Skip and Dudley

Yesterday Skip Olson drove down from Chicago to spend the weekend with us. When I sent him email instructions, they included 41 specific steps, starting with “Take I-57 south until it hits I-55 in Missouri,” which covers six hours of driving, and then “Stop at Lambert’s Café (home of “throwed rolls”) in Sikeston, Missouri for lunch,” and then taking him around Memphis to Highway 78 to the Natchez Trace exit in Tupelo, to Highway 363 in Saltillo to Spring Hill Road, to County Road 1451 and finally to our cabin in the woods past the cattle gate and a half-mile down the gravel road. Skip left at 4:30 AM and made it to our place a few minutes after 4 PM. Dudley greeted him loudly, as if they had known each other forever. Turns out that Skip had two basset hounds when he was growing up so maybe Dudley could sense a kindred spirit.

It’s a long way to go and a lot of driving when you are by yourself, It reminds me of the story of the man from Africa who walked three days to present a gift to a visiting American dignitary. When the dignitary said, “You shouldn’t have walked so far to give me this gift,” the man replied, “Long walk part of gift.” By tomorrow night Skip will have driven 24 hours to spend 40 hours with us. The long drive is part of the gift, and we are grateful for a friend who loves us like that.