Friday night Gilbert and I stopped in Ohio and slept in a motel. To say the least, we overpaid! There was a dirty towel hanging in the bathroom when we walked into the room, as well as a half empty shampoo bottle in the shower! Granted the reviews weren't 5 star, but with Covid so much in the news you would have thought the room would have been spotless. I will admit that I had a look under the covers before I slipped in between the sheets!
On Saturday, we finished the journey to Cobeac. The camp only charges $35 for me to stay overnight. I handed the girl two twenties and told her to keep the change. She asked me if I was sure. I thought, "If you'd seen the place we slept in last night, you would have asked for twice that!"
Sunday morning I headed down to Missouri. There I stayed with a couple of friends and saw and visited with many more. I had called ahead so I knew they were meeting for church on Wednesday night. What a blessing it was to see so many brothers and sisters in Christ that I hadn't seen for over 2 years.
On Thursday I headed on to Kentucky to stay with a lady from our church there. By the time I had gotten to St. Louis my check engine and traction control lights were both on. Not wanting to pull over in downtown St. Louis, I waited until I got into Illinois just over the border. I called Vernon and we decided to chance it since the engine temperature was fine, there were no strange noises, and no smoke billowing from underneath the hood. Within 30 minutes to an hour the lights went off and never came back on for the rest of the trip. I joked that the Lord sent a mechanic angel to turn off the lights in my car.
After visiting our former church in Kentucky for Sunday morning service, I left town, or thought I was going to. I knew the trip was eight and a half hours, so I figured I would stop along the way for lunch and keep going. As I was getting on the interstate, a police car came through the intersection and turned onto the interstate with its lights and sirens going. I hadn't even gotten to the first exit when traffic stopped. Over an hour and a half later traffic finally freed up and I was able to start my journey quite a bit hungrier than I had anticipated. Long story short, I arrived home last night at midnight.
The one thing that I was most curious about was how people across the country were really dealing with Covid. I discovered the east coast in general is more uptight about things than the midwest. In Virginia, we are "encouraged" to wear masks whenever we are in public unless you have a medical reason. They aren't policing the situation, however it is now my understanding that they are fining people for not wearing a mask. There are next to no restaurants that have opened up. I think I know of one in town that has their dining room open. Pretty much we are still drive-thru exclusive. As I stopped in West Virginia there were a few people wearing masks, but the majority of people had faces in tact. Then, in Ohio, once again most people were wearing masks. At this point, we drove through a fast food joint and took our dinner to the motel room. I don't generally even try to use restrooms at restaurants any more. The interesting thing I have noted while driving is that the rest areas along the trip are not as clean as you would expect. One rest area I stopped at actually had pink stuff growing on the bowl. Overall, the large truck stop bathrooms were the cleanest.
Another interesting event occurred when I drove into Michigan. I have heard a lot about Covid in Michigan, so I was especially curious to find out what things were like. The first gas station I stopped at had a sign on the door that read, "Per executive order #....all people entering this establishment must be wearing masks." I entered the store and looked around. There were probably a dozen people inside the store and not one person had a mask on! I guess you can make a law, but enforcing it is a bit harder to do. I think the general mindset up there is that they are done with all the hype.
In Missouri, we had regular church services on Wednesday night. The seating was a bit more spread out, and there were no hymn books, but people weren't in masks and weren't afraid to get close to each other and talk. I even got hugs from most of the women. You don't really realize how much physical contact means until you don't have it for a while. Oh, and in Missouri, I actually got to experience the first sit down meal with real plates and utensils for the first time since this whole thing began. The interesting thing about the meal was that all the waitresses were wearing masks, but we had to split our group because they could only seat 8 people maximum in one group. As we were sitting down at the table, one of my friends noticed there were crumbs at her spot and when I lifted my menu, not only was there a rather large crumb, but there was a large water mark from a cup from the night before. We know this because we arrived at the restaurant just as it was opening. It would seem that all the hype in Missouri is mainly for appearances, at least at this restaurant.
In Kentucky, I was once again able to eat at a restaurant--twice in one week, what a treat! In church on Sunday there were a couple of people with masks, but in general the congregation did not have masks. There were Bibles and hymnals in the pews. I think I'm going to frame the bulletin! Once again, we were able to hug! We were sitting every other pew, but I can't tell you how refreshing all of the normalcy was.
Well, I had better stop here before I'm accused of writing a book. For now, Eva.
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