This Way or That Way

on the road.

Thanks to our friends Mrs. Appendicitis and Mr. Heat Wave, we scratched all plans of camping this week. That's been put on the back burner until my belly feels better and cooler weather comes our way. Never mind that though. We were off to bigger and better endeavors this week, namely:

We hopped in the van early Tuesday morning and off we went! Tuesday was meant for sight seeing, doing fun things, and just getting a real feel for this place. I've had a feeling for several months that just hasn't gone away that this is the place for us. We'd never been there before...just driven through on our way to Boone. Never stopped though. And the sound of Hickory just didn't sound appealing to us. "Hickory...do hicks live there?! " Or as Green Light is constantly saying, "Hickory Dickory Dock?!" Or maybe it's just all woods full of Hickory wood with nothing else in town?

But it didn't take us long to see that our preconceived notions were all wrong. And in a jiffy I found myself saying,

We weren't even doing the "touristy" things that might be so fun as to win one's heart over. My purpose was to do things that I would normally do if I by chance lived there. We went to the park, the lake, and spent time together. There's a feeling you get when something is right. Right; meaning the right course in life. There's an excitement that accompanies that didn't accompany anywhere else. There's a feeling that you're at home. There's the feeling that you're a kid in a candy store already wanting to go back before you've even left.

Straight Arrow taught the kids about

but within the first hour of being in Hickory, Straight Arrow and I both knew that our hearts wouldn't be skipping over Hickory. We sure hope that all the other business details hammer themselves out now that we're in love!

I think we've found our place. Stay tuned for installment #2 of the on the road series. Meanwhile, it's on to convincing our friends that this is

the place for them, too.