Yesterday after we arrived at the Lake View Motel, I walked across a few feet of grassy area in my bare feet to look over the fence and see if the pool had any water in it.

It didn't.

I tried to be careful.

I wasn't.

At least not enough. Sure thing, I stepped right on one of those little sand spurs with my right foot. Ouch! And there it stuck until I could stand on the pavement on my left foot and pull that 1/4 inch "demon" off.

And as I tried to fling it away with my left hand, it STILL tried to stick to my fingers!

In Deuteronomy 11:22 it says, [This is God talking to the people of Israel....AND us] "Be careful to obey all the commands I give you; show love to the Lord your God by walking in His ways, and clinging to Him.
"Clinging to Him.

Like that little sand spur, may we desperately understand our need for God, to latch on to Him, and NEVER let go.

Sometimes clinging is a GOOD THING.

[And today, we cling to His MERCY...it is raining! Liquid sunshine...hmm!]

Waited out the rain, and finally left around 11:30am on Highway 17 all the way to Palatka. Heavy traffic road, and no shoulder starting out.



After a couple miles, though, we DID get a shoulder, for which we were grateful. Didn't want to have to run over all the lumber trucks! [smile]



The rain threatened, but we didn't have any more precipitation from on top, and we were VERY happy about that. We went over several creeks, and usually had an even wider lane over the creeks.



Stopped for lunch at Mema's....it was great!



On the way to the Palatka bridge, we saw this unusual mailbox [a Gator fan, of course!]:



Starting to get dark as we approached the bridge:



As you can see, there WAS an 8-foot shoulder beside the traffic, plus a 5-foot sidewalk. By the time we got to the top of the bridge, it was getting dark....after MUCH coaxing, Earline let me stop and take her picture.



Since we had not had a response from a specific church in Palatka, we decided to continue to head on towards Orange Park on 17 in the dark. There was a nice 4-foot shoulder, but the traffic was heavy, even yet on this Thanksgiving Eve.



After about 10 miles we decided that was enough, so we looked for a place to tent, and HELLO, there was a rural post office on the side of the road.

Okay....there's no camera that we could see. In the back, out of sight of the road, there was a small loading dock with a roof over it....there was an electrical socket right there, AND the next day was Thanksgiving, so no one would be there! Okay!

Thanks God, for keeping us safe, and providing ALL our needs.

TGG,
jon