By now I was solidly into my second year in the Family (1977)and could no longer be considered a babe in anyway. I was reading the letters with gusto and weathering any storm that came my way. The summer fund raising was about to begin and this year promised to be a doozy. We were told that some of us were going to be going on summer-long roadtrips. Only coming into the colony to replenish the lit supplies and to pick up another load of "Bible" albums.

So with a great deal of excitement and trepidation I set out with my team, consisting of Jeremy and a married couple, Joseph Flowers and his wife Mary. We focussed on the Atlantic beach towns in France; La Rochelle, Les Sables d'Olonne and others of that area. At first we had some adjusting to do. We had been told that we were not allowed to use any of the money that we made for our personal needs. None of it. All of it was to be sent in. So we had to figure out our provisioning. In La Rochelle, we found a really quaint restaurant that catered to the fishermen. It was a buffet type place. Everyone lined up with their plates at the window and the food was portioned onto the plate. We all ate at long tables together, sitting on benches. Water and Vinegar was in old bottles on the tables. It wasn't great food but it was certainly better than starving.

We moved in the level of society that could be considered the street people. We were usually up in the early mornings when the bakers would be baking bread. The smell was so tantalizing. We ate with the fishermen in the evenings and sometimes provisioned from them at the end of the market day. One time they gave us a giant sea spider. I don't know what else to call it. It was gigantic and looked like a spider. We took it off to the bushes at the park and cracked it open to eat. I had never eaten lobster or crab and had no idea what a sea creature was supposed to look like inside. Parts of it were this wierd fuzzy looking stuff. I ate any part that the guys gave to me, because this was going to be dinner.

Since we were on the streets everyday, all day, we began to meet the locals and made their acquaintances in a couple of instances. One young teenage boy was fascinated with us. His name was Claude. He asked his parents if we could sleep at their house for the evening and they said yes. The mother in particular was delighted that we were Les Enfants de Dieu. She gave tons of clothes and shoes to Mary. Joseph F. did some stupid palm reading thing for evening entertainment and made some crazy wacko predictions for Claude. Of course the parents were surprised and happy with the made-up fortune telling. Claude was a sweet guy and prayed with us to receive Jesus. We were occasional guests in their house if we were in town.

Jeremy and I were still on the outs in our relationship. I had accepted that he no longer wanted to marry me, but inside I still harbored some hope. Joseph and Mary on the other hand had been married for a few years. They didn't have any children. They also fought all the time. Nasty yelling fighting. Joseph would be an overbearing ass and poor Mary would finally run off to spend the day by herself, doing God knows what. Sometimes we wouldn't see her at all until evening.

After about three weeks of the Joseph and Mary show we were called into the main colony in Bordeaux. Jeremy and I were given a new partner instead of Joseph and Mary. I don't remember our new partners name. He was a young American brother. Very sweet and nice. He played guitar. We packed up a tent this time to make it easier to have a place to sleep and left for the road again. We headed to Il De Re, an island. We had heard there was a topless beach there and the boys really wanted to go there. Sure enough, there was the beach and there were the boobs. Not mine though, no matter how hard the boys tried to convince me to take off my top. Finally we decided to head back to La Rochelle. We caught a ride with a newly wed couple on their way home from their honeymoon on the island. Nice sweet couple. They only spoke French and the conversation was very animated between Jeremy and them. I learned a new word that day. That sweet happy girl kept repeating a certain word. I didnt' recognise what it meant but she said it so many times that I memorized it. After they dropped us off I asked Jeremy what that word was she kept saying. Merde. What does merde mean? He was embarrassed to have to tell me that lovely newly married girl kept saying shit. Shit. I couldn't believe it.