Conceptual thought can be perceived as a miracle. Have you ever made the attempt to encapsulate a miracle? This is my attempt...

26 June 2011

Wow.

I don't even know where to begin... How 'bout the night of my last update.
So, I was giving my update of the day at McDonalds, right? About that time, I decided I might want to figure out what I was gonna do for the night. I figured that since I hadn't made any contacts that day, I better give up on the hope for a nice shower before bed on a comfy couch... I found a little Baptist church down the street and decided that it would do for a nice place to spend the night. I pulled in... it seemed safe enough... so I parked under a "TOW AWAY ZONE" sign and got ready for bed. I don't remember if I mentioned my state of being that night. I was sticky, sweaty, sunburned, tired, sandy, etcetera, etcetera. I felt worse than disgusting. I cracked my windows just enough to let some airflow in, but to keep bad guys out, and closed my eyes. Eyes open, eyes close... eyes open, eyes close. Open, close. It was ridiculously hot in the car all night long, the back seat of my car was covered in sand from the beach, and it was probably the most uncomfortable situation. EVER.

Bottom line: I didn't get much sleep.

Day 13 - June 23:
Morning came, and with minimum sleep, I took off to find a bathroom. I drove an awkwardly long time to find a gas station, and when I did, the gas station only had port-o-potty. There goes my chance for a sink bath! I was right next to the beach, so I figured I would walk down the beach to find a beach shower. I walked for quite a while before I found a shower, but I found one, nonetheless! Now that I knew where a shower was, I headed back to my car to get my stuff. On the way, I found a little place called Noah's Ark Beach Ministry. On the sign it said, something about a gift shop, free wifi, and concerts every night, so I decided to go in for a minute to look around. I met a couple nice people and took a look around the gift shop and was on my way. I got back to my car and started driving towards the beach shower, but decided to go back to the little ministry. I walked in and awkwardly asked for a shower. I told them what I was doing with the Vagabond Tour, gave them some flyers, and they showed me to a shower! I don't think I have appreciated a shower more in my life! I felt so so so disgusting, and to be clean felt like heaven!  I definitely owe Noah's Ark Beach Ministry some service! Great Christlike people that deserve many blessings.

When I left, I headed up to Panama City to meet up with Travis Nellums! We met at an LDS church, where it just so happened to have a zone conference going on! We went in and said hello to all of the missionaries, and I made some contacts to make sure the missionaries would let me go teach with them. :)

Then, I hopped in Sandy (Travis' car), and Travis drove around while I tagged along. We went to play frisbee golf, to the mall to find him some sunglasses - while there, we would talk to people about the vagabond tour and hand out flyers - and got something to eat. Oh, we went to every thrift store in Panama City... Dang! Then we went to play some volleyball with a bunch of strangers. When he was dropping me off at my car to go our separate ways, he casually says something like, "why don't you just come stay at my place for the next few days?" We discussed it, laughed about possibilities, and I ended up emptying my car and loading everything into his car... all at about 11pm in a church parking lot. I put my signs in the windows ("STAY POSITIVE, YOU'RE AMAZING," "The Vagabond Tour" and "Pray for the haters") in hopes that they would deter anyone from towing or breaking in. Once his car was full of my stuff, we hit the road to Chipley! I must say, while driving with Travis, we had some of the best laughs! He even laughed so hard that he spit his soda all over himself and his car. Today had one of the worst mornings of my life, and one of the best evenings. Funny how that works out! God is good.

