After attending early church at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, my home congregation, Lois & I hit the road. First, though, we picked up a sumptuous repast of breakfast sandwiches & gourmet  coffee from Casey's in Concordia, which is located on the corner where the infamous truck stop once stood, where I worked the graveyard shift the summer between my junior & senior years at SPCH. That's a story for another time. We left in a thunderstorm & drove through rain until north of KC. Sometimes the rain intense, making visibility a challenge. God was certainly with us. We made it home in time for our weekly Messenger mtg with Lois' siblings & our Facetime call with Nathan, Laura, Calvin, & Claire. [Claire was disappointed. She always wants to see our puppy, but Sammy was at the kennel. Lois will pick him up today.]

CLASS REUNION POST-MORTEM

What a great time! Here are some highlights of our trip.

> The guest reception at the Drury Inn in North KC on WED night. [Go ahead, call me shallow.]

> A tour of our old haunts in & around Concordia, Corder, & Higginsville.

> The food & fellowship we enjoyed with my classmates & their spouses, including much reminiscing.

> The Circuit Ascension worship at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Emma on THU night.

> The baccalaureate at St. Paul's Lutheran Church on FRI morning.

> The graduation service in Weis Gymnasium on FRI afternoon.

> The commencement address by our classmate Kirk Mueller.

> The tour & tasting at the 1832 Distillery in Concordia on FRI afternoon. [SEE previous comment about being shallow.]

> The Class of '71 banquet on FRI night.

> The tour of Kaepel on SAT morning.

> The opportunity to visit with former teachers.

> The keurig coffee makers on each floor in Biltz. [Shallow.]

> The wonderful job that Kent Kunkel & others did to make this a great experience.

Lois will be one of the coordinators of the Class of '72 reunion next year. She (& I) are already looking forward to it! [I think she's up for the challenge.]

PROGRESS REPORT

Last year one of my resolutions was to write a 365-day devotion book. I finished it, but didn't publish it. Earlier this year & entered into an agreement with Westbo Press to have it published. The challenge is that I wrote it as 365 separate Word files on my computer at the OGT office. First, I had to download all files onto a zip drive, then transfer them to my home laptop. Now I am in the process of copying & pasting each one into one long Word file, in order to submit it for publication. This has also involved more editing. I have made it through Aug. 10

WHAT I'M READING

I finished reading "In the Garden of the Beasts:  Love, Terror, & an American Family in Hitler's Berlin," by Erik Larson. If you want to read a first-hand account of Hitler's rise to power, you'll want to read this book. It's chilling.

Last night I started reading "The Splendid & the Vile:  A Saga of Churchill, Family, & Defiance During the Blitz," also by Erik Larson.

ROAD TRIPS

On Sunday we'll leave for the Black Hills with our grandkids, Brianna, Hadley, & Bentley. We've rented a cabin in Keystone & plan to do Wall Drug, the hayride & chuckwagon dinner in Custer State Park, more exploring in CSP, Mt. Rushmore, & Reptile Gardens.