A Tour of Mayberry

The Good News: Sunday, we were invited to a baby blessing for some dear friends of ours.

The Bad News: Said dear friends live on "the other side of the universe" and their meeting started at 8am.

Hmmm.... this presents a tricky situation. Get family of 5 up, fed, dressed in their Sunday best, and on the road by 7am. And even THAT would be calling it close. But we did it! We were actually running a tad late, but pretty optimistic that we would make it on time. Now, we live on the very far side of a big metropolitan area. These friends live on the very far opposite side. It's a long treck, but thankfully early Sunday morning traffic was very ideal. My friend had sent an email invitation with the address of their church. Naturally, I used google maps to get directions. They were so simple, just around the corner from their house (which I already knew how to get to) that I didn't even bother printing the map.

We arrived in their neighborhood. It's got quite a bit of "small town" flavor.... so let's just call it Mayberry. As we're driving down the main road, I'm telling Jason that the church is just a mile or 2 past their subdivision, and right on the corner of the main road. We should be able to see it coming. A few miles go by and we're not seeing a church. Any minute now. FINALLY, there's a church. Right on the street that google maps told me. Let's hurry, we're gonna make it in time, barely! I'm thinking, wow that church sure is OLD. The building looks kinda funny. We pile out of the mini-van and race to some double doors. You can already hear the singing from the sidewalk. I go through the doors and just inside there's another set of double doors with windows in them. Right before I can push through those, a couple of things hit me all at once. First, I don't recognize this hymn that's being sung. Second, I caught a glimpse of the people through the windows. I see plaid and Hawaiian print shirts and abundantly scattered casualness. Third and final, the chapel is filled with crosses and burning candles. THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT CHURCH. Though we were racing full-speed ahead, I grabbed the kids and said, "Everybody back in the car!" Jason, Mitchell, and I just erupt into laughter. I'm soooo glad we did not burst into the middle of that mystery service.

Now the whole point of us getting up early and high-tailing it out there is pretty much gone; we have obviously missed the blessing at this point. We proceed to take a scenic tour of Mayberry wondering what we have done wrong. This church was exactly where my directions told me to go. I see some firefighters outside cleaning their firehouse and beg Jason to stop and ask for directions. Who knows a small town better than the firemen? They are able to send us to the correct church, which was really NOT AT ALL located according to the original address. We "sneak" in the back, ridiculously late and sat there for the 2nd half of the meeting.

At our friend's house afterwards, we were able to explain ourselves and apologize. It turns out that she emailed a TYPO in the address (it was completely missing a digit!) Strange that even with a number missing, that address still led us to a church building! We were able to visit there for a while before trekking back across the universe for me to make it to my own church on time. WHEW!

You may stop whistling the Andy Griffith theme song now.