A really lovely day – though it started early courtesy of Anne’s jet lag. She was wide awake at 5.30am which for Anne is unknown. So there we were chatting away when for once this early bird would have rolled over and gone back to sleep.
At 7am we went for a walk around the block. And Anne was amazed at the houses on Knoxview Lane (the road next-door to the parsonage) and their proximity to Lake Norman. Several are for sale and American estate agents (“Realtors”) have little boxes underneath the “For Sale” sign with the details in which made for interesting reading. Over $1m for a house backing on to the Lake. Though an equally lovely house on the same road but not on the Lake (but having access to it via a slipway opposite) was $650,000.
Having come home and had a cuppa (and Anne having set up her blog) the three of us headed in to Mooresville for breakfast at my favourite place “The Daily Grind”. Crab cake eggs benedict. Mmm. (Be still my clogged heart.) Then we gave Anne a brief tour round Mooresville – though nowhere near as comprehensive as the tours I got from friends at church.
Back home, it was time to put the test match back on and to have the joy of England thrashing Australia, before preparing to head out for the latest attack on the arteries, a visit to Sims Barbecue.
We assembled at the church and a group of around 30 people headed off in the two church mini buses and a couple of cars.
Sims is in the back of beyond. If I’d been kidnapped there would have been no need to blindfold me I’d never find it again! After driving for about 1 ½ hours we arrived at a barn like place. And lo and behold this was Sims. Having paid the entrance fee of just over $10 each we joined the queue for food. This being North Carolina (and the name being Sims barbecue) the menu featured - barbecue. But not just the usual pulled pork also roast chicken. And there was the usual feature of high dining North Carolina style “all you can eat.”
No alcoholic beverages were available (no wonder NASCAR grew out of running moonshine) so it was ice tea.
An hour or so after we arrived and had eaten, a four piece blue grass band came on stage and started playing. And then the local cloggers took to the floor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clogging This is a local folk dance and even I could see connections to Irish dancing and to the clog dancing of the north of England and parts of Wales.
The cloggers were fun to watch. Although most of the cloggers were women, occasionally they were joined by a young man who was very good – at least to my untutored eye.
Somehow I was persuaded by a lady from Fair View to join in the dancing. Given I have never ever clogged, have never had a desire to and I was wearing walking sandals, I think I was at a disadvantage. The things we ministers do to placate the troops.
(I should add that the words “Barn Dance” or “Country dancing” always will me with dread. I am firmly with Sir Thomas Beecham who supposedly said "Try everything once, except folk dancing and incest.")
It is hard to judge how many people were at Sims but several hundred. It is obviously a place for friends and families to meet on a Saturday evening. People of all ages were present. And there was a lovely friendly atmosphere.
Around 8.30 we decided we’d leave so we all trooped back to the buses. The more luxurious of the two buses had been commandeered by the young adults and older folk so we middle aged family types were in “The van”. Unfortunately the van refused to start. But the bus had already driven off. That’s what cell phones are for though isn’t it? Wrong! Out in the boondocks there was patchy cell phone coverage.
Eventually (probably after about 20 minutes) the bus returned and a trainee mechanic got off. I don’t know what he did that others hadn't done but the old girl fired up. (The van that is, not one of the pensioners.) But as we drove off it was making a funny noise so that one of the van passengers said “I think we’re pulling a clogger with us!”
A fun evening made all the more so by the conversations in the van.
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