So, we met last Saturday about 7:00 in the morning at Miss Anderson's house, to head off for our annual adventure at G-Hills. The trip was pretty uneventful-if a 7+ hour trip with a van-load of fundamentalists can be uneventful. We stopped on our way out of town to pick up some hymnals at the chapel. Interrupted Stan's prayer breakfast, which gave Stan the opportunity to come out and wish Maxine a happy week. It was sweet.
Got our hymnals and got on the road. Made the obligatory Starbucks stop in Bristol, VA (just across the boarder from Bristol, TN, where the speedway is). Learned that Cheryl doesn't drink coffee, but to be social she gets hot chocolate whenever she goes to Starbucks (I honestly didn't know Starbucks had hot chocolate, but it makes sense). About two-thirds of the way we stopped for gas and lunch-a fateful stop in my opinion.
Pumped gas into the giant van. Got rhino-virus on my hands. Insufficiently washed hands before eating lunch. Got a sandwich at Arby's, rather than a salad (increasing the likelihood of mucous. Sat in the over-cranked air conditioning, breathing truck-stop air. By the time we were back on the road I was feeling fatigued. By the next day, my throat was scratchy. Then it moved to a full-fledged sore throat...then chest congestion...then head congestion. Ended up laying out of meetings for a whole day. We blew off the camp food for the second half of the week, so we could stock up on the good greens. Began to fight back. Feeling somewhat better now. Somewhat.
The speakers were awesome. My good friend Alan Gamble, from Glasgow spoke on Nehemiah. Great lessons in leadership and nation building. His wife Elizabeth played the piano for several meetings-she's really good. They call it the two-for-one deal. While we were there, G-Hill traded their grand piano for a digital. If you can't say something nice about a piano, don't say anything. So I won't.
Also, got to hear Bruce Hulsheizer and John Gordon for the first time. They were pretty good-Bruce in 1 Tim. and Johnny in James.
We also, of course, had side trips. We went to Gettysburg for tea. And we visited the round barn-got an apple cider vinegar remedy that is made about 20 miles from here (discovered that later). And we went to a place called Ollie's, which I guess is the Yankee equivalent to Big Lots.
Ride back took forever. It always does. Stopped at a little town in VA-Buchannon I think. Ate at a family diner. They tell me the sweet corn was awesome, and they wouldn't lie about sweet corn.
It's good to be back.
