Forty-nine years is a long time. Teresa and I celebrated our forty-ninth anniversary yesterday (June 6) by taking an overnighter to Boone, NC, and spending the day at Grandfather Mountain. It was a rather dreary day with lots of fog and temps in the very low sixties. But it was a wonderful day none-the-less.

The drive back over to Blowing Rock from Grandfather Mountain was especially foggy. There were several stretches where it was difficult to see more than perhaps fifty feet in front of you. I was already driving extremely slowly due to the curvy, mountain road, but the fog slowed me down even more.

All this brought back memories of our wedding day, and a trip to Asheville, NC for a very brief honeymoon. Interstate 26 was not completed, so we had to drive up a treacherous mountain road in fog and rain. It was a nerve wracking drive I will never forget. Teresa and I were married at two o’clock in the afternoon, and it was late when we got on the road for the trip to Asheville. We stopped in Spartanburg for dinner, which meant it was already after dark when we began the drive up the mountain. Driving in the dark on an unfamiliar mountain road was bad enough. Add to the mix a horrible storm with heavy rain, wind, and fog, and it was truly a night to remember.

We finally made it to our motel – a quaint, privately owned property – with the appealing name, “Whispering Pines.” Such a peaceful, serene setting, with a name that added to the quiet tranquility of the night. The storm had subsided somewhat, and we felt that it would pass completely without any problems.

It was about two thirty in the morning when we were suddenly awakened by a horrific noise. The bed began to literally move across the floor from the thunderous sound. The air conditioner unit fell off the wall and onto the floor. It sounded like a freight train was about to burst through the wall. We were terrified, thinking that at any moment we would be killed by the obvious tornado that was about to rip through the motel.

Teresa and I were literally kissing each other good-bye, thinking that we were about to be killed by the terrible storm howling just outside our window. But, the noise began to subside, the bed quit shaking, and all became calm once again. Thinking to ourselves that the storm had now passed I opened the door to our room and peered into the darkness. There was no apparent damage from the storm. I saw no trees down, not even any limbs on the ground. Everything seemed to be in good order, so we settled back into bed for the night.

The next morning I went to the front desk to check out. I spoke to the motel clerk about the awful storm that had blown through during the night. He stood speechless for a few moments, then burst into laughter. He asked me to follow him, and he led me to the back of the line of motel rooms. When we turned the corner, I immediately saw the “storm”, or what sounded like a storm. The reason it sounded like a freight train is because that is exactly what it was. No more than about 30 feet from the back of the motel was a train track, and that train came rolling through every night at two thirty.

What we thought was surely the end of our lives turned out to be a memorable moment in our marriage memory box. But, that isn’t the end of the story. We were talking to my parents about the incident, hoping to get a good laugh out of them as we shared the horror and the humor. We told them the whole story, and they started laughing. Really laughing. But it wasn’t because our story was so hilarious, even though it was. But it was because they had stayed in the same motel, and had gone through the same harrowing experience!

Teresa and I have been blessed by the Lord to have many such moments that we now look back on as we reminisce about these past 49 years. I share this with you this week with the hope that it would encourage all of us to take time to think back over the years and remember, reflect and rejoice over the manifold experiences God has graciously allowed us to share with our loved ones. Take an evening to share with one another those fond memories. Laugh together, cry together, but by all means, share together those moments that have brought and will continue to bring joy to our hearts.