Starkenburg Weekend

Okay! At last. A minute to sit down and relate recent events. :)

To start with Friday, the History quiz went decently. (I got it back today and was shocked to find that I had gotten a 96!!!!! :O I had thought I'd be lucky to come away with an 85 or something, so getting a good grade really boosted my day. :D) Most of the rest of the day dragged - except for a walk that I had taken in the morning which helped break things up a little. :)
I took Joey home with me about 4:40. We arrived to find Mom and Rose hustling with all the last minute things; packing stuff up in the car and grabbing the things that had slipped our minds before then. I was thrilled to have gotten a letter from Joe - much sooner than I expected! :D - so I had to take the time to read that before doing anything else. ;) .......At any rate, we managed to load up and ... with only a couple of delays for things still yet forgotten and remembered ... we were on the road by about 5:30.
We stopped in Topeka only long enough to get a fast-food Friday dinner and then we were on our way once more. There was a beautiful sunset behind us as we traveled east and it just wasn't satisfactory to get pictures of it in the rearview mirror, so I VERY gingerly held my mui-expensivo camera out the window at 75 mph and took a couple shots that way. The result was a very windblown Monica but a safe camera. :D

After the road Rosary, we got kind of silly........ has there ever been a road trip without silliness?! Not in my lifetime. ;) Rose and Joey were hilarious and definitely kept Mom and me entertained with their renditions of some of the Nylons' songs! *lol*

We got to the B&B about 10:30 pm, so not too bad. It was a really nice place and we felt pretty much at home. I slept really well that night - absolutely like a log (however logs sleep! I've never inquired into their sleeping capabilities). I don't know that everyone else had the same luck, but I certainly woke up feeling refreshed.

Saturday morning, then, we had a scrumptious breakfast of mixed fruit, bacon, toast and a cheesy-egg-ham-casserole thing that was awesome!! Oh, and orange juice. :) Good healthful start for the day. We left for Steamboat Junction about a quarter after 8 so that we could get to the starting point about 8:30. We thought. We waited outside at Steamboat Junction for half an hour while all these shuttles drove by, shuttling people from the end point to the beginning, but nary a one stopping to pick up the people at the halfway point!!!!! They were perfectly friendly people - I think every one of them waved and/or honked as they drove by us! ;) But we were feeling pretty stranded. At 9 o'clock (when the Pilgrimage was supposed to be starting), Mr. Ellis offered to take the group of us to the starting point in the priests' van. We squished in and survived the ten minutes or so that it took to get there. ;)
Perfectly in keeping with almost all Society functions, the pilgrimage got a late start. :P But at last, it did start. Joey went in the Knights chapter, Rose in the Children of Mary chapter, yours truly in the College chapter and Mom sandwiched between the Children of Mary and the College. :D The first five miles seemed to go really quickly to me. It's the prettier part of the trek and the fresher part too. ;) It seemed like no time at all before we reached the lunch point. Lunch was a rather lonely affair with a frozen ham sandwich and a drink (Mom had gone to take the van to the end point and my siblings were nowhere to be found :))... afterwards, though, I caught up with Adam and Christa and we went up to the cemetery that's at the top of the BIG hill there at the junction. It's a small place but neat to see anyway. It appeared to be a private cemetery.... one in which 4 or 5 generations of the same family were buried. The view was really nice and we sat at the top of the hill and rested for the remainder of the lunch hour.
The next seven miles got progressively harder but keeping my mind off things worked wonders and I got through! :D In fact, we all did. Nick was certainly inspiring to me that second half! He did all seven miles (five on gravel and two on pavement) barefoot!!!!!!! Plus, he was carrying an image of Our Lady and a mantle under it the entire twelve miles. Quite impressive. And it was his first pilgrimage ever. .......Matt and Adam did most of the intoning for the litanies and sung-Rosaries on the way there. They did a really good job!!
We reached the shrine about 4:15. As the afternoon had gone on, the clouds had rolled steadily in and it was overcast by the time we got there.

Mass started at 4:30 ...... just about the same time the rain started. The temperature dropped rapidly and the wind picked up as the rain became harder and more steady. It was certainly shivery!! But I'm sure that means it was a fruitful end to a pilgrimage - who ever said it's supposed to be a piece of cake?? ;)
We didn't stick around too long after Mass, but went into Hermann to eat dinner. We ate with Dave and his passengers at a place called Lyndee's (or something like that). It was sort of a cafe kind of place but they had a wide variety on their menu (from filet mignon to spaghetti to chef salad to ribs and hamburgers) and all their food was really good!! There were ten of us and our orders were brought out to us efficiently and with very few mistakes. :) Everyone was in super good spirits after the pilgrimage and we had a rather rambunctious meal! :D (I only hope we didn't really annoy any of the other diners. I think they were rather amused.) We arm-wrestled all down the table, but the match to watch was Dave and Nick. Nick was the champion!! :D But it was close and they were both quite red in the face and rather sweaty before a victor could be declared. :)
After dinner, we took some pictures outside in memory of last year's outings and then we were on our way.

We had decided not to stay the second night at the bed and breakfast but just to head on home, so we could have a little bit left of the weekend to settle back in and get homework done. We got out of Hermann about 9 pm. Mom, Rose and I took turns driving and resting and we pulled into the garage shortly after 1:30 am.
Overall, it was a very quick trip (not as quick as some though! :D)...... it was good to be home again.

On Sunday, I woke up in time for the 9 am Mass so I went to that. Mom, Rose and Joey went to the 11. (Dad had gone to the 7:30.) It was a chilly day and a rather lazy one. Mom and I were more sore than Rose and Joey but I don't think any of us were hurting TOO badly. :) Fr. MacDonald was visiting from Australia and came by the house to visit for a few hours. In the afternoon, I got some homework done. There were ups and downs to the day, but they're REALLY not worth going into ;) ....so I won't. :P


Today was chilly also. (Surprise! :P) But I'll take cold over hot any day (weather-wise), so it was great with me. :) The Latin test this morning went decently. I think I missed one word. Physical Science and History were uneventful, except that we managed to get off the subject in both. :D ...........Oh!!! That's right!!! I got another letter from Britt this morning!!! (If you're reading this, Britt, THANK YOU!! :D) I was so surprised. I hadn't replied to her other one yet but she was replying to a previous one of mine (we're off kilter, you see ;)), so I was very happy to get it. :) I love getting mail. Any kind of mail. But especially snail mail. :)

Anyway, that's all the news I can think of so I'm going to stop blabbing now. :D I'll be back whenever there is news to relate or when I've got sufficient free time to think up something brilliant to post. :) (See? If you blame lack of brilliancy on lack of time, it's a marvelous and unending excuse!) Okay. Yeah. Whatever. Enough. Goodbye.


:D


(Sorry. Just couldn't resist one more smiley! :) <-- or two more!)