It was cold in the morning but warmed up quickly after the sun came up. We took our time getting ready and said goodbye to all of the friends we made at the White Oak River Campground during our complimentary stay there.
We hit the road and walked through the small town of Maysville, NC. You could tell that it was an old railroad stop town and got to survive since hwy 17 was routed through it.
The road going outside of town was under construction. They were turning a two lane highway into a divided 4 lane highway. The other side was paved and blocked off to vehicular traffic. We stayed on that side for 8 miles. It was incredible. Zero cars. The weather was amazing too.
We made it farther down the road and a guy named Brian came to join us. He is in recovery and doing great things in his community with his parents. They run Craven County H.O.P.E. and help people get into treatment. It was cool walking with him.
We met up with the Sheriff at the Craven County line and he gave us an escort for our last three miles of the day. It was a dangerous section of the road that the locals call “Dead man’s curve.” We were very grateful for the flashing blues behind us to slow everyone down.
We made it to our destination and a huge group of people were waiting for us and cheering for us. It was incredible.
I asked one of them if there was a Petsmart in town since Domino was out of food and Lydia stepped in and offered to buy her food. We followed her and her girlfriend to Petsmart and picked out the special food that Domino needs. Lydia was really special to me. She has the same hole that I have in my heart from losing a sister and she also gave me confirmation that I needed on a very important part of Freedom to Grow. That is that our program will be LGBT friendly. I really like Lydia and hope to meet her again and possibly work with her in the future.
We headed from there to a halfway house under Reviving Lives Ministries (RLM). The house was really nice and filled with awesome people. They had made us a huge dinner! It was amazing. Both organizations gave us gifts and donations and helped us with our car and places to stay up the line.
We had a really great time and were in awe of the kindness of everyone. We will never forget New Bern, NC and the amazing people here.
Glad you received confirmation to be LGBT friendly, this is much needed.