A Pilgrim on the Road
Monday, October 17, 2005
(7:39am) It would be the night of another full moon. And the weekend had gone pleasantly – beautiful for camping. Finally, Saturday at about 12:30 in the afternoon, OLeif, Collette, and Rose, were able to visit the campsite. Carrie and Joe were both at work for the day, however. The forests and country were slowly beginning to look like fall, though none of the colors were very vibrant. There were a few games of Old Maid on the picnic table while Dad biked with Frances and then ran 5.5 miles around the park. “Kingdom of Heaven” played inside the camper which Collette watched off and on. And Rose somehow managed to swing from a vine which had likely been growing from its mother tree since World War II, and snap it clean off. She would have tumbled straight into the wooded ravine if OLeif had not caught her before. And there was a delicious sweet stew and cinnamon stickies over the open fire. It was always pleasant around the campfire with the family.
Dad recorded it as their 19th camping trip and Collette perused the log he had kept since 1998 when they had first bought the camper. She remembered the countless weekends and some weekdays with Mom, when they had all gone camper hunting. They had once taken Jimmy Sparrow’s next youngest sister, one of Carrie’s old pals from church (after she had spent the night once). And then Mom had taken them on a cloudy weekday once and they had stopped by the nearby grocery store and picked out a good loaf of bread, a block of cheese, and a gallon of red fruit punch and ate lunch on the parking lot. Those were the days…
And coffee followed at the Saint Charles Coffee House that Saturday night with Rose, Joe, Shakespeare, Molly, Evrain, Curly, Wally, and Pliny the Younger (or just “Pliny” – a thirty-something year old man, worked at Boeing, lived with his mother, and spent half of his life at the McCrae’s house. Plus, he sported a full Amish beard and kaleidoscopic button-down shirt from the 70’s, no color more prominent than the others). Aristotle George also came with a friend. Carrie and Elizabeth swung by for some hot ciders before going to the movies with Miran.
Sunday was busy in the afternoon. After church, OLeif and Collette had steak sandwiches and fries for lunch while out and about and purchased a gift card from Anne Taylor Loft for part of Diana’s 21st birthday.
“This is my new store, guys,” Diana had raved in Chicago. “I’m just going to dress in Anne Taylor Loft all the time when I get a real job.”
Then there had been a youth group time of singing and prayer, where followed a trip for ice cream and socializing as the group only consisted of Jimmy, Judah, OLeif, Evangeline, Collette, Boy, Bob, Rose, Molly, and Pliny. More adults than kids. Upon arriving back at the church office, Rose showed Collette the inside of the smaller cleaned-out silo – an open tube of concrete looking up to the late blue of the evening sky. A cord of sorts hung from the top which Rose used to swing around the inside, using her feet as braces against the walls. Soon, everyone else carted off while Jimmy and OLeif and Collette waited for Molly and Pliny to be picked up. Soon, Mrs. McCrae came wheeling into the parking lot. She hopped out in jogging attire with a kitchen timer in her hand.
“Come on, Pliny!” She called to the bearded man, off taking pictures of the sunset and the barn silos with Molly’s camera. “The apple pie is coming out of the oven in 27 minutes!” She held up the timer. “We’re leaving. Now!”
And after this comic encounter, OLeif and Collette drove off to join the rest of the Snicketts crew for dinner at Cracker Barrel, where Collette took only a glass mug of cold apple cider. For then they were off to the movies for a relaxing evening together.
Monday was the annual field trip to Hermann, Missouri – German town with Grandma Combs. After the hour drive through the beautiful countryside, they arrived to play in the little park with the pond and fountain that was always dyed blue. There was football for the five kids, excepting Collette who had her Mitford book. And there was a weather-worn chicken and pig on rusted springs – paint-chipped riding material for everyone from Grandma to Linnea. This was followed by a quick trip past Save-a-Lot for a bag of potato chips and a box of A&W rootbeer which accompanied thick honey white bread sandwiches with fresh-cut deli salami and cheese, courtesy of Grandma. Lunch was eaten under a pavilion overlooking the river.
