05/07/17 - I will blog a little each day regarding our trip to Missouri.  On 4/28, I packed, told the office I would be gone for a week, and then left for Sarasota since I was meeting up with Esther, Lloyd and two of their friends for dinner.  We ate at Tropical Pollo. It was very good.  We then went back to Esther's house and played a marble game and a card game "Panic".  I then stayed for the night since my flight was out at 7 14 am.

4/29, I got a call at 4 41 am from my sister Rachel and there was a problem with their flight which was either delayed by several hours or maybe even cancelled.  I had her call and check a re-schedule since they were meeting all of us in Kansas City, Missouri.  She called back and stated that it is even worse and they could not get to Kansas City until 4 30 pm. Now what does one do.  The rest of us will be in by 1 00 pm and our destination was two hours away.  I told her to call back and tell them their information was unacceptable.  She then got another person and I told Rachel to tell her to look for a schedule either with United or American since they could not accommodate her and all of sudden she mentioned that they had an earlier flight out and could Rachel make it.  Oh, my, it was too close for comfort but Rachel and Ivan left immediately and were the last ones on the plane.  There was six of us traveling and after we all arrived at the airport, we needed to rent the van and head for our Aunt Lena and Uncle Amos's house.  It took forever to get the van and it was so cold, windy and rainy but we finally got on our way.  It was then determined that we would have dinner at our first cousin's house across the yard. It was at Lizzie and Nathan's house.  We had a great dinner and visit.  We then cut that visit short to go visit another first cousin (Ada Mae and Norman) since we would not see them at all.  My brother Daniel, his wife Mary Ann and sister-in-law Ruby stayed with Ada Mae, I stayed with Aunt Lena and Ivan and Rachel stayed with Lizzie.  Aunt Lena is suffering from Alzeimer's so during the night she was wandering around the house with a flash light since they don't have any electricity.  It was quite interesting but Aunt Lena did appear to know us which made me very happy.  They are both in their early "90,s".