A Little Mission

Monday, October 20 – Saturday, October 25, 2008

Monday, October 20

It’s done! After a full week and a late night last night, we were more than happy to sleep in this morning.
The last of the wedding chores for us was to drive to the bed and breakfast where Mike and Kelly stayed last night and pick up his outfit to return to the rental place. I had thought that we might get an early start, but Mike suggested that we come by about 11:00 this morning, which really suited us better.

We arrived at The Inn at Three Bridge (named for Three Bridge Road) just a little after 11:00 and met Jack and Sally, the owners. Jack took us to the room that Mike and Kelly had been in so we could pick up the clothes, and then Sally showed us around the place, taking us to the two rooms and the guest house that are available at very reasonable rates. We decided that if we ever come back to Powhatan on a motorcycle trip, we’d treat ourselves to a stay here.

After the “tour,” we took some pictures and then drove to the Marriott Residence Inn in Richmond, the home base for the wedding party, to pick up all of the other outfits that had to be returned. Heather and Andy and the kids had already left for the airport to return to Dallas, but we hoped we might catch up with Jim, Whitney, and Little Jimmy. Unfortunately (for us), they were out sightseeing today since they didn’t have to fly out until tomorrow.

With our “assignment” completed, we returned to Cozy Acres, stopping first to fill the Vibe with gas at $2.35 a gallon.

Back at Big V we just lounged around for a bit. Then, while Barbara worked on sorting out the kazillion or so pictures that we had taken, I started packing and organizing for the next leg of the journey.

Tonight…RELAX!

Tuesday, October 21

This was just another day of taking it easy, occasionally taking a few minutes out to continue the packing and organizing so we could leave sometime tomorrow. Since we got invited to go to Toccoa a couple of days earlier than we had planned, we decided that we’d leave Cozy Acres tomorrow and drive back to Haw River, North Carolina, for the night before continuing to Georgia on Thursday.

Wednesday, October 22

It was moving day again today. After a month at Cozy Acres, we were going to hit the road again. While Barbara washed clothes, I finished packing, organizing, and making sure Big V and the trailer were ready to roll.

We got away from the park around 2:15 p.m. and headed back over the same roads that had brought us to Powhatan, finding that the scenery had certainly changed in the last 28 days. The fall colors, while not quite in their prime, were just beautiful.

We got to the Flying J Travel Center at Haw River around 5:45, got set up for the night, and spent the evening watching TV and reading…really exciting stuff.

Thursday, October 23

We got an earlier start than we had planned this morning…got away from the travel center at 8:05 (we had hoped to be away by 9:00, but thought it might be closer to 10:00, so we were pleased that we could drive away so soon).

The trip south from the Haw River, Burlington area was generally uneventful, just lots of I-85 traffic, especially around Charlotte. Charlotte traffic was a little crazy when I lived in that area back in the early seventies, but it is way out of control now. Still, I just did my best to stay behind the car in front and in front of the car or truck behind me, and we did ok.

The one moment of excitement in the trip came when we stopped at a Flying J in South Carolina to get fuel and take a short break. As soon as I pulled into the RV island and turned off the engine, Barbara yelled out, “The awning is opening!” Now, that isn’t something that should be happening, so I got out to see what was going on. When I opened the forward luggage bin, I saw immediately what had happened – one of our little camp tables that we use in the canopy tent had slipped from its stack and was leaning against the external awning switch. There’s an automatic cutoff on power to the awning when the engine is running (so it won’t open while we’re traveling down the highway), but as soon as I turned off the engine, the override went off and the power went to the “awning out” circuit.

This wouldn’t normally be too big a problem, but we’ve had some problems lately getting the awning retracted after it goes out. Sure enough, when I pushed the retraction button, nothing happened. There we were, needing to move forward as soon as the rig ahead of us finished fueling, but we couldn’t pull far enough to get to the pumps because there was a post ahead of the awning. We couldn’t back up because another rig had pulled in tight behind use.

I eased forward as far as I could without hitting the post with the partially opened awning and when I stopped, Barbara tried the retraction button again…hallelujah!!!, the awning rolled in and we were able to get up to the pump. I immediately climbed out of the coach and rearranged the things in the forward bin so we wouldn’t have that particular problem again, and after fueling and taking a short break to check email and get a few minutes of rest, we were once again heading down I-85, on our way to the Georgia state line.

About three miles across the state line we stopped at the Georgia Welcome Station and fixed some lunch. From there we drove the final 25 or so miles to Toccoa and the Georgia Baptist Conference Center at Lake Louise, our home for the next two weeks. We were immediately struck by the beauty of the center, nestled in the hills and woods of northern Georgia, about 90 miles northeast of Atlanta and not far from the South and North Carolina state lines.

