1st Trip Fall of 2010

Where did the last three months go? We left home on September 25th and traveled over 8,000 miles on two trips to six conventions. We spent 50 nights on the road and reached all the way north to Duluth and south to Tampa.

Our first trip started out stopping for a night in Pratt, WV, to visit long time friends Dave and Bettye Baughan. Dave is pastor of his home church and we arrived in time for the evening service and then camped for the night in their parking lot.

Then it was on to South Bend, Indiana for our first convention. Actually, our two colleagues, Shannon and Champ, were also exhibiting at another convention in South Bend and we met up to share some of the work load. Conventions are Work!
Upon leaving northern Indiana we headed for Watertown, Wisconsin where we parked for a week at Calvary Baptist Church. It was fun to live for a week in our old stomping grounds. We also were close to Kirk and Chad -- and we took advantage of that close proximity. On the first weekend Kirk came over to Watertown for the day. We took him shopping at the Outlet Mall and ran into old friends from Normal, Illinois who happened to be visiting in the area too. Here is Kirk with Alyce Beernink and Kristy Beernink Dunn.
The next weekend we had the opportunity to spend time with Chad and Jen, which included a short fishing expedition. No fish were caught, but the experience on Lake Mendota was worth the whole trip.
A sad note was added as we shared in some of the last days of Sal, Jen and Chad's cat. Sal had been struggling with a tumor that was debilitating and caused his life to be miserable. Several days after we left Wisconsin Sal had to be put to sleep. "Grandma" Connie had an opportunity to join Jen in comforting Sal during his final days.
While in Watertown we had the privilege of connecting with a number of friends from our past days of ministry. Here we are enjoying great food and fellowship with Wayne and Carole Vawter at the Upper Krust. This fabulous restaurant is owned by our dear friend Donna Kurschner. We enjoyed two delicious lunches at the Upper Krust.
After a quick trip to Pittsburgh for a convention we headed further north into Wisconsin and parked our trailer for a few days at Cheryl and Dwight Turbett's driveway. It was fun to see them and to have them come into our home away from home. While parked at the Turbett's we took an overnight side trip up to Lake Nebagamon and Duluth. Here is our old family cabin (now owned by the Seidler's) on Maranatha Bay. The cabin looks great. A more complete report of our Nebagamon visit can be seen at http://carlsontravels.blogspot.com/.

Beautiful Maranatha Bay on Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin

Before leaving the north we spent a night on the water front in Duluth. Here is the famous Aerial Lift Bridge that was next to our motel on Canal Park.
The next morning our truck wouldn't start and several men came to try to help us before the AAA service truck arrived. Turned out that the guy on the right was a campaign aide for Chip Cravaack, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Congress. This was two weeks before the election. Congressman-elect Cravaack is the fellow who unseated the 18 term incumbent James Oberstar.

After the great time "up north" we headed for our last convention of this trip. That convention was in a suburb of Minneapolis which afforded us the opportunity to meet the Brasks' and Cutlans' for dinner. What a great time!