Day 5!

Ahh, so Day 5 of choir tour!

We left from St. Petersburg, and headed out to Lakeland Florida. We got to the church in the afternoon that we'd be singing at later that night, and unloaded. We were all exhausted. I slept a lot on the bus, hardly remember a moment of it, besides everyone putting their snappy hands in my face as they walked by because I wouldn't wake up. Oh yeah. Love that.

We ran through the program and got used to the acoustics in the church. It was really cute. Very bright, with white walls and sunny windows. It helped that the weather was exactly what I think heaven will be like. Yeah, it was that heart-wrenchingly gorgeous.

Soon the hosts showed up to take us home for a few hours that afternoon before we had to be back for the concert that night. Kirstie, Trina and I were a little nervous. We were in a retirement community, and all of the people from the church belonged to the community. I'm talking trailer homes and gold carts here. The rather typical Florida retirement community deal. We were a rad nervous after the previous night...

So this woman named Elizabeth greeted us, and we loaded our things into her mini van. She was absolutely adorable. So sweet, and so happy. She seemed younger than a lot of the other people Kirstie mentioned how she assumed her to be a widow, since most of the other hosts were a husband and a wife pair. The wives typically brought their husbands since there was usually luggage involved.

We got to her house only a few streets away as we rose in the sunshine that was so very fine.

We walked into her double-wide, and met a man who had oxygen around his face and nose. He told us his name was Walt. He was her husband. He was crouching over, holding on to the table, and I think he had his cain then. He seemed older than his wife, who we later found out was 18 years younger.

Liz led us into a room down the hall, that had a sitting room in it, with a closet and bathroom. One queen bed, and one single bed. They gave us their room! They took the guest room! Ahh they were so gracious to us. So precious.

Liz told us we could settle in a bit and relax and come out if we felt like it. We laid around for a while, and Liz brought in food every time she came in which was about 3 times in an hour. Thee. Cutest.

Trina had a few things to do, so Kirstie and I went out and said hello to Liz and Walt. They gave us the keys for the golf cart and told us we could use it. We could hardly contain our excitement. We went out and video taped, and saw a ton of choir people out riding their hosts' bikes and driving their gold carts too. It was unreal. It felt like camp. We were all staying within seconds of each other. All 52 of us (including Doc and Burge). Kirstie and I ran into Jake and Spencer on a cart, and we stopped and video taped, and then sped on ( at about 5 mph) and yelled "SPRING BREAK!" With our fists held up in triumph.

Obviously, this was the life.

The thing is-- I'm entirely serious.

We went back to our host home, and got ready for the concert, after picking up Olivia and Gina and driving back, since they were staying next door.

The concert went so well, even though we felt out of it. It was not by any means our best, but we were thrilled that the church was literally packed to the max. Every row was filled. It was a beautiful sight to behold.

Afterwards, we had a reception at the building next door to the church, and Walt came in, and sat with me and Kirstie. Trina was being social elsewhere at first. He kept joking that we were his granddaughters. We decided to play along, and introduced him to everyone else at our table as our grandpa. Soon Liz found us, and Walt insisted she was his daughter, like he had said when we first met him. "Oh, I see you've met my daughter, Liz." He was such a nut. It was wonderful.

He ordered me to get him some sweet tea form the table, and Kirstie to get him some desserts from the other table up front. I, being gluten-free, could not indulge in the spread. We came back, and he approved of our servanthood towards him, our grandpa.

At one point, he had said to Kirstie, "Hey, who's that boy over there?" While pointing behind her. While her head was turned, he stole her napkin under her plate and wiped his mouth. I was laughing so hard and Kirstie had no idea what had just happened. She found out later, and another round of laughs went around.

Walt told us how he is actually 92 years old. I would never have guessed that old. The man was hilarious and seemed much younger then, than he did early that day with his oxygen on. He didn't have it on then.

He told us about his first wife, to whom he had been married to for 60 years. He said she was very quiet, and didn't make him talk much. Then he looked at Liz across the table, the bubbly little adorable lady, and said, "But Liz... that woman won't stop talking, and makes me talk all the time, and now I need oxygen. " Liz giggled adorably at his silly tactics, and he continued to say, "Yeah, Evelyn was quieter, and eventually she couldn't take it anymore... she couldn't handle anymore of me..." Just when we were sympathizing with him, catching on to his tone of voice, he said flatly, "So she died." As if to shrug his shoulders. We all laughed and Trina, who had come over and sat with our little family at that point, said, "That's horrible!" As she laughed. Liz was laughing and making faces at Walt, and he was just acting like the whole world was his. It was fabulous!

We headed back to their home, and rode in their gold cart, while they took the van. We all decided we needed a family picture of the 5 of us when we got back. I'll have to copy that picture on here soon.

Then we all gathered around and "Grandpa" told us a bunch of stories.... more than half of them weren't even true. He'd tell us after we bought them and laughed and gushed at how cool he was. That man was an absolute hoot. And his little Liz would go along with him, and even suggest stories to tell... stories that weren't even true. But absolutely hilarious.

It only made us laugh harder.

It started getting late, and we had stayed with Walt and Liz instead of going out with all the other choir people. We honestly had no desire to leave theses precious people. Ahhh they were amazing!

By the time we were about to get ready for bed for the night, it was after 11, and we had been talking for hours in the living room, still in our concert black dresses.

He had joked about how it was boring that we were all single, and he wanted to know why we were single. I'll be vague to protect privacy, but we each gave a status update on the love life. Mine is seemingly empty, so I didn't say much. When we were all done our laughter and giggles, he started making jokes about when and where we'd find our future husbands. He told us he could go next door and grab a choir boy for each of us if we wanted. It was so cute.

Walt said to us, "Now I know I can be a bit of a pain sometimes, and joke around a lot and all that... but I'd like to pray for you girls tonight before you go to bed if that's alright...." And so he did.

Ok, by the middle of his prayer, I was in tears. This man blessed us so much by praying for us... as if he and Liz hadn't done enough to completely overwhelm us in their kindness towards us already! Walt even prayed for our future husbands. What the crap. This man was the most precious man we'd met all choir tour long.

Ahh, just how much of a blessing Walt and Liz were... gosh I cannot even say it. We did not walt to leave. They asked for all of our contact information, and we all want to keep in touch. Ahh they were the cutest!!

And so was Day 5:) The best day, and the best host family we had stayed with yet.