Great Granny Lives up to Her Adjective

The girls left Friday night at 10 p.m., and Bobby and I were on the road the next morning at around 9 a.m. It was a 9 hour drive, 100 degree highs, we had no air conditioning. This is why Bobby is wearing shorts. Because he is smart.

This is also the same reason why I strangled my jacket in my window, wrapped the sleeve around the seatbelt, and then stuffed the visor into the sleeve for shade. I was wearing two items of clothes- underwear, and a sundress. I was still, as you can see, pretty much melting. Please feel sympathy for me with this additional detail- I use Retin-A, which basically makes one's face feel nice and flaming with too much sun exposure. All in all, the trip was great, minus the face melting.

We got in around 7:30, stopped by to visit for about an hour with Great Granny, and then hit up one of the only two restaurants Hillsboro, KS has. This Mexican restaurant is not only good considering the fact that it is in a small Kansas town, pop 3,000 or so, it's actually just plain good. I was more than grateful for a good meal and an early, early bedtime (pretty sure Great Granny stayed up later than me that night)

We stayed at the only hotel in town, which is right next to a Sonic. Here is the view from said Sonic as we ate whatever we could scrounge up. This is how Kansas rolls. I love how open it is, personally, but I have to admit I love it in a visit kind of way, not in a let's buy a house and live here forever kind of way.

We hung out all day with Great Granny. She is, in a word, awesome. She's 96 and is completely, 100% still with it and in great shape. She bustles around the room, laughing, making jokes, talking about all the details of local politics and the people she voted for and why, local happenings, international news, her hobbies, family life, etc. She has a dry, droll, almost sarcastic sense of humor. She often says something and then smirks a bit, gives a wink, and then throws her head back and laughs. She's on the left, my Granny is on the right, Mom and Bobby are out of the frame taking copious amounts of pictures.

Great Granny, action shot.

I love. this. picture of her. I took it with Bobby's (much nicer than mine) camera, and I'm still getting used to it. That twinkle in her eye makes me happy.

I love her little hands!

Mom photo bombing and making Great Granny laugh.

This is me, mom, and Great Granny getting set up for our four generations shot, we're waiting for Granny.

Me 27, Mom 46, Granny 76, Great Granny 96. I adore this picture. We're all genuinely laughing at an inside joke. We always tell Great Granny not to use her forced "church smile". As we were joking with her about it, she said matter of factly "I don't know why we say that, "church smile", I don't remember having much to smile about when I was in church!" She then went on to talk about how my Granny dyed her hair orange on accident before church one day, haha.

So, an explanation- after exhausting our food resources Bobby and I decided to drive to the town 30 minutes away for dinner. I used to commute to that town for work the summer I lived with my Uncle Hush in Hillsboro, and Granny stayed down the street with Great Granny. Anyway, please remember my Retin-A boiling face problem. Problem solved!

We hit up the "Golden Dragon", a classy Chinese joint in a strip mall. The parking lot dead ends into a creepy cornfield. Bobby was demonstrating the typical American confusion when confronted with chopsticks...

I taught him everything I learned while living in Japan. I'm kind of a pro.

The next day was a quick breakfast and an hour or so morning visit with Great Granny before we hit the road. The weather started off gorgeous...

Then the skies turned completely gray, and the rain started coming down in torrents, with terrible sideways wind. We pulled over at a gas station so a) I could pee, but mostly b) so we wouldn't die. Great Granny gets 96 years, I'm not settling for less!

It cleared up right as we hit Denver, about an hour from home. So, so glad we got to go on this trip.