The last couple of days we have been on another road trip.  Santino, Rocco, Gianni, Noah, and Dom are with me this time.  There are a couple of others with us.

Sunday after church we loaded up “the beast” and drove 5 hours to our hostel rooms.  Monday, we drove up the rest of the way – way up into the highest mountains in Bulgaria.  Musala is around 10,000 feet.  We have already climbed it twice.  No time this time.

Monday the eight of us distributed about 5,000 books of John.  We each walked in the neighborhood of ten miles, carrying boxes of the book of John.

There is a really good restaurant in the small city of about 30,000 people that we were planning on eating at.  Ethnic food, ethnic atmosphere and the ski tourists don’t know about it.  It is called the “Old House”.

We worked until 6:00 and then headed up about 5 miles to check into our hotel up in the mountains.  About 7:00 we loaded back into “the beast” to find the “Old House”.  We were eight hungry young men.  (I’m still under 40…)

I found the street that I knew the restaurant was on, but we couldn’t locate it right away.  Finally, there she was.  We all got out of “the beast”, appetites in tow, only to see a sign that said “Closed today.”  Hey, we have been living through disappointments for almost 13 years here – we’ve learned to cope.

We got back in the car.  Acknowledged the Lord.  Drove around until we stopped another ethnic little place.  Went in.  It was great.  I had cow tongue in butter.  Gianni had chicken hearts.  Someone had chicken livers.  Washed it down with buttermilk.

We went back to the hotel, tired and full.  We couldn’t resist pulling out the guitars and violins, though.  We sang and ate Lindt chocolate until 11:00 pm.  Then we did pushups and situps.  I think Rocco did 150 without resting.

We slept well.  Woke up this morning.  Noah made eggs.  I made toast.  A friend of ours made coffee.  We ate breakfast and hit the streets again until we finished the city at about 12:30.

We stopped for lunch at a little cafeteria.  Lentils, pickled hot peppers – good stuff.  We hopped back in “the beast” and drove to a village up in the mountains about 10 miles away.  Quiet and picturesque.  We baptized the village in the books of John/Romans – 288 houses.

We saw some cliffs on the way out and couldn’t resist.  I stopped “the beast” so the boys could show off their skills to each other.  I laid down in the grass at the base and closed my eyes…until I heard someone screaming to get out of the way.  Someone had dislodged a 50 lb. chunk of rock and it was bounding down toward us.  I jumped up faster than I thought I was capable of.  Everybody’s still breathing.

We hopped back in “the beast” but stopped a mile down the road at a river.  We pulled off into 4×4 territory and parked.  That water was ice cold.  We still had to strip down and see if we could swim in it though.  Two of us immersed ourselves fully.  Lots of whooping.  Lots of laughing.

I laid down in the grass and went to sleep for 15 minutes while the boys did what boys were made to do.  It was a sweet rest.

Three days with so many memories packed into them.  A microcosm of our time here in eastern Europe.  Jam-packed with memories.

Hey…I think I’m going to go and make some more right now…