Prison Road

What an adventure!  It took 9 hours to get to Folsom and I found out that my cousin lives 6 miles from the prison!  She graciously offered us dinner and a bed we gladly accepted. Had fun catching up and getting a glimpse of some wonderful, warm hearts...

Early next morning, Easter Sunday I called the prison visitor hot line and they were NOT on lock down, we were going in!  Folsom is a beautiful area with lush greenery,  lakes, waterfalls and wild turkeys!.... We arrived, parked in a huge parking lot that was not crowded. Easter is not a big visiting day?  The prison itself - large grey sprawling buildings - we find the visitor processing building, fill out our forms for visiting and check in...They have many rules of what you can wear and what you can bring in...Will's Levis being something you can not wear in!  Luckily they have a place called "family house"  where you can trade your clothes for something that works...Also had to trade his steel toe boots for slippers!! Now we are ready to go in - you take coats, shoes off  and place everything on a trey and go thru the detector, just like at the airport -  well I could not get through without it going off.  They tell you not to wear bras with wire, which I did not, but for whatever reason this bra was not going to work and they were not letting me in!  I was starting to panic, I have driven all this way to see my son and I might not see him... I remembered I had another sports bra in the car, I went out again got it and traded, this bra worked!  We were led now to a bus and taken to about 4 stops Lance's "bunker" C - we get off bus to go thru another processing room!!!  Finally led to a large cafeteria looking room with small tables and chairs...Vending machines everywhere!!  Normal diet there has no sugar or caffeine...so when you visit the inmates they love to have vending food!  It took Lance awhile to come out but he did....With tears streaming down my face we hugged long and hard...he looks good, thin....we talked and talked...So many people sent hugs and prayers for me to give him, one of my favorite friends, who has known lance for many years asked me to send her love and to ask Lance what his wildest dream is, to hold it, think about it with no need to share it....I delivered this message with great joy in my heart! we ate from vending machines, laughed and it was so good!!!  At 2:00 visiting hours are over and we had to say goodbye... I am so glad we made the trip it is so important for me to show my son that I have not given up and that I  love him....