Had the best 24 hrs of amazement and fun on the Canadian side of the Falls Monday and yesterday.
Will tell and show more later.
Drove from Niagara Falls Canada through the following states yesterday. New York, Pennsylavania, Maryland, W. Virginia and finally Virginia.
Now in the guest appartment of Eastern Mennonite Uni in Harrisonburg VA.
TT just off to do Chapel service at 10:00am, Workshop at 3:00p “Evening” public performance 7:30p.
Keep praying.
Love ya.
xxxx
Rest stop at the PA welcome centre. 2nd time in 36hrs
Sunday September 19th 1:30am
Just arrived back from another 7.5hr round trip to PA. This performance in Christ Wesleyan Church. They have about 1100 to their Sunday services, but only about 200 turned out tonight. Anyway they were a great audience. THe Pastor said, “I wish I had seen the DVD before hand. If I had know it was so good I would have known how to get more people here. Hey ho. C’est la vie. We enjoyed our day as it was lovely weather and we stopped to admire the views and take photos of interesting things including some dear little goats and a horse.
Saw some more interesting things on our return to the hotel just now. A bevy of tired bridesmaids were outside the hotel. Their flowers were wilting a bit as were some of them. Poor dears. I didn’t think I should take a photo as their male companions seemed a bit strange. Some were looking a little the worse for wear. One sported a Sombrero. “Go to bed dear ones” I felt like saying. Then realized I’m not everyone’s Grandma or mother even.
TT did another sterling job driving although I drove some miles myself while he filmed the beautiful PA countryside. I quite enjoyed it. Not much on the wide roads and BB behaved beautifully.
We have an early a.m. call for 7:30. Tt is doing Prisoner of Passion in the 10:00am service tomorrow a.m. in Rochester. Our 6th performance in 5 days concludes with “An Evening with C.S. Lewis” at the same church tomorrow night.
Thanks for your prayers. Keep them coming. A nice lady has offered to give me a free massage tomorrow. Can’t wait.
Night night all.
TT and RG rockin' on the radio in New York state
Good evening from the Holiday Inn Express, Webster, New York.
TT and I have just returned from Calvary Chapel Webster where the 5th performance of this tour is now under our belts. Another good performance and a great bunch of people.
We arrived in this area yesterday and did a Radio Interview for “WZXV, The Word”. Patrick, The Production Manager had interviewed TT by phone several times but wanted me to join him at the microphone in the studio. Oo my whatever next?
Anyway I wasn’t too nervous as it wasn’t live and I had my hot honey and lemon to sip and dear Patrick was so friendly and helpful. He put me entirely at ease. He even said I could cough and sneeze if I wanted to and it wouldn’t matter.
The radio station was on the campus of Finger Lakes Calvary Chapel which seems to have acres of land. There is a Bible college and school as well as the church and radio station on the complex. Loads of parking spaces and play grounds. O if only some of this parking and play ground space could be shared by our churches in the U.K. where space is a real problem!
After the interview I checked out the bookstore and sat in the café drinking coffee and using their free wifi.
We then followed Patrick back to his house for supper. 3 of their 5 children gave us a fantastic welcome calling out to us from the upstairs window.
Addie, age 3 introduced us to her two brothers, Elijah 10 and Ben 8. She explained later that her two big sisters were out.
Judy, Patrick’s wife is delightful and they cooked us the most amazing supper of Cornish hens with stuffing, double baked potatoes, green beans and salad. Bread pudding was the dessert and they made tea with PG tips in a tea pot served with digestive biscuits. They had gone to a lot of trouble to find out what an English couple abroad would like to eat. It was scrumptious.
We arrived at the hotel here in Webster after the lovely supper and will stay here until Monday morning. Deep joy. 6 nights in one hotel is wonderful and cuts down on the packing and unpacking.
We have got 6 shows in 5 days here. Most of them are in this area with 2 at Calvary chapel Rochester N.Y. on Sunday. The two churches have got together and arranged that we can stay in this same hotel for all this time.
Tomorrow we are going to Williamsport Pennsylvania. It is a 3.5hr run and some people we met today said it will be a lovely journey but we may loose our GPS connection in the mountains. Dear George, we will miss his voice, ROADIE TIP Remember to check the route before hand and have the good old fashioned Rand McNaly US road map to hand.
