Journey Through the Sunshine State with the Wellers

After traveling through Memphis, Nashville & Atlanta, I headed to Florida.  My dad and step mom live in Winter Haven.  I got a really INCREDIBLE (I have to stop using the words AWESOME and AMAZING....I think I've probably used them 100s of times on this trip...time to get out the thesaurus) gift when I arrived at my dad's house. 

 

First of all, he lives in a modular home park.  There is absolutely NO parking for a camper and truck like mine, but he and his neighbors were able to get me a key (shhhhhhhhh), so I could park behind his house in the area where RVs and boats are stored, and it just happened to be right behind his house, and an electrical cord just happened to fit from his house to my camper. 

 

I was set. 

 

I have to say, also, that that was my best backing yet into that parking spot!  We should have had a video of it.  My dad's neighbor, Dick, could have EASILY said those magic words, "Want me to back that up for you?" because he had traveled with a fifth wheel for five years full time across the country and was actually a motivation for my trip because he had told me that he and his wife had done that, and it sure sounded good to me, but he didn't back it up for me. 

He made me do it all by myself, which I did. 

I was so happy. 

 

Side note...since then, I had to back up into my friend, Theresa's, driveway, my Uncle Larry's neighbor's driveway, and today Susanne and I went down a dead end street, and I had to back up into a stranger's driveway to turn around.  Oh my! 

So my back up skills are improving.  It's only taken me 5,000 miles, but hey.

 

Oh my gosh....I ramble.  I was talking about an INCREDIBLE gift way up there! 

 

So when I got to my dad's house, my dad and step mom, Karen, gave me this present!

 

 

 

 

ISN'T THAT SO GREAT!!! 

They had the hat made to match my camper! 

I was so surprised, happy, excited, touched that I was actually speechless (I know...hard to believe), and I couldn't stop crying (in a good way). 

That meant so much to me that they would take the time to do that and even think of that idea. 

I know they did that, but I know that was a gift from God too. 

So cool!!!

 

Thanks, Dad & Karen!  That was honestly one of the best presents ever!

 

 

Oh, and by the way...I have ten of those hats, so I'm able to share!!!

 

Spent a nice day with my dad.

 

A place called "The Barn," which was incredible!  Lots of antiques and lots of good shopping! 

It was so nice, we went back the next day too.

 

 

My dad, Barry (yes...isn't that funny since my husband is Barry too?) and step mom, Karen.

We also went to a restaurant called Hurricane that had the BEST parmesan, garlic fries I've ever had!

 

Nice selfie :)

 

This is my dad's neighbor, Dick.  He's the one that wouldn't help me back up, but really did by making me back up myself. 

He also took me to see some wild boars and alligators. 

We didn't see any, but it's always fun to ride on a golf cart anywhere. 

 

Thanks, Dick.

 

There's lots more of my JOURNEY in Florida.....coming soon.

Friends, Friends, Friends, Friends, A Pig & Some Chicken

Before I left Nashville, there was one more thing I NEEDED to do.  I NEEDED to meet with my ex-brother-in-law, Mike, and meet his new little, baby girl, Mikayla, and Samantha.  

I hadn't seen Mike in forever and wanted to apologize to him.  

He knows why.  

It was great to see him and great to meet the girls!

 

Mike & Me

This is Samantha.

 

Mikayla got put into the car too fast, and I left my phone on the floor at Cracker Barrel (oh my), so I didn't get a picture of her, but she's really cute, and it was a pleasure to meet her.  

The next stop on my JOURNEY was to visit our friends,

Brian & Elaine, and to meet their daughter, Laura.  

Brian is Barry's friend from college.  They live in  Huntsville, AL.  

 

The ride from Nashville to Huntsville was so beautiful.  

Thanks, Brian, for YOUR route instead of Miss GPS's route.  

Yours was much better, I'm sure!

 

I had a wonderful dinner with them.  

Guess what we had???  

Yes, I am still in the South, so Brian made some amazing pulled pork,

and I was a happy girl!

 

I did have to back up into their driveway.  

I was a little crooked, but I made it without too much trouble.  

It does look like I'm going to roll into their garage door at any moment,

but that's just an optical illusion.

 

Oh my gosh...I just looked at that picture! I'm so crooked!

 

It was great to see them.  They are fellow believers, so it was nice to share with them some stories that had happened so far on the JOURNEY since they HADN'T been following my blog!!!  

I think they did a speed reading of it that day!  Hahaha

and it was actually Brian who told me to do a blog in the first place.  

I am SURE they are all caught up and following now.  

Right, Leffels???  

 

They are also fellow Dave Ramsey fans, and they've taught the Financial Peace University class at their church too.  

Brian was generous enough to give me some money for my food "envelope."  

