Asheville to Nashville was such a beautiful drive with some fun stops along the way.
Typical:

Beautiful:

127 stories down to a cavern. Walked through the rock to the largest underground waterfall in the US.

And an interesting sign. We are not in California!

Just spent a few wonderful days in Asheville!

We were about an hour outside Asheville, when a cousin who lives in Burbank contacted me through Facebook. She had been following our blog and saw that we had flown back to Charlotte and wondered if we were near Asheville because they were there with her brother (my cousin) and his wife who live in Tennessee. Turns out we were both planning on going to the Biltmore Estate on Thursday so made tentative plans to meet for lunch there if our schedules allowed. We just happened to arrive Thursday morning at exactly the same time and parked two cars away from each other. So not planned. Toured the house together and then did lunch together. We had a great time.

This is what happens when you ask an old guy to take a picture. He did say he wasn’t good at taking pictures with a phone. He did not lie.

Much better when we told him to move his finger off the camera lense.

Doesn’t everyone have a pipe organ in their dining room?

Indoor swimming pool:

Today walked 600 steps up to Chimney Rock. Asked a young couple to take our picture and then offered to take theirs. As I was taking pics, he pulled out a ring, got down on one knee, and proposed. So special.



Then hike to one of the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi:

And then downtown Asheville. Cast of characters:

Heading to Tennessee tomorrow. Loved North Carolina!

If home is where the heart is, then ours is in California! As much as we’ve loved every state we’ve been to thus far, it’s nice to come back to California for a visit.

Our journey from North Carolina started with the TSA checkpoint at the Charlotte airport. After going through the body scanner: OH MY GOSH. She has metal showing on her chest. Maybe it’s a weapon! Oh wait, it’s just the metal buttons on her shirt. Better make sure though. Let’s pat down her breasts (in front of everyone)! Ok, there’s no weapon there. But we’ve had a lot of terrorist attacks by older, white women! So let’s check her hands for a chemical reaction to make sure she hasn’t been making those things that blow up. Ok, you’re free to go. But wait, let’s pull aside the old gray-haired guy who’s traveling with her. Now he really looks suspicious!

We spent a few days in our motor home in the Sanchez’ driveway, then down to San Clemente State Park. Our view:

Sunday afternoon family fun day at the beach. We really appreciate the blue waters of the Pacific compared to the brown waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic:

More beach days:

Our little surfer girl:

Just another day in California watching a tv series being filmed on the beach. Actually heard “action” and “that’s a wrap”.

Little league games:

And more fun with the grandkids:

We had a great time in California. Time with old friends, worshiping our Lord with our church family and much more. Heading back to North Carolina on Tuesday. Can’t wait to go through TSA at John Wayne!

We’ve just had some fantastic days in the Charlotte, No. Carolina area. It was like no other!
We had made reservations to stay in an rv park in Charlotte, not knowing the interesting past of the park.

The rv park was originally part of Heritage USA developed by Jim and Tammy Bakker. Much of the theme park they built is gone but some things remain including this building that was never finished. The brokenness of this building is representative of the brokenness of a ministry where leaders went to prison due to financial fraud and other crimes. Clearly, this was a shameful reflection on evangelical Christians.

And then……
we visited the Billy Graham Library. What a humble man of God he is. It was very poignant considering that John’s parents met on a blind date at a Youth For Christ rally where Billy Graham spoke. The library is so well done and maintains Billy’s commitment to present the Gospel. And the old hymns playing throughout the grounds was so wonderful. I cannot say enough about this place. Go if you ever are nearby! As we walked up, they told us to begin at the front door, “at the foot of the cross”. Incredibly meaningful.

Then spent the afternoon with my cousins and their wives. Our moms were twin sisters. They took us out on a lake on their boat and then had some Carolina BBQ. Lots of reminiscing and laughs. We had so much fun. Thanks McDonalds!

Travis came to Charlotte for business so we went to a mud run to watch him participate with co-workers. We had not seen him in three and a half months!

After the mud run, we decided to drive by the Charlotte Motor Speedway to see about doing a tour. We aren’t NASCAR fans but thought it might be fun to do. No tours due to an AutoFair that was going on but someone stopped us and gave us tickets they weren’t using so we went in. Got to walk on the track. Amazing slope on the curves! Decided to walk around the infield for a bit. Walked down the first row and ran into our old neighbor from Lakeview, Scott Hudson, who represents Currie Enterprizes by traveling around the country to various auto events. So unexpected! Had a wonderful visit with him. What a small world.

What a fun packed few days! Now packing to fly home to California on Tuesday for a two week visit with friends and these special people. Can’t wait!

As you may have seen from our map, we’ve headed inland through South Carolina towards Tennessee. We’ve spent the last few days in Columbia in a beautiful state park:


Exploring beautiful Congaree River:

Happened to drive by the state capital building and went on a free tour. We loved learning about the history of the capital and seeing such a beautiful building and grounds:

Congaree National Park:

The gorgeous Cedar River was nearby which we were planning on kayaking down. Here it is:

Even though we had talked to people that had launched from this designated point the day before, it felt a little scary to do it when no one else was around. The pictures don’t really convey how downright spooky this was. So we waited a few hours hoping some other kayakers would show up. Not a sole! So we chickened out. As John put it, “we’re clearly no Lewis and Clark!” Tracy and Tiffany, we so would have done this if you were with us! Instead, went on a hike:

In the midst of all this, one of my crowns fell out. What to do, what to do? Looked up on Yelp and found a dentist right next to the campground. Went in this morning and explained my situation. Even though there were people in the waiting room, we were back at our camp within an hour, with the crown cemented back in place!