We had a brilliant journey here from Massachusetts, driving on I 90 through New Hampshire and into New York. Lovely coastal route with little harbour towns, lots with English names. We turned round at one point when we saw an elderly lady setting out some things on a table to sell at the side of the road.
We were attracted by a pair of antlers. On closer inspection the only things she was selling were hand made wooden decoy ducks and these fabulous antlers. I asked how she came to have them. She said she had 6 sons and they were all hunters and she was trying to cull her antler collection. These were covered in soft fur and were from a caraboo that her son Michael had shot in Nova Scotia.
We bought them for $20 and may well fix them on to the front of BB. Don’t tell our son Jonathan, but we are going to try and get Santa to deliver them down the Old Mill chimney at Christmas. They will not fit in his stocking so and getting them down the chimney may prove difficult but I’m sure Rudolph and the other reindeers can come up with a solution as they are expert in antler maneuvering.
Today I felt much better cough wise. Thank you all for your prayers and the folks at Ellsworth Calvary Chapel prayed especially for me after the service. We stayed with Pat, in her log home for two days. She is a retired physician as well as a wonderful gardener who has a great knowledge of “green pharmacy” using herbs and plants to provide healthy nutrients. Anyway she gave me some homeopathic bits and bobs.
These helped I’m sure, as well as spending Monday with her. I did our laundry and we hung out washing together, wandered around her garden feeding the chickens and picking green leaves for our tea and supper. She also too me to a great homesteading little supply shop where she bought some feed for the chickens and I bought some Gardeners Hand cream at 50% off.
The hotel has a fitness centre, indoor swimming pool and hot spa. I used all three today. Didn’t stay long in the spa as it was too hot.
Outside our hotel window is a lovely pond and walking trail. I thought it was Lake Ontario. That is quite near but about 7 miles away. We are very far north here. The weather is lovely, about 60F. Sunny today with just the occasional tree changing colour.
I’m off to bed now. TT is still asking me what’s to eat. He is always hungry after a performance. The Pastor and his wife took us out for supper earlier at Panera Bread. I love this place. David had French onion soup but saved his sandwich until now. He is still asking for “something nice”. I have just given him strawberry yoghurt that we squirreled away from our complimentary breakfast this morning. Maybe a final cup of tea is what he needs.
Talking about tea, I made a terrible faux pas this evening. Instead of using his fav. Tea brought from England to make the tea he has on stage, I used my red bush S. African Tea bags. What a Roadie ruinous moment. I discovered the mistake just before he went on stage. TT was NOT a happy man. I offered to make another pot quickly, but the star of the show said it was too late and he would just have to drink this. After one sip tonight, I noticed he never really took another swig only pretended too. ROADIE TIP. Check T bags are Yorkshire Decaff in the Props box before leaving hotel.
I have some wonderful photos to put on the blog, but at the moment have lost the power to add posts so am having to get son Jonathan to do this and give me the password. I am not a roadie/blogger of the 21st century. However, today, my sister Maggie and I Skyped each other with video for the first time ever from one side of the Atlantic Ocean to the other. She is 70 today and I am only a few years behind, so that not bad for a couple of OAP’s with a free English bus pass. Happy birthday Maggie dear. You are the BEST sister any body could have. I love you.
Night all.
TT and I, aided by Adrian, our fellow house guest at the Stone’s Lake home took everything out of the van and sorted it. Mrs Stone gave me free reign in her laundry room so Big Blue 2, a.k.a. Ikea dirty laundry bag is empty and we have clean clothes. The weather was sunny and breezy and we even had to put on our long trousers after lunch as a storm blew up over the lake. There were a few boats going by and even a two man canoe, who seemed to be fighting hard against the wind and white capped waves.
The day started out with Diana, Adrian’s wife and I sitting on the boat dock, drinking coffee, admiring the scenery and having a nourishing conversation. How wonderful to meet new people and because of all of us being in God’s family immediately feeling like brothers and sisters. We had a lovely chat about our children, God’s goodness and our not so goodness, but how great is His grace and how as we get older our faith and trust in Him grows as He proves Himself faithful. Then organic muffins with butter and marmite on toast for me. The other 5 folks in the house turned up their noses to marmite.