Dave teaches that you should use cash only for those kinds of purchases, like food and gas, and have envelopes for each one like a food envelope with so much cash in it for the month.  

Well, Brian filled mine.  

Thanks, Brian.  

They also gave me Diet Coke with lime, which is awesome, and some cassette tapes (yes....I said cassette tapes) with some amazing messages on them, two by a lady named Darlene Rose, who was a POW in World War II and an ex-mafia gangster named Tom Papania. 

They both have AMAZING stories.  

If you get a chance, look them up (click on their names above).

 

My 2001 truck actually still has a cassette player, and it actually still works.  

I know...a MIRACLE!

 

Thanks, Brian, Elaine & Laura.  

It was great to see you guys and spend time in your driveway :)

Next stop was Woodstock, GA, to see a girl from my school, Linda.  

Linda and I didn't really know each other, but we did grow up in the same neighborhood, and we did ride the same bus to school. 

 

Now a long time ago when the whole idea for this trip started to become a reality, I would pray about it A LOT!.  There were certain states, Texas, Louisiana, Maine & Utah, that I felt like God wanted me to go to, and for sure I felt like I was NOT suppose to go to Colorado.  I don't know why, but for sure NOT Colorado.

 

There were also three people I felt like God told me for sure I was suppose to meet with.  I didn't know why, but I just knew I was.  

Linda is one of the people.  

I contacted her way back in January.  

Thank God for Facebook.  

She said yes, she wanted to meet. 

I'm sure she was wondering WHY since we didn't even really know each other. 

 

We talked a couple of times here and there about it in the last few months. 

 

When I was almost heading for Woodstock, I emailed her, and she said she had to have EMERGENCY spinal surgery on her back the week before because her disc exploded!  

What?!?!  

That's so horrible.  

I thought, "Oh, no.  She was someone I was SUPPOSED to meet with."  

 

When it seemed like we were NOT going to get to meet, I told her that she was someone I felt God wanted me to meet with during this JOURNEY, she said,

"Holy crap, Lory!  I really need to figure something out to put me with you on Monday.  I can't live with putting a kink in your JOURNEY."  

Hahahahaha...such pressure!  

I asked her if me saying that "God wanted me to meet with her" freaked her out.  

She said, "You can't freak me out...I live in the flippin Bible Belt of the South."  

She is hilarious.

So I prayed and asked God where He would want me to stay the night I was suppose to meet with her, so we would be able to meet, and felt like He said this certain Walmart parking lot.  

I asked her if she knew where that was, and she said,

"Wow, Lory!  YOU ARE GOOD!  The Walmart is two miles from my house."  

Ummmmm God knew that, NOT me.

 

So Linda was nice enough to ask me to come over for dinner (back surgery and all) because wonderful people were making her meals because of her surgery.  

After I get to the Walmart parking lot in my big rig, and ask them if I can sleep over in their parking lot, I asked Linda if someone could come get me because I couldn't really unhook my camper in the Walmart parking lot.  

She said no because her husband was at work.  

Oh my gosh!  Am I ever going to get to meet with her?  

 

So I decided to drive over to her house.  

 

It ridiculous.

  

I am like the Beverly Hillbillies pulling through her very nice neighborhood.  

I have to make a U-Turn in a cul-de-sac by her house.

I almost take her mailbox out and then

back up in a way that I think is really straight, but my whole back end of the camper is sticking out into her nice street.

 

Oh my.....so embarrassing!

 

"Yes, here I am your messenger from God almost taking out your mailbox and blocking all your neighbors from being able to drive down their street."  

 

This was NOT how it was in biblical times, I am sure!

 

After all that parking disaster going on outside,

I get to go in and meet her AMAZING kids

and see her AMAZING house

and spend time with this AMAZING lady

and try to hold her AMAZING PIG!!!  

Yes...I said PIG!  

She has a pet pig named Fiona that lives in her house

and uses a doggie door and is the cutest thing I've every seen

walking around wagging her tail and

pushing pillows around the house because she likes to root. 

 

(Yes, I want one...how do they get along with cats?) 

 

Remember Julee had given me three books called

He Knows Your Name to give away while I was on this trip?

  

I felt Linda was suppose to get one, so I gave her one.

 

She also was gracious enough to let me pray for her and her family.  

Linda, her sweet, sweet daughter Chloe (sorry...I don't have a picture of her) and I stood in her kitchen and prayed for them and their family.

 

Do I know why God had me go to Linda's house?  No.  

 

Do I know why He wants her to have that book?  No.

  

Only He knows,

and maybe Linda will know why God sent a CRAZY camper lady to her house.

 

All I know is it was great to spend time with them, and I knew I was suppose to go.  

 

That's all.  

 

And I got to meet a pig,

and Linda gave me some AMAZING lasagna and chocolate cake,

which goes with my eating part of the trip.

