Day 86 - Dec. 17, 2012

It's Monday.  I didn't realize that until I dated this post.  I don't know how I didn't know what day it was, but I didn't.  We left Red Top Mountain in Georgia around 11AM on Saturday.  According to google maps we had a 6-1/2 hour drive.  We were heading to Creston, NC.  We have rented a home for Christmas.  Gracie still wasn't feeling well.  We had to pull over often for restroom breaks.  We still haven't updated our GPS, so we were traveling according to the map I had printed.  It really wasn't a bad drive.  The kids enjoyed all of the new sites...terrain that we are not used to.  The homeowner (of the house we are renting) had called us around 4PM to see how we were doing.  Danny told her he thought we had another 2 hours, I figured 3.  The route took us from Georgia, to Tennessee, into Virginia, and back into Tennessee.  When we crossed back into Tennessee, it felt like we were getting close and the sun was starting to set.  I swear, the further north we get, the quicker the sun seems to set.  One minute it's dusk and the next minute it's pitch black and you can't see 50 feet in front of you.  I noticed that when we started driving in the mountains at night, Danny started flipping the brights on.  Funny, I can't remember the last time I had to use my brights.  There were a lot of turns...a mile on this road, a mile on another.  Finally, we took a left on the road that was OUR road.  According to the map, we would drive about 2 miles and take a slight turn, then drive another mile.  The road was narrow and there were a LOT of curves.  We were definitely heading UP a mountain.  The suburban was doing its best to pull the trailer and Danny was doing his best to navigate the road.  I don't remember what caused us to come to a stop.  I can't remember if there was an oncoming car or a curve or what, but we stopped.  When Danny tried to get going again, the tires slipped and the truck refused to move forward.  I was a little panicked.  There was nowhere for us to go.  As far as I was concerned, we were stuck.  Danny had me get out of the car and get the lanterns out.  I tried to light up the road behind us so that he could maybe back up and get a better start.  It was impossible.  There was no way of seeing where he was going.  We had the kids get out of the car.  I had Jacob and Hannah both hold a lantern while I tried to yell directions to Danny.  I was nervous... terribly nervous.  I instructed the kids to pray.  On one side of the road was a mountain and on the other side of the road was a cliff.  The road was not wide.  We finally came to the conclusion that we were stuck.  I tried to reach the homeowner.  (Little did I know that she did not have cell service at the house.)  My phone rang.  It was the husband (I have only dealt with the wife).  He was calling to check on us because his wife had sent him an email asking him to call.  I explained that we were stuck and tried to explain where we were...you know, we turned on the road, drove awhile, went around a bunch of curves, passed a couple of houses.  "Oh," he said, "you aren't that far."  "NO!", I said, "we are stuck.  We can't go forward.  We can't go backwards."  Once he realized exactly what I meant by 'stuck', he said that he would get a message to his wife and also call his father-in-law.  I knew from conversations that the in-laws only lived 10 minutes from the house.  About 10 minutes later, a car came from around the corner ahead of us.  It was the homeowner.  I walked up and started talking to her, discussing the situation and within another 5 minutes, another set of lights showed up behind our  trailer.  I could hear that it was probably a diesel and could see their headlights starting to come around the trailer.  Now mind you, there is not a whole lot of room beside the trailer and what is next to the little, tiny bit of room is a cliff.  I guess when you drive these mountains all the time, that cliff just isn't as threatening to you.  The truck makes it around Danny and hollers, "you need a little more power?"  It turns out that the man in the truck is the homeowner's father.  He parks his truck in front of us, asks me if 'the young man' (Jacob) could get in the truck and put his foot on the brake, to which I express that "I would be much more comfortable doing that myself".  He hooks a chain up to our suburban and proceeds to pull us up the mountain.  I'd say that we had a mile to go.  He didn't have to pull us the whole way.  There was a point where we crossed into North Carolina...the road changed.  It became wider and the pavement was much nicer.  We made it.  The homeowner gave us the keys.  Told us to relax and she would get back with us in a few days.  I will tell you, I was shaken!  It took my nerves some time to settle down.

Today, Danny and I had to run out to find a Christmas tree stand.  He decided that we needed to go down the mountain the way that we came up (there is another way to this house...an easier way...through NC...the way we will leave).  I decided today that it was God's grace that it was dark the other night when we drove up that road.  There is no way that I would have been able to make it as far as we did if I could have seen where we were.  That road is scary during the day.  I took pictures today.  They don't do it justice.  But maybe, you will get a glimpse of just what I am talking about.

Looking up the road...

Side of the road (cliff side)

Where we are heading...

Still heading up...

Taken as we were moving...my side.

Just a fun house on the side of the road.  Nice patio furnishings. 

This is the point where we were stuck.

Looking back...(the two houses we had passed)