Its Been a Beautiful Day

It’s been a beautiful day.  Some would say, “You’re retired.  Isn’t every day a beautiful day?”  No. Its not.  The day the tornadoes almost dropped out of the sky on us at Flagler, Colorado, and we had to drive for an hour or more in hail and heavy winds ($7,000 for entry door and AC cowling repair) was not a beautiful day. But OK, most days are pretty nice.  Today, however, was beautiful. And today even began with an alarm clock.

It was Sunday, and we were parked at Bull Shoals UMC in Bull Shoals, Arkansas along the White River in the rolling Ozark Mountains. Church was at 9:00 am and we arrived across the parking lot at 8:45. 

Sometimes you go in as a visitor at a church and people don’t know what to do with you.  Even the greeter doesn’t know how to handle someone whose face they don’t recognize.  They want to be welcoming but just haven’t learned how to welcome the stranger.  That was not BSUMC (I just love our use of acronyms in the United Methodist Church!)

We were quickly made to feel at home and introduced to the coffee pot, so I was instantly comfortable.  Then one of the women of the church engaged Mona in conversation and was genuinely interested in our life on the road.  Pastor Donnie came over and apologized for not being able to greet us before this morning but he had told us he would be on vacation and away so no problem there.

Then the service.  Traditional United Methodist the way I remember it at Lititz, Pa 20 years ago.  But so what.  The people were here to worship God and be in community with each other and the theme of Donnie’s sermon, and it was very well received, was service in the community. What are we willing to sacrifice for God in carrying out nurture, outreach, and mission?

After church here Donnie and wife Annette head off to a small UMC in Yellville (Don’t laugh too hard.  Pennsylvania has Ono, Blueball and Intercourse, to name a few interesting moniker’s for small towns) about twenty minutes away and past the town of Flippin. 

We were invited to one of two adult Sunday School classes at 10:30 and the one we chose is using a really provocative book published by the UMC Upper Room called DISCIPLE.  A Daily Bible Study Guide and Devotional that about eight of us covered the past week’s discussions in under Tom and Jane’s able guidance.

And wouldn’t you know?  We learned in class that this church, just like some of the others we have visited in these first three months on the road has leaders who are wondering if they should

   -Create a second service of more contemporary music and projection.

   -Develop new classes or small groups.

   -Create new and exciting ways to help people say yes to taking on and being

   supported in leadership roles.

The bottom line we’ve found in so many UMC’s is that if key people in a church, along with the pastor, are able to prayerfully risk everything for God, God will move the hearts of enough others in that fellowship to do what He wants done in the church and community.

National Park PHOTO

We drove south through the beautiful and slow winding and rolling Ozarks along the Buffalo River National Park to Conway, Arkansas. No pics of the river from us, though.  This is a wilderness river and you must see it from the water, not a car.  It was about a two and a half hour trip at an average 45 miles per hour.  That is always beautiful.

Then we arrived at our destination, First UMC in Conway.  The largest UMC and one of the largest Christian churches in the county.  

The original stone pantheon-like building was attractive enough, but the newer construction which included new worship space, classroom and day care room, and parking, makes the church now take up an entire large city block.  Over 500 worship regularly and our friends who attend here, Vicki and Clayton Crockett, arranged for us to stay for two nights, and possibly more, if we decide we would like to.  They only live about four miles or so away.

We arrived this evening just in time to be invited by them and a bunch of their friends from the University (Clayton is a professor of religious studies at the University of Central Arkansas at Conway).  His department was having an informal family get together of religious and philosophy profs at the senior profs home and pool.  It was good old potluck, though decidedly not just old time southern.  The profs come from many backgrounds including Japan and China so the eclectic menu was great, and so were the chicken, hot dogs, popsicles and watermelon.  We brought a Kroger’s Pineapple Upside Down Cake that we discovered was still partially frozen when we opened it.  It was amazing to see how the profs and families seemed not to mind the ice crystals at all as they wolfed it down!

