Home Again in Tulsa

I last posted the first day we were in Custer, South Dakota....Friday.

I'll give a quick rundown of the rest of the trip:

Friday evening we watched "Elizabethtown" which is the movie that inspired Nancy and Gene to travel to his favorite spots to scatter some of his ashes.

Saturday--we drove to Spearfish Canyon and ate at a restaurant that Gene really liked. Nancy had wanted to hike down a trail to some falls behind the restaurant, but there was too much snow on the trail. In fact, it was snowing on us that day. Really weird snowflakes...we called them snow pellets because they looked and felt like soft hail. Really strange! We headed back, and we had great fun stopping by the side of the road for pictures of waterfalls and lakes and deer. It was a beautiful drive. We found a peaceful brook by the side of the road, so we pulled off and Nancy scattered some ashes there. When we arrived back at the hotel, we ended the evening watching a DVD of the history of the Crazy Horse monument which we were going to visit on Sunday morning.

Sunday--We were at the Crazy Horse monument at 9:30 a.m. We looked around in the museum and gift shop, and then we were driven to the top of the monument. If you don't know the story, here's the link: http://www.crazyhorse.org/ Nancy scattered some of Gene's ashes on the top of the monument, and we all gathered around her as she prayed thanking God for Gene and that we could be there together. It was very moving!

We ate lunch at a local winery and it was really good! Nancy, Tony, Bethany and I tasted some of their wines and Nancy ended up buying quite a few bottles for people. It was a fun experience, except not so much for Cody and Nataly who just waited in the car during the tasting. But hey, with cameras to take pictures of yourself and iPods to listen to.....

We then headed over to Mount Rushmore. We walked the trail and Tony, Cody and Nataly each scattered a handful of ashes at the base of the monument. We then saw a soaring bird which I just KNEW was an eagle, and told Tony so, but at that moment a park ranger happened to be walking by and said it was probably a turkey vulture. I'm still convinced it was an eagle....which made it a perfect moment! :)

We headed back to the hotel going through Custer State Park. We saw lots of deer, (mule deer and whitetail deer), buffalo, prairie dogs, and burros that came up and stuck their heads in the car. There was one buffalo that was completely in the middle of the road and we had to wait until it decided to move. We got some great pictures!

We ended Sunday night ordering pizza and watching TV. We were pretty tired. We got up Monday, got in the car, and 14 1/2 hours later (around midnight) we arrived home in Tulsa. We were all tired today, but the trip was definitely worth it!

It was in honor of Gene's memory that we visited his favorite places and left a little bit of his remains at each one. I wasn't sure what I thought about the whole idea, but frankly I found it very moving. I've been thinking about it a lot. In February we had an amazing funeral service for John Kilgore and we buried his body at a beautiful cemetery here in Tulsa. I know that as it gets warmer I'll be visiting his grave....not because I think he's there, just because I know I'll want to go sometimes. Then this experience of scattering Gene's ashes was very special as well. I've been thinking it might be nice to combine the two...having a service and a burial, but then taking a trek to favorite places and scattering something symbolic (like flower petals or something) at each place. Conversations Tony and I will be having in the future I'm sure.

If you're interested in looking at the many (almost 200) pictures we took on our trip, here's the link: http://s123.photobucket.com/albums/o307/tmbcn5/Nebraska%20and%20South%20Dakota%20Trip/

Melody

Custer, South Dakota

The ceremony this morning was very nice. It was cold and windy, but the service was exactly what Nancy said Gene would have wanted. It began at 11:30 with a retired Army chaplain officiating. He opened in prayer and then read a little something about Gene. Nancy got up and read a tribute that she had written and it was beautiful. She began with Isaiah 40:31 and described Gene's journey of learning to wait on God and how he began to hear God's call. She did a wonderful job. Then she prayed and we were all very tearful. The chaplain then took over again and concluded the ceremony. Then there were 5 retired service men who each fired their rifles 3 times. There were 2 other service men who folded the American flag and presented it to Nancy along with the shell casings from the rifles that had been fired. Then Taps was played, and the service was over. It was a great tribute to Gene Clifford Lenox and his service to our country in the late '50's. We tried to take lots of pictures, so when I can I'll try to share them.