Larry, owner of the lovely lake home and Rutledge Hill Press, spent the day doing radio interviews about a new book he is working on. One of the interviewers spent a lot of time asking his opinion of the crazy Pastor guy in Florida who is threatening to burn a copy of the Koran at the weekend. At supper Larry sugested that a much better idea would be better for Christians to find a Moslem buddy. The Christian read the Koran and the Moslem The bible and then have a chat about it. Larry then went for a run while I tried to stop coughing and rested on the bed reading, listening to the lake sounds, and then my Ipod. TT worked on bookings and “Tour Stuff” . We are having requests for bookings that we are having to turn down as we are schedule is full. Nice problem.
Our Canadian friends went for a bike ride and then they and Lois served lunch at a soup kitchen with the church here.
I’m on day 2 of some strong antibiotics to clear up my cough. TT kindly drove into town to try and get the cough mixture that the doc had prescribed. I had been drinking gallons of honey and lemon but that didn’t seem to help so we decided to go the narcotic $22:00 a bottle route. I miss my British, National Health free prescription service!
Unfortunately the pharmacy had to order the cough stuff… So I will get it tomorrow. However at 6:00pm when I got up to start cooking the corn that Louis had shucked earlier, I felt much better.
Lovely supper again. Inside tonight as it was breezy and chilly outside. Freshly picked sweet corn, salad, stir fry, good conversation, grand children photo sharing and much laughter.
Off to bed now. SO thankful for this lovely restful interlude to re charge our batteries before out next show on Saturday.
Plans for tomorrow? Adrian and Diana are heading back over the border to Canada, but are going to come to Chicago to see TT in action. David and Larry both have radio interviews!! We hope to do a trip around Lake George on an old steam boat. The Mohican. One of the captains of this boat visited here today his name. Bill Gates. He was the captain today but not tomorrow unfortunately.
Diana was saying that this morning she was thinking about hob knobbing with an actor and a book publisher who are being interviewed by the media everyday and then is told that another guest is coming, Bill Gates…. Not the master of the internet but ships captain. Hey ho me hearties. Shiver me timber and hoist the main’sle!
I’m getting silly which is a sing of excessive tiredness so “Good night all and felicitations from from upstate New York. USA.
TT sends his love and reports that his knees are improving. Thanks for your prayers.
From the Comfort Inn Middletown N.J. USA
We had planned to play on the beach at Ocean City and then head north to some friends at Lake George on the other side of New York. The weather was lovely for this Labour Day Holiday that signals the end of the summer. So there is heavy Holiday traffic everywhere. After about 2 hrs, we stopped to get some gas/petrol and use the loo at Red Bank N.J. and decided to remove Big Blue from the traffic congestion and stay near this lovely town overnight. We are both glad to be pulling off the road early and are in our PJs. TT is eating porridge and I have had granola and a banana. We had a chicken sandwich each from Burger King for $4:00 total at lunch after a very posh breakfast at The Scarborough this a.m. We have taken lots of photos and will post soon. Coughing intensity now down to a 3 from 8 last night. Tonight we have 2 double beds in a much bigger room so hopefully TT will not hear me doing an impression of a consumptive patient again. Had to change out of my PJ’s into an old shirt of his last night as I had a nasty night sweat. (Is this too much information?) We were on the 4th floor of this old Inn without a lift so that is why I stole TTs clothes. All my clean night attire was in Big Blue. Roadie Tip: When staying in a hotel on the top floor without a lift, set up a block and tackle from the window in order to winch up van to obtain forgotten items. Off to bed now to start my brand new book, “From the Hood to The Hill” by Barry C. Black. PhD., D.Min., D.D. Did I mention we met him and his wife yesterday??!!! They did come back to see David’s play in the evening. He was my first customer at “The Merch.” table and bought one of each of TT’s DVDs. Be still my beating heart.
Another prayer request for David’s knees. Both are painful and stiff today. Could this be due to :-
Anyway, wearing my Roadie Grandma hat and dressing gown, I’ve just collected ice from the corridor and he is freezing his knees. Please when you are next on yours say a prayer for his. Thank you and goodnight.
Marilyn Payne