Atlanta Road Trip Days 6, 7, 8, 9

Published on June 06, 2008 by Damon

Day 6: Butterfly Palace & Dixie Stampede

Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede: the south meets “Medieval Times.”  The North and the South tied: I wonder if it always works out that way.  Our family had a blast.  There was some great horsemanship—our kid’s favorites were the stunt riders.   It is amazing what you can do on a moving horse.  They had several different horses: a Belgian as big as a house.  They had one Friesian—1 of 500 in the US.  I didn’t know they were so rare.  Imagine a black Clydesdale a little larger than the average horse.  A Friesian has a long full black mane and hair on it’s hooves.  They are allowed a small white diamond on the forehead—however all black is preferred.  This one was all black and in excellent shape—like all of the horses at the Dixie Stampede.  You can see a picture in the photo gallery.  See if you can guess which is the Belgian.

Day 7: Hanging out with the fam. 

James and Shanna joined us today, having spent the a few days in Madill, OK.   We spent a leisurely, 93 degree day at the Branson Landing and a 90 minute paddleboat cruise on the Tanycomo (formerly White River.)  It is amazing how you can get so little accomplished when it is hot as blazes.  The day flies by and you wonder what you did only to realize that you did very little.  Anyway, the Landing is Branson’s attempt attract a younger demographic. The city has realized that its clientele is dying off.  The Landing is an outdoor mall/boardwalk on the Tanycomo.  It has both National Brand stores and local shops, high priced condos that look down upon the open air mall and more expensive condos that look down on the lake.  There is a Bass Pro Shop with a fresh water aquarium.  The Landing boasts a choreographed fountain designed by the same person who designed the fountain at the Bellagio, Las Vegas.  (8.5 million worth of fountain.)  It is pretty spectacular.  The Lake would be a great skiing lake if it weren’t for the near frigid temperatures.

Day 8: Silver Dollar City

A few degrees cooler, long walks pushing children in strollers up and down hills . . . lots of sweat and “fire in the hole.”  That water blast at the end of “Fire in the Hole” was more than welcome at 3pm in the afternoon.  Anybody know what a “baldnobber” is?  This was our third time at Silver Dollar City.  The boys’ favorite place is still the air launcher’s and foam balls.  This is a three story barn with air launchers on the second and third floors.  Most of the balls end up on the ground floor, where contraptions operated entirely by children move the balls to the upper floors, all the while they are being pelted by the launchers from above.  Somehow the system doesn’t break down all day.  The contraptions are fun enough to keep the launchers fully loaded and who doesn’t like shooting foam balls?

Day 9: Nashville, TN

Just arrived in Smyrna, TN at 6:30pm after an 11 hour drive (lots of stops)  . . . sitting in the Hampton Inn foyer, watching Fuse TV while my children run around like crazies at the indoor pool.  We crossed over four state lines today: Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee.  Tomorrow we will be at end of the Atlanta Road Trip, but the beginning of a one-month internship. 

Here is a first: I will have the opportunity to discuss how to “do” church with a group of people that agree on first principles.  I can’t tell you how important this is.  Think about the sort of clarity a group could have it agreed on one thing: nothing is sacred but the mission of Christ to build a bridge to God.  That means ministry everything we do in church is in service of the mission of the church.  So often we get this turned around—we begin to reach people in order to disciple them, rather than disciple people in order reach others.  When we get this turned around, church becomes more about what we do for those already in, rather than what we do to reach those on the outside.  It is hard to make any decisions about how to “do” church until this first principle is clarified.  I have seen churches bog down on crucial decisions because there was confusion over the priority of mission and ministry.