The Three L’s Travel The West

Today we had a late start and didn’t leave the house until after 1PM.  We dropped Max off at April’s parents house again, and then headed straight for the Nationwide building.  I was nervous, and excited.  Janice and Stacey would be meeting us there as well.  This was Stacey’s and my opportunity to meet all these people we’ve been talking to for years, but never met in person.
 

April took me around the office and I started putting faces to names.  It was amazing.  The office here in Amarillo is a single story building that seems to sprawl a bit.  Every cubicle there was another person my team had helped.  It was so great to get to talk to them.  Everyone there was genuinely glad to see us, and most asked us to move here and rejoin the Nationwide team.  It made Stacey and I feel so wanted and also that we had done a great job in helping these people. 

After we spent two hours as Nationwide, we went to lunch at “Buns Over Texas” where again the burgers are big and they announce your order as “Louie, your buns are up!”  Huge plates and good food.  Again the bottomless drinks and we are bringing home our plastic cups.   

Our next stop was the Wonderland Amusement Park for some afternoon fun.  However, the park didn’t open until 7PM!  So we sat in the car and waited for the park to open.  Unfortunately, it didn’t. There was a storm rolling through and they decided not to open.  So we decided to go see a movie instead.  Stacey went to see Journey to the Center of the Earth and the rest of us saw “Wall-E”.  The movie theater was packed due to the rain.   

We took Stacey back to Janice’s home and had to dodge or even ford huge puddles of water.  Amarillo apparently isn’t equipped for rainstorms and drains fill quickly and overflow.  Intersections filled with water and the cars would send out wings of water as the cars passed through. 

Arrived back to April’s home by 10:30PM and sent the children to bed.  We stayed up to chat a bit longer, and April showed me photos of Arik as a baby.  Off to bed by midnight (again) with Louie and Lynnae back in Arik’s room and me on the mattress.  I was very tired, at least emotionally.  It was good, but hard to meet those wonderful people that I’ve worked with for years. 

I was emotionally drained by the time we left the building.  But it was a great experience and helped me close up another chapter in my life.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 11:00 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.