My Husband, the Author

I just wanted to brag a little bit!


Dane is now a published author. His book is called the Commune-ist Manifesto (as in community, not communism)! Just in case anyone is interested... http://www.amazon.com/dp/1432759329

The cover was done by our friend, Susan, partly in India and partly in Memphis.

The Final Leg

We visited Dane's cousin, John, his wife, Janet and their twin sons, Robert and Jack in Washington D.C. They live in a really nice area of the city and have a beautiful home. All of our belongings were stowed safely in their garage for the night.


The next day we visited Susanna in the morning. She and Dane taught together in Russia and she is also taking a sabbatical. You would normally find her teaching in Seattle. It was another of those short and sweet visits.

Susanna and us

We were ready to leave D.C. only to discover our bikes were no longer in the back of our truck. Whoever decided to help themselves was kind enough to leave the front tire of Dane's bike dangling from the chain. So we filed a police report and left D.C. and our bikes behind.

We like The Andy Griffith Show (aka TAGS), especially Dane. So a natural place to stop on our way home was Mount Airy, the town Mayberry was based on. We were planning on camping, but rain dampened those plans and we found the cheapest motel that we could. The Blu Vue Motel was the seediest motel I've ever stayed at. There were spiders and spider webs and when Dane tried turning the shower on it wouldn't work, but rather water started streaming out from behind the bathtub onto the floor. We left ASAP the next morning. The place was redeemed in our minds a little bit when we discovered that it had been featured in the Andy Griffith show.

Dane with Andy and Opie!

The Jailhouse

While visiting the Andy Griffith Museum, we met the owner and friend of Andy Griffith, Emmitt Forrest. There was a character based on him on the Andy Griffith show. He owned Emmit's Fix-it Shop in the show. I asked him about Leon, the little boy in TAGS that randomly shows up dressed up in western clothes and eating a peanut butter sandwich. Mr. Forrest informed me that it was Opie's real life brother, Clint Howard.

One more interesting fact about Mount Arie. The world renown conjoined twins, Chang and Eng Bunker from Siam, lived there. They are where we get the term Siamese twins.

Thank you Miriam and Adam for letting us spend the night with you. Now we're back in Nashville!

New England City Tour

We visited three of the big cities. But the lure was mostly people, not the city. (Dane might not agree)

Before heading into the big cities, we experienced the hospitality of the sister of a friend of a friend in Brunswick Maine. I love it! Thank you Paul and Elsbeth. We also got a glimpse of (it was a bit foggy) and picked up some shells from the Maine coast. It's beautiful in a tough kind of beautiful way.

We stopped in Boston to visit Patrick and Jill in their new home (the hospital). They are setting up house there until Jill delivers their son, Theo. I'm sure hospital life gets trying on them, but joy was present with them still.

Jill and Patrick

Then on to NYC. After several drive by glances of our hotel near the airport, we finally figured out how to actually get there. Dane likened the roads around Newark airport to spaghetti.

We visited Hollie, friend and previous roommate, at Hephzibah House. It's a really unique ministry including prison ministry, English language teaching, and a hospitality house for people in ministry. Hollie's worked there for a couple of years and loves it.

Michelle and Hollie

One day Dane left Hollie and I to our own devises while he went exploring the city on his own. I had such a good time following Hollie around the city and both of us talking our heads off. The next day James Daniel and I explored the city together.

some sort of art that I didn't understand

Sunday, October 31st was Dane's birthday. We went to church with Hollie that morning and then drove to Philadelphia. Jared and Maryanne are in Philly. We went out to a local pizza joint for Dane's birthday.

Jared is studying philosophy. We definitely got our fill of deep conversations while in Philly! But of course loved it. I wished we lived closer to them. Dane and Jared could talk and Maryanne and I could mostly listen and work on projects. (Maryanne is a beautiful artist)

A secret mosaic in Philly