The drive home...

Monday morning we started bright and early with a photo shoot.  It was a great day with my new director, John Vannatta, the amazingly talented photographer Will Patterson, airbrush makeup artist extraordinaire Lisa Proctor, and Salon Envy hair stylists Brent Peterson and Kelsey Miller.  Pictures will be posted soon!

My mom spent the day with me and we started the drive back to St. Louis in the early afternoon.  As fun as the morning had been, there was something weighing heavy on my mind.  How could I be celebrating when something so horrific had happened the night before.  Just over an hour before we went on the stage for the pageant, Joplin had been struck by a horrendous tornado.  The devastation was already thought to be of unbelievable magnitude.  This sick feeling sat in my chest.  How could I celebrate when such loss had hit our state?  I held the people, the town, the state in my heart and in my prayers.

My mom and I were in two cars for the drive home since she had joined me and George in St. Joseph to watch the pageant.  About one hour in to driving we stopped for lunch at a Panera.  My mom was having trouble with her phone (we won't go in to what was wrong with it... very very funny!) and one of the nice gentlemen who worked at Panera helped her "fix" it.  He noticed my new Mrs. Missouri ring and commented on how pretty it is.  I told him that I'd won it just the night before.  I am thinking that the photo shoot makeup was a tip off of some sort.  Not many people wear this type of amazing airbrush makeup in to get a you-pick-two at Panera!  So, he was super nice and very excited to meet us and I posed for my first un-official Mrs. Missouri appearance picture at Panera!

We continued down the road and began to see hundreds of flags lining the freeway.  It took me a while to catch on to what was happening.  Ok, sleep-deprived Carrie didn't ever figure it out.  I called my mom who was just behind me on the freeway and she pointed out the obvious.  All of the flags were shortly accompanied by tons of cars, trucks, and motorcycles.  It was the Patriot Guard giving a soldier a proper arrival back home.  My heart sank to think of this person, this man or woman, who gave their life for our country.  Wow.  I gave thanks for their sacrifice and for the Americans who stand up for our service people who lose their lives in service.

Within a few miles of the Patriot Guard flags and supporters I passed the first white van.  Again, at first I missed it.  I saw the van but missed what it was and where it was going.  A few minutes later it dawned on me.  The Red Cross.  The Red Cross van is going to Joplin to help.  Wow.  Then I passed another and before too long another.  It was like when an ambulance passes and I stop to pray and think of whom they are going to help.  With these vans I just couldn't imagine what they were going to face.