Spring 2025 Road Trip – Creation Museum and Ark Encounter

Tuesday May 13, 2025

On May 8th we left Big Bone Lick State Park at 8am en route to the Creation Museum in Boone, KY.  If you are not aware, the Creation Museum is a Christian evangelistic outreach of Answers in Genesis, as is the sister attraction, the Ark Encounter which we visited later in the day.  Randy and Debra had visited both the attractions previously, but for Debra it was a while back and there have been many changes since her visit.  We were glad that they wanted to visit again today with us as we knew it would be more fun that way.  We had never been to either location.  We found both the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter to be interesting and well done.   We learned some things and we have many pictures of information boards that we want to go back and read. The Creation Museum does just what you would think it would do – it tells the story of the creation of the world as revealed in the first book of the Bible – Genesis.  It also covers the end of the perfect world that God created when Adam and Eve sinned.

The Ark Encounter likewise tells the story of Noah and his faithfulness, the building of the Ark and the world after the flood.  Both the Creation Museum and The Ark Encounter shared the redemption of the world by the death of Christ on the cross and the resurrection three days later.  Again, we felt they were well done.  Yes, there was some artistic license taken at times but it was identified as such when it occurred.

It took us a full day to do both the Creation Museum and The Ark and we did not do any of the “extras” such as movies, zip lines, and much more that is offered.  Doing all that is offered would take at least two days.   So, after a long day we went back to Big Bone Lick Campground and prepared for a long travel day.

Start of our Spring 2025 Road Trip

Sunday, May 11, 2025

Tuesday, May 6 was the official beginning of our Spring Road Trip 2025.  If things go as planned, this will truly be a road trip.  There will be lots of driving, lots of miles covered and not as much moseying along at a casual pace as our recent vacations.  Tuesday, we drove to Asheville, NC to visit with the volunteer coordinator for the NOMADS disaster rebuilding project we will be leading in the fall.  We met with Hannah at the church that will be providing our parking sites.  The church is building camping sites on their property for people impacted by Hurricane Helene and will be including six sites for NOMADS to use.  This should be a great opportunity for us to serve in a beautiful location while working to get families back into their homes.

From Asheville, we drove to Barbourville, KY to visit the Constructors For Christ 2025 construction site.  We will be helping to build the East Barbourville Baptist Church’s new sanctuary and perhaps build out some Sunday School classrooms.  Since it was not too far off our route, we decided to take a quick look at the site and see the town.  We arrived too late to see anyone at the church but got to take some pictures, try one of the local diners, check out the grocery stores, and the RV park we will be using. We also boondocked at the local WalMart (with permission).  We are really looking forward to this project.  This will be the 50th  year Constructors has provided 5-6 weeks of labor to assist churches with their building needs.  What a great ministry this organization has led.  It’s an honor to work and serve with them and we look forward to seeing all our Constructor friends in June.  We traveled 336 miles today.

After a good night of sleep,  on May 7, we continued driving northwest.  We stopped at King Donut in London, KY for breakfast pastries and then continued to Big Bone Lick State Historic Park in Union, KY.  This is a smaller state park but is in a beautiful setting and bills itself as “the birthplace of American paleontology.” We would definitely stay here again.  The first sight we were assigned, we couldn’t get level.  So the very helpful, “off duty” camp host quickly changed our site to one that was level and located immediately behind Randy and Debra.  We spent the afternoon exploring the park and waiting for Randy and Debra to arrive.  Another 171 miles traveled.

Third Week At Sumatanga

Sunday, May 4, 2025

Our last post left us at Camp Sumatanga for Easter weekend.  Easter morning we were up at 4:00 am, on the road by 5:00 am and celebrated the resurrection of our Lord and Savior with our Lester Memorial family at 6:00 am on the mountain above Oneonta at Palisades Park.  It was a wonderful service and beautiful sunrise.  Such a great way to start Resurrection Sunday.

For our third week working at Camp Sumatanga we were so blessed!  Friday of Holy Week our good friends and fellow NOMADS Mariel and Shannon joined us.  On Sunday afternoon two more good friends and NOMADS, Rita and Dave, joined us. We also had great help from Barry and Donna and Emily.  First, there was NO water leak Monday morning!  We were able to resume work on Cabin 5 with Barry, Donna, Mariel, Anne, Max, and Rita worked on painting the exterior since Monday would be our only dry day.  Shannon and Dave did some framing work for the showers and vents, built some benches, and repaired drywall in the old section of the cabin.  On Thursday Dave, Shannon, Max, Anne, and Barry insulated the walls and ceilings. 

We also continued to work in the girl’s staff hut. By the end of the week Donna, Barry, Rita, Mariel, Anne and Emily had all six bedrooms ceiling, walls and closets painted along with the hallway and most of the trim.  The bathroom ceilings were also painted.  The old water heaters were removed.  Max and Anne rebuilt and insulated part of the front wall of the hut and finished the repair of  the damaged subfloor in the front room. Max and Barry also worked on rough-in electrical in Cabin 7.  It was a very busy week with a lot accomplished for the camp.  Most importantly, everyone stayed safe!  Big thank you to all who helped!!

We returned to Johnston, SC after church on Sunday and have spent the past week with Randy and Debra.  Randy received a great report from his oncologist on Wednesday so it’s been a great week for us.  If things go as planned we will be doing some westward travel with Randy and Debra this next week.

Week Two – Déjà vu

Saturday, April 19, 2025

Hope you have had a wonderful Holy Week. As we share wonderful meals and Easter egg hunts with family and friends, remember the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior and tomorrow we celebrate our RISEN SAVIOR on Resurrection Sunday.  Thank You, Jesus!!

Same song, second verse.  Monday morning we were leaving the campground to go back to work on Cabins 5 and 7 at Pool Camp when we heard on the radio that there must be another big leak somewhere in the water system.  We headed back to the retreat center and yes there was water flowing like a river.  The guys started digging mud and bailing water.  Before they could get the water system shut down, we watched the ground cave in like a sink hole.  The repair from last week was still perfect but there were two other leaks further on down the line.  Monday was spent repairing those leaks.  Tuesday morning, after assuring the repairs held overnight, the big hole was covered and we were back working on Cabins 5 and 7 for the remainder of the week.  Hopefully there will not be another leak this Monday.  By the way, generally it’s not advisable to drive around the back to the retreat centers.  There are all kinds of pipes and lines back there. It’s much better to park in the parking spaces provided.

Then we brought in the mini-excavator.

Cabins 5 & 7 are identical so even though cabin 5 is top priority, we are also working on 7 based on where the plumber needs us to help out and what supplies we have.  We also did some additional cleaning and repairs in the staff hut. 

We are excited because Friday some NOMADS friends, Shannon and Mariel, arrived at the camp to work with us next week.  We have Dave and Rita also NOMADS friends that will be arriving on Sunday afternoon.  Donna and Barry also plan to return for most of the week, so we hope to make a lot more progress next week. 

We have a neighbor in the campground who gets really nervous when we walk by her site.