07/21/2026
Well, if you don't know by now, we are on vacation!!! Praise God!!!
But let me tell you how this vacation started out...
Hubby tried so hard to make this a perfect vacation. His plans were to rent an SUV to take us to NC so he didn't put any wear & tear on his truck, along with the terrible gas mileage he gets. He also keeps his truck very clean, so a vacation for 4 with snacks, fast food and feet on the seats was not what he wanted. He also booked us a hotel for Saturday night in Ballantyne, NC. His plan was to take us to Elevation Church, which has been a dream of mine for a very long time. He reached out to someone there via email, and so did I, and we got seats reserved for us for Sunday morning. I was especially excited to go after I found out that Pastor Steven Furtick was going to be there after a long sabbatical off.
The plan was to leave Saturday morning, pick up the rental car, and drive to NC. Well, it didn't go as planned.
Saturday he looks at the rental car dealer website to get directions (it was rented through Priceline, but since we aren't arriving at the airport, he wanted to find their address to go there directly instead of a shuttle from the Airport) and lo and behold, the reviews are all terrible. They got 50 reviews on Trip Advisor and every single one is a 1 star. Apparently they make you pay for their insurance only, at an additional $35 per day AND they hit your card for an extra $1000 if you leave the state. Thank God he saw that!!! After some debating, he decided to take his truck after all. We loaded it all up and off we went. We left approximately 11 am, 4 of us, me, my hubby George, and my two youngest kids Jacob and Josiah. We all hop in the truck and we head on the way. Not 5 minutes into the ride, Jacob's drink explodes and gets on my hubby's arm. He's not amused. 5 minutes later, I spilled my drink into his car door. I didn't bring any napkins, so unfortunately the only cleaning napkin I had was the one's that they give me at the hospital to wipe after my urine exams LOL. Anyways, the door is now clean and hubby can only laugh... Based on this alone, we should've known what today was going to be like...
We stopped to eat at Wawa's and also picked up snacks in Publix and Jacob got the grilled chicken meal. We ate in the car. Now Publix grilled chicken tastes great, but it literally smells like rotten feet lol. And Hubby isn't happy because of the new aroma in his truck. But he loves us, so he drives straight through to NC, only stopping to fill up for gas and for everyone use the restroom. The rest of the ride up is rather smooth. We arrive at the hotel around 10PM.
Hubbyy goes into the hotel to check us in and comes out about 30 minutes later looking disappointed. They said that they over-booked and there are no rooms for us. We stopped at about another 6 local hotels. All said the same. Apparently there was a Chris Brown and Usher concert in town, along with a Monster Truck Jam, along with a huge softball tournament and another huge basketball tournament and there were no hotels available in a 40 mile radius. We drove everywhere for about 4 hours and there was nothing. It was now 4am, and we are all tired, especially hubby. But, after all this, he was still very determined to get us to Elevation Church. I tried to keep my composure, but I admit that I was emotionally drained and crying. We were also all cranky from being in a truck for almost 16 hours straight. Then Hubby came up with a plan.
We went to the Love's Truck Stop right near the NC/SC border and we ordered 4 showers. Yes, these are the same shower stalls that truckers use when they are on the road. 4:30 AM and we all shower and change into our church clothes. Then hubby drives back to Ballantyne, NC and we find a large parking lot near the church and we slept for a couple of hours. We got up around 7:30 AM and ate at IHOP, then we went into Elevation Worship.
At Elevation Worship, I felt at home. There we met a staffer named Jared, who was the person hubby had emailed a few days ago and he escorted us to our seats. We were finally excited to be at our destination. The place was filled with energy and the preaching was exactly what we needed to hear.
I would do it all again and we all laugh about everything immediately after the service. From here we drove straight to Blue Ridge, GA to a cabin that we rented for the rest of the week.
So yes, this was Day 1 of the trip. The photos here are mostly at 4:30 AM when we are getting our clothes to take showers at the Love's Truck Stop. Hubby is happy to see me happy and the kids now have a story that they can share with their kids in the future. It might have not started the way that I wanted, but God is still GOOD.
Thank you Jesus for all the good and bad, because regardless of how things start off, You always make a way to turn it around for Good.
Let's just pray the rest of the vacation goes smoother!
AMEN!!!
