Alabama - Georgia - South Carolina

hello fokes:)

Monday we packed all our things and rode off to South Carolina. This to visit a sister who knew my mom from waaaaaay back (sorry mom:P) when she was 29. Well she still looks like she's 29 or at least close to 29;) But anyway we went to visit her, because she almost commanded me and Birdie to come. It took us +/- 6 hours to get there but we had a save trip. We took all the right exits and the right innerstates and so on (can't say that about our way back..) we even found her house quite easily.

When we arrived she was outside with her husband jumping up and down, almost dragging m out of the car and crushing me in a hug. 'Mama! Mama, she's exactly like her mama!'' jup I know, think I've heard it before.. she was so happy to see me. We talked for a bit and went to bed since we had a long trip and it was late already. We arrived at ten pm since South Carolina is one hour ahead of the South.

The next morning we stayed in bed longer and went out in service at ten am. Teresa, which is the name of the sister, had a call she wanted to ask whether they wanted to study the bible with her. It was a couple in their sixties/seventies and they were real nice.
The woman was definately suffering from alzheimers. I stopped counting the fifth time she told us about her twinbrothers that had cancer and that one of them turned out to be blind. But she was really nice in spite of the alzheimers. I felt pity for her husband, it must be hard when somebody you love slowly loses his or her memory.
They were interested in the bible, but they wanted to visit rather than talk about spiritual things and refused the offer to study the bible. Although they seemed curious about the meeting when I told them they could visit the meeting whenever they felt like it.

After this we were supposed to drive teresa to a spanish speaking woman she would start studying the bible with that day. She told us about the woman and how they met. At first when they knocked on her door, she didn't want to open it and so she and Beatrice (her doctor who became a sister of us and was baptized last wekend) went back in the car and Beatice started to back up in the drivewway....BOOM! She hit the electric box. The box that provides the energy for the mobile home of this woman. So the woman came outside, shocked of course. So Beatrice called the number that's on the box while teresa tried to comfort the woman telling her that everything would be ok.
At that time a electrician was passing by, so Beatrice went after him while Teresa stayed with the woman. The electrician came back and after five minutes the woman had her electricity back. She was so impressed, because Beatrice and teresa took care of all this that she showed interest in a bible study.
Unfortunately the woman wasn't home, but her husband was and he was really nice to Teresa and Beatrice and told them that they could come by any time.

So we said goodbye to Beatrice and went to the Botanic Gardens near the universty of Senenca I think.. Anyway, the gardens were really pretty and they had a big pond with turtles in it, and all sorts of flowers. it was a very hot day so visiting the gardens was a good idea, we could walk in the shade of the trees which was less hot.

After the gardens we went back home and made dinner. Leo woke up and had dinner with us. After dinner Teresa took us to one of the lakes you'll find in the area the Young's live in. it was so pretty and I was ready to jump in. But i didn't bring my swimsuit ... If it wasn't for Birdie and Teresa.. and the 7 boys just around the corner I would have jumped in. but in stead I tried to get good pictures that show all the great colors. the lake was greenblue-ish and the dirt was red, the grass really intense green and the hills covered with trees more a sort of a dark blue green. it was so pretty, especially in combination with the blue sky, the clouds and the sunset.
I hope the pictures will give you an idea what it looked like.

We came back home, had icecream and went to bed. The next morning they had their bookstudy so we got a chance to meet the friends. tehy were all very nice and one sister told me that she was from new jersey. She said that, in new jersey, they speak the queens english and that I shouldn't try to get an accent but stick with the queens english (but save the -r she said). Well I'll try!

Leo went back home and we drove to the Nuclear plan, to see the natural trail next to it. the path went to the lake and view was outstanding! The colors were so intense and so beautiful just like the other lake..i wish I culd show it to you, so that you could se it with your own eyes. But you've to use your imagination and the pictures..

After walking on the peice of land that went into the lake we went to a Japanese restaurant. (But when you go to a chinese, japanese, spanish, italian restaurant in the States, it's not like you'll find them in the Netherlands or in Europe.) The way the cook the meat and vegetables is indeed Japanese-like but the rest of the food and the drink and everything is llike every other (fast food) restaurant. But I really enjoyed my lunch. We spent the rest of the day at Teresa and Leo's place. She showed me picturees of her family and the pictures of the time my mom and grandparents visited her. it was kind of hard for me to see the pictures of my grandpa it still hurts.. And I miss him so much! But it was great to see pictures of him while he was still healty, although he was "older" already.

The next morning we took off on our way back home and said goodbye to leo and Teresa.
We were supposed to meet Chris (The Falk's other son) in Newman to have lunch. So we were suposed to take the exit.. five minutes after we called Chris we saw the exit to West Point.. which is just before the Alabama-Georgia border!!! We were 57 miles away from Chris..went way to far. But we never saw the exit to Newman. there was a lot of Truck-traffic..so that's probably why.... So we told Chris : SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY!!!! and continued our way south.

We stopped by the callaway Gardens because we thought it would be a niceplace to have lunch and strech our legs for a bit. But it was a HUGE garden and activity complex, I think it will take an entire wekend to see the entire park...
So we had lunch somewhere else and didn't stop until we were home..

After the meeting Brian Broughton asked me if I wanted to do a talk next week. So now birdie conducts the talk and I am the householder. I just want to start of being a householder and then later on do a talk.I know I'm only here for 13 more days and I won't get the chance to do a talk myself, but still!

Tomorrow is the wedding of Santrail's brother. They didn't plan a reception, therew will be a talk in the Kingdomhall and they will be married in the Kingdomhall as well.

I'll post the pictures now!

Big Hug xox merel