August 13, 2007

August 10th

*chug* silence *chug*

That was about all the bus did when Bonnie tried to start it this morning!

It was the batteries, and thankfully nothing worse. : ) Vincent was able to start it and we were on our way. Whee! We exit the driveway, turn right and the bus exhibits lower then normal power. As we’re slowing down and dad says ‘it’s not gonna make the hill.” (Can anyone say engine rebuild??! : ( ) Oops. I guess we’re limping on our way. : P The bus crawled and I do mean crawled to the crest of the hill. Daniel looked back and stated we were dripping something. Vincent scrambled out and his investigation said it was only water. That’s was encouraging! An oil leak would have made the day that much more interesting. : P

This trip is to Vermont and of course we had our share of twisty roads and beautiful mountains. It isn’t called the ‘green mountain’ state for nothing. The scenery was positively lovely!

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The pictures don't do it justice.

I think I said this last time but, it must be outrageously beautiful in the fall. Too bad we’re going to miss being home in the month of October.

Now, getting lost in Vermont and getting lost on a narrow Vermont dirt road, with washouts, are two different things. We did the latter. The washout was thankfully not in the middle of the road and we did find a place to turn around. Yay! No pics here…you’ll just have to trust me.

We arrived at the Grange/camp area for the family reunion we were scheduled to sing at and parked in the tiny parking lot and ate with ‘the family.’ The concert went fine, amazingly. Vincent got whacked in the head twice by the stage curtain rope/pole. (See pic!) Lol. We threw in a few bluegrass standards, including St. Anne’s Reel. I need to learn a fiddle part for that, it’s a nice little tune.

Ok. Here’s a group picture of the reunion goers right after the concert.

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We ate with them at supper time and ice cream social, afterward.

Paul, the man who was responsible for inviting us showed us his power point presentation of when he was in the service. He was there when they tested 29 A bombs and two H bombs. He said he was face down in the sand, his eyes closed, head cupped in his elbow and when the bomb went off he could actually SEE the bone structure in his elbow. Powerful stuff! He also used to clean radiation off the planes after they came in. Yikes. He hasn’t died from cancer (obviously) but all the other guys who were with him have.


August 12th

I’m starting out with 8 m&ms. Actually, I had more than that when I started. Oops. Make that 7, I just ate another one. We got this bargain, $1 for a large bag and well, we’re eating them. What ELSE are you suppose to do with them?? I shouldn’t tell you how many bags we bought. : ) Let’s just say we could possibly grow to the size of houses if we’re not careful. ; ) I only have 6 left now… anyway…uh, I’m suppose to be telling about our adventure!! *resist the urge to eat another m&m*

Well, first we had to make it out of the drive way of the reunion site. It wasn’t all that breathtaking, we didn’t get stuck or anything. LOL, I sound a little disappointed but I’m not sad about this. Really!

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So we’re out of the drive way and back on the ‘road’. It’s really just dirt and rocks graded and thankfully not very dusty.

We hang a left at the top of the hill and *down to 5* we cross over the highway, the one we want to be on. We start traveling down hill and we see water. Then, we see a bridge COVERED with water. Oh. Sweet.

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We thought it very strange no one warned us about this! I joked that you’re suppose to float over….haha. (There was actually TRUTH to this statement!)

No place was found to turn around so we backed up….

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….over the highway and back to original road. So we get on a PAVED road (three cheers for paved roads) and the GPS says “when possible make a legal U turn.” Meaning, we’re headed in the opposite direction of where we want to be Noooo. We won’t go back!!!! LOL. So we turned around and got on a new road, this one is called ’Old Post Road.’ *only 4 left* It started out ok, it was dirt but it was graded and not too muddy.

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Isn’t that mist cool??

After about a mile and a half we see..

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Ahhh!

We had a delegation assess the area…

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Uh. Nope we’re not going on.

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At this point we don’t care how much the GPS thinks this is the right way.

We backed up about quarter mile, if even and backed up in a drive way, turned around, and headed straight out of the area. : P It’s pretty interesting, since the GPS said we had 16 miles to our destination even after all that driving down Old Post Road. Plan C was implemented, go back to the town and find the main highway! So, yeah, don’t look for short cuts in Vermont if you have a bus, it’s not worth it.

Oh, and on top of this we were late getting to the concert this morning. Hurrying up is good for us once in while. : )

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We were pleasantly surprised to see our former pastor and his family who traveled up from Massachusetts! They didn’t come exclusively for us but they did get up EARLY to make it for the service. Thanks guys for the encouragement!

One thing we found out, which helped us solve the water covered bridge mystery, is that we had found the ‘floating bridge!’ Woohoo…check out the link at Bonnie's site….so, no wonder there weren’t any signs. The weight limit was 6 tons so we were defiantly not going over it, anyway.

I still have 4 m&ms left. :D *gobbles them all up* There. :)

We’re headed over to the Old Brick church for one more concert. Nathan is in the bunk across from me with a fever and chills. He seems to be getting them like clock work now, 3:30-7:30pm. The doc is going to change antibiotics when we get home. Thanks for all your prayers for us!

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August 13th

We are...back!

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That was the sign out front of the Old Brick church. It was nice to be back. The ice cream was great, too. :)

The sad part about the concert was Nathan missed it. There was no way he would have been able to play. The poor guy. So, we needed a bass player and Peter was able to fill in on that with Matthew playing the mandolin for him. We only had one song without the bass, No, Not One and it was so ugh…..LOL. I considered putting the fiddle down and switching midway through the song but I started thinking how embarrassing it would have been if I couldn’t play it. It was in the key of G but, still. Chicken me.

So Matthew did a tremendous job filling in for Peter on When The Roll is Called Up Yonder. GREAT job Matthew!

So, we hung out after and ate ice cream and we got a few pictures of our friends who came back. Gluttons for punishment. ; )

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And we had a nice time talking with the Christians….

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Thanks all for coming, we enjoyed it!

We should be arriving home shortly and I’ll have to set aside some time to uploading pics and proof reading everything one more time before skipping off to work….

Have a great week everyone!

~

Children's children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children. Proverbs 17:6 NIV

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