Off-Road Christmas Tree Adventure

Our friends Michael, Heidi, & Hunter invited us to go with them to Franklin, NC (where Michael is from) to find & cut our Christmas tree. So, we went on Saturday. They had warned us that the tree farm was a bit off the road and the forecast was for snow!

We followed Michael (white truck) & his dad (red truck) up the mountain.

It had snowed earlier in the day and the higher we got the more snow there was.

Still going up...

At this point Josh started talking about "engaging the lockers" & got really, REALLY excited.

We didn't stop at this tree patch...

or this one...

or this one...

We went to the very top! Where it was very cold.

We tried to get a picture of Sam & Troy with the valley in the background. Sam is looking...

now Troy is looking.

Josh & Sam before we start stomping through all the trees to pick ours out.

We found the perfect tree, had it cut down & loaded on top of the Cruiser for the trip back to Seneca. What a great day. Thanks Bowmans!

Roommates

Before Thanksgiving I was able to get together with my favorite girls EVER from Clemson. We roomed together my first senior year. What a wonderful year that was. We were quite the mix of personalities and passions but somehow it worked.

We met in Greenville at a cute girly restaurant. It was a lot of fun hanging out and talking with them. Our lives have changed since college but we still have that connection with each other that no matter how long it has been since seeing each other we can pick up where we left off and have deep, meaningful conversation.

Allison and I served one summer together with World Changers as summer staffers. What an experience and it was amazing to share some of that with such a close friend. She is also the reason for my biggest claim to fame...my interview on NPR's All Things Considered with Linda Wertheimer. We were helping out with disaster relief in New York during Thanksgiving '01 and Allison was on the planning & logistics team and mentioned that I'd be a good candidate for the interview. Wow! She still works for the North American Mission Board and has all kinds of amazing adventures...I never know where she's going to be when I leave her a voicemail.

Kristi and I performed together with the group Take Note...she has a GREAT voice (the only reason I was in the group was because I would smile & occasionally maintain enough of a beat to do vocal percussion). Kristi & her family (hubby Jake, son Logan, & soon to be baby girl!) now live in the Atlanta area.

April always seemed to be able to introduce me to so many new people and have crazy unplanned adventures. I remember going to a Clemson bowl game with her. We were going to stay with one of her former roommates but one of the guys with us was allergic to cats and there was a cat in the apartment so we randomly ended up staying with a family that one of the other girls parents knew. April & her family (husband Brad, son Samuel, & daughter Abby) are preparing to leave for the mission field. North Africa has no idea what is about to come its way!

While walking around downtown we saw this stationary bike chained to the tree. Which brought up 2 interesting questions...

#1 - How did it get there?

#2 - Why was it chained up? Did they really think someone was going to take it? How?