December 18th 2013 To Kentucky and Back Again

All the last minute preparations seen to...which can be a bit more complicated when leaving a foreign country,(you should have seen the charades at the post office as I tried to arrange to have our mail held), Gary and I headed to the airport for our trip back to the States for his Dad's funeral. We hauled our suitcases out front and waved down a cab to take us to Kichijoji station where we caught a bus to take us the 2 hours to Narita airport.  (No greyhound on the side of these buses...we get a regular Japanese dog!)

While waiting to board our flight we saw a beautiful sunset. The picture doesn't do it justice as it was so pretty and orange!

Our flight went smoothly, it was nice as we had an empty seat between us and were cramped at all! We arrived in Chicago to the usual Chicago flight delays etc. Fortunately, our flight to Louisville was only slightly delayed instead of being canceled as some flights were. We arrived in the evening so after a short visit with the family went straight to bed! 
The visit was kept busy with funeral and burial services in two different cities on different days and all went pretty well despite the uncooperative weather.  Gary preached his Dad's burial service at the Kentucky Veterans Cemetery. His father was buried with military honors and it was very nicely done.

The next week we spent in Owensboro with Gary's mom. He helped her get some billing and banking business and social security stuff taken care of before we left.
We also managed to squeeze in some family visits and some good food including the famous Ky. smoked turkey. We bought a turkey and dropped it off to be quick smoked at famous Ol' Hickory pit bbq! A couple of days later we picked it up and it was delicous! Gary also picked up some ky. style bbq mutton shoulder that was SO good! I've never encountered any bbq quite so good! The mutton is cooked for 12 hours at temperatures in the high 200's while being mopped with a mixture of water,worcestershire sauce,vinegar,lemon juice,salt and pepper. It results in a totally differnt type of bbq than anything found anywhere else in the States!   

I was of course thrilled to get to see our youngest son for a couple of days as he flew in from Denver for the funeral. 

Then it was time to come home to Japan. We boarded our flight in Louisville on Monday morning and with time changes etc. we arrived here Tuesday night. The flight back wasn't near as nice as the previous one, unfortunately, but we survived and were very happy to shower and collapse into our own bed! 
Thanks to everyone for the kind thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.