Dallas, GA - Commerce, GA - Athens, GA

This past week has been rather enjoyable with lots of traveling around Georgia. We left Savannah on Friday the 6th heading towards Copper's hometown of Dallas, GA. Copper's mom owns a biscuit restaurant called Mountain Biscuits in Marietta and Copper had to work there on Saturday morning so I got to enjoy the morning myself. I had breakfast there in the morning and had a deep fried cinnamon roll and man, that was enjoyable. I then headed to Kennasaw Mountain National Battle Ground and went through the museum there. I was so enthralled to learn about the history that took place where I was standing.

When I was at the museum on Saturday, I gave my good friend Kinsey Phillips a call. He was the man who was there at the base of the mountain years ago who stood by my side and cared for me as a life flight helicopter was on its way to me. He is a main reason that I am still alive to this day. He lives a couple of hours from Dallas in Commerce, so I gave him a call to see if Copper and I could go to church with him and his family the next morning. He said that would be wonderful, so the next morning we woke up early and headed for Commerce, GA. We found Kinsey and his family and we went to the contemporary service with them. I was able to meet many new people in his church who had prayed for me years ago and I think I was able to give some encouragement for all of their prayers. The pastor had Kinsey and myself say a few words of God's grace through my accident during the service and I felt completely comfortable while talking so I felt the spirit very strongly because normally I would be as nervous as anything.

After the service, Copper and I met and talked with a few other people from the service and then went to lunch with Kinsey and his wife Joyce. We then met at Kinsey's farm and he took us on a ride around his 400 acres and showed us his property. It was the most enjoyable day with some amazing people that have a special connection with me.

Since Athens, GA is just south of Commerce and Copper has some friends at school at University of Georgia we headed down there next. This was the first time I had ever been to Athens and found this to be an awesome college town. We met with Copper's friend Catherine whose house we would be staying at on Monday night. She was a really cool person who I had the pleasure of meeting.

This morning after waking up, we ate at a great restaurant and went to a little coffee shop to load up on caffeine before making the drive back to Dallas.

When we got home we made a tasty dinner with vegetables that Kinsey had given us from his farm and we really enjoyed it. We then went on a little run around the woods over here. I think it is amazing how different this country is. There were so many trees over here on the east coast than I have ever seen before. It has been an amazing trip so far and I am excited for what is to come in the future.

Have a good sleep tonight.

Ryan