 

Thanks, Linda!  I loved spending time with you and your family!

Linda & Fiona

 

Me trying to bribe Fiona to be my friend

Fiona cuddling with Owen....so cute!

 

More bribery going on

Next stop was Atlanta to visit a good friend of ours, Bob Morris.  

Bob lives in Atlanta...just outside the city.  

He did save me some parking spots in front of his house, but I was too afraid to enter his neighborhood because it's condominiums mixed with apartments,

and they have a guard stationed out front.  

I didn't think they'd like my Beverly Hillbillies' mobile driving through their neighborhood.  

Plus, I got lost for a long, long time and couldn't even FIND his street.  

One of his friends actually spotted me on the side of the road and knew it was me because he saw the big JOURNEY on the back and had heard about the JOURNEY mobile.

  There was a JOURNEY mobile spotting!  Hahaha

 

 He tried to rescue me, but when he turned around to find me, I was gone.  

 

I was in search of some BIG parking lot somewhere, so I could pull over and figure out what the heck I should do.  

I had driven around the block about four times, and there was nowhere to pull over. 

This IS Atlanta!  

There are NOT a lot of campers driving through the streets of Atlanta.  

Let's just make that clear.

 

So I HAD to do what every RVer does when they can't find anywhere to pull over. 

I had to find a Cracker Barrel right away! 

Walmart and Target didn't even have room for me. 

 

There was a Cracker Barrel ten miles away, so I drove AWAY from that city to my comfortable, happy place on this whole trip, Cracker Barrel!  

 

When I got there, I found a campground three miles away with PULL THROUGHs and headed straight there.  

 

I ended up just driving my big diesel truck to Bob's house, 

which didn't fit that well either in the parking spot.

 

Anyway, we had an awesome dinner, and I had a big glass (or two) of wine.  

 

It was great to meet Bob's friends, Michael & Kyle (hope I spelled that right)

and spend time with them.

 

Bob gave me this journal.

 

Pretty perfect, wouldn't you say?

 

After all that visiting, the next day I got to go to the first ever Chick-Fil-A, which is really exciting for me because I LOVE Chick-Fil-A so much!  

It's the same food, but you get to eat it on real plates like at a restaurant!  

It made me really happy!

Eat More Chicken!

One of the Top Ten Days of My Life (Dave Ramsey)

 

Some of you may not know this, but I am a HUGE Dave Ramsey fan. 

Dave Ramsey is an author and radio show host and also is on TV and travels around the world teaching people how to manage their money. 
 

Barry and I took his class, Financial Peace University, at our church five years ago, and it changed our life financially, spiritually and marriageally (not sure that's a word, but it changed our marriage...we no longer have "money fights") 
 

After completing the class and following his seven-step program, we were able to pay off $60,000 in three years without changing our income.  We just changed the way we spent our income.  We put ourselves on a budget, which is huge, so we were able to tell our money where to go and what to do instead of it telling us.
 

We've also taught the class for the past four years.  It is so worth it.  They offer them all over the country.  Just click the link above and find a class near you. 
 

He's also written a book called, The Total Money Makeover, which people have read and followed his steps and have gotten out of debt and changed their lives too.

 

So on Friday when we were in Nashville, we got to go to Dave Ramsey's office!!!

 

Fridays are the day that people call in to his radio program and yell these amazing words - "We're debt free!"  Or "I'm debt free."  Whenever I listen to his podcasts, I try to listen to Fridays because they are so exciting.  I'm usually bawling my eyes out and so happy for the people.  It's so freeing not to have any debt!

We were blessed to be there on a Friday.  When we walked in, they said, "Oh, you're just in time.  This family from Wisconsin is going to do the 'debt free scream.'"  

I know to you that may not be a big deal, but to me.....it was so exciting!  I had listened to debt free screams for five years, and now I got to be in his office listening and watching in person!  

Such a gift to me!

 

They even have a cafe with FREE cookies and lattes (I got to have a gingerbread latte), and they were so good....way better than Starbucks, and did I mention FREE???

 

And this my friends, is one of the top ten moments of my life :)

Yep!!!  Getting to meet Dave Ramsey and take a picture with him!

We also got to be on his live TV stream that is on while he tapes his radio program.

 

 

I also got to meet Brad Gregg, whom I've talked to through email and by phone for years as we were coordinating Financial Peace University.

 

Great to meet you, Brad! 

Since Brad was not keeping up with my blog, he had to listen to me tell him the speed version for about 15 minutes. 

Sorry, Brad.  That will teach you not to follow my blog!

This is Jason.  He's the "interview guy" for the TV part of the Dave Ramsey show.  I was telling him my story about praying that God would keep my gas tank full the whole time I'm on the trip and how Diana came to my house the day I left and handed me a debit card and said she wanted to pay for my gas! 

