Road Trip (Part 1): The Quicker Picker Uppers

Our family recently returned from a Southeastern U.S. road trip.  The primary purpose of the trip was to meet my husband's family in Orlando for a week at Disney World.  We drove directly to Orlando over night while the kids slept and while I tried in vain to take a nap so I could drive later.  I never could fall asleep, so my knight in shining armor drove the entire way by himself.  After an early morning power nap and some swimming in the resort's Olympic sized pool, we drove to the Tampa area to visit a dear friend I first met during a a summer internship with Proctor & Gamble in Albany, GA in 1994. That was one of the most difficult summers of my life, but it was also very rewarding in a lot of ways.

A 500-year flood devastated Albany that summer.  So, instead of working on our process improvement projects to improve plant productivity and the overall quality of Charmin, Bounty, and Pampers products, we spent weeks wearing hip boots while helping employees dig through the soiled remains of their homes to find anything salvageable. Senior management and indispensable staff were flown into the plant via helicopter during the weeks that the bridge was flooded while the interns served as relief workers.  We designed relief T-shirts which we wore while cleaning.  The shirts featured a gigantic paper towel roll soaking up all the flood waters with this caption, "Bounty, the quicker picker upper."  The effects of this flood were devastating and seeing the damage up close and personal was simply gut wrenching.

That summer, I got plugged in at Sherwood Baptist Church, home of Sherwood Pictures (for all you Courageous and Fireproof fans), where I experienced nurturing Christian fellowship and powerful teaching.

A number of co-workers did not share my worldview or values, but one young intern stood by me as a close friend.  I can't thank God enough for her. She attended a university over 11 hours from mine, so I assumed our friendship would fade as the summer internship ended.  Before the age of social networking and smart phones, we still managed to stay in touch to the point that she even invited me to serve as a bridesmaid at her wedding.

I really enjoyed the time we spent visiting her precious family.  Her husband shares several things in common with my husband, and our children got along beautifully.  The kids keep asking when we can go visit them again.  To our forever friends from Florida, thanks for hosting us and for treating us at Mi Casa.