Jordan Rippy

Wednesday morning me, my sister, and Kristin went to the church where the funeral was held to sound check. On a side note, the church staff was amazing and extremely well prepared for the funeral. When we finished I overheard my dad asking if anyone had a video camera, because they wanted to video the funeral. Apparently my brother forgot to bring his video camera…So, I offered to make a quick run to Wal-Mart and purchase a video camera. At this point, the funeral is supposed to start in about 25 minutes. I ask the sound guy for directions to the nearest Wal-Mart. He says, “It’s kind of far away. You need to get on 240 and head north and then catch I-40 heading west, take the first exit and turn right.” So, I follow his directions only to find out that the Wal-Mart is a little further off of the exit than he said it would be. I run in and buy a video camera and then ask the lady if she knows the quickest way to get back to Butterfield Assembly of God. After all of the twists and turns I was a bit unclear on how to get back. She says, “Oh sure, just take a left out of our parking lot and it will be on the left in about five miles.” That’s right. Five miles. The sound guy sent us in a complete square around Ft. Smith in torrential rain to get to a Wal-Mart that was five miles up the road. At least we made it back in time! After the funeral the whole family had lunch at Ed Walker’s. Ed Walker’s is the home of the five pound hamburger…Five pounds. The food was really good.

Then some of us went across town to my great aunt DoDo’s pie shop. She doesn’t own it any more, but they still use her original recipes and the pies are still amazing.

After the pies, we took Zack, Ashley and Bobby to the airport. We dropped them off and then took Taylor to ride the train. A local park has a pretty cool train that circles the park. My nephew loves trains (understatement) and asked about it all week. We rode it three times. Later that afternoon Kristin and I were delayed out of Ft. Smith. We literally made our connecting flight in Dallas by 60 seconds. At least that’s what the counter lady said. It was crazy.