I started to update the website last night and then wound up in a long conversation with Terry and never finished it. Sorry about that.
Yesterday morning we left Bristol and headed up toward Hershey. Along the way we stopped at a beautiful little country store near Roanoke, that is owned by Donna Lyle’s family. They served us all ice cream and the choir sang a few songs in return. It was neat to meet so many new folks, and to see their support for our ministry.
After getting to Hershey and checking into the hotel, we headed to the park for a couple of hours last night. We got there about 7p as most of the people at the park were leaving, so we were able to get a lot of rides ridden in about 90 minutes. We came back to the park this morning and also had thin crowds for the first 90 mins or so. I think all of the kids got to ride all of the rides they wanted to. We left at about 2:30p when it was starting to get hot. All in all, the timing worked out well
I awoke from a nap on the way up from Hershey to find that we were only about 10 miles from the exit for Mahanoy City, PA. My grandmother and my mother were both raised in the house that my grandparents lived in, in Mahanoy City. We used to spend a couple of weeks up there every summer when I was a kid. I hadn’t seen the town since 1980 or 1981, when we moved my grandmother south to live with us. I made a quick phone call to Ken, who agreed to let me transfer to the van so he could run me down through town to take pictures. I really appreciate Ken for letting me highjack him for about 15 minutes, the guys on the van for putting up with the detour, and Andre, the driver of bus 2, for slowing down long enough for me to hop off the bus and run back to the van. (I don’t think he every actually stopped. Andre was career Air Force, and he gave me the military name for that maneuver, but I’ve forgotten it).
It stormed a bit while we were on the road to Mohawk, which slowed us down some. Kim had originally planned to leave Hershey a little bit earlier, but the pastor talked her out of it. He lives right next door to the church, so he said he’d just wait up for us so we could spend some more time in the park. How cool is that!? He and his four daughters met us at about 11:30p when we pulled up at the church. It was still threatening to rain some more, so everybody pitched in to help unload everything and move it into the church. The kids did a great job of working together. I think the younger two daughters are camped in the sanctuary with some of our girls tonight.
Tomorrow morning we’ll sing for their 10:30a service, and then pack up and head to Cooperstown.
I think Alexis has a post that she hasn’t finished yet, and Angie Ruffulo agreed to write something from the perspective of a tour novice. I’ll post whatever they give me as soon as I get it.
