Day 16 & 17-Fuquay-Varina

Mike Mladenoff
Apr 18, 2016
3 min read

We had hoped to make it to the Kinzer home earlier so that we could see the girls before bedtime, but it just didn't work out and we arrived at Mel and Anthony's house at 8:30PM. After all of these years, we finally made it. Much like when we stopped in Amarillo, we were excited and relieved to see familiar faces...and it felt like home.

We quickly set of the RV and went inside and talked...for several hours. Even after a long day, the following morning we were much more energetic than expected and we went to church together. The boys went in one car and the girls in the other--the girls beat us there, but we returned the favor on the way home. While there, we met some of Mel and Anthony's friends and we all sang together. After singing, there was a pause in the action and the kids were dismissed to their classes. The boys stayed in church with us, but Rachel went to class with Niah. It was a blessing to be with family and see the community that they are a part of.

We made sandwiches for lunch after church. When Brielle went down for a nap, I set up our water rocket launcher and Mel and Kristen went grocery shopping at the Food Lion. It was a warm day, so Anthony started up the lawnmower for the kids to ride. My 3 would love a riding lawnmower...and Anthony would appreciate a 13 or 14 year old to mow the property. We should be neighbors.

It's been a while since we have used the water rocket launcher, but the large yard and wide open space allowed us all the space we needed. Knowing that we might have this opportunity, I purchased some new wings before we left on the trip. These things allowed the rocket (2-liter soda bottle) to repeatedly reach apogees of nearly 500 feet (without the wings, the rocket can only reach heights of 30 feet). Some of the time the rocket went nearly straight up, but there were a few times where we had retrieve the rocket from a neighbor's yard.

Here is a slow motion video of a launch.

Anthony BBQ'd brats & hotdogs while Mel heated up the baked beans and we worked together to chop things for salad. After dinner, using our dutch oven, Luke & Tyler made a berry cobbler in the backyard while Rachel played with the girls. It was a perfect night to eat in the backyard. After the little girls went to bed our three watched Night at the Museum and Kristen and I stayed up talking with Mel until 1AM. It was wonderful.

On our last night, after dinner we went into town and strolled around for a an hour or so and soaked in the small town charm.

Most of the shops were closed, but we did manage to spend some time at Sovereign Guns. At my request, the salesman pulled a couple of guns off the shelf that are all but impossible to have in California. I looked them over, but even with all of the cool things they had, I was not there to buy, so we moved on.