Playing Catch-Up

Sunday, June 17, 2007...Day One of the C-I-Y trip.

Having gathered up the church van and getting the ever-sinking feeling that we won't need the luggage carrier attachment that Kevin Aldhizer spent a good part of this past week getting, putting on the van, and having way too many problems in doing so (he just got it taken care of in final form yesterday morning at 8:30 after miles of driving and many different automotive locations in trying to get this done), Peggy and I gassed up the vehicles and loaded our minivan for the trip.

This morning everyone was to meet at the Sunday morning worship facility (for those who don't know, we are in temporary quarters these days, meeting at the Cox-Gifford Seawinds Funeral Home) to load up the church van and help with setup, since we were leaving immediately after the worship service. Plans were to meet up with Southside Christian somewhere on the road, and with South Haven Christian at the first exit in Georgia where we would top off the gas tanks for cheap, and fill up our bellies at the "everything under the sun" truck stop known as Cisco.

Most everyone made it on time, but I had failed to communicate the whole 8 am need with Samantha, oops! Boy was she surprised when I called her at about 8:20. Fortunately, she had her C-I-Y bag packed and ran it to me so I could load the church van. Church services went well on this Father's Day, and we were actually in the vans by 11:45 a.m. and heading for Buger King...our Vero lunch stop before hitting I-95 for the long drive ahead of us.

Oh, while at Burger King, Alison's Mom joined us. Alison had forgotten a pillow. Of course Jordy had forgotten towels, and Turtle had forgotten sheets, but both had already had those needs taken care of before church started. Confident that we had all the necessary gear, we hit the highway at about 12:30, get timing as far as I was concerned.

I heard from Ron at Southside and they were only a few minutes behind us on the Interstate, so we figured we would see them very shortly and would caravan to the meeting place in Georgia. It was not to be so. They made a stop at a Krystal's and we didn't know it until about an hour later. I was getting worried when they never appeared in my rear view mirror, but a quick call to Ron let me know that they were now 40 minutes behind us on the Interstate! Meanwhile, a call to Amos gave me the news that South Haven had gotten trigger-happy and left about an hour earlier than they needed to. Ha! They got to wait at the truck stop for a LOONNNNNNNNNGGGGG time.

To make this long story shorter, we did finally all hook up in Georgia, drove to Brunswick where the group will stay on the trip back next week, took care of the motel business there, and ate Father's Day Supper at Sonnys. hey, I got free desert, which is not much of a temptation for someone on Weight Watcher's these days, but I had a few bites of a not-the-greatest pecan pie I had ever tasted.

We completed our last leg of the journey on this day by driving to Columbia virtually without incident (unless you count the whole Dave VanBuskirk from Fort Caroline Christian pulling along side of us on the Interstate, and hanging there with us until we figured out it was him...what a hoot!), arriving at our motel (Qualtiy Inn) in Columbia South Carolina at 10:20 p.m. Right on the time frame I had figured for the day. An UNEVENTFUL day of traveling, just the way I like it on a youth group road trip. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!