MAY 19, 1996

BURNT-OUT CHRISTIAN

I made it into Alpena, AR, a little after six in the evening. I was going to go to the evening service at the local Church of Christ. About five minutes before the service was going to start, an old pick-truck filled with dogs and a family with two young girls pulled into the parking lot. In a neat twist, I got invited to stay with them at their house a couple of miles out of town on US 412.

We loaded up the bike and gear in back with the dogs and headed out to their house. I wouldn't have been able to go up their steep driveway which was actually a dirt path. When I got to their house, I was actually shocked at how bad it was.

The house was actually rented from a Baptist minister From my opinion, the house should have been condemned but I was amazed that even though the family lived in such awful housing conditions they opened up what they had to be. I found out that the guy said he was a "burnt-out Christian". It turns out that he had been forced by his Baptist preacher father to preach at the age of ten.

After a good meal of hamburgers and a large bowl of Rocky Road ice cream, I crashed in one of the first floor bedrooms. Just before midnight, I got a bit of a scare when something jumped into bed with me. It turned out to be one of the miniature Dobermans that were the little girls pets.