We headed for South Dakota around 2:30. It was a pretty boring drive until we got into the Black Hills. The pine trees were gorgeous and we saw buffalo and lots of deer. We arrived in Custer between 7:30 and 8:00. Our next two days will consist of visiting some of Gene's favorite places....Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monument, among a few other things. Then we'll travel home on Monday.

Again, thanks for your thoughts and prayers during our trip. This is about supporting Nancy and helping bring closure to her. I'll post more tomorrow....hopefully with some pictures.

Melody

North Platte, Nebraska

We traveled 9 hours yesterday and are now in North Platte, Nebraska. The drive was uneventful....the Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska landscapes are pretty monotonous. But we arrived safely and were able to have a good meal at a restaurant called The Depot in downtown North Platte. It's sad to see Nancy alone. She told us about her experiences of traveling here over the last 5 days, and the challenges of doing it by herself. She's doing well though; has an upbeat attitude, and had our hotel room stocked with snacks, drinks and candy. She's always thinking of others.

Today we're up and getting ready to head to the Fort McPherson National Cemetery in Maxwell, Nebraska, to bury Gene's remains. There will be a veterans ceremony at 11:30. My hope (and prayer) is that what is done will help Nancy feel like we've honored Gene's memory and final wishes. Hopefully we can take some pictures that we can share. I'll update more in the next few days. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

Melody

Celebrating What's Right With the World

Bethany and I went to Chicago last June for the Arts Conference at Willow Creek Community Church. It's one of my favorite things to do in the whole world! The theme of the conference was "Celebrating What's Right With the World." The first speaker was DeWitt Jones who is (or was....I don't know) a photographer for the National Geographic, and this was the title of his session. It was amazing; both Bethany and I loved it!

I realized at the beginning of 2008 that I needed to discipline myself to be more positive, and to learn to celebrate things more, so I took a journal that Cherri had given me a couple of years ago (it had been by my bed because it matched the decor in my room, but I had never written in it), and each evening I began to list the things that were "right with my world." I did it pretty consistently, and it seemed to help my overall perspective be more positive. My last list is dated February 10, 2008....2 days before John K. died. I haven't written in it since. It's been hard to even want to be positive these last couple of months.

But Spring is in the air; the birds are out and singing; the trees are budding; new life is all around. I feel the stirrings of new life within as well. So today, I want to celebrate what's right with my world:

1. Today is my sister's birthday. Happy Birthday Cherri! She is one of my heroes in life. I bought her a card yesterday (I hope she doesn't read this before I give it to her tomorrow) that says: "What is yours is to play the assigned part well. But to choose it, belongs to someone else." --Epictetus
I bought that card because Cherri has played her part well in this life. It may not have been the part she would have picked were she to choose, but she has played it well, and she is my hero!

2. I have a wonderful family. We are not perfect by any stretch, but we love and respect each other. Tony is more than I deserve....he stands by me through all my ups and downs (and there are a lot of those). He is my rock. My children are finding their ways. Each is unique and is on their own journey of discovering themselves as they discover God. It's not always easy to watch, but it is good!

3. I have a great family of origin that is full of grace! Enough said.

4. I have a loving church family. We have walked together through some hard times, and they are "my people." I wouldn't want to do life without them. Church is not all that I would like for it to be, but it is a community of people who love each other....that's enough.

5. Spring is in the air. I look around at the beauty that is budding, and I hear the birds, and it brings me joy. One of the things DeWitt Jones said in his session was, "A bird sings not because it has an answer, but because it has a song." A bird sings because it was born with a song, and it is doing what it was created to do. Spring reminds me to do that....to contribute to this life through just being who I've been created to be. To love and to be loved is the greatest thing of all.

Melody