Sautee Naccoochee Valley, GA

I know I'm about a month late, but I figure it's never too late to post some fun pictures. This is the youth trip toGeorgia- which turned out to be fraught with car troubles!

Here we are in an Arby's in Kentucky, nice huh? Except we were stuck here for about 4 hours waiting for our AC to get fixed.

Unfortunately, the AC could not be fixed, so we spent the next 6 hours or so driving down the highway in a tin can under 95 degree sun with only the emergency hatches for breeze. Whew! It was warm.

Once we arrived we settled in- it was about 10:30pm and hit the sack. The next day was a work day which we spent at the camp working on their new basketball court. This particular camp, which is the organization's summer headquarters, was brand new to TeamEffort. There was a lot of work to do so each group spent a day working on-site. Our group got to do two days since we had a lack of transportation for a little while.

(In Picture: Tori, Kaleigh, Lauren, Alyssa, and Josh)

There was a lot of moving dirt and concrete from one spot to another. Here Tyler is shoveling some beautiful red Georgia dirt into a trailer to be moved to a more useful spot.

Everyone lent a hand for each job. This was actually one of the more pleasant jobs as it was in the shade!

It was HOT- think at least 95 degrees, in direct sunlight I would guess we got closer to 100.

(Alyssa, Kathryn, Amanda, Tori, and Lauren, with Tony in the background)

The younger guy on the left was one of our leaders- Clayton. The older gentleman was a volunteer who's nephew helped to start TeamEffort. One of the more disconcerting realizations for me when we arrived at camp was that all of the leaders were about 20 years old and there was no real go-to person who was in charge of the whole camp. There was a camp director floating around but we rarely saw him.

Tony Doster was the other adult male leader. He and Kathryn worked well together to move broken concrete away from the basketball court!

Every day we went "off-site" for our picnic lunch. Hanging out by the river was definitely our favorite passtime and on the second day of eating at this location the kids discovered they could catch minnows in their bare hands. After a few tries they learned not to scream and drop them the minute they caught one :)

A little minnow-friend.

Another fun activity was wading out to the "white water" in the middle of the river. It was slippery so we had to go on all fours or link arms but we were willing to do just about anything to get cool!

Thank goodness our rooms were air-conditioned! Evenings after worship and small groups was spent playing "Nerts" (or "Peanuts") and Euchre.

(Left to Right: Tyler, Lauren, Tyler, Mark, AJ, John)

This is Renee, our other fearless, but camera-shy, leader from TeamEffort.

We learned lots of new skills! Kathryn and Tori tried their hands at drywall.

John was a pro at sanding those drywall seams!



Our other work days were spent in a trailer park called Baker and Glover. The family we worked with had 3 children- Jose, Igselle, and Brittany (their new, week-old baby). Igselle had lots of friends!

(Left to Right: Naomi, Igselle, Erica)







When Alison and I made our trek to Atlanta to pick up the rental vans to temporarily replace our big bus we missed lunch and found this great little place to eat- The Old Sautee Store. On our 1/2 free day we brought the kids back for lunch and to buy candy for the return trip home.

(Left to Right: Lauren, Jessica, Mark, Amanda, Chris, Tony, Kathryn, Kaleigh, Tori)





The Old Sautee Store had all kinds of novelties- this was a measure of your romanticism. Somehow I ended up being pronounced "clammy" while most of the kids got "passionate," "burning," and "hot stuff." I guess the heat fades with age? Awesome.

The restaurant area of The Old Sautee Store

Nice big front porch- we knew we must be in the South!







On our full day off most of the kids went whitewater rafting, while Jessica, Alison and I hung out in a restaurant and played cards.











Time to go home!

(Front Row: AJ, John. Middle Row: Alisaon, Kaleigh, Lauren, Alyssa, Christopher, Jessica, Tony, Mark. Back Row: Krista, Tori, Kathryn, Amanda, Zach, Tyler, Tony, Tyler, Josh)