The Trip, Part One March 28, 2008
Posted by Anya in : spontaneous degeneration, smiling is good for you, I won't keep things purposely vague , trackbackSaturday, March 15
We left home and drove, and drove, and drove. By 3:45, we were seeing the beautiful and majestic blue mountains of Virginia. And forests which looked as if orcs had been through. We also saw quite a few deer, who were all facing the wrong way for pictures. Either that, or I didn’t have my camera out. Of course. Murphy’s Law of Cameras. We then proceeded to get sadly lost as it was raining, but finally got to Staunton. 
We had dinner and got lost again looking for the OPC. It doesn’t work to well when you have actually mapquested the directions from your hotel to the Wal*Mart. Oops. Anyway, we got back in time for the Andy Griffith show. We love Barney Fife. Oh yes.
Sunday, March 16
We went to church in Staunton, which was lovely. (Yes, we found it! Don’t look so surprised!) We were (I’m not joking, and if you’re OPC, you ought to understand) the second people there even though we were only five minutes early. Ohhh yeah. But it worked out alright. In fact, we had a wonderful time after church with two of the kids — a brother (about a year younger than me) and his sister (about a year older). Almost everyone at the church said something like, “Oh! You must be our visitors from ________! We’ve heard all about you!” *wondering WHAT exactly they have heard about us* Sunday school was from Calvin’s Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life, the sermon was on Revelation 17.
Then we went to the pastor’s house for dinner. That was also lovely! We had a grand time with his three girls (and their dog), going on a long after-dinner walk. We tried what I’m coming to believe is the typical activity for OPC kids… singing hymns loudly (if rather off key) on our walk… sound familiar, anyone? But none of us could remember more than one verse, so we gave up. Our walk became so long that we started to wonder if we were going the whole way back to our house or what! But we did finally turn around and head for home (well, not home for us, I suppose). It took a much longer time to get back then it had to reach the point where we turned around, because we all kept freezing in place every few steps. 
Unfortunately, when us foot-sore and weary walkers did get back (well, okay, our feet weren’t that sore. We had switched out of church shoes into sneakers!) it was time for us to be leaving. The good news was, that meant heading for Williamsburg!
So, for your enjoyment, some conversations/quotes.
Background: Andrew had been insulting our state.
me: “Well, your squirrels are STUPID! They just sit in the middle of the road!”
Andrew: *smiles and nods* “Yeah, they probably are stupider. So our our neighbor’s dogs. They lay around in the middle of the road.”
me: “At least our squirrels aren’t that stupid. They tend to get off the road when a car comes, not sit there.”
Anne: *begins listening*
Andrew: “They probably learned from experience.”
me: “Mm, yeah, probably.” *blink* “ANDREW! How can you learn from experience when it involves being hit by trucks?!?”
Anne: “WHAT?”
Andrew: “It probably comes from seeing all your friends and relatives hit and killed.”
Anne: “What are you TALKING about?”
me: “Ohh… hmm. Maybe.”
Anne: “WHAT are you talking about?”
us: *laugh*
Andrew: (finally taking pity on her!) “Squirrels.”
Anne: “Protozoa are so cute!”
Elizabeth: “So what is normal, anyway?”
me: “I do not like nail polish…”
Elizabeth: “Me neither!”
me: “…my fingernails feel like they’re suffocating! Which everyone else finds strange!”
Elizabeth: “It feels too thick… no, it doesn’t feel good.”
Finally! Someone who understands me!
Elizabeth: “Oh, no!”
me: “What?”
Elizabeth: “Someone cut from the wrong side of the butter. Again.”
Ruth: “DADDY!”
Elizabeth: “It is most uncouth of him.”
me: *burying face in napkin*
Back to the story of the trip:
Everyone should get to drive towards Colonial Williamsburg after a day full of church and fellowship, friendship and laughter, with the sun shining through the trees on Palm Sunday.
But as wonderful as it can be, no where on earth is really home for us. So I look forward to another Homecoming; one which will truly be home, which won’t mean saying goodbye to other Christians, in which there will be no darkness at all. When the Last Battle shall be won. But I look forward to it in eager expectation, while enjoying the good gifts of God here.
Comments»
Sounds like you had fun! And I don’t think that arriving late is just an OPC thing…we Australian Presbyterians are exactly the same.
But we don’t sing hymns when we go walking. 
Yay! Sounds like so much fun! Our trip out to PA at the beginning of this month was much the same as far as scenery went - weren’t able to get any pictures of the deer. And I absolutely LOVE all the hills and trees! ^_^
And yes dear, the singing hymns loudly and off key sounds very familiar indeed.
“Bunch of drunken Calvinists!” lol
We went to my dad’s parents for Easter weekend, and we also got to worship with fellow Christians. It was a very nice service (and they SANG!) but unfortunately we didn’t have time to stay and fellowship afterwards. We did however meet the father of another homeschooling family with 6 kids - all boys. (Actually, it was kind of funny when he said “I’ve got 6 boys” and my dad followed that up with “I’ve got 6 girls”
)
Well, I’m someone else who agrees with you on the nail-polish issue….