Vacation Summary

Well the Haider family is back from our summer vacation! Two weeks. A TON of miles. Tent camping. Mosquito bites. Poison ivy. Chiggers. And brochures coming out our ears. But wow, what a blast!

A lot of people have asked how the trip went and what all we accomplished. I thought I'd attempt a quick run down of our affairs because there's no way to answer that question adequately face to face.

We pulled out Sunday evening after church. Our friend graciously loaned us his minivan and we were packed in! Corban was not a very good car-rider so the plan was to do most of the long distance driving at night after his bedtime. We ended up driving through the night. One short nap somewhere in eastern Kentucky during a torrential downpour was the only thing that slowed us down. By 7am Monday morning, we were pulling into our camping site near Lynchburg Virginia.

In seminary Jessica and I had befriended a missionary from Romania. He was getting married in Lynchburg on Tuesday (hence this particular stage of our trip) and the rehearsal was Monday evening. In the meantime, we set up camp, took a nice nap, did some grocery shopping, and began the process of relaxation.

Tuesday day we ventured out on our first site-seeing journey. (This was wonderfully simplified by two devices we brought with us: a TomTom GPS navigation system and my iPhone.) Tom (as we affectionately referred to our GPS buddy) led us onto a back-woods gravel country road up into the mountains to catch the famous Blueridge Mountain Parkway. What a beautiful highway! We stopped at a small group of mountains called Peaks of Otter. We decided to stop and grill some brats along side the most scenic mountain stream.

Then we set out on a two mile hike to an old historic homestead in the mountains. The family had maintained a very large farm in the mountains and a park interpreter was there to give us a great, one-on-one tour of the farm place.

It must have been 90+ that day. We were hot and worn out from the hike. Someone told us about a local gas station that sold homemade peach ice cream. Sold! It really hit the spot. As we were eating, we saw a sign that indicated we were only a few miles from the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA. We decided to check it out. It wasn't quite what we expected, but still very educational.

After another torrential downpour cut our memorial visit short, we had to hightail it back to camp to get ready for the wedding. Let's just say that I tried a little too hard to make up some time, and now I owe the state of Virginia a small sum of money.

The wedding was great. I got to speak with and get counsel from a kind of former pastor of ours from our time in Louisville. I even got to visit with Paul Washer for a few minutes.

Wednesday was our last day at that campsite near Lynchburg and so we had to visit actual Lynchburg! What a day! We started by visiting this plantation home of Thomas Paine's doctor.

(And no, that child is not dead on the sidewalk.)

After grabbing some local pizza for lunch, we hit Appomattox Court House. This is the small village that saw the beginning of the end of the Civil War. We toured the old houses and the museum. We even walked through the very house where General Lee and General Grant worked out the terms of the surrender.

Standing in the fields where Union and Confederate soldiers died was an awesome experience, but the day was starting to drag on and we were all very hot! We started back for home, passing through Lynchburg again and visiting a historic Civil War cemetery. We were finally back to camp in time to have a fire, roast some marshmallows, and just begin to get some r&r.

...to be continued...