Janie and I have had the opportunity to take some time off the last three weeks. As much fun as we had, the old saying is so true: “There is no place like home”. We started our adventure with a trip to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky. Wow, it is the largest wooden structure in the world. If you have kids or you are a big kid at heart, you may want to consider making the trip to see the Ark Encounter. You could also visit some of the most beautiful horse farms in the country. We left My Old Kentucky Home area for a brief stop in Sellersburg, Indiana. We have wonderful old friends who invited us over for evening meals. When God blesses you with good friends He has blessed you with a great gift.
We left Southern Indiana for our destination of the Smokey Mountains. We stayed in Pigeon Forge but our goal was to hike as much as we could. We love chasing waterfalls. Our biggest hike was 5 miles in and 5 miles out! We packed our salads…yep, our salads, and took off for our hikes. I figured if we met black bears they would not be enticed by salads!
By the way, we saw 8 black bears in Cades Cove! There were two days we did not hike. One was spent shopping at the Big Knife Store. You gotta see this place to appreciate it. The second non-hiking day was spent at Dollywood. We have been asked if we rode the roller coaster rides. Not only did we not ride them, we never even saw them. We jumped around from music venue to music venue enjoying really good music and shows. Once you hear Dolly’s story, you become a fan.
Then the last of the summer travels included going to see the Savannah Bananas. Yes, that is a real name. It is a profession baseball organization that does for baseball what the Harlem Globetrotters did for basketball…only bigger! Our daughter Erin won the tickets for the game played last weekend at the Carolina Panthers football stadium. That stadium seats 75,000 and was packed…two nights in a row setting an attendance record.
So now, we are home sweet home. We have no more travel plans for the summer that I know of so we can get back into our comfy routine.
This Sunday is Father’s Day. We will have a Parent Child Dedication service at the 11:00 service and will be recognizing and honoring one of our Elders, Frank O Hunt at the 9:00 service. This week’s sermon will finish our series on The Apostle’s Creed. I will be teaching on the section that says Jesus descended to hell. I should have assigned that one to Logan!
See you this Sunday, good Lord willing.
Pastor Tom
