MACH 15: Day 8 - Around the Neighborhood

Sunday Day 8
May 2, 2015
Copyright(c) 2015, Jim Beachy

Our son Kevin's biggest workday is Sunday.  This morning, while most people are are taking a break or sleeping in, he arrives at work before 5:00 AM.  He's the lead pastor of Gulf Coast Worship Center.  Apparently he has more material than he can cover in one session and in a rare moment, forgot his notes at the office.  So today he has to pare away almost half his sermon by go time.

The rest of the family arrives before 9:30 AM, all traveling in the family van while the bike and trailer rest safely in the garage.  Apparently the sermon surgery is successful and his take-a-stand message seems to be intact and ends at the normal time.

Today is a celebratory day with about 20 people scheduled for baptism.  Baptism here is by literal immersion, and a large portable swimming pool has been set up outside.  After the service, everyone gathers around the pool while smoke from the BBQ grill wafts over the viewers and those being baptized.  Afterwards everyone enjoys the products of the BBQ grill in a picnic atmosphere.

The grandkids have been anticipating a motorcycle ride since the time they knew we'd be riding to Mississippi, so one by one, we tour the neighborhood on the big red bike with trailer attached.  The neighbor's kids want a ride too, but we kindly tell them only our family is allowed to ride on the motorcycle.  And thus through the neighborhood many times over with three different passengers.  Many folks are on their porches or in the lawn, smiling and waving as they soon figure out why the big bike with small people is making multiple passages through their streets.  Sometimes kids on bicycles come out to challenge the big red motorcycle, and I exercise an extreme level of caution.  The youngest, Brenham, isn't quite ready to be a solo passenger, so we squeeze him onto the seat between Kitty and me.  This pushes my backrest forward into an uncomfortable position but it's fine for a short neighborhood ride.  Carter and Danica are able to ride as solo passengers.  They all wear Kitty's helmet, and are fascinated that we can communicate in a normal tone of voice.

"Can you listen to music?" asks Danica.

In response I push the Audio button and instantly our helmet headsets are flooded with high-quality digitally-transmitted music from the last Sirius XM channel I'd selected, which happens to be The Message (Channel 63).

"Cool!" says Danica.  "I didn't know a motorcycle could listen to music."

Tomorrow the two older kids will be off to school with Kevin early in the morning, and we plan to start our homeward journey sometime after that. Unlike our outbound trip focusing on two-lane and country roads, trip parameters require that the journey home will be by Interstate this time.  I'd thought of taking an alternate route but Kevin says that route is the most boring he's ever been on.

So, facing the risk of death by boredom, I suppose we'll navigate via the usual route, which is just another mostly-Interstate route but hopefully with a more favorable interest-per-mile ratio.

GPS Neighborhood Track