We crossed the Kentucky state line with Matthew touching the windshield, making him the first MacDonald child to enter Kentucky.
We stopped to buy diesel and found dad's old school, Zackary Taylor Elementary, right across the street. Dad located the street he lived on and we took a picture in front of the house.
Notice how Matthew and Nathan are on tippy toes.
He remembered a lot of details about neighbors and incidents that happened while he lived there. It must have been fun traveling down 'memory lane'! I sometimes wonder what it will be like to go back and visit Orange in 30 years.
One of the monarch butterfly chrysalises we were given in Minnesota opened that first morning in Kentucky.
God's amazing creation!
Then we were on our way to visit the Myers family.
I suppose I should start this story of meeting the Myers from the beginning. Mr. Dave Myers contacted us via phone months ago. They found us through the Dortignac family. Now, the kids had been wanting to visit Kentucky for a loong time; it is the 'bluegrass state' after all. ;-) (Ok, it's not talking about the music but as Vincent puts it, 'Bill Monroe was here!') So we thought we'd swing down and visit them and do some concerts there on our way back east. While traveling to their house on Tuesday dad glanced out the bus window and saw the dust cap fly off the back wheel of the trailer. Uh oh! Dad pulls over and the damage is assessed. We lost all of the lug nuts and the wheel was dangling from the trailer! But, it stayed on! Praise the Lord for His miraculous protection!!
Dad starts walking back down this three lane highway looking for lug nuts. He finds two on the side of the road and the other one in the middle of the road. He waited until the traffic was slow and dashed out into the road. Scary!
You don't always remember how fast everyone is going until you're 10 feet away from the semi trucks going 70 MPH! Dad and Vincent put the lug nuts back on and we started limping up the highway. I say up because we were on a hill. Mom had called Mr. Myers by then and he met us about 10 minutes later and led us to his house.
When we arrived we were quite surprised to know they knew almost all ours names and, thanks to the blogs, they knew a lot about us, too. We felt so welcome! They fed us a yummy lunch and moved the trailer into the shop. Dad worked on it and was able to fix it with the parts we had picked up in Minnesota!
Our time with the Myers family consisted of lots of fellowship over volleyball, which we played late into the night, Dutch Blitz (a new game to us), chess games, bike rides, walks, playing and listening to music together, traveling to various places, kitchen clean up, meals, and other activities. Family devotions with them was a wonderful blessing! I wish we could have stayed for Sunday morning.
Hannah let me try her quilting machine, it was just like the one I saw in New Hampshire except it was probably older and she paid way less than $14,000 for it.
It's was so, so, soooo neat!! I signed my name and doodled a little. Basically anything you can draw you can sew. I'm pretty sure I want to get one now. : D Or, I could just bring all my quilts down. ;-) She also gave me some advice and a quilt pattern to try. I can't wait to get home and start it!
We met the musical and talented Thompson family on Wednesday night.
They also came on Thursday night. It was neat to meet them. They traveled and sang for a while so it was interesting to talk with them. Bobby yodels quite well and Kevin reminded us of Jackie Dortignac for some reason. : D
My favorite picture of Vincent from the Wednesday concert. He's smiling!! Bethany and Lydia took pictures for us that night.
He came in second on the smiling chart according to Bobby and third according to Jonathan. Keep it up Vincent!
Some of the Myers rode home with us from the concert. We played the picnic game and 'My Aunt Bee Died Last Night'. : D The bus was crowded but it was fun! And wow! The roads really are narrow here in Kentucky!
Riding bikes - 7 miles round trip.
Dad measuring the road.
Lydia and me on the computer. We both are pictureholichs. Our cameras are glued to us. : D
**edit with picture coming soon** (Sorry it took me so long Lydia!)
The concert on their front lawn was great! A little stickier than we're use to though!! It had cooled down a little but I think we were all dripping by the end of the concert. It wins the 'most humid concert' award. Daniel turned white as a sheet after a few songs and said he didn't feel good so he went into the house to lie down for a while. He said later he never felt more like lying down! Poor little guy!
He started to feel better and came back out to finish the concert with us.
We got to meet a lot of the Myer's friends, co-workers and neighbors. A family who saw us at the Salvation Army while visiting family in Waterloo, Iowa came to listen too. They just happen to live a couple miles down the road!
Lydia and Hannah took pictures of that concert.
Friday was sad because we knew we had to leave. :-(
Dad acquired a golf cart and the Myers rigged up a way to put it on the trailer with all the other stuff. We have one full trailer!!
Vincent did a comedy routine about a football player doing a unrehearsed commercial. Mr. Myers found some quilts for him to use as 'sholderm' pads' . It's was so funny...
The girls.
The last night we played volleyball (the net was set up in 2 minutes and 57 seconds - beating the prediction by 3 seconds!) for a few hours and then we had a prayer meeting under the stars. It's was beautiful. What better way to end an evening? Then we stayed up until almost 12:00am talking and saying goodbye. We finally said our 'real' goodbyes and got on the bus. *sigh* We are going to miss the Myers!
What a great time we had! The verse that comes to mind is 'How good and pleasent it is when brothers live together in unity' Psalm 133:1 NIV. Christian fellowship - how sweet it is!
We left at 5:05 am that morning and we're on our way to Grafton and Fairmont, WV now. Farewell for now Kentucky and hello West Virginia.
Next day....
Make that 'Hello stuck bus'!
We had some excitement last night. The church in Fairmont is on a hill. No surprise considering West Virginia is SO hilly! Dad started backing up and well, the trailer hitch got stuck.
We couldn't move either direction. Putting wood under the tires didn't seem to help, they just kept spinning!
We arrived at about 5:00pm and we thought the service started at 6:30pm. So, we thought no problem. The girls and the kids will start unloading and set up about 5:30pm while dad and Vincent work to get the trailer/bus unstuck. Turns out it was really suppose to start at 6:00pm! Oops.
So by 6:15pm someone thought to pull the trailer up the hill. PTL! It worked and we started singing by 6:30pm anyway. : P
Our friends the Aveys (sp?) came all the way from Ohio to hear us. Well, they were in WV for a family reunion anyway. :-) Thanks for coming and bringing some of your family with you!
So anyway, that was our little excitement for the day.
We're headed out to VA and then VA Beach area Saturday. Lord willing that is! The bus is stalling more, smoking a lot and using a huge amount of oil. Dad thinks something is broken inside the engine. Oh and the alternator broke too. : -( Looks like we'll have plenty of stuff to work on when we get home....please pray for the bus makes it home. August 13th is our last scheduled concert in New Jersey.
No comments:
Post a Comment