Tuesday, August 22, 2006What a weekend-very difficult and stressful, but we made it. Found a campground in Mocksville, at Lake Myers, another big resort with 425 RV sites, and crazy busy, lots of “permanent” residents who all have their own golf carts. The ad said internet, but we must have been too far away from the transmitter, because we got no signal. Saturday we headed into Winston-Salem and looked around, into Greensboro and found a street with lots of car dealerships, had to park the motorhome and walk to them and found the budget I had set aside was unrealistic. The used cars that had less than 100k miles were expensive, and we got frustrated and headed for another campground. We picked up a couple of newspapers and a very detailed map of the area and went “home” to study. Sunday we went to the church, worship rocked, but the head pastor was on vacation (school started Monday) the substitute was from a Calvary in Sand Hills, NC and very good. The couple seated in front of us stopped to chat after the service, found out we were new, and asked what they could do to help. We said we needed to find a house and car, so they offered us theirs! Come stay with them, and borrow his truck-we declined, but were very grateful for the offer. We drove around a little after church, but not knowing the area and being in the motorhome made for more stress than enjoyment, so back to the Lake. Got a campsite closer to the office, but still the internet signal was blocked. Argh! Let’s see that brings us to Monday…back into Greensboro, to the dealership where we had met a nice young man named Daniel on Saturday. He took us around looking at new and used PT Cruisers, and we decided to bite the bullet, have something nice for a change, and so we bought a 2006 previously owned, that only had 12k miles. What an ordeal! But worth it in the end, and so much nicer to be able to drive with the flow of traffic, and stop on a dime if needed. Now we just need a Jesus fish for the back and we’re set, I want to get a personalized plate ALL 4HM or PRZ HIM. They even have exclamation points and punctuation available on their license plates. Tuesday, talked to the Realtor, will meet with him Wed, and start the house hunt. Found us a storage unit, and started to unload. Will drive the motorhome to storage in the AM on our way to another campground in High Point that has internet and cable, and is really nice. That brings us up to date. Calvary has Thurs eve service I’m sure we will go to, get back into some sort of routine. Dogs are well, Gar got a tick in his ear, but I think it’s dead, it’s legs don’t move, and it hasn’t grown- anyone know how to remove a tick? Things ya just gotta learn as you go. Well bye for now , love y’all. P
Friday, August 18th, 2006
Well, we crossed over into North Carolina about 2pm Eastern time. There was no place to stop at the border so we couldn’t get a picture. We were in the Smoky Mountains and it sure was pretty. The kudzu still blows us away, looks like you wouldn’t want to stand still around it for too long. Large amounts of Daylilies just growing by the road. We are excited to be here but it is a bit surreal. We drove through Ashville and it was strange because I had researched it a bit and it was odd to be there. It’s going to even be stranger in Kernersville. It looked like Asheville had more Christian schools than public schools Tonight we are going to stop about 35 miles from the Triad area (Winston-Salem, Highpoint and Greensboro). We are really looking forward to church on Sunday as well as everything else. Dollywood / Pigeon Forge were great fun but it was nice to get back on the road. We have seen a lot of things on this trip but one thing we haven’t seen are LDS / Mormon Churches. We haven’t seen one since we left Boise. They were everywhere, and now, poof gone. It’s going to be strange buying a car too, it’s been a long time since we have done that but I’m sure it will go fine. If you are the praying kind, we sure could use it over all these big decisions we have coming up. We are so thankful that He got us this far safely. The people here sure are friendly. People are frequently chatting with us, it’s really nice and we are beginning to feel at home here. We sure loved Tennessee and I’m sure we will love North Carolina too. We have seen quite a few different restaurants along the way; Waffle House, Shoney’s, Bob Evans, O’Charleys, Ruby Tuesday, Bo Jangles, Stuckeys, Chick-fil-A and others. One constant throughout the country has been Cracker Barrel, which are on almost every corner and at every exit. It’s nice because we enjoyed it in Boise and it’s comforting on the road. We have seen most of our favorite chain restaurants here. This country is also crawlin’ with Outlet Malls. HUGE MALLS. With discounted prices, no less! I’m typing while we drive and I just saw some graffiti sprayed in an underpass, it said “Trust Jesus”, which is good advice, but I’m unsure as to the medium. I’ve never heard of “Graffiti Ministry” but we all have a calling. PAINT ON, Brother! M
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