Appointments of GOD

We saw Saint Augustine!

 We walked for hours.

The fort.

The school.

The church.

The kitsch.

The serene.

And all is available on my FACEBOOK page to look at in detail.

BUT…

The highlights of the day involve two chance meetings, appointments of God we believers believe.  So that is what this post is all about.

We had just settled in for a wonderful supper of Mexican Salad when a tapping at my window by the table revealed a school bus driver asking if we minded him parking beside us with his engine running while his co-ed middle school basketball team chowed down at Chick-fil-a.  Mind?  Mona put the meal on hold and we invited him in to share a Coke and a visit. He had already had his packed supper earlier.

 

Bill has been helping out with his kids private school bus driving for games ever since he became an assistant baseball coach there.  But his real life business is produce.  Specifically selling Florida produce to stores like Giant, Weis, and yes, Stauffer’s of Kissel Hill!  He has not sold to SKH personally but knows much about the family and company.  And he’s been to Lancaster County.

In fact, he’s driving up to Berks County in a week to help his brother, who lives 20 minutes north of Douglassville, PA,  sell pick-your-own Christmas trees off his farm in Bechtelsville.  Imagine that.

Bill may not have time to visit Hope Church, but he said he’d wave as he drives by.

I said there were two chance meetings.  Do you remember the amazing Mercedes RV we have now seen twice since coming south of Savannah, Georgia? We saw it again at the end of our day in St. Augustine!  This time at the Walmart Supercenter a mile south of our Home Depot.

 Seeing it was neat enough.  And yes, I put another of our cards in its drivers window.  But I was walking an aisle in the food market when I heard a family unmistakably speaking French.  They could have been Canadian, but… NO!  They were them!

Anthony and Benedicte Rigo, with their two lovely daughters (names sadly forgotten, but we’ll find out).  We spoke for a long time in the aisle when they invited us to visit their RV.

Their journey was five years in the planning, thinking, re-thinking, and thinking again for them.  Just like ours. 

They have sold everything in France near Paris  where they lived, including their business. Just like us.

But their children are five and eight, while ours are forty and forty two and our and their ages are… different.

What a trip!  Two years long and they are less than half way along.  Bonne Mama, Benedicte’s mother, is flying into Miami in 30 days to have Christmas with them and travel a month across the lower south.  Yes, they assured us they have plenty of room.

As to that room, their accommodations reminded us a lot of the years we owned our wonderful PUMPKIN.  As the kids got older, and longer, we finally had to graduate into a Starcraft popup but oh the travel memories!

Our daughter, Jenn, would understand this reason for them to take this trip while the girls are so young. The girls would be less inclined to enjoy two years away from home as teenagers.  We agree.

They bought the truck new in Germany and had it shipped to Halifax, Nova Scotia.  They have been coming gradually south ever since.

If you go to their website you will see their lifestyle, and experiences, in detail.

www.tao-en-vadrouille.com

It means:  Turtle on the Road, and they know Willie Nelson’s ‘On the Road Again’ well. They call their RV TAO (turtle). We call ours FROG. And you know our car is TOAD.  How alike we are!

But not so surprising, perhaps.  As I related at our departure last evening, they are modern French Voyageurs of the 18^th century reborn to the 21st.  We are American  Travelers (not pioneers; such a title belongs only to the FIRST who make the journey). We are, despite our differences in age and homeland, all six of us, ADVENTURERS! Explorers of the Whats-Over-The-Next-Hill type.

(TY guys for the loan of some pics from your website which I have used above)

Now on with our adventure.  Today we dump (grey and black water), fill fresh water, propane and diesel).  And get that tire looked at for safety.  Then about 100 miles south and a little due west of Daytona beach to DeLeon Springs UMC for a week of relaxation, worship, mission, and fun.

Peace to all!

-Ken