Vacation, day 1, 2, and part of 3

Okay. We are now in Nashville, at the apartment home of Vijay Aniel Louise Aluru Meadors. (Daniel doesn't like that name) We are completing the second day of our stay, and tonight we will begin the third day, after which fish and house guests begin to stink.

We had a fairly uneventful trip down. The biggest excitement was when I (who drove the lead vehicle) got behind a group of bicyclists on Pisgah Pike. This is a rural road, barely more than one lane, with no shoulders and quite a few curves. I just followed the bikers. The folks in the car directly behind me thought that was pretty dumb, I know, but that's what I did. One time I pulled out in a half-hearted attempt to pass the bikes, but then I spied a curve up ahead and decided to stay where I was. The following car's thoughts when the bikers stopped: "Is Mama going to stop, too?" I didn't, I went around the slow group and then followed the lead cyclists until they pulled over, too. After that, there was nothing to talk about in the caboose car other than, "I don't think I understand how that woman uses cruise control." I didn't--I couldn't figure it out. At the rest stop above Bowling Green, Everett took over the driving of the lead car and the rest of the trip proceeded without incident, except that he didn't get the hang of the Taurus' cruise control, either.

Daniel and Annie cooked chicken byriani and chicken curry for supper for us on Saturday. They are cooking as many meals as we will allow. It was good--we ate all the curry, lots of the rice, and much of the byriani. And all the green beans--forgot those. David and I were given the bedroom, and Ann, Daniel, and Everett slept in the living room. We had a great night's sleep.

Sunday morning, breakfast was rosemary bread, followed by Panera bagels--great, by the way--at church. Ann and Daniel attend a Vineyard fellowship in Hendersonville, about 15 minutes from their house on a Sunday morning. The fellowship is a new plant, only having been in existence about 7 months. It is small in number but great in spirit. They are meeting in an apartment complex clubhouse. It is weird to sit around on couches and upholstered chairs finishing up coffee during a worship service, but weird in a nice sort of way. This Baptist from a very traditional Baptist background found the contemporary-style Vineyard service to be, in my thinking, very much like the fellowships the early Christians must have had. I would go again.

We lunched at Black-Eyed Peas, a family-style restaurant in Hendersonville. Although we didn't get there until around 1 on a Sunday afternoon, we still had a thirty-minute wait. The food was worth the wait, though. Everyone seemed to enjoy what they had, and group consensus seemed to be that we would eat there again, if only for the basket of hot rolls and cornbread they brought before the entrees.

Sunday afternoon we all slept, all of us. We awoke around 6 and went to Old Hickory Lake, again near Hendersonville. Daniel considers this "his lake". David said on the way that he was looking forward to seeing the mother elephants washing their babies with their trunks--he claimed he was surprised there were no elephants there. There were ducks, boats heading into the marina, families fishing, little children throwing bread to the ducks--really a great family place. I got a kick out of a young man and his son who walked fairly close to us. The little boy was leading the way, walking with his head back, his tummy out, swinging his arms just like his daddy. The daddy was following behind loudly complaining about this two-year-old who still dirtied himself and then made an even bigger mess before daddy got him cleaned up--Two year old didn't seem to mind, just marched on in his "manliness". Too cute.

We came home to a late supper, the last of the byriani, kichiri (or something like that), peanut chutney and celery. It was probably almost 11 before we finished supper, and then we were asleep again.

Right now, Everett is reading, Ann and David are napping, and I am about to finish up my blog post for today. Our plans for today are to go to the Goodwill Superstore and try to find the knife Ann accidentally donated a while back, and then to go buy me a pair of Croc's and maybe another pair of shoes to replace the bag of shoes we left at home.

Love to all, and God bless.