Honeys Walk to Emmaus!!

Well, its 12;01AM, just got settled in, we just got back from Ilion, NY, what a "RAIN STORM" we came thru to get home!!!

Anna Mae has been there since thursday, they are staying in the Methodist Church, It was Hot, muggy and humid!!!,

We went down this afternoon about 3PM for a Church and Prayer Service, Karl and I took the Guitars and we got there just in time for the Pot Luck Supper, about 50 of us joined in prayer and some mighty fine vittles!!!, We then went upstairs to the Church for a prayer service for all the women making walk number 90 to Emmaus!!! We started off with some tunes, but first our Musicians, Karl and I played Guitar, Dave who's wife is on the walk brought his Mandolin, Jeff who's wife is also walking the walk and talking the Talk brought his fiddle, and Drew's Daughter Sarah brought her guitar...

We did a couple of the Old Standard Hymns to open the service, Slow and smooth with some good harmony.

THEN it must of been the heat and humidity because, first while waiting to do the next set I started picking a few notes of some "Bluegrass" to limber up my fingers, Dave jumped in with the Mandolin, then Jeff started sawing on his fiddle and then next thing there was, foot stomping, hand clapping, and we did a fine rendition of "Soldiers Joy"!!!... Well the Lay Minister in this fine and proper Methodist Church was grinning from ear to ear and calmly said, "Thank-You!, and asked us to play "Let us break bread together" and we then had communion!!

We were not allowed to see the candidates as they did not know we were there as they were in another church across the street having prayers and a late dinner, so we had to wait a while, WELL, someone in the back shouted "FIRE THEM THINGS UP"!!!! so we did, we did Hank William's, "I Saw The Light" followed by "Do-Lord", followed by some fine picking and grinning, and sawing on the fiddle and strumming on the Mandolin, we played and sang, then "Sarah" let loose with a fine beautifully sung rendition of "Because He Lives" ...and we sang back-up, OH IT WAS HOT & MUGGY!!

I couldn't see as my glasses were all fogged up, We paused and offered prayers for all the women at Emmaus, all the cooking staff, the servants, the helpers, and the Musicians, then we all 50 or so very quietly left the church, crossed the street to another church, and entered a very dark section of the cafeteria which had a huge black tarp hung across it, we were very quiet, on the other side of the tarp were the Women, leaders, helpers and musicians doing "Walk # 90"!!

They were singing "Do-Lord" and had their musicians on the other side of the tarp with them, we could not see them and they didn't know we were there, we were not expected there until Sunday at 5PM.

As they sang a song we joined in, they stopped singing, we stopped singing, this went on for about an hour, finally they started singing "I saw the Light" and I led us off with "I saw the Light" and played and sang along with them, they had no idea who was behind the tarp!!!!! BUT they will find out tomorrow as we go back down Sunday about 2PM and do it all over again except this time there is a surprise and I can't tell you in case you ever get the chance to do an "Emmamus Walk".

Then the women and staff left the cafeteria for their rooms, people started drifting off for their long rides home and well, we decided to have a "JAM SESSION", so we stayed, did some bluegrass, country, gospel and a few hymns and closed with Amazing Grace and we hit the road for the 2 hour ride home in a blinding rain storm!!!......

The Mandolin Player was a Vietnam Vet, the fiddle player was Korean War Vet, most of the men who had women there for the long weekend were Vets!!!!!!! SO, to end the night we closed with "My Country Tis of Thee" and we hit the Road!!!!!!!!

Never forget our Veterans, I just saw on the news a few minutes ago our local Fort Drum 10th Mountain Division lost another 2 brave souls today from "IED"!!!!!! Thats 60 from our Base here in Carthage we have lost so far this year!!!!!! That's 60 too many!!!

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE!!!!!!!!!