Alton, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri, back where we began.

Erica and I lived in Alton as kids and so every time we come back here it feels nostalgic.  It is where we fell in love as teenagers. It is where we came back to get married nearly twenty years ago. The Springtime is always a favorite for us since we can still remember how wonderful it felt to be rid of winter. The family and friends we have here tell us their tales from the long winter of 2018 and how they lived through record breaking low temps and snowfalls that ended in May, a few days prior to our arrival.  The snow melt from Minnesota and Wisconsin coupled with the the past three weeks of consistent rain has caused some of the worst flooding along the Mississippi river since the great flood of 1993. 

What does one do when it rains so much?  You stay inside and enjoy talking with family and friends that you have missed. You also make sure that your brother and sister in law treat you to a rained soaked mud adventure on their atv side by sides!  We spent our first weekend in Alton out at the Splinter Creek Raceway where we camped and rode their two side by sides through the muddy woods all day.  The kids loved riding their cousin's four wheeler and managed to mud it up pretty bad too.  Blythe has said this entire year that all she wants to do is ride a side by side.  Every time I asked her to go out for a ride with me it was met with a resounding yes. I appreciated all the fun we had so much more when I asked to help clean mine. It took over three hours to complete with a power washer. 

The first night in town, Erica spent out with her sister Lindsay at the New Kids On The Block concert. They had fun reliving the music of our youth with Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, Salt N Pepa and Naughty By Nature making some appearances too.  We were able to enjoy evening's at Mimi and Papadoes house where the kids relaxed with the dogs and played with the neighborhood kids. We loved seeing Papadoe's paintings from the past couple years which includes the one that he is currently working on.  There was endless fun had in Mimi's scrapbooking room too, Blythe wants one of those rooms in our next home.

Lindsay hooked us up with four tickets to the Cardinals game versus the Pirates on Thursday night. We enjoyed a freezing cold game at Busch Stadium only because the Cardinals lit up the night with seventeen runs in route to a division win.  It was our first time ever attending a Cardinal game at this new stadium.

On Monday night we enjoyed spending the afternoon at a friend's and family gathering at the Kinder's house. We were able to connect with so many long time friends and briefly share in each other's lives.  These people have been so important to Erica and I throughout our years together. Erica has known most for her entire life.  I was happy to see that everyone is healthy.  We all have gotten older.  Our flower girl from our wedding was there and she is 21 and getting married in three weeks so that put things in perspective.

We enjoyed a day touring St. Louis, visiting Gateway Arch National Park and meeting my Aunt and Uncle who live nearby for brunch at Rooster's downtown.  My Uncle just happened to be turning the wise age of 79 on the day of our visit so we celebrated him.  The Mississippi River is flooded terribly all the way up to the steps of the Arch and the Midwest is expected to receive even more rain this week.  We thought it was time to go since we will have to trek across tornado alley on our trip West just in time for peak tornado season. I was and still am very nervous.  Working through the fear and worry is only calmed by staying present and realizing that we are in control. If the weather turns bad we will not be foolish and push through. We will always error on the side of safety.

We decided to extend our stay a day and let the cousins play a bit more. This was wonderful but having done so we ended up getting our car broken into in the driveway and Erica's wallet was stolen. We called the police and filed a police report.  We figured it was a couple of teenagers who liked the hundred dollars cash she had since none of her credit cards or debit card were used.  We cancelled the cards and ordered new ones. This leaves Erica without any cards and her driver's license (that she purposefully made a trip back to SD in February to renew so she would have it to drive the car back legally across the U.S).  She is now driving the car illegally and following me in the RV.  We ended up getting pulled over in northern Illinois on the same day due to my swerving to avoid potholes and also fighting the heavy wind gusts of the plains.  Thankfully he never asked Erica for her license. I received a warning for driving over the dividing line. The police officer was so kind and accomodating the entire stop. He did make me sit in his vehicle while he wrote the warning ticket, I guess so I would have to walk in front of him and also he could smell if I was under the influence of anything. I passed of course and gave him our card with our blog on it. I thanked him for keeping the roads safe and apoligized for my skills driving the toaster in the wind. Hopefully he reads this.

Boyd finally saved enough money to purchase his Nintendo Switch and a game and case.  He spent the last four months doing without the countless impulse purchases his sister was making so that his $20 weekly paycheck could be squirreled away for a Switch.  He was very proud and happy. Erica and I are proud of his accomplishment too.  We now have to get back to screen time management without going crazy.

Peace and Love