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!