It was a wonderful Feast of Tabernacles this year. I went to Sandusky, Ohio to stay at the Kalahari Resort. We had nine days of sermons and fellowship that was so much fun and informational. I even got to see a real live baby tiger named Tate, who is so cute. No petting though, unless you want to pay $40 first to have your photo made with the cub.
The trip was long by car, about 500 miles from Tennessee one way. I rented a great car from Enterprise, a Dodge Avenger. Wow, what a car! I really enjoyed driving it. It was so comfortable compared to my old beat up 1998 Nissan Sentra. But the Sentra has been a good car for me. I can't complain about that sweet old vehicle. It's served me well over the years with very few problems. I think I would buy another Sentra if I ever get another car.
The drive up to Ohio with two other vans of families from my church was kind of scary for me. I've never been farther North than Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. So this drive was an adventure for me. I had purchased a Garmin GPS just for the trip and it worked well. The only hard drive was through rush hour traffic in Cincinnati. That was frightening. I've never seen so many cars in my life! And the Interestate widened out with lanes seemingly all over the place to me. I will never complain about Nashville traffic again. Whew! I was so glad to get out of that heavy traffic. My stomach was in knots the whole time.
My friends who travelled with me kept me in the center of their two vans. That was great friendship to do that. I felt protected the entire way, except for the Cincinnati rush hour traffic. That was horrendous! How can anyone stand to drive in that every day?!! *laugh*
We arrived at Kalahari at mid-day on Friday. The resort is modeled after a safari in Africa. They had several restaurants there as well as an indoor water park. To see women and men parading around half dressed wasn't too pleasant however. But that's how people are today. I tried not to take notice of them. After the weekend most of the water park people went home. I heard that they were mostly locals anyhow.
We stayed for nine days at Kalahari. I was so homesick right away and had to trick my mind into not thinking about how far from Tennessee I was. It helped to see people that I recognized from my church arriving. People also came from other areas around the globe, but mostly from the North, like New York.
I shared a room with a very nice lady named Geneva and we got along exceptionally well. I think that made my trip much more enjoyable to have good fellowship with a wonderful room mate.
I enjoyed the Kalahari very much. The only trouble I ran into was a stalker who followed me around the resort and would just stand and stare at me. That was weird. I found out his first name is Bill, but I have no idea what his last name is. Someone told me that I reminded him of his daughter who had died some time ago. Bill, an older fat man, sat with me in the meetings a time or two, which wasn't too pleasant. He kept moving his arm against me as he wrote notes. He would speak from time to time, but mostly he just gawked at me. I finally had to say something to get him away from sitting with me in the future. Then he'd suddenly show up when I was talking to someone and just stand and stare. On the last day we were there I noticed Bill walk up with a camera. He aimed it at me, but I didn't want him to make my picture and I shook my head at him not to do it. But he continued to aim the camera at me so I hurridly lifted my shorthand notebook in front of my face and kept it there until he walked away. I am so glad to be away from that man! He's the only bad memory I have of the entire trip.
Some people may have felt sorry for Bill, I guess, since his daughter had died. But even at that, no one should be subjected to his kind of behavior. Besides, the way he was moving his arm against me wasn't very fatherly. I won't describe it, but you can probably imagine. Well, it's over with and, hopefully, I will never see Bill ever again anytime soon.
The trip home was enjoyable for me. I was so delighted to see the words, "Florence, y'all!," when we got into Kentucky. We took I-75 home which took us through some lovely Kentucky scenic land. I love Kentucky 'cause it's in the South and I felt more at home already as we drove through it. The Fall trees were lovely with all the shades of brown, green, orange and yellow leaves. Absolutely gorgeous!!
It's good to be back home in Tennessee. There is really no place like home.
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