Holly Springs Baptist Church

Holly Springs is located less than a mile east from our home. The church was established in 1926. It is part of the SBC. If you can believe it...this was my first experience in a Southern Baptist Church.

We attended the Sunday evening service mainly because a young man asked Abby to come hear him sing Long, Black Train. Most of the stuff we do, we do as a family, so instead of just Abby - we all went.

Steve and Abby both work and have worked at our community Trading Post - a convenient store/gas station country store. As a result they are familiar with a great number of people in our community. Holly Springs is a community church, and Abby and Steve both knew many of the people there.

Our welcome was warm and friendly. The atmosphere was relaxed. The people are down to earth, good country community folk who love God with all their heart. They know who they are, and they know God loves them.

We attended on praise and worship night. Singing and a skit were the order of service. All of the music, except for the offertory, was recorded. For example. The young man who sang Long, Black Train, sang along with Josh Turner. 3 young boys sang along with Tim McGraw singing "1-2-3 like a bird I sing".... There were others who sang to accompany tracks. The one congregation song (though everyone sang along with whoever was singing - encouraging each other and truly enjoying the music) was "How Great Thou Art,"an Integrity music video with majestic scenes and beautiful orchestration.

To me what was most beautiful...a young lady sang "He is Here" (I think that is the name of the song) for the invitation. It was sweet and clear. It is a beautiful sight to see dads with their sons praying together. We also all joined hands in a circle prayer for an older man facing serious surgery at the end of this week.

This was our first of many visits to many different Churches and denominations in our church adventure. Our first experience was a blessing. Where should we go next?

Still in Florida

Yes, we are still in Florida on this Monday evening. We attempted to leave, but Ole Reliable just couldn't go anymore. We were all loaded up headed down the road to North Carolina when it died. Fortunately Les was able to toe it back to his house. After all the work that Steve and Les put into it, we finally discovered that what it would take to make it go, would be more than we could do at this time. Les and Rachel gladly volunteered their yard as a place to park it until....well we don't know the until. So as we were without transportation, we were blessed and able to secure another bus that was being sent to the junkyard. The bus just happened to be at Mom and Dad's church, Temple Baptist Church, in Titusville. So we were able to go to grandma's afterall. It made our trip even more special. See pictures below of grandma's house and the bus. We drove back to Jacksonville, and now Steve is making a few modifications to and cleaning on the bus, and then we will be headed out. We haven't decided if we will be going to NC as we are several days behind schedule, but we will be sure to keep you posted. The new bus runs very good and we are very thankful for it.

A Tale of Tuesday

A huge breakfast of buscuits and gravy, eggs and fried potatoes, coffee and pumpkin muffins. Eric, Rebecca, and baby Eric arrived from Ohio. Steve, Amanda and Stephen James are also here. After lunch we (Les, Rachel, Amanda, Steve, Stephen James, Eric, Rebecca, baby Eric, JD, Abby, Levi, Lydia, Silas, Annabeth, Zebulun and I) all went bowling. (See pictures below.) Steve was with his new best friend - Ole Reliable (the bus) - they are becoming quite attached at the engine. Bowling was a lot of fun. The highest score was 128 by Eric and the lowest by Silas, a 14. Needless to say we were streaky, not strikey. Abby and Lydia bowled one strike each. Levi bowled 2 strikes. Levi also won a free game by winning the white gumball out of the gumball machine. Grandma and Grandpa stayed home on century duty. After a dinner of way too much food (ribs, pulled pork and the trimmings) we settled in to relax. Grandpa, JD, Rachel, Amanda, and Abby are playing scrabble. Steve (Amanda's Steve) is playing with their baby. Steve, Levi and
Silas are watching a movie, Grandma went to be early. It is a nice evening of nothing but being together. We have no plans for Wednesday - only to get ready for Thursday. Lee and Katie should be arriving tomorrow. We are all excited and eager to see them again.