He had a story of his own.  I hope I get it right, Jason.  If not, comment and let me know.

 

So Jason was going to visit someone.  He had $105 for gas, and he thought he only had to drive seven hours, but it ended up being thirteen hours.  He spent $70 on gas.  That Sunday he was at church and was going to give $5 in the offering basket.  He felt like God said to give $20.  He was like, "Well, then I won't have ANY gas money."  But he did it anyway (good job). 

He then put $15 worth of gas in his tank to drive home up hill for thirteen hours.  He said when his tank got to be a quarter full, it just stayed there, and he made it all the way home! 

God is so amazing and faithful!

 

My friend, Margie, also told me a similar story.  She was traveling with some missionaries, and when the gas tank would get low, the guy would say, "watch this," and the tank would fill back up, or they would drive 300-400 miles on empty! 

 

We have a BIG God who likes to bless us with incredible things like that. 

Just look for Him to do that for you too!  He will.  He's faithful!

This is our new friend, Cathy.  She just HAPPENED to be visiting Dave Ramsey's office the same day as us, and she just HAPPENED to be doing a cross country trip like me, and she just HAPPENED to leave September 4th like me, and she just HAPPENED to be from San Diego! 

It was great to meet you, Cathy!

 There are no coincidences!  God had us meet Cathy for a reason.  See the video below.

There are no FLUKES!

 

 

Nashville

Catherine brought these little devotional cards with her, and we read one every day. 
One of the cards we read spoke to us about how we felt about Tennessee. 
Tennessee has been one of my favorite places so far.  It's so green with rolling hills and lots of trees.  A TINY bit of Fall is trying to peak through, a few bright red leaves here and there. 
I'm asking God to please wait for me to get to New England
and then I'd like Fall to be in full bloom, please.
 

We had been praying and thanking God for the beautiful clouds we had been seeing and the beautiful rolling green hills, and then we read this:

Psalm 147:8 "He covers the heavens with clouds; He prepares rain for the earth;
He makes grass grow on the hills." 
 

The card also said this:

"These are everyday blessings - clouds, rain, grass, hills.  If we had never seen them before, though, they would seem miraculous.  Thank God today for His everyday blessings in your life."

Well, we come from a desert (San Diego) where it honestly doesn't rain for months and months (that song is right...it never rains in California) and it's always pretty much a cloudless sky, so "clouds, rain, grass, hills" are pretty miraculous to us!
 

We loved Tennessee!
 

We got to stay at a RV park called Nashville Country RV Park. 
It was so nice......for sure my favorite RV park so far. 
The first night we got there, they had a BBQ dinner and "entertainment."  I am not usually a pulled pork eater, but I was blessed to eat pulled pork three times in Tennessee, and LOVED every minute of it.  I also LOVE their white beans.  I DO NOT want to know what they're cooked in, though, so don't tell me, and I love their coleslaw too.
We got to have dinner with the owner, Jim.  He was so nice.  We loved talking to him, and, of course, he had a Winnebago JOURNEY motor home!
 

We were so excited to see in their pamphlet that they offered a "FREE" foot massage! 
We thought, "This RV park is amazing!"

 

When we went looking for that FREE foot massage, this is what we found!

 

 

 

Hahahahahahahahahaha

 

They even have wineries now in Tennessee.  Catherine and I got to visit this quaint, little winery not far from Nashville called Long Hollow Winery.  Joel and his wife, Benita were awesome!  And the wine and cheeses were too. 

Joel said he'd be following along on the JOURNEY blog. 

Hope you are, Joel.  It was nice meeting you!

 

 

Fall was starting to happen in Nashville.  Catherine and I took a drive through the "country."  We saw farm stands, antique stores, tobacco farms.  It was just beautiful!

 

Tobacco Barn (see the tobacco?)

 

The camper even got a little "Fall" going on

I have these "stuck" to the table with museum putty, but it's not working that well, so every time I get done driving, I have to find the pumpkins (hahaha).  They roll all over the place.

After Catherine left, I took a tour of some celebrities' houses in Nashville.  They were pretty spectacular!  The funny thing is, the tour guide was talking about how this house was $1,000,000 and that house was $1,000,000, and they were MANSIONS!  The sad part is in San Diego, $1,000,000 will buy you a nice four bedroom, two bath COTTAGE!  

I'm moving to Tennessee (someday)!

I NEVER would have imagined that we would drive by Jonathan Cain's house

(of course, from the band JOURNEY).  

I wouldn't have expected that in Nashville,  but I thought that was funny since I always get that word.

And this is another famous celebrity, Kelly Pickler's house.  I do like her.  The guide said she was outside mowing her lawn last week in some short shorts waving at the tour buses :)

 

Honky Tonk Row

 

Loved loved loved Nashville!