Trip to the Mid-West

So, two weekends ago I took a trip with my Dad and Brother to the Mid-West. We flew into Kansas City, MO, drove to Lincoln, NE and visited Tarkio, MO. It was my first time really visiting the mid-west other than just layovers at airports. I was actually rather pleasantly surprised with the area. The scenery was pretty.... green, rolling hills, tree groves, and of course corn fields galore. Lincoln had a cute little historic district called The Haymarket with breweries and coffee shops. Then there were the thunder storms... wow! Hours of the night sky being constantly lit up with lightning, watching the parking lot turn into a swimming pool within minutes... so cool. We just don't get that kind of thing in the good ole Northwest.

At any rate, the purpose of the trip was to attend the reunion banquet at my Grandfather's alma mater, where they also held a memorial for my Grandpa and Great Uncle. Both of them were on the basketball team and in 1940 they won the NAIA National Championship. They went to Tarkio College, a small college in a small town. It was amazing but kind of sad to see this beautiful campus in such a small farming town that now just sits there, unoccupied.

We held the memorial service in front of the school gym. The building was all locked up, but not to worry, turns out Aaron and I are pretty good with a slim jim :-) The guy who runs the Tarkio College museum even helped us. The inside was all torn up and infested with stray animals, but it was still pretty neat to see. We scattered ashes there where those two young farm boys from Indiana got to be stars for a few moments. It was so special to have that side of the family together to remember that generation of the Lewises.

Here are a few pictures from the trip: