We drove from East Texas to Topeka, Kansas to visit our daughter, April, and her family.
It's a long trip, so we decided to go by way of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, to visit long-time friends, Jo and Bobby Jones from our Indonesia days. We had a great visit with them, then drove on to Topeka.
Kansas is farm country.
It is the location of The Little House on the Prairie fame. There are huge expanses of prairies everywhere and long, long highways.
But Topeka is a big city with interesting things to see and do. We took a break from playing games to go to Orange Leaf to enjoy frozen yoghurt.
Then on to the Rose Garden, which was just beginning to bloom.
Johnny did some training with the young people of First Southern Baptist Church who are making a mission trip to Quito, Ecuador soon. Shelby will be going. Johnny also intertained Kayla's Sunday School department at their party with his String Man act.
We also made time to run by the Asian Grocery Store (Mabuhay), to pick up a few favorite items. While there, the proprietor, a Filipina, talked with us about our 9 years of living in the Philippines. She asked our favorite food from there and we said "Adobo". She said she'd brought some that day, that she had made, and proceeded to sack it up for us to take home and eat. Yum!
Here is her recipe for Philippine Adobo:
1 Chicken (can use any kind of meat)
1c. vinegar
1/2 c. soy sauce
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. black pepper kenals
Set aside to marinade. Do not stir. When there is no vinegar smell, bake in a medium hot oven for 30 minutes.
On our way back to Texas we traveled by way of Norman, Oklahoma, to visit more long-time friends, Marge and Von Worten and their dog, Daisy.
It was a good week of travel and being with family and friends.
But it was good to get back home, too.