When we got to the conference center we parked as far out in the lot as possible and then went inside to get instructions for finding an RV site. We soon found Nancy Fairfax, the head of the volunteers, and got the information we needed. She took us upstairs where we found Lynn Worley, another volunteer with whom we had worked at Lady Lake, Florida. On the way back downstairs we met up with Bob Brewer, who rode up to the RV park with us to show us the lay of the land. The campground, while somewhat primitive in design, has full hookups for several vehicles and is perched on a small hill overlooking Lake Louise. The surroundings defy any description other than “beautiful,” with a wide assortment of trees – many of them now in their fall splendor, and other types of vegetation.

After looking at the parking spaces, we followed Bob back down the hill to the laundry facility where we greeted Nell, his wife, and Mildred Rogers, another acquaintance from our Lady Lake experience.

A little later we were back in Big V, having unloaded the Vibe and disconnected the trailer (there was no room in the camping section for a trailer that large). It didn’t take long to get Big V up the hill to the campsites and get parked so we could begin opening her up and making it ready to live in again.

While we were invited to eat our evening meal in the dining hall, we declined and made a trip back to town to buy some much-needed supplies at Wal-Mart. Nancy had told us that we would probably be assigned to dining hall duties and that we needed to buy some non-skid shoes for safety purposes (the conference center would reimburse us for that expense).
On the way out of the parking lot we saw a Sonic, the first we’d seen since leaving Mineola, so we stopped and bought a couple of hamburgers to take back to Big V for our supper.

The rest of the evening was spent getting everything squared away so we could be ready to start our new duties tomorrow morning.

Friday, October 24
Nancy had told us yesterday that we didn’t need to report to the dining hall until 8:00 this morning to eat and get our marching orders, so we didn’t have to get up too early. When we got there, we saw Betsy, who we had first met at the laundry building yesterday afternoon. She told us to go ahead and eat, and that we would meet up with Nancy later to get our assignments.

As we were finishing breakfast, Nancy came to our table to give us some more information about the conference center and, when we had put our trays away, she sent Barbara to learn about the dining hall duties from Ray, a retired missionary to Africa who has been working at the conference center for ten years. Meanwhile, she took me back to the kitchen area to teach me some of the basics of getting dishes, silverware, and trays from the dishwashing room to the serving line (including monitoring the serving line to know when things needed to be carried out).
The fulltime staff of the dining hall generally takes care of moving the food trays out to the line, but we soon found that lines of distinction of duties began to blur when the masses entered the room for meals; in short, whether one was staff or a volunteer, getting the job done was the important consideration.
Since the others were well into the morning routine before we started, our duties were somewhat limited, mine probably more than Barbara’s, since she seemed to be staying busier than me. When I wasn’t carrying stacks of plates and bowls to the serving line or sorting silverware, I kept an eye on what was happening in the dishwashing room, since it was highly probable that I would be spending some time in there before this experience was over.

I was through with my assigned duties by 9:30 or so, but Barbara was still working, so I helped Bill and Walt stack chairs and check them for chewing gum and missing glides. It seems that even church facilities are not immune from gum chewers who don’t know how to place their gum wads in a napkin and throw them away with the rest of the trash.

In checking for glides, we found a number of chairs that were missing one or more of the little nylon or plastic disks that allow them to slide smoothly back from the table rather than tipping over. Someone soon arrived with a box of the little disks and the three of us began the work of removing broken glides (Bill’s job), replacing them with new ones (Walt’s job), and taking the chairs off the table and putting them back in place (my job – very low-tech).

Barbara finished her training and duties about the same time that we ran out of glides, so we left the dining hall and drove back up to Big V to rest for an hour before reporting back for noon duties.

We returned to the dining hall at 11:30 and, after a few announcements from Nancy and asking a blessing on the food, went through the line so we could be finished eating before the guests came through the doors at 12:00.

After eating, we went to our assigned places and started our duties. One of the volunteers who had been working in the dishwashing room left at noon, so I took his place and got a first-hand look at what goes on in this little-noticed, but very important part of the after-meal procedures.

My primary job was to grab silverware off the trays as they came by on the conveyer belt. Spoons, forks, and knives were thrown into separate containers to soak until there were enough of them to justify putting a batch on a flat tray to run through the dishwasher. If I had time after doing that, I would also grab for glasses and cups, pour out whatever was in them, and place them in containers that, when full, would be sent down the line to the dishwasher. There were three of us working that part of the line and the other two would empty dishes into large trash barrels and catch whatever silverware or glasses and cups that got past me.

While it got hectic at times (not to mention very hot in the room), it didn’t seem to be too difficult a task except for those times when the conveyer belt was full and there was a constant line of trays coming at us. Fortunately for me, the others in the room were experienced at this, and everything went as smoothly as it could.

The volunteers in the dishwashing room work only until the last of the trays come down the line. At that point, the paid staff continued the clean-up, giving us time for a break.
I went out to the dining room and was visiting with Bill and Ray while waiting for Barbara’s group to finish their work. Ray brought out a large stack of pictures from his 30+ years of serving on the Ivory Coast in Africa and showed us the churches he had helped build and many of the people he had worked with.

