Over the summer while we were busy moving to St. Louis, my Uncle Roy had gotten a new job as editor of the local paper in Wichita, KS. This meant that he would be moving from his current home in Jackson, TN. This also meant that my Grandma Rose would be leaving the town that she had called home for more than 30 years and joining him in Wichita. While she had already moved out of the home where we had always visited her and moved into an assisted living place, now we would no longer be going to Jackson, TN to visit her.
The funny thing is that since we moved to St. Louis, Jackson was only 4 hours away. So, we decided that before Grandma went ahead and moved to Wichita we would head down for one more visit. One Friday afternoon after school got out, we all hopped in the car (except for the dog who went to the kennel) and headed south. We didn’t get in until after midnight that night which was okay because we were staying in a hotel anyway.
The next morning we all woke up ready to visit Great-Grandma Rose. We headed on over to her place and it was really nice to see her. We brought her breakfast from McDonalds and spent the next few hours chatting with her and relaxing.
Then, we decided to head out for a little adventure. There was an approaching storm, but we didn’t let that stop us and we headed up to the Tennessee Safari Park. The safari park is a great place that Grandma had found a few months before with my cousins. You could buy some feed and drive around feeding wild animals from the comfort of your own car.
We arrived, got our buckets of feed, and headed into the park. Of course, there were a bunch of animals just hovering by the entrance waiting for unsuspecting victims. We were a bit overwhelmed. I rolled the windows down and immediately we had a huge buffalo head in the car right next to Grandma trying to sniff out some food! She was very cool about it, but I was immediately trying to roll up the windows and move on. After that I was a bit more careful about when I rolled my window down. Regardless, by the end of the trip around the park I think we had more animal food on the floor of my car than we actually got in the animals. It was a great time, and I think all of us laughed more on that tour than we had in a long time. Plus, we got to see some really neat animals like ostriches, emus, buffaloes, pigs, camels, and more.
After that we were all getting a bit hungry, so we headed back to Jackson to stop at Steak and Shake. Everyone ordered a milkshake, and Grandma kept saying that she wouldn’t be able to get around that whole shake, but sure enough, but the end of the meal we had all polished everything off. We stopped back by Grandma’s place again after lunch to hang out a little during the afternoon. We had a great time chatting while the boys played with some of her magnets. That evening, we really didn’t need to eat anymore, but we headed back out to a great little Italian place for dinner.
In the morning, we headed back over to Grandma Rose’s house to pick her up for breakfast. Before we left, she realized that she couldn’t find her house key that she keeps on her wrist on a little wristband. We tore up her apartment looking for it, but it was nowhere to be found. Finally, we just decided to leave her place unlocked for the time being and head to IHOP. There again, we ate delicious food and had a great time just hanging out and talking. Once we got back to her place, we were about ready to start on the journey home, but we had to do something about Grandma’s missing key. So, Ian walked down to the front office and tracked down someone who could give her a replacement. He headed back, key in hand. Then, right before he got back, Grandma realized that her sleeve was a bit uncomfortable, so she reached up her sleeve, and guess what had been up there the whole time...that’s right, her key on the little elastic band. We all had a good laugh.
We took some group pictures and then we sadly had to get back in the car to head home. We all had fun, and Grandma said that it was the first time she has truly been happy and well enough to enjoy the boys. We were so glad to have the chance to visit, and we can’t wait to visit her in Wichita!
(Grandma Rose-making friends again!)
(Benny feeds some of his new friends.)
(The boys cuddle with their Great-Grandma!)
(My sweet Grandma Rose and I)
(The boys pick a few marbles from Old Country Store, a tradition Audra and I always loved.)
(Benny poses at Old Country Store...)
(Is there a little family resemblance between Ben and his Gramps??)
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