I had a wonderful time today at the Mountain T.O.P. New Year’s Party. We started with a roundtable this morning at which our executive director, Rev. Ed Simmons, gave a status report for the ministry and took questions and comments from those in attendance. The afternoon was free time — I spent it with a group from Hillcrest UMC including Curtis and Elaine Piper, Chris and Amy Smith, and Keri Cress. We went to Gail Drake’s shop, Lorena’s, and to the Dutch Maid Bakery and to Mayhew’s pottery in Beersheba Springs.
Along the way, we made several stops related to Chris and Amy’s hobby, geocaching. This is a sport in which you use GPS coordinates and clues posted to a web site to find a hidden container. When you find it, you sign your name on a list to prove you were there. In some cases, the containers have toys or souvenirs in them, the rule being that you can take one if you leave some sort of little knick-knack of your own in its place.
Here are the rest of my photos.
Pictured, from left, are Rev. Ed Simmons; Mountain T.O.P. board chair Bill Joy; Chris Smith; Curtis and Elaine Piper; and Amy Strough Smith.