When Barbara was finished with her work, we returned to Big V for some downtime before going back for the supper run. It’s been a long time since either of us spent that much time on our feet, and our dogs were barking loudly.

After a couple of hours rest we returned to the dining hall and started the process again. After a wonderful meal, it was time to get to work. I immediately went to the dishwashing room and found that the crew tonight was a group of local high school students who work here on the weekends. I enjoyed working around them and talking with them as time allowed – they had a lot of questions for me when they found out I was a retired principal, but I found (surprise, surprise) that they didn’t work with the same intensity that we “old-timers” did. Also, we were one person short in the first part of the line, so I had to work faster to keep up with clearing the trays before they got to the dishwasher. It took longer to get the job done tonight, but get it done we did.

By 8:30 Barbara and I were a couple of whipped puppies, so we said good night and headed back to Big V. I was so tired I didn’t even attempt to tune in to the Artesia football game…just wrote a quick email to Jean and asked her to let me know the score when it was over. Barbara did take time to call Jean (she didn’t know I had written) and after a short visit, we both found our way back to the bedroom and dropped like rocks.

Saturday, October 25

For the first time in a long time we deliberately got up at 5:00 a.m. Our “shift” today, even though it was Saturday, was from 6:30 until 2:00 (or however long it took to be finished). Several folks completed their volunteer time yesterday and others won’t arrive until Sunday afternoon, so John, Lynn, Barbara, and I began the early work.

Before we left, I had my coffee and we checked our email (found out that Artesia and Liberal both demolished their opponents in their respective football games last night), and generally got ready for a new day.

As we were driving down the hill in the dark, I remarked that it was the same time that I used to be in the office every morning to start my day at the high school…then I remembered, no matter how early I got there, the cooks were already there ahead of me and were preparing the first meal of the day; that wasn’t the first time today that we developed a whole new, if belated, respect for those folks who toil behind the scenes (and often thanklessly) to prepare the meals and clean up someone else’s mess.

As days go, this one must have been pretty normal. We think that breakfast is probably the easiest to handle, maybe because there aren’t as many items on the menu that make a big mess. For the folks in the dining hall, there is still the constant replenishing of trays, dishes, and silverware and the cleanup when people spill things. In the dishwashing room, we had the slow periods at the beginning, a couple of hectic rushes, and then the gradual slowdown at the end. I was working with another group of kids this morning, but they seemed to be a little more serious about their work and didn’t get as far behind as the group last night.

When I was finished in the dishwashing room, Linda said she had another chore for me before the break, and led me to the big industrial mixer that stood in the middle of the kitchen. She said it had been a long time since it had a thorough cleaning, meaning that it was about to have one this morning. So with scrubber in hand and a bucket of hot, soapy water beside me, I began removing the accumulation of grit, grime, and other assorted sticky stuff from the exterior of the machine. It wasn’t a hard job, but it did take attention to detail (except when Barbara and Linda decided to take a couple of photographs).
With that little job done, we headed out the door a little after 10:00 to go back to Big V and rest for a while (actually, I fell deep asleep…guess I was still tired from yesterday), until time to go back at 11:30.

The noon meal went about the same as the others (lots of good food…if anyone walks out of the dining hall hungry, it’s their own fault). John joined the local boys and me in the dishwashing room and we once again plowed through stacks of dirty dishes, silverware, pots and pans, and cafeteria trays.

At 2:00 p.m. the manager told us we were through for the day, so we left what little was left to the paid staff and walked outside to a beautiful, sunny afternoon, quite a change from the rain and clouds we had yesterday.
We went back to Big V and this time both of us dropped off for an hour or so…guess we’re more out of shape than we thought.

We woke up about an hour and a half later, cleared our heads, and got started taking care of business around Big V. For one thing, we hadn’t put anything but a little thought into this week’s journal, so I got busy writing while Barbara downloaded all the pictures and created the collages for the journal and blog (and oh yes, I followed the game track of the Texas/Oklahoma State football game, since we couldn’t watch it on television).

Around 7:00, Bill knocked on the door and invited us to join the camping group at Herbert and Mildred Roger’s site for a bonfire and conversation. After dragging our folding chairs out of one of the bins, we walked up to the next site and found Herbert, Mildred, Bill, Jean, and Ken already enjoying a beautiful campfire. We just sat around talking, sharing stories about what we’ve been up to since the last time we worked together in Lady Lake, and listening to Herbert’s jokes.

After a bit we were joined by John and Lynn. With a little coaxing, we convinced John to break out his guitar and we spent the next hour or so singing, listening to John play, and enjoying the peace of a beautiful night on Lake Louise.

"With an investment in Jesus, no one loses interest."...church sign in South Boston, VA

From the Georgia Baptist Conference Center in Toccoa, Georgia,

Jim and Barbara