Vickie the Managing Director of the Conway Symphony.  She says its a part time job. Yeah, like a PT pastor is part time.  She does , or sees it gets done, everything nonmusical about the orchestras performances and needs. They are blessed to have a solid relationship with the university.

We met a first grade teacher, wife of one of the profs, who told us the story of the tornado that totally destroyed Vellonia’s (a smaller town near Conway) newest grade school building just before it was to be opened this past April. We talked with Clayton about the exciting Exchange of ideas happening with Chinese Universities through the ‘Confucius Institute’, a mostly Chinese funded way for schools all over the world to get Chinese and indigenous students to study together and learn from each other.

And we learned from Vicki that tomorrow NO ALARM CLOCK.  Their two kids are off to sleepovers tonight so they are sleeping in!  We’ll join them about 11:00 for lunch at their home and then head to a local state park lake for a relaxing sit on the grass, and picnic supper.  A Labor Day, an end of summer day, perhaps the way it was always meant to be.

-Ken

On to Arkansaw!

The new alternator did the trick.  FROG is running like a champ and we left Integrity Auto & Diesel in Lebanon, Missouri after shaking hands all around.  And paying the bill, of course.

The drive south into Northern Arkansas took about two and a half hours and we drove through some of the prettiest country we’ve seen anywhere.  The Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks as seen from local Route 5.  It didn’t hurt that we drove through the softly rolling hills of North Central Arkansas during the time of evenings golden light. The gorgeous sunset couldn’t be photographed well through the coach windows though, and we had to keep going to avoid getting in too much after dark.  Parking FROG is a whole other story when you don’t have full light to see by.  Sometimes the biggest obstacle (like the TOAD behind?) may be hidden in the smallest shadow.

FROG's nose is peeking out at left

But we arrived at Bull Shoals United Methodist Church just as the last rays of the sun were leaving the sky, and found the parking lot almost exactly level, quiet, and wonderfully wooded.  Thank you Pastor Donnie for recommending this location right behind your congregational parish house across from the church!

We were so tired that even late night reading got short shrift and the morning came all too soon.  Well, noon almost came all too soon.  We slept till (shhhh!  Don’t tell anyone else)  about 11:00 am. And with so much to see!

The White River Dam was built in the late 1940’s and President Truman dedicated it in 1950.  The town of Bull Shoals, named for the rapids now buried beneath the deep, cold waters of Bull Shoals Lake, was built at the same time to serve the tourist traffic generated by the huge lake.  Fishing, hunting (deer leapt in front of our car several times today), and camping are the hot items in the Ozarks anyway but this lake and nearby Norfolk Lake to the east top off the vacation agenda for most.

Arkansas State Parks have no day use fees so we were able to enjoy a visit to the wonderful visitors center by the dam, and the park facilities along both the lake and the river below the dam.  No swimming though!  The water which is released below the dam comes from the lake bottom, about 100 feet below the surface at the dam wall.  Its clear as crystal, and cold to about 45 degrees.  If someone falls in the water getting them out as quickly as possible is critical before hypothermia sets in.

Lunch was at Connie’s Café in Bull Shoals where the owner, Dan, of course, is also the chief cook.  And he can really cook!  Our lunch was a bit late since breakfast had been about 11 so there was no one else around as we began what turned into an almost hour long conversation with our server and new friend, Tina. 

Tina hails from Wisconsin and has always wanted to live in an RV so we had that to talk about. And she has a son who is now 19 with some issues that our daughter’s boys have had to deal with so that filled the rest of the agenda. Thank you for a super meal Tina and Dan and crew at Connie’s (wink-wink Dan’s) Café.

Fishing is the thing we saw everywhere.  In boats, on the shore, and in waders they fished. They fished with plugs, naturals and flies of all kinds. And many were catching them. Including these cousins of the lake neighbors we had up at our last lake in Missouri.  Bald Eagles and Hawks are touted at these parks, but Turkey Vultures show up for the cameras most often.

Speaking of catching fish, though, tonight we heard one boy say he loved the trout he had for supper that mom fried over their campfire.  Of course he loved it!  He’d caught it that morning with dad!

