Was part of a trip that took 6 children from Fairview to Dan Nicholas Park near Salisbury NC. (About an hour’s drive from Mooresville.) This was part of the regular “Fun Fridays” programme that runs at Fairview during the summer. Aimed at those in what we would call Primary School.
Leading the expedition was the Director of Children’s ministry accompanied by someone who works in the church nursery school. She explained that sometimes numbers can be greater than this and sometimes there will be children who aren’t from church families though today the children were all churched.
Off we trundled in one of the two church mini buses (or “vans”). We had been going for about 5 minutes when we heard a plaintive cry of “My yogurt’s leaking.” It’s a sign of a well organised trip when such an emergency can be seamlessly dealt with.
The drive to Salisbury was lovely along quiet country roads with lots of trees and farms.
The journey allowed me to chat to the Director (who was driving) and she had a really interesting story to tell about her life, her family and her interests.
Dan Nicholas Park is a mixture of activities for children from a miniature railway, small zoo, a carousel and crazy golf. (Sadly didn’t get to play crazy golf. I suspect as the Americans didn’t want a repeat of the Ryder Cup and Justin Rose winning the US Open.)
The other thing we did, which I think must be unique, was that we panned for gem stones. Everyone is given a large bucket filled with sand and gravel and then this is sieved in a channel of fast flowing water. Clearly the stones are planted as everyone got some (such as quartz, fool’s gold and amethyst). But it was great fun panning for the stones.
And it was a pleasant relief to sit in some shade as we panned for the temperature today was around 90F.
At lunch one small child who was lovely but fairly boisterous produced from his lunch box a packet of Oreo biscuits and a can of Mountain Dew. If you’re not familiar with this drink it is a citrus flavoured energy drink. Probably not as potent as Red Bull but with enough of a zip for a small child. The child did suddenly get a new lease of life. But thankfully it wasn’t too long before we headed home.
Then this evening Tom and I went to dinner at the lovely couple from church who have been looking after us. They had invited a few friends round and we had a great time. The original plan was to sit outside and eat but the weather intervened. (We must be heading into the third hour of a thunder storm.)
A good variety of conversation. But the show stopper for me was when one guest told how he was authorised to conduct marriage having applied on line to a place in Las Vegas. He’d done it originally as a bit of a dare. But since then he has conducted several marriages for friends and has another two lined up.
Given the amount of hassle marriages cause I wonder if there is any chance of sending some more his way?
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