WANDERING WITH THE WRIGHTS

July 2, 2019

I am way behind on the blog so we need to travel back in time to late April when we pulled into The Billy Graham Center, called The Cove, in Asheville, NC.

The 4 rev's parked and ready to vulunteer at The Cove for three weeks

This is inside one of the two Inn's were people attending the many seminars offered can stay.  Ruth Graham picked out all the furnishings.  Her goal was to make it comfortable and homey and she definitely succeeded.

This is a replica of the last supper all done in crosses

Beautiful cross in the dining hall all made from twigs found on the property

Even though we worked hard there was down time - we had fabulous weather while we were there

The four couples that served together - we all got along so well & truly enjoyed each others company

This is where all the beautiful flowers were delivered that we helped plant

Before

After

Before

After - Wish we could have seen them about a month later when they were all filled in

We spent a few days helping out in the laundry

All of the machines were named - the iron was  Nebuchadnezzar

Abendnego

We also put together binders that held the speakers notes for the participants

The men did a lot of power washing

Cleaned up and repainted signs

And spent most of their time repainting the inside of the radio station

The staff attends devotions every morning and we were invited to join them.  

All of the staff leaders did an awesome job but the highlight was when Will Graham (Billy Grahams grandson & Franklin Grahams son) led devotions on Friday's.

He was so down to earth and friendly

It wasn't all work while we were there.  We took an interesting bus tour of Asheville -The Omni Grove Hotel built in 1913
One we could never afford to stay in but it was great fun walking around and checking it out

beautiful falls in the back of the hotel

This used to be a psychiatric hospitals in this area

This was the administration building - wouldn't mind living there

We also drove 2 hours east to Charlotte to visit the Billy Graham Library 

They moved the home Billy Graham grew up in a short distance to be on the property with the library

The entrance to the Library - Billy Graham was raised on a farm

And as much as we enjoyed the library and we did the highlight was meeting up with dear friends from our hometown of Gurnee, IL.  Bob & Mary Lynn Dubler retired years ago to Charlotte and we so enjoyed having lunch and catching up with them.

We then traveled down into South Carolina and visited dear friends - and didn't take any pictures of them!!!  Can't believe it.

While visiting Nancy & Jeff Jeffries we took a wonderful boat tour of the Jocassee Valley

We saw many beautiful waterfalls

The light green fern shown here only grows near this lake and in Vericruz

Teddy loves walking by the water - not so wild about going in though

Love it when our home is by the water

Teddy relaxing as we travel down the road

 We then headed even further south to Charleston, SC and visited my late husband's sister and her husband.  We had a wonderful visit with Sue & Jim and can't believe I didn't take pictures

We decided it would be getting warm enough for us to head north toward Illinois.  On the way we stopped at my late husband's cousin's house - she had a mini family reunion - it was so great to see everyone.
Judy still lives on their farm so we were able to park right on the property. 

We really enjoyed staying on the farm 

We are now back in Illinois where we retired from and where I lived most of my life. 

We have had lots of wonderful family time since arriving about a month ago

 

Vincent showing Grandpa various animals

The first time he spent the night with us - hope there are many more 

My mom is doing extremely well - she will be 96 next month

Teddy has a new friend named Doki - he comes by every evening about 5:30 for  play time

My gift from Vincent his first time over this summer

Vincent - getting so big

My cousin Lauri and her husband Shaun hosted a family reunion - was beyond wonderful visiting with so many of m cousins and their children

Our oldest grandson Calvin and his dad Chris

Our 2nd oldest grandson who was visiting from Michigan with Bianca

Our reason for coming back to Illinois is to see family and friends.  We have been so blessed the last month to see so many of the people we love and hope to have a lot more visits before we leave in September

Until the next blog - stay healthy, enjoy the summer and hug the ones you love and tell them what they mean to you

Blessings, Carol & Jerry