Saturday Wanderings...

 Happy Saturday everyone!  I entitled this Saturday Wanderings, but actually I will be writing a little about "Friday Wanderings" instead, since the pictures will be from Friday's "little" road trip.   Actually, what started out as a "little road trip" ended up much longer than expected, due to detours and road construction and pit stops, but still, we had a lovely day.  

But first, I thought you'd like to see some nature photos from Still Waters Pond...that's always a pleasant way to start the day...

Philippians 4:6-7  

"6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 

7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

Mama Bluebird has been busily building her nest.  Papa helps too, but she's the main architect in this venture I believe, since she's the one who will be spending so many days inside there while waiting for her next little brood of babies to appear.

And also both Mama and Papa have to be constantly on guard for this fella...Mr. Red Shouldered Hawk, who seems to be hanging around much too closely these days...

I do hope that Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird will be able to keep him away from their nest and new family when it makes its appearance.  The wild kingdom can certainly be a dangerous place for the most vulnerable new members of their "society".  

That Hawk definitely keeps a "hawk-eye" on everything that goes on in his territory, but so do the bluebirds, and they know how to drive him away. So we will keep hoping and praying that they will be able to persevere and keep their babies safe.

So back to our little road trip yesterday...

One of the places we ended up was a "ride" (not walk) down memory lane, and we didn't even realize we were going to be driving right past this place until all of a sudden there it was!

When I saw the above sign I was so surprised, because we used to live in this town about 40 years ago! 

So, of course we had to go find the church where we served so many years ago...it's still there, but sadly they actually closed this church about a year ago because it just was not thriving anymore. It never was a very large church...I think we had a about 35 faithful members back when we were there, but apparently it just never could compete with the many larger churches in the community. It's too bad, because it was a wonderful congregation of people back then and we have some very fond memories of our time there.

Here's how it looked 40 years ago, with hubby and our three sons standing on the front steps:

And this was the sign they had out on the highway to welcome us when we first moved there!  I noticed that sign board is still standing in the same place, but sadly there's no welcome message for anyone anymore.

This was the parsonage that we lived in.  It still looks pretty much the same as it did 40 years ago. It was a lovely brick home, with four bedrooms and two baths.  Apparently someone is still living in it, but I don't know if they have sold the house or if it is being rented.  I noticed the church building had a for sale sign out front.

Another view of the front of the house as it looks today...

And here is how it looked 40 years ago, with our family on the front porch...I believe that is my mother sitting on the porch, and then my hubby, me, and our three boys acting silly.

Here's a special picture taken at that same time. My parents had come to spend Easter with us. This is our son Benton, my mother, me, my Dad, and our son Matthew. Not sure where Scotty was...probably running around doing cartwheels or something like he usually was at the age of 7.  

I was glad we were able to find the church and house because the community has grown quite a bit and everything else looked really different.  

After finding this we kept on going up the road a ways and soon saw this sign:

Yes, that little town where we used to live was right on the Florida/Georgia border!  

After we had driven as far as we wanted to drive we stopped and had some lunch and then turned around and headed back home.  We stopped at a gas station/store in a little town called Saint George, GA., which is right on the GA/FL border.  We only needed to make a "pit-stop", but I felt bad about not buying anything so bought a DeConna Ice Cream Sundae Cone. It was yummy!

Turns out this little store was not just a handy store at a gas station, but apparently the grocery store for the little community, and the lady at the check out counter was a life time resident of the town. I wish now we had more time to drive around the area and see more of it. It sits just next to the Okefenokee Swamp and also the St. Mary's River. I was trying to find out more about the town online, and this was an interesting historical story about the town: https://www.charltoncountyhistoricalsociety.org/saint-george, in case you like to read about the history of old towns.

When we got home from our rather long "ride", we called "the kids" and they came over and we all had Domino's Pizza for supper.  After they left I was noticing that the house felt a little warmer than usual. Of course, it was about 96 degrees yesterday, so that could have something to do with it. But if you recall, we got a brand new air conditioning system just about one year ago exactly, and it shouldn't be warm in our house!! I looked at the thermostat and saw that the temperature was rising above what it was set for.  So I sent a text message to our AC repairman at 8:30 last night advising him of our problem. He told us to turn it off and that he would be here in the morning.  True to his word, he was here at 8:30 a.m. to assess the situation.  Turns out there was some insulation inside the new unit that was coming loose and was being sucked into the ducts, causing it to block the airflow.  He said he has come across this on another new unit recently. Thankfully, all he had to do was remove the loose insulation, and soon the air was nice and cool again!  Thank the Lord that it wasn't anything major that we would have to wait for parts, etc., because the temperatures are expected to be up to at least 99 tomorrow!  Also, thank the Lord this unit is still under warranty, and there was no charge to us!

I don't usually post a lot of memes, but thought this would be a fun way to end this post...

LOL.  If you live in the south, you understand.  

Well, friends, it's time to move on...hope you are cool as a cucumber wherever you are!