), and Mary Routh, Director of Human Resources (to Everett's left). To Mary's left is Linda Eckels (facing away from the camera) and Betsy Burris, wife of Greg Burris (shown below).
This photo includes Greg and Betsy's daughter, Tory, and a slightly better view of Linda Eckels (to Betsy's right) and Everett Hayes (in the back).

This is my lifelong friend, Connie, and her fiance Dale.

Greg Burris, Vice President for Administrative and Information Services.
My girls, Glena Admire (Senior Administrative Clerk) and Karen Bench (Purchasing Technician), both of the Purchasing Office.

Our surrogate daughters, Kelli Teale and her friend, Stephanie (Sissy la la).
LaDonna Hansen (shown above) and Dave Yurchak, Senior Buyer in the Purchasing Office.

This is just a sampling of the many wonderful people who came out to spend the evening with us. We so appreciate everyone who made the effort to join us and wish we could have spent more time with each of you while we were in town. Thank you all and please keep in touch!

We headed back to Lake of the Ozarks Saturday morning to meet my mom and niece, Jennifer, at 10:00 a.m. to do some shopping. There are some great thrift stores in Camdenton, MO that mom and I always hit when we're at the lake cabin. Jennifer spent the night Saturday and headed back to Houston late Sunday morning. Todd and I spent the next few days helping with some cleaning and repairs around the cabin and left Tuesday evening to go back to Houston to spend the night before continuing our trip back "home" to the boat on Wednesday morning.

We had another uneventful trip back to Corinth, MS where Prospector Bill and his wife, Nora, met us at Enterprise and then graciously took us to Wal-Mart to restock before returning to Grand Harbor. We got back to the boat around 4:00 p.m. and spent the next several hours putting away all the groceries and other stuff we'd brought back with us from Missouri. We were worn out after our long day but were glad to be back on the boat and in our own bed again after being gone for two weeks.

After doing a little laundry the next morning and getting our fresh water pump back in working order, we left Grand Harbor and headed back out to Waterfall Cove, our "home" on Pickwick Lake, to spend a few more days before beginning the long journey south. The events of the past week at Waterfall Cove will be the subject of our next post.