coming home to pass it

   Well we are on that gray hard pavement once again, adding up the mileage on the jeep, seeing more countryside, dancing around vehicles and trying to ignore the garmin's annoying voice. We are headed home, headed back to where this journey all started, heading back to Joplin. In my last post I said that this blog would be eventful, be vivid, alive, because we are just leaving Tennessee and my lovelies, that is exactly what you will get because Tennessee did not fail us in anyway, if anything it exceeded our expectations. 

So to start off with where I departed from you last time. We dropped off that beautiful Tennessee interstate lined with trees and fog and brightened by the moonlight and we fell into downtown Nashville. The hotel our friend booked for us could not been more amazing. Filled with amazing lighting, amazing service, amazing beds, amazing decor, amazing is probably the only word I could use to describe it. We were blessed beyond our imagination when we stood in our 5 star hotel room looking out our window over Nashville's skyscrapers and night life. Because of this instance it made past instances stand out very strongly. Instances of people helping us out. People have hearts of gold within these burning walls of our crumbling corrupted world. The man that booked our room, didn't even know us, our friend called him and he pulled every string he had to help us out. This work for our well-being was a constant throughout our trip. 

       While staying in the hotel we did the tourist thing around Nashville. And folks, this time we did succeed at the touristic ways! And that is because there were no lines, and no standing and staring and no need of our patience, or even our money. The tourist thing in Nashville is essentially to party down! And that is exactly what we did. Visiting the museum of country music definitely pulled all of our heart strings and made us feel like we belonged and remembered that longing for incredible, original music. And at night we walked the streets. As we were headed to a dance floor one night we ran into a girl and her guitar along with her family, that caught Candice's attention. So we stopped and listened and chatted. By the end of the night we were standing in a circle praying with them, for them, encouraging them on their journey of the ministry God has placed in their hearts. After that we stopped in a bar for some good oldies where we all danced with men, not one being under the age of 60. Hitting more and more stops and bouncing around like we do, that was another morning we watched the sunrise. 

      But we didn't have the entire next day to sleep in. We traveled east to a winery to watch Medicine Hat play some musical notes. It was a wonderful afternoon sitting on the grassy open lawn with the sun bouncing off our umbrella as the guitars and rough voices were a blissful match to the vines flowing miles away from the house. After that we had more amazing music, at the Grand 'ol opry and at a random hotel lobby. Realizing that there can be a stage and thousands of people for wonderful music, or a stool chair and a crowd of ten. Musicians are alive and well and spreading their talent for our ears. 

     Thanks to dear friends, once again, we had a home to stay in Saturday and Sunday night. And had our Sunday filled with laughter and joy as we floated on a boat across the green Tennessee water being chased by tree-filled hills. It was a happy Sunday on the lake, filled with sun and nature and good company and refreshing water. 

     Like I said earlier, people are incredible, giving, loving. Friends, family, strangers have made our trip what it was. From Candice's aunt and uncle giving up their own bed for us to sleep in, to Kaitlyn taking away time from homework to be our tour guide, to Dave giving us a floor to sleep on, to his roommates spending the morning helping us figure out DC, to Kathleen offering her home to us, to Lee giving us a room in a perfect hotel, to Jeff and Doug lending us beds and entertainment. Time after time on this trip we have seen the beautiful hearts of people, the way people have gone out of their way to give us directions or to load our car. 

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.  ~Mark Twain

Have you had a kindness shown?
Pass it on;
'Twas not given for thee alone,
Pass it on;
Let it travel down the years,
Let it wipe another's tears,
'Til in Heaven the deed appears -
Pass it on.
~Henry Burton

   So that is what we have in the fore fronts of our minds. To love on people, to be hospitable, to show kindness and generosity in a way that the world has not experienced. We cannot ignore or deny the love that we experienced between New York to Tennessee, we cannot hide from the concern that was covering us. Because if it had not been for people and their gold hearts, we would be broke and soar from sleeping on the ground. We would have been tired and cranky and biting at one another. But I cannot be that, I cannot be ungrateful or unthankful and all that love and generosity I experienced throughout my trip cannot be kept to myself. 

   Well readers, our trip is done. We have covered the miles between Joplin to New York and back again. We have found frustrations and annoyances but not without finding hope and comfort. Road trips are an experience, you learn about yourself about your travel companions, you learn about the roads you travel on and the new communities you enter into. The wisdom we should have read before venturing is this: When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money.  Then take half the clothes and twice the money.  ~Susan Heller. But we survived in our faults and grew in our finds. So the final quote to cap off this grand adventure:

I think that travel comes from some deep urge to see the world,

 like the urge that brings up a worm in an Irish bog 

to see the moon when it is full.  ~Lord Dunsany

    We had an urge and we grabbed it, we had an itch and we scratched it. Free falling into our lives as we are at the biggest cornerstone we jumped head first into a challenge that we will never realized how much we learned in it. But we being the worms of the dirt of the earth, for we truly are the scum of the earth and of sinners we are the worst; we rose above the mud and we saw a glimpse of the full moon's light. Not only the grand landscapes and incredible man-made structures, but we also saw man kind in the purest and rawest form. So, I challenge thee, since I have been challenged these past 15 days. Get your head out of the mud and gaze upon the beauty of the glowing moon.