20 | July | 2024 | Harvey Millican's Blog: Musings of a Trad Dad

I’ve been traveling this past week. It’s a road trip I took with my mother-in-law and my son. Just the three of us. She had a few things she wanted to visit and I happened to be free. She knows I’m game for these sorts of things and we just have so much fun together.

It is a blessing to have a mother-in-law who is truly like one’s mom especially when you can’t see your mom because of distance. I like to think of myself as Ruth. “…for whithersoever thou shalt go, I will go.”

So first up was Kansas. We had been invited to the first profession of a young woman from the parish in a trad convent. I met Cardinal Burke afterwards but did not have the chance to whisper, “Come on man, do the right thing…” also, he’s looking frail FYI.

Then on to Kansas City where we saw among other things the Harry Truman house.

Then came St. Louis. Here we toured churches and had dinner with a beloved blogger – St. Louis Catholic.

Then we headed to Indianapolis where we attended the Lifesite News Trad Eucharistic Revival. I approached Fr. Altman after Mass and was taken aback that he remembered me from our last meeting a year ago. I guess I make an impression.

Then we drove to Georgetown, KY. Why? There’s a TLM there. Silly.

This morning we set out on a 14 hour drive back to Texas. Midway through the day I asked my wife the following:

“Don’t think we can push through today, can you book us somewhere in Memphis area?”

I quickly got a confirmation email for a hotel in… Oxford, MS.

For the uninitiated (or those who don’t care) Oxford is nowhere near Mississippi. I put the address of the hotel into my navigator and hilarity ensued.

The route took us off the interstate around Jackson, Tennessee and south over local roads for damn near three hours.

The cool thing is that this is one of those experiences, but I did not ask for, did not want, and yet would not trade for anything.

If it had not been for this felicitous, turn of events, we never would’ve met Zoe, the Sophomore at Ole Miss who’s studying to be a speech pathologist. Her five older siblings all needed speech therapy but she didn’t so she felt like she should give something back. And she’s doing that by waitressing over the summer at a diner serving creole and soul food. Good soul food.

On our drive in we crossed the Tallahatchie Bridge. My mother-in-law recommended we listen to an old classic and so I share it with you now.