Crossing Kansas

Saturday evening we parked at Newton, Kansas Wal-Mart.  In trying to find that, we got into the town of Newton and stopped to ask a gentleman how to find the Wal-Mart.  (His son, who was working on a car, reminded me so much of Scott Campbell. I wish I had asked his name; as I remembered later that Orlin has some relatives in KS.  Well, this man's directions made it possible for us to find The First Mennonite Church of Newton,  this morning.  I told folks there of Mother having a baby at the Deaconess hospital in Newton in 1942, and how that was one of the most enjoyable experiences of her life.  Sure enough, that hospital had been very close to this church and was pictured in their church history booklet.  This was an appropriate day for me to remember Mother and the Sisters at the hospital who served God. 

We have been riding across windy Kansas today.  Marlin had to really hang onto the steering wheel all afternoon as he drove, fighting the buffeting side winds.  This evening we hear that there are/were storms and tornado warnings just north of us and where we were yesterday and today.  Another stress today was that our gas gauge was at empty and we couldn't seem to find gas at the small grain towns.  In desperation, we finally started asking citizens.  A small store owner told Marlin that at the gas pumps where we had looked there was a place where we could swipe our charge card.  So he pumped in 13.8 gallons of gas!  So "thank you Lord that we didn't get stranded.  Marlin, promise me that you won't let the gas get this low again."  I won't make promises, just try to use my best judgement.  Sara said that we should get gas when we see it.  Now she is really going to start haranguing me every time the gas tank gets below 3/4 of a tank, especially if she sees a station where the gas is a couple of cents cheaper.  We did pick up a 5 gallon gas jug to fill up as a reserve when we get into the western states where gas stations may be more than 150 miles apart.  It is a little disappointing that the Toyota only goes 11-13 miles on a gallon of gasoline, but the truck engine has been quietly purring along.  I think we are finding that the lower gas mileage is mostly going to happen when we are going up mountains, around a lot of curves, or fighting head winds.