Tennessee has been quite an adventure! From the very first hour to the last hour in Tennessee! Currently, things are calming down as we are driving back "home" to Illinois. So what are those adventures? Well pick a number and read!
1.When we first drove in our destination, we found the state park was all locked up! We had come too late! The lady had told us we could just drive in and someone would later come around and ask for the money, but alas this was not so! We were dreadfully tired at this time, and we didn't know the area at all! Fortunately, we found a policeman and he told us to sleep in the parking lot at walmart. So, we slept at the Walmart parking lot for our first night in Tennessee!
2. Currently, Tennessee is having an unusual year as said by the "Tennesseans." The rain here can accurately be compared to a rain forest. Torrential rain I've never seen before! There's one problem. The Car. So one morning while heading out, our car would not drive over 100RP M's. After praying for the car, and for my dad to have wisdom, we discovered that water had entered into the electrical parts of car (being a girl, I don't know the real car name;) )
3. After coming back later after our car had rain in it, we came and discovered a burglar had come to our trailer! Someone had tried to open our door with a screw driver and messed up our lock. After some tools, prayers, and a flashlight, my dad was able to fix the lock enough to get us in! The next day, in this "small community," it seemed everyone knew what happened to us! We jocked that it would be on the front papers, "Burglur Breaks in Large Family's trailer due to Economic hard times!" (One ranger said it's because of these hard economic times:) )Fortunately, nothing was stolen, they were however it seems to be able to get a window open, but it's too small for anyone to go through! - During that day- I was prompted to pray this "Lord Jesus, I pray no one would kill, steal, or destroy the tailer or us.- Perhaps I was prompted at the same exact time the thief came? It came to my mind because I had left my purse in the trailer packed with my money and account.
4. While, in "Mennonite County," where you see more buggies than cars, our truck became stuck in 4 wheel drive! We had no idea what to do! We couldn't ask the Mennonites, because their cars were horses! Of course we prayed, and God answered! Suddenly, I thought, "I probably could find the answer on the Internet!" I sure did. You have to drive forward and back slowly- and that did the trick!
5. On yet another drive, my dad realized he lost his phone with a significant amount of information on it. Dreadfully thinking, it may have been dropped while on a ATV, which would make it extremely hard to find! With no other solution, we drove all the way back to the location which was quite a distance! Just as we entered our destination, my brother looks back and exclaims, "Look there's dad's phone in the back of the truck!" It was right in back of us the whole time!! We're so thankful that it was not lost in the hills of Tennessee!
6. On one of our first few nights, we were locked out of our own bathroom. When I first heard the problem, I thought "No problem at all! Just place a paper clip in the hole." Unfortunately, it was not that easy. It wasn't that kind of lock, but required a different type of key. It had to be a thick flat end key which we didn't have. However, my dad is very creative and wise, and with his handy dandy tool case, he was able to contrive something up!
7.We were planning on sleeping at the park through Sunday night, but after an embarrassing event we changed our minds very quickly. Remember, when I said the rain here is like a rain forest? Well, our trailer was right by a creek. That morning, it was calm, and low, but by afternoon, it was quite a current and had covered all the rocks and much grass that surrounded it! It was even carrying down large tree trunks! While looking at this, a knock came at our door, telling us a flash flood may come soon! So we needed to move (The people told us this happened 5years ago, and a wave went 6 inches over their RV!).
As we moved to a new spot, we discovered, it was not safe in the trailer, because it was at such a huge angle. Unfortunelty, by this time, it was pitch dark. And as we headed to a new spot we became completely stuck in ditch. When the ranger came he was very mad. We had accidently torn up grass (Just an hour ago they were all telling us how they really enjoyed us). The man then started telling my dad how "dumb" that was. Gulp. However, we prayed, and God gave the man more compassion at the end. We had to be towed out (both truck and trailer), and my dad was completely drenched being outside and corrected the dirt and grass as best as He could. When we come back later this year, we have to put grass seed there. We were going to spend the night there, but we decided just to leave after that as you can imagine!
8. I have to end on a funny note. My family and I were siting down at the Park's Buffet State Restaurant, and my dad grabbed some very gooey looking white stuff. My mom asked the waitress, what it was, and she replied "roz", "Roz?" My mom questioned, "What's that?" The lady replied "You don know what 'roz" is?" "No. Could you tell me?" With a funny look the lady quizzically told my mom, "it's a white grain," "Have you ever had Chinese food?" My parents then laughed, "Oh! You mean rice!" With a puzzeled look at us, my mom laughingly said she couldn't tell what she was saying, because of her strong southern accent. Now with a confused look, she claimed she didn't have one, but she sure did!
Oh, I forgot to mention one! While driving through Kentucky today, a verse on a RV caught my mom's attention. As I looked I noticed a familar website: Titus2.com! We drove up faster and honked and waved hi to the Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell! It was such a pleasent surprise!
Well there are just some of our adventures in Tennessee!
Kalani
