American Adventure (6) "24 hours of pear-shaped..."

I've read enough travel books to know the formula; sooner or later every roadtrip adventure becomes a misadventure. This account of the last 24 hours is my addition to the canon of woeful travel tales.

There's a verse in the Bible that states (and I'm paraphrasing) "If you think you stand firm beware lest you fall", or if you prefer your wisdom wrapped up in a  vernacular rather than a Biblical phrase "pride comes before a fall." I was feeling proud. Heck, no- I was feeling very proud. I'd driven almost 1000 miles over 3 different States, not got lost, always found my way to where I was supposed to be, no cell phone, just me, a satnav and the open road - I felt like a latter day Marco Polo. This solo travel thing was easy, right?

Wrong.

My first mistake, though, had nothing to do with navigation. It was much more embarrassing than that. I drove the couple of hundrd miles from North Carolina to Tennessee, driving through the beautiful Appalachian mountains, and arrived at the Macado's restaurent for my meeting. The only problem was that Trever Ruble, the guy I was due to meet wasn't there. Eventually I decided to phone him, so borrowed the restaurent's phone, and was answered by a slightly baffled sounding Trevor Ruble who said "Jon, today's Tuesday" ..... and then I remembered. It was Wednesday that I was due to meet him, Tuesday had been built into the diary as a "catch up" day, with the objective of getting to Kingsport in Tennessee, catching breath, sorting my stuff and then meeting Trevor the following day.

"Dang!" as they say round these parts if they're trying not to swear.

And so I drove to my motel, the Colonial Inn in Kingsport feeling slightly sheepish and very silly.

 

 

However, the day was redeemed when I was contacted in the evening by Brandon Howard, a long distance friend who I know from the "Christian Outdoorsman" website who, having heard I was in Tennessee, wondered if I fancied going out for the evening. He turned up at the motel, and drove me out to a nearby lake and showed me the beautiful countryside. We saw a number of deer on our drive, talked a lot about theology and church, and finally met up with his wife and their incredibly cute 5 year old daughter and had frozen yoghurt at a local place. A great evening, and a nice surprise- thanks Brandon.

 

 

 The next morning I returned to Bristol for my meeting ("take two") with Trevor. On the way I passed a pro-life protest outside a euphemistically named "Womens Centre" (abortion clinic), and decided to stop and ask the protesters if I could take a photo. The majority of the protesters were on the other side of the carriageway, and crossing it on foot would have been somewhere between foolhardy and suicidal, but there were four protesters on my side of the road. I chatted with them for a bit, and once they were assured that I was (a) a Christian, and (b) pro-life, they agreed to me taking a picture. There were two rather eccentric looking, elderly protesters and two incredibly attractive female protesters in their late teens, and, so as not to leave any impression that my motives were less than pure, I photographed the elderly ones- shame, as the other two were dead photogenic!

 

 

I left the protestors, and drove on to my lunchtime appointment. Trevor Ruble is a schoolteacher whose "Hooked for Life" program now operates in 23 States. In a nutshell it's a Gospel teaching program that uses teaching kids to fish as a means of also teaching them about Jesus and what it means to become and be a Christian. Trevor has developed a whole syllabus which integrates practical angling lessons (how to tie hooks, use weights, set up rigs, cast etc.) with fishing sessions and Christian teaching and Bible study. The course is well thought out and skilfully links the Christian themes with illustrations drawn from the world of angling and opportunities for kids to actually fish. Trevor kindly gave me a load of information and "how to" guides and added to my T-shirt and baseball cap collection. Like the Presbyterian hikers and backpackers, Patrick from "Ironman Outdoors", and Brent from "4 Outdoorsmen", Trevor was passionate about evangelism, about Jesus, and about using the outdoors and fishing for a "higher purpose."

 

 

I left Bristol, set the Satnav and headed off for Kentucky. The drive through the Appalachians was stunning, although the housing began to be dominated by small ramshackle shacks and trailer-park homes with broken down pick-ups rusting in the yard as I got deeper into the mountains, and I strained my ears for the warning sound of duelling banjo's!

The journey was uneventful until I was about 5 miles from my destination, Wilmore in Kentucky, where I was to stay with Philip and Fiona and their two daughters, friends of mine from the UK, now living in Kentucky, where Philip is completing a PHD in theology. The problem was that several new roads had been built since my satnav was manufactured, and I ended up hopelessly lost with a confused satnav driving through rural Kentucky. The few locals I spoke to were friendly, polite but also clueless as to how the local roads had changed, and after an hour's driving through tiny villages I eventually borrowed a friendly young woman's (wearing a "Jesus is Lord" T-shirt) cell phone and called Philip, who came out in his car and, humbled for the second time in two days, I followed him to their home. Tommorow in the US I'll be joining in the celebrations for the 4th of July, while back in the UK my daughter will be looking dazzling at her school prom. I'm having a great time, but I do miss my family- 9 days till I see them again, and counting .....