Alex and Mona get ready to dig in

And where were we that we heard that campground story?  Back at the State Park Campground.  No day use fees, remember?  And no restrictions on who may come to any park program.  Tonight Ranger Edmunds was demonstrating dutch oven cookery down by the trout docks (where the fish cleaning pavilion is). 

While he used charcoal briquettes instead of wood to keep the heat at the right temperature more easily for the demonstration everything else was for really-real.  And he made two pots of some of the best mixed fruit cobbler you’d ever want to taste.  There were about a dozen of us to ‘sample’ the first pot at 7:30 pm.  But the kids had to head off to bed before the second pot was done so the remaining five of us adults, including Ranger Eric, enjoyed finishing it off lickety-split!

Tomorrow we rise a bit earlier, 7:30 am, to get to the 9:00 am worship service at BSUMC (I love that acronym) and Sunday School at 10:30.  Then we have lunch and drive about two hours further south to Conway First United Methodist Church where our good friend Vickie and Clayton Crockett live with their two kids.  We haven’t seen the parents, and have never seen the kids, since they lived near us in Southeastern Pa umpteen years ago. Vickie was one of our son Jim’s best buds at Gretna Glen UMC Church Camp when they were teens.

Jim's 16th birthday party. Jim and Jenn had some crazy wonderful friends in those days.  Come to think of it their friends are pretty crazy wonderful today too! And many are the same ones.

Thank you Vickie for arranging a parking space for FROG and TOAD at your home church for a couple of nights, and we really look forward to joining your family in your Labor Day Monday plans.

-Ken

PS: Yesterday as we were leaving Lebanon I left a message for Vickie that we were coming and asked for prayer that nothing else would need repaired for a while.

Last night we noticed a bulb was out in one of our rear coach lamps, and the gas gauge seems to be on the fritz.

No worries! “Mona, where did you say that next truck shop is?”

-K

Kaream is a SOLDIER

Kaream graduated this morning.  In his own words, “I owe Drill Sergeant Montenegro everything for helping me change my life.”  I imagine any young recruit who completes  basic training in any arm of our national military service might be able to say the same thing. But for Kaream, the man he needed in a DS was present and accounted for when Kaream arrived at Fort Leonard Wood ten short , and long, weeks ago. Thank you Drill sergeant!

 

A very special gift from his moms

No tears, this time.

Kaream’s parents said he had never told them in his several calls or letters of the hardest stuff he had to deal with as he ‘changed’ throughout his summer long ordeal. And the physical training was the easy part.  Oh, Kaream is still Kaream.  His smile was quick, and the twinkle in his eye still shone brightly.  But again, in his own words, in answer to my question as we left the auditorium together: What would you say will be most changed about you ten weeks from now, when you are fully back home and in twelfth grade? His immediate answer was, “My maturity.” And after seeing him today, and talking with mom and mom, I must agree. Kaream is a man.

His was one of three units graduating today. However their ranks were much thinned by the dropouts of the past weeks.  Army, or any services, basics are not for everyone.  Especially a high school junior someone.  But for those who made it through, they each know they have graduated into a group of persons who are connected forever by their experience.  And though they may never meet in or out of the service again, as they came from every point of the compass, and many of our states and territories, they will always be bound by this summer at Fort Leonard Wood.

When we left the Lincoln Building and the crowds behind Mona and I followed Kaream and mothers by car  to the PX.  He was looking for a particular shirt he wanted to take home as a souvenir. The shop where they were sold also made custom but regulation dog tags. The man who ran the shop was a US Marine veteran whose size and muscles put Kaream’s sizable biceps to shame.

Kaream asked him to make a dog tag of his name and when it was made he gave it to his Grammy. Kaream reached for his money but the shop owner firmly shook his head. “You don’t owe me anything. And here; take this chain as well.” Then he made a joke at Kaream’s expense about the milk run the Army give’s its recruits compared to what he went through in Marine Basics at Parris Island. But Kaream didn’t argue the point. He learned himself by getting to know some Marines in hospital (he was slightly injured one day) that the Marine basics are tougher, and physically more painful, than any other branches.

