My beautiful cousins and I visited the tiny town of Maypearl on Sunday.I felt like I had died and gone to heaven. It was one street long and reminded me of home. We shopped and visited and had a grand time. We had to get back home for the family reunion, otherwise I may have spoken with a realtor about purchasing a home there.
The afternoon went by way too fast and before I knew it we were all hugging and crying and saying our goodbye's. I had such a wonderful time and didn't want to go home. My mom and I and my aunties and cousin stayed up almost until we had to leave for the airport. We had some really good conversation, but mostly it just felt good to be in the presence of family. It's really hard to describe what I was feeling. I don't get to see my mom's family very often. Before this, I feel like I may have taken for granted the handful of times that we have shared. Now, more than ever, the bonds that tie us together are so strong. My cousins and their beautiful families and my aunties and their amazing stories and their unconditional love for each other is a force to be reckoned with. I watched my mom hug her sisters and her cousins and my eyes welled up, it was sad to know that we had to go, but I was also happy - so intensely joyful that I was a part of this family that I could not hold it in me. I had the time of my life, but there will be more times like this. I am going to take my whole family down to visit again. I am not going to wait very long to experience that again. It is much too valuable to lose.
Our plane was scheduled to leave at 6 and we had to return the rental car so we left my aunt's house around 3 am. The highways were busy, even at that time, and the air was thick and hot as we stopped to get gas at a tiny station with 24 hour pumps. As we arrived at the airport nearly an hour later we tried to check in and were informed that our flight had been cancelled. We were put on a 12 noon flight which we complained about until the United representative got us on a 730 to Denver. We had a four hour layover in Denver and as soon as we arrived we checked the monitors and realized there was a 10 am flight and we high tailed it over to the gate to see if we could get on. The man told us we had to have 2 hours to get our luggage changed from the 12:00 flight to the 10:00 one, so we shrugged our shoulders and walked away looking for a nice soft place to rest our sleepy heads for a few hours. We boarded the tiny plane hours later, tired and hot and ready to be coming home. The flight was only an hour long and as we approached our corner of the state I started to recognize the familiar roads and small towns that I have lived in or near my whole life. The view from above is a remarkable one. Little squares and rectangles and circles of land that are stitched together by straight and curvy roads, highways, and lakes. It reminded me of a homemade quilt that has uneven patches and is a little old and worn, but still amazingly beautiful. It was home and I missed it. We stepped off the plane and the old familiar South Dakota wind almost knocked us over. It was 99 degrees with 20 mile an hour winds. Home sweet Home. We walked (it felt like such a short tiny walk) to the baggage claim and waiting so patiently for us on a metal cart was our luggage that had made the 10:00 flight without us.......sigh.
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