Hitting the Trail

As a kid we used to joke about feeling like “road apples.” When we were going to leave one place to go to another place or job, we’d often say “It’s time to be like road apples and hit the road.” Road apples aren’t seen as much today, but going back a few years, road apples were quite often seen on Pennsylvania roadways. They can still be found in Amish areas where the horse and buggies are the principle means of transportation. If you haven’t guessed by now, road apples are the round droppings of horse manure.

Yesterday was Father’s Day. My son Andrew and his family came to visit bringing a late lunch and then stayed to go to church with his wife Renee and two daughters Celine and Moriah with their dog. It was really nice because I was able to give them a tour of the western themed decorations for Vacation Bible School before it actually starts today. I believe I’ve described the different rooms, hallways, and kitchen and how they’ve been transformed from boring classrooms into scenes from the old West.

Our Pastor commented yesterday at the Sunday morning church service the one wall at the front of the sanctuary looked a bit bare, and indeed it did. He said in his mind’s eye there should be a window or something to balance the cardboard “school clock” on the wall. After church service I retreated to my “cardboard storeroom” and extracted a window-sized box. I laid out the pane-sized grid and made thoughts how to paint it. I left the cardboard bare for the wood frame, but painted a ginger cat sleeping on the window sill and through the “glass” panes, I painted a black locomotive with a diamond smokestack, puffing out smoke.

Today I get to attach it to the wall to surprise the Pastor before I report to duty in the chuck wagon with a dear friend Carol and possibly another helper. Last evening we stored the “juice packs” in the fridge to get cold and double checked our cookie supply and made sure all needed items for today’s menu were on hand. Soon it will be off to the races for a busy week. It’s time for my breakfast so I need to get ready and hit the trail.