A Relaxing Day

Our Monday morning was spent preparing to go to the movies. Aunt Rachel, Uncle JD and I took the kids to see Happy Feet. Steve spent the day working on the bus. He was able to drain and strain the gas from the gas tank and remove it, the tank - a difficult and long task. Steve will be flushing it out and replacing the fuel pump. He is done for today and there is yet still more work remaining.
Annabeth was actually quite well behaved for her first real trip to the movies. Zeb was also very well behaved. The movie was not so good. After that we walked through the mall and Aunt Rachel bought each of the kids a new outfit. We arrived back to Aunt Rachel's house in time to fix supper and a grapefruit pie for desert. Everyone is settled in watching a movie. I am not sure of the plans for tomorrow, but I think it involves bowling.
Annabeth has taken to everyone. She is saying Pa Pa and Maw Maw, and Rae Rae. Lydia has taken Abby's place of being right by Aunt Rae Rae's side. Abby is wanting to text and call Emi all the time.
Everyone is doing fine and happy to be with our family again.

The Longest Day / The Longest Night / The Longest Day

The Longest Day / The Longest Night /The Longest Day

We pulled out of our beloved Ferncliff around 12:00 p.m. Friday, November 17, 2006. We arrived at Java Roasting Company just 25 minutes later for coffee to go and coffee to take to Florida. We must have coffee! We were finally “on the road” around 1:00 p.m. We arrived in Lonoke, AR and Steve began to make the first of many adjustments to the bus. After a few lengthy stops in Arkansas, we arrived in Memphis just in time for rush hour on a Friday night. I think it is safe to say that we will never, ever travel 55 to 240 to 78 again at rush hour on a bus. By the time we got through Memphis, we needed to make more adjustments to bus. We traveled through the night, and even though I promised I would never shop at Wal-mart again, we were thankful for the super centers open 24 hours a day we found along the way that carried the many fuel filters we went through. So…after lengthy delays for the tweaking of the bus, we arrived in Atlanta around 5:00 a.m. Steve was very sleepy and needed to make more adjustments to the bus. So we pulled into a Home Depot parking lot, parked right beside a "no overnight parking sign (good thing it was only early morning), and we all crashed (sleeping, not the bus). After sleeping for a few hours, Steve went in to home depot to get what he needed, some of the kids and I walked to Burger King to pick up breakfast. While there we decided that we all needed Burger King crowns. See picture below. We were finally on the road again around 11:00 a.m. And of course we had frequent stops accommpanied by slow driving that finally led us Aunt Rae Rae's house - a 5 hour drive that took 9. But we finally made it safely and relatively soundly. During the trip we sang songs, read books, fought, cleaned up messes we made, ate a bunch of snacks (thanks Suzanne and Anne), Abby even cried her eyes out reading the end of Where the Red Fern Grows, and we all slept some (except for Steve who was driving). But most importantly, we had plenty of room and we were all very comfortable, and Steve's back, which would have been hurting him badly as it does during our long trips, didn't hurt a bit. Eventually, we pulled into the drive way to a beautiful sight of family eagerly waiting to give and receive lots of hugs. It didn't take long to clean up and hit the bed.

Stayed tuned for more updates.

Packing and leaving

It is Friday - departure day. We still have not departed. As of 11:25 CST we are waiting on Steve to finish one last muffler seal to dampen the noise level and exhaust smell. The packing is finished and the bus is loaded. Steve said, "It's bad when you run out of room on a bus." But we are not out of room exactly. There is still a lot of storage room, and there is still the luggage rack on top, but that may be going just a bit too far even for us. We could even pick up a hitch hiker or two or three (if they are brave enough to travel with six kids) and still have plenty of room, sort of. And even though we packed nearly everything we could think of from the bikes to the recliner (yes, a recliner that really does recline and even swivels and has a lovely green print), I have a terrible feeling we forgot Steve's socks. Oh Well. We thought about outfitting the bus in Razorback gear, but driving into hostile territory -"Gator Country"- may prove to be too dangerous. For now it is Florida or Bust!

A side note to the Eberle's - the eggs are in the bed of the truck parked at the house. Don't forget to pick them up. I think there are about 5 dozen and I didn't have time to clean them all. And don't forget to check them before you use them.

Preparing to Leave

It is Thursday, November 16, 2006. We are all working, well sort of, getting ready for our trip to Florida and North Carolina. Zebulun Wilson was born September 11, 2006, and the grandpartents have not seen him - this is the main purpose of the trip - to show off the new baby. Our mode of transportation - 1976 International BUS - a loud 1976 International Bus.