Soon, the bright whistle of a train was heard around the river cliff. And Grandma and the kids started up from the picnic table to greet the engine.
“It’s the real thing this time,” Grandma said excitedly, hurrying over, as the train gate had been closing for no reason several times and then reopening immediately after.
“No, Grandma,” Carrie called out, being Miss Safety. “Stay behind the fence!”
Grandma corralled the kiddoes just in time for the passenger Amtrak to chug past. Joe begun flailing his arms, doing some sort of victory dance to the amused passengers, waving through the darkened windows of the train. Then the boys shucked rocks across the river, along with Linnea, who threw in several whopping splashers herself, some boulders being bigger than her upper body. And Joe skipped some nice ones, while Frances launched driftwood. Rose also found a red woolly bug which Carrie cuddled in her hands in a bed of straw.
“Come here, Joe,” she called. “Let me put this on your forehead and we’ll give you a uni-brow. Oh, come on.”
Joe opted to forgo the woolly bug experiment.
Later, after browsing through an antique shop (where Collette found a ladle for $5 made in Germany in 1935, though she did not purchase it), Carrie, Joe, and Rose linked arms and did the can-can for yet another amused business man at his desk in the little Edward-Jones building. There was also custard in a little deli shop down the road. Paddleboats followed at the Wheels’, while Linnea had her piano lesson. The pumpkin patch they found between Hermann and Augusta was located on a farm with an honor system coffee can for payment and a barnyard full of gigantic porkers.
“Oooh!” Carrie exclaimed. “I want to ride one!”
Meanwhile, everyone selected a pumpkin or two, and Grandma and Linnea took a watermelon apiece. Collette found two small white baby pumpkins.
“Guys,” Frances said, very satisfied, “meet Frances, Jr.” He lifted a great orange pumpkin into the van. “And….” he picked up a munchkin of the same color, “Billy Bob Jones.” He cuddled the little fella next to his cheek.
Monday night with OLeif, they dropped by Walgreens to purchase a jar of Vitamin C (as both had sore throats). It was forgotten, however, and OLeif purchased instead a bag of bridge mix and Collette – two tiny ceramic mugs – one of a jack-o-lantern and another of a smiling little ghost – for Mom.
“Oh, Collette,” Mom chuckled, as she looked on the little critters in delight, “you feed my vice.”
Mom had always been rather embarrassed about the fact that she loved Halloween – the cackling jack-o-lantern faces and little black cats and happy ghosts. Her special mix of candy corn and peanuts in her glass pumpkin on the kitchen counter… Collette was convinced, however, that nothing could be more harmless.
There was also news that OLeif and Collette had been invited to Texas for Thanksgiving.
Tuesday was spent in the usual manner – tutoring and laundry. Although a fiber-optic cable was cut downtown (connected to OLeif’s company), so he was off from 12:30 on, in the afternoon. This gave him time to consider which tires to purchase for the car and when Collette was finished at the house, she would prepare the beefy black-eyed pea soup. Meanwhile, Mom was up at the church to help paint the light posts for the new parking lots. And the kids watched “Tales from Avonlea” while Carrie prepared to go into her final week of her summer school session. And then there was a birthday card to purchase for Diana, Mom had made reservations for dinner at the Ox-Yoke Inn for Friday night, and Carrie had asked off work for the weekend, although she didn’t yet have a dress to wear for the wedding.
Collette decided it was good to have simple days, where nothing was simple begging to be done. They weren’t always quiet days, but they were good times and they added to the richness of life in their own way. They were satisfying, fulfilling. It gave one time to think on the Great Commission, glorifying God, the looking forward to Heaven as a beautiful and holy destination with loved ones and Christ Himself!… a pilgrim on the road to the Celestial City.