The New Year!!

I never cease to be amazed by our God and my inadequacy to serve him... Let me start off by telling you about my amazing trip funded by the Lord. We thoroughly enjoyed North Carolina and visiting with friends.. but Jody, my forever friend, wanted to see Charleston, South Carolina while we were so close. I was along for the ride and ready to roll wherever. Our friend Todd didn't want to go and we were very frustrated at him for being a party pooper, but realize now that God wanted to bless us. We got to Charleston at 2:45 pm thinking we would have plenty of time to catch the ferry out to Fort Sumptner, you know the shot heard round the world place... the last ferry left at 2:30. Jody was really bummed and I was a bit afraid of what would happen next. I suggested we go to the plantations and give them a whirl while we had some time, knowing that everything closes at 5:00 pm to tourists. On the way to the plantations, we saw a sign for Charles Towne Landing which is the spot the first settlers of Charleston arrived and set up fort. We decided since it was close we would give it a shot. It was really cool in that it had gardens, animal exhibits, and a walking tour. We decided to do the Audio walking tour and when we told the lady we were paying, she told us we were 15 minutes too late. Now I was really frustrated and Jody began to cry a little.. I could see the fear in her eyes that our trip was all in vain and that we shouldn't have come.. I knew God was bigger than that! We caught a trolley to the back of the park and toured the ship at the waters edge. The ship's re-enactor was a young guy named CJ who was very knowledgeable about Charlestown with a passion for story telling. Jody and I left him alone when other visitors boarded the ship.. As we were walking away, I got the idea to ask CJ to be our personal tour guide and save our trip. Jody thought I was crazy, but I boldly asked him how much it would cost us and he told us he couldn't accept money, but would give us a tour anyway. We excitedly met him after work and followed him to what we quickly recognized as the Old Exchange Building from our brochures.. He told us he had worked there in the past and that the curator was a close friend. We toured the awesome old building imagining the people that had walked through the same doors, such as George Washington. CJ was an amazing tour guide and knew every answer to every question we could muster.. We got a personal tour of this piece of history absolutley free. Then we followed CJ next door to the Tavern. It is the oldest tavern standing in the US and if walls could only talk, but the owner knew a good bit about the secrets it held. The stories about it being a barber shop during prohibition with a secret room struck interest in me. As we got ready to leave, she offered us a free $60.00 bottle of wine. Cool, I enjoy wine occasionally, and it was a dessert wine that would go well with vanilla ice cream. We were excited and realized that we were living under God's blessing. CJ told us stories of Black Beard and Captain Bellow and the wall that surrounded the city at that time. We walked the entire old city wall and enjoyed bits of history throughout the tour. We toured with him for 3 hours and wound up at a Pirate restaurant where we dined. The waiter gave us the appetizers free which was about a $20 value.. They were delicious, She Crab Soup was the best. Jody even tried it. When we finished our tour, CJ looked through our hotel coupons and suggested a hotel in an area he knew. Our coupon was for $39.00 and the hotel lady noted that it was only for 1 occupant. I laughed and said, "it's 10 o'clock and we will be out of here by 6:30 am, you should cut us a deal." She said okay, and gave us the room for $25.00.. WOW. Jody and I laughed about God's favor that day. We got up early the next morning and took pictures of all the places CJ had taken us the night before. We were on the road headed to the plantations at 7:30 am when we saw a sign for Fort Moultry. CJ had told us about the fort and that it was just as interesting as Sumter so we decided to take a detour and check it out. Knowing how early it was, we figured we could drive by and get pictures. When we got there the gate that said Open 9-5 was wide open. We drove on in and got out and decided to walk over to the fort. When we walked over to it, it was unlocked and standing wide open. We walked through the military fort and enjoyed the self guided tour information. We were through about 8:30 and decided to walk into the visitor's center hoping to pay someone for our visit. It was wide open, with no one in sight. We walked through the African-American Slave Trade Exhibit and then Jody went to find someone to pay. Nobody wanted our money she determined after standing at the register a while. We left and laughed at God's topping to our trip. The plantation was awesome and our visit was priceless, but it is truly a treasure to know that God loves us so much as to pour out a blessing so large that we cannot contain it. One of the most amazing sites we saw was the North Carolina Biltmore Estate. That 250 plus home took 2.5 hours to tour. It was breathtakingly beautiful and a historical marvel. All in all, the trip to NC was a breath of fresh air. I am so thankful for rekindling friendships that I have always held dear, for God's constant blessing in my life, and most of all for my family who allowed me to enjoy this time for myself.