Rainbow Trip in Ocala. This maybe Part 1 of several parts

This might be one of a few posts now that I have something to write about. I have never seen God move so profoundly as he did in the Rainbow Gathering. I feel so flooded with the Holy Spirit, now and I definitely don't want to forget these memories.

This is the big group of us that were actually at the Gathering. This was taken the last day that  we were there actually the campsite right before we left....but let me start off with when we first left.

We all met in our building, yep, all 16 of us. Two of the guys in our class chose to stay behind because they felt like they were called to stay back and help. I felt at first like this was going to be such a bad trip. Not because of the difficulties I might face, but because  of what we experienced the first day of the trip.

We actually got out of the door on time. Brian (our teacher or leader or coordinator for the trip) and the guys loaded up the van, trailer (which was attached to the 14 passenger van), and the suburu (with the heated seats). They had loaded the food earlier, then they loaded the tents and tarps, and then  last but not least they loaded up the luggage, sleeping bags and instruments we had. Yes, there were lots of instruments.

When we first headed out, or even before we headed out. Me and a few other people got into the suburu. Brian, who was the first person to drive the van, couldn't start the van so we had to get it jumped. When we got it jumped, everything went smoothly until we hit the snowy weather on the way to Tennessee. We were stopping the night at some guy's house who knew Brian. We stopped at Subway for lunch and Little Caesars for dinner. By the time dinner was over, I was really tired of fast food. I was thinking that once we get down to Florida I'm not going to want to go into the woods for a week because I will be so exhausted. 

Weather wise, we hit a lot of patches of snow and then more towards Tennessee more areas of intense storming and fog. At times it was really scary, but we made it to the guy's house. This man was really nice. He had a guest house that we were staying in. Everything looked nice until we got to the bedrooms. The guys were lucky. They got to take the sofa and living room furniture to sleep on. The girls got the bedrooms. It looked more like a play room than a bedroom. Ugh! I don't know if I was the only one thinking this, but the rooms smelled. The guy told us he had a pipe burst not too long ago and he just got it cleaned up. The room had a very bad smell, you could walk in there and just tell by the smell something was off. I thought to myself one night is all I have to deal with, I can do this. 

The morning we got up and were going to head out at 8 or so. The man cooked us breakfast. He used eggs from his own chicken, which  was surprising that lead several of  us to talk about sustainable living. He owned his own farm, land and I think he said he had a creek that he filled and fished in. He told us how he bucket farmed sometimes and how it would be easy to do at jpusa. As soon as the dishes were washed, and we got our picture taken we were off to Florida.

This is just our group. When we got in the suburu, I turned on my heated seat. Ah...a heated seat feels great even in 40 degree Tennessee weather. Then we headed down to Florida. We even went through Georgia. I kinda wished we could stop along the way so I could see my family. When that sign comes up that says however many miles to the next few cities, I saw my hometown on there and I just wished I could go see them. 

Anyways, there was a thermometer thing in the car that told how warm (or cold) it is outside. I remember getting into the car in Chicago and the gauge saying 20 something. It read 40 in  Tennessee. Now it was getting to 50. It was funny. My buddy Triumph, who is the second person on the left said that when it got to 50, he would yell out of the sun roof. And he did. Actually, everyone took a turn yelling out of the sun roof, except for me. I wasn't sure if I could do it because of my balance. It was funny, we were cruising the radio and heard the song Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles. It's kinda funny since we just came into Florida. We got into Florida not too long after dark. The couple who let us use their house said we could sleep and get in the hot tub that next day. 

The reason we stayed at their house for a full day before going to rainbow was so that Brian and the guy Tom who's house we were at.  They were going shopping for more groceries. Well that's all for now, Part two comes later