Sound Bites & Snap Shots

I grabbed Kristina for a parting picture before we hit the road for home. 

It is no surprise that I feel every road trip to and through a larger metropolitan area should include a pit stop or detour at Trader Joe’s.  To my surprise, there were not a lot of options between here and Michigan.  From there we could go west about an hour out of our way to Chicago or add about thirty minutes to the drive by going through Indianapolis.  The Indianapolis option seemed more feasible since we could find lunch and then make a stop at Frye’s and Trader Joe’s in one fell swoop.

The trip back to Indianapolis went just as planned.  We had lunch at Noodles and Company and then drove to Frye’s which is a favorite electronic store that Bill used to frequent when we lived in Southern California.  Frye’s locations are even fewer and farther apart than Trader Joe’s so this was an extra special stop.  All the boys in my family like to look at computer components, big screen televisions, scanners and the like. 

At some point on the journey from Michigan, Mason made a comment in passing that he would really like to go to 5 PM Mass tonight rather than Mass on Sunday morning.  That idea appealed to all of us so while I cashed out at Trader Joe’s, Bill started looking up churches and Mass schedules along the route from Indianapolis to home. There were not a lot of options but Bill did find a church in Bloomington with a 5 PM Mass that we could just make if we hurried.  The road from Indy to Bloomington is a curvy, two lane highway as the interstate is still under construction.  We pressed on as fast as was safe and cheered every time we shaved off a minute on our arrival.  Bill pulled into the church parking lot a few minutes after five and dropped us off to get settled while he parked the car. 

It didn’t bode well when I saw the usher at the back poised to hand out Advent books for home study.  Mass was wrapping up rather than starting!  This was the first week of the Mass time change to 4 PM which was not reflected on the websites yet.  Worst than that, there was no nearby church with a Mass starting at 5 PM.

Back to the car we went to locate another church anywhere with a later Saturday night Mass.  Finding one was truly challenging.  Bill and I are not familiar with the towns between Bloomington and home and additionally, we were juggling the time change.  Bloomington is Eastern Time and home is Central.  We plotted a course for nearly 35 minutes until Bill finally found a Mass that started at 6 PM CST in Princeton.  We were going to be late but at least we would get there. 

It was a hard push but we walked in just as the Alleluia was being sung and we sat quietly in the back.  The heavens did open for us.

After our crazy adventure to hit Trader Joe’s, Frye’s, Noodles and Company and Mass, we determined that had we just driven straight home from Michigan, we could have gone to 5 PM Mass at our local parish. Lesson learned and promise made—no more Trader Joe’s detours unless they are our intended destination.