But those who serve together, we realized as the ladies and K headed east and we west on I- 44, are brothers and sisters now for sure under one flag. And that flag is one they now must spend their lives honoring together.

Congratulations Kaream!

Give hugs to your wonderful brothers!  And kiss them for me on the li… OK. Can that last request.

-Grandad Ken

Fort Leonard Wood

Today while Jenn and Chris visited with Kaream we toured Fort Leonard Wood near Waynesville, MO.  I needed to see all three museums, of course, and Mona expected to get some good reading time in, which she did, but we both appreciated seeing the focus on the impact this fort had on training of our soldiers before and during World War II.

 We arrived at the fort visitor center to be told how easy it is to get around the huge fort.  And it is, pretty much.  I think I only got seriously lost once… when I told Mona, “Nah! I don’t need the map anymore!”

In fact, it was easier to get in than to drive around once we were in.  We couldn’t get out of the visitor’s center parking lot through the regular gates, so we pulled up beside one of them and asked which gate to use.  The guard said, “Drive up under the vehicle check station roof.”  When we got there we began following the signs that told us to open all doors and stand outside the 

                                           vehicle.

Then that guard walked over and asked us what we were doing.  We told him. He asked who told us to do it.  We told him. He walked over to the first guard and back to us and said, “Get back in your car and go on in.”  No vehicle check.  In fact, no ID, license, insurance, passport or blood test check.  We just drove on in.

Last winter we visited the Army Command School at Carlisle, Pa, and almost the very same thing happened. “Go on in!”  Last year the very same thing happened at Fort Lee, Virginia, near Petersburg.  “ Go on in!” Hmmm.  Should we be concerned for the security of our security forces??

But all’s well that ends well.  We sat outside reading by the coach as the sky gradually darkened again tonight. Frog’s new alternator does not arrive till tomorrow morning so that will be installed while we are at the fort.  Toad got an oil change and full safety check this afternoon after our return as well.  She’s just fine.  Some dust in the air filter but after living behind FROG for the last 4,000 miles and all the dirt road driving we put on her the technician, Brandon, said it wasn't too bad.

Then just before we called it a night and went in we saw these two birds high up in a tree across the street from our parking space.  Robins?  No, too thin.  Orioles?  We don’t know.  So… guess for us and see if you can 

                                            identify what they are.

  

We rise tomorrow at 6am to be at the gate by 7-7:30 so we can get a parking place and seats by the 9 am ceremony at Lincoln Hall, which we found quickly enough after we entered the fort when Mona had the map. “Better early than late”, said the unidentified bird.

  

The pictures of the three fort museums, Engineers, Military Police, and Chemical Weapons Command and more of the WW 2 pics from today will be placed on Facebook.  

Enjoy! And good night.

-Ken

Livin' The Life!

”Livin’ the Life!” They call it. ‘They’ are many of our good friends who are reading this blog. ‘They’ are also mostly folks who haven’t yet, or ever will, live this life. But then , we’ve only lived it for three months, and only in the way we live it, so no one has actually lived THE life at all, have they?  For there is no one life to be lived. And that, dear friends, is the joy of living this life of ours. We each, and all, get to live THE life God has given us, IF we choose it.

Tonight we planned to be sleeping by Robidoux Creek in the small town of Waynesville, Missouri.  We had reserved a week of electrically hooked up, sewer connected and fresh water supplied services for as we visit with our daughters before grandson Kaream’s graduation on Friday.

But it turns out we will not get to visit with our daughters till we see them, and Kaream, at his graduation on Friday morning, but that’s the army way and the schedule Jenn and Chris will be following. So nothing to be done there.

It also turns out that we learned today FROG’s alternator must be replaced so we are parked behind Integrity Auto (Diesel too) in Lebanon, Missouri about 40 miles still west of Waynesville and Fort Leonard Wood. The good folks here, Avery, his wife and son A.C. have ordered a new alternator from Oklