This summer Gail and I had two extended stays at the Crisis Response site in Fort Myers, Florida. Between the two, at the beginning of July, we took a road trip. Then, after serving with several more teams in late July and early August, we had a second road trip which ended with our recent return to Houston. In this post I’m going to share some highlights of the first road trip. I’ll highlight the second in another post.
Note: To spice up the pictures I’ve described many of them with highly sophisticated poetry (couplets, limericks and haiku’s).
The first trip was about 3000 miles, from Florida to New York and back with several fun stops along the way.
Eventually we will have gone to all the state parks and forests in Florida. This was a pretty nice first stop.
Night two brought the mountains in sight,
Fancy Gap, Virginia — what a delight!
Eppie, sixteen months old,
Still wild, with a heart of gold,
And calming down a little bit each night.
Day three’s goal was Hannah’s home ground.
One night in Ephrata, then onward we bound.
For a full week in Kingston with Bethany’s crew,
Jeff, Dominic, and Anaisë too.
(By the way, if you look carefully in this picture you’ll see a bandage on Gail’s ankle. She got a bad wound on that ankle before we left Florida and it significantly restricted her mobility on this trip. It’s much better now.)
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Bethany’s family, following suit,
Got a golden pup, quite the recruit.
Francis gnawed on her bone,
While Eppie, left alone,
Peered in, nosy as a hoot.
Ardent young players—
Gail and I lose every game,
outmatched, but happy.
My birthday, we cruised on the Hudson so wide,
Mansions and views on either side.
One place, we were told,
For daily use was pure gold—
$75,000 a night, gone with the tide.
Guard of the Meadows—
white house doubled in still water,
Catskills standing watch.
(Esopus Meadows Lighthouse)
Part 2
The second part of our trip started with a drive from Kingston, NY to Luray, VA. We stayed the night with Joy and Greg. Joy and Gail were best friends in high school. Unfortunately we forgot to take a picture of the people, but here’s the view from their front yard.
We’d scouted this park the year before,
Told Hannah it was worth the tour.
So back we came for our yearly meet,
A recommendation made complete.
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Hannah’s family: Darin, Adelaide, Liza, Dietrich, and Timmy.
Hiking! Swimming! Eating ice cream!
Every day the Beachy crew fulfilled their dream!
Timmy and Eppie, a ball-loving pair,
Her tie-out line could tangle the affair.
So he’d stand on a stump,
Give the ball a good pump,
She’d fetch it and lay it with care.
Slowed steps, busy hands—
Adelaide’s blanket now done,
sent with all our love.
No room in the car, so we made our own way,
Eppie and I climbed the hill every day.
From the top we’d pause at this overlook view,
Before heading down to the lake and the crew.
It was raining out
The van was dry and cozy
A fine place to play
Swimming in the stream
The lake offered the same fun
It’s a vacation
At week’s end we started back to Florida. We stopped in North Carolina to see Gail’s sister and her brother. (Front to back: Josh (Gail’s brother’s grandson), me, Gail, Joe, Patti (Gail’s sister), Matt (Gail’s brother) and Lynette.
We also got to see a few more nice places, like this campground on the Crooked River near the Georgia coast.
It was a great trip. After our return to Florida we served with three more volunteer teams and had the joy of moving a homeowner back into her house. See that post here.