On the road to find out.: Charlotte NC/ Concord NC part 3 finally

I stayed in North Carolina for 5 days. thursday afternoon to wednesday afternoon. One of those days i stayed with some other amazing bible college friends who lived right down the road from Christy, my friendly host.

If i were to post pics of NC it would pretty much be all Christy and her boy, so far.
I added a pic of my college friend Calley and her boy. i forgot to take the shot before her hubby matt left for work.

My whole time was enjoyable for me in the Charlotte area.

I went to visit a church that Christy went to. i REALLY enjoyed it. It was great. Extremely focused on loving those around them in the most practical of ways. really playing a part in the community and all. the church was called University City Church I think. The pastors name was Brian. He was talking about living out Jesus. u know the word becoming flesh. He spoke of 3 things that keep people from having Christ live out thru them. the first one hit home.

1. accumulation of knowledge. searching for that next doctrine to know and study. knowledge knowledge knowledge. Scriptures and the knowledge of them becoming pre-eminent. then he quoted things like "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life." i don't know how much of that applied to me. but it struck pretty good. mmm.

2. the american dream keeps us from being a tangible Jesus.

3. flat out pride.

it was a good time. I think it's a good place for Christy and her boy. I spoke to the pastor afterward and debated scriptures with him. just kidding. heh. =) but i did tell him where i was coming from. great, honest, and humble guy.

so then one of the last days i went to visit Calley and the hubby. we played mad gab!! That's a fun game. we played this after much healthy spiritual dialog. Their boy was funny.

As we had our dialog about faithful type matters, the boy said this....actually, this is a short recollection from Calley's facebook page:

"
We just had an old friend visit from out of town. He has been seeking answers regarding God and faith - outside of the traditional, Biblical, Christian perspective. As he was sharing some of his doubts with us, our four year old, Benjamin, says: "I know everything about God. He's faithful, He's good, and He loves us.... Which one of these don't you know?" It was so cute, pure and simply profound."

It was soooo funny and cute at the same time. =) Actually the first thing he said was, "Do u know about God?" I say, "i'm actually learning about god." Then came the above-mentioned quote. his parents really love Jesus sincerily...and thus the apple doesn't fall far from the tree! Jesus in Jesus out.
The following morning Matt left and a gentleman named Stephen stopped by to join me and Calley for breakfast......i don't know if it was intended for him to speak to me or if it was just a random stop-by. But i still get teary eyed when i talk about some of this stuff, which happened. Calley and this guy tried to encourage me toward the faith. He gave me a scripture that he thought God wanted to share with me having to do with desires and God bringing them to pass. anyhow. there's a lot of conversation that went on. no need to share. it was interesting.

compared to these 3 lovely folks and the boy, i don't think i've ever been spiritual in my life.

Another day, actually the second day of my stay, Fred took a few hours off and took me kayaking down the Katawba (?sp) river. WWEEEEEEEEE. i loved it!. Fred knows everything about every freaking animal that came in our sight. it was fun hearing about the osprey's and the blue herrings and fishes and the history and sidenotes of everything we passed! and we FISHED! i caught a littlee itty bitty fish. and then put it back in the water. super great time.

i think that's it. i did bunches of stuff with Christy and her boy. some are in the pics.

today is 3pm in Asheville NC. this morning i woke up in the walmart parking lot. last night i went dancing. it was called Contra dancing. very much like square dancing. not that i know what that is really like.i went to this school called Warren Wilson i think. it was a very very hippie school. the gym where the dance was smelled like armpit. womanly armpit. and petuli oil. women had hair on their legs and hair under their pits. but they were beautiful still. i don't know if they were lesbians or just free from the typical womanly patterns that most all women hold to. not all them had hair on the legs and pits. There was old people there too. and there was young and old men alike. some of the men were wearing skirts. The school was a hippie school. very liberal and earthy. the whole college was hidden in the woods of NC. everyone who goes to the school works at the school and learns a trade. whether a/c, electrical, cooking, .....and this is all i know. some kid led me to the place and was telling me about the school.
The dance. there was a lot of spinning in the dance. the gym was packed with humans jumping and dancing like crazy. by my 3rd dance i felt like puking and my shirt was absolutely soaked with sweat. i ended up leaving and finding a place to swing dance. all older people again. before i left the Contra dance, i danced with a girl name Luce....."light" i said. yup. she had asked me if i had traveled the blue ridge parkway yet. i said no.
Sooooooo. this morning i woke up at the wal mart parking lot. Looking for a spot to sleep was different than the previous night. That previous night one of the big lights in the parking lot was out and i gravitated right to it. it was a dark cubby that i took advantage of. so last night all the lights were on so i drove around looking. There were sooo many people sleeping in cars. at least 13-14 thruout the whole lot. i backed into a spot and the car next to me had towels and sheet on the outside of the car covering the light. as i backed in i could see them moving. their windows were open and their feet out the window, but still covered by the sheets. i respectfully moved away from them cuz i still had to make dinner at midnite and brush my teeths. anyway. it was pretty interesting.
so i read a little and took off to the BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY. this parkway is a pure climb thru the mountains up to the highest point in NC, Mt. Mitchell i think. I say i think cuz i didn't make it all the way. u know before u go on long stretches with no gas stations, they typically tell u. i had just over a quarter tank of gas. but cruising up these hills guzzled it pretty quick. i drove 20 miles or so up at 35mi per hour seeing some pretty amazing things. MOUNTAIN TOP EXPERIENCE. and when i made it pretty far i stopped at a visitor stop to find out where the next gas station was. 35 miles up before more gas or the 18 or so back down....downhill all the way.....dangit! i didn't wanna take any chances. i was thinking when i was cruising that this is pretty cool that i don't have to go back down the mountain. i have everything i need in my car. i can just continue to drive. don't need to ask anyone or tell anyone anything. but,....i came back down and decided to finish my blog. i need to make them more often so it doesn't pile up.

i need to keep reminding myself that these blogs don't need to be entertaining. i don't need to say something spiffy to please u the reader. life isn't always spiffy. trips like i am on is an interesting one... but everywhere i go is the same stuff that is in san antonio minus a few amazing sights to see. people live. work. play. drink. go to super wal mart. eat out. get fat. ride bikes. drink star bucks. go to church. don't go to church. i guess i coulda stayed in texas. heh. but i'm not. i'm still diggin this no matter how much each town starts to look the same to me.

i was thinking about why i like hitch hiking. i think it's because there is no way around the human contact. I need the human interaction to get from point to point. with my car i have my map and car. i can talk to people at my convenience. ...and because it's at my convenience, sometimes i choose not to talk to people. But typically, people are the action of my trip. they have the stories that move me. they have the ideas to share. if i could only find it in myself to start more convos.