Day 14 - June 24:
I would like to think that I slept in, but I honestly don't even know what that means any more! I woke up at my regular 8am-ish time... got ready, and actually snuck out while everyone else was sleeping to go spend most of my day with the missionaries. We went to do some service at a Habitat for Humanity thrift store. After helping out there for a couple hours, we were on our way, refueled, and went knocking doors. It started to rain terribly bad, so we went back to the apartment and had a "family study." We talked about mission statements / mottos, the Second Coming, the book of Revelation, and a few other things. GOOD TIMES! I miss my mission like CRASY!
I left after the family study to go have some fun in Pensacola with Travis. As I was walking back to the house from the missionaries place, I was the witness of a tragic accident. A little puppy was running across the street and got hit by a car. I still cant get the sound of the experience out of my head... ugh. It made me literally sick and I was in shock for a while. I couldn't speak. One of the worst parts was that the car didn't stop... they just kept going. Before I could get to the dog (it was still alive), the owners ran out to it and took it into the house. I just slowly walked with my hands going from over my mouth to my ears, to my forehead, to my heart... It wouldn't stop replaying in my mind. Please pray for that little dog. :(

Other than the above experience, the rest of the day was quite enjoyable. The 2 hour drive to Pensacola was hilarious (for as much as I could stay awake for)! We got to Pensacola a little late, but got to see a bunch of owls at a sanctuary before the sun went down. After that, we went to Swing Night. I felt like I walked into the 40's. People were dressed up in their swing garb, swing music was blasting through the speakers, and they had clips of old swing dancers being projected onto a big screen. Woah. It was an interesting night! I played Wallflower and people watched in this strange environment. There are perks to being a wallflower, people.

Day 15 - June 25:
The Panhandle Watermelon Festival! Woot! There was a parade in the morning, but I decided to bypass the parade so that I could do my laundry (hooray for clean clothes!!!) and try to get some writing in. It wasn't very long before they were back and we headed to the festival. I brought my FREE HUGS sign and we walked around for a while. I got about 20-25 free hugs, which is pretty good for being a total stranger in a small town! I also got a free oil change. The first person I gave a hug too was at a booth selling cars. He thought the Free Hugs concept was brilliant, and wanted to show his support to The Vagabond Tour, so he gave me a card for a free oil change. SCORE! Thank you so much, good sir!
We got some free watermelon, watched a watermelon auction and the top selling watermelon went for $700! A WATERMELON! That was the first watermelon, with the rest dropping about $50 each watermelon. Those are expensive watermelons!
After we had seen what there was to see and hug who wanted a free hug, we headed back (I stopped by to see how the dog was doing. It is alive and mostly well - just a messed up leg), dropped off the kids, and headed down to Panama City. We got together with some other people (5 of us total), and played some frisbee golf. Then we went and hung out at an ice cream shop. We had the time of our lives - laughing, joking, telling stories, etc. After that, we went back to the church to check on my car to see if it had been towed, but to our relief, it was still there! We hung out at the church for a bit, and I tried to convince Travis to sleep down in Panama City as a bum with me... but he wouldn't buy it. Bummer. They went on their way, and I stayed at the church. They had a little picnic area, so I got my "bed" together on top of a picnic table, and drifted off to sleep.

Day 16 - June 26:
I slept surprisingly well on the table! I felt like I had slept through a rainstorm because I was so wet from the humidity and morning dew, but it wasn't a bad experience! The only bad thing: My phone somehow broke. I don't know if I slept on it and broke it that way, or if the humidity/wetness had something to do with it, but now when I push some of the buttons, it does random things. Like, when I hit the "return" button, it opens the camera first, then the phone keypad. It is just one big mess. I hope I can still get it to function normally (other than the few newfound kinks...).
I got ready for church in the parking lot, and waited and waited for people to start showing up, but to now success. Someone finally pulled in, drove around and then drove off... then they came back and told me that they changed the meeting time. Hmmm... So now I am in the classiest McDonalds I have ever seen! Seriously, people. Let me describe this to you: there is a fireplace, a huge flatscreen tv on the wall, an X-Box and Playstation, really nice marble walls and tiled floors, leather armchairs, fancy booths, A bronze statue of Ronald McDonald, a kiddie section with hamburger chairs, etc. This place is intense! Oh, and of course, free wifi! :)

And there you have it! I hope I didn't bore you!

Until next time,
Peace.Love.Music.
Peter.Moosman.

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like a great time had by all. Good karma thoughts going to Noah's Ark! So many great people out there!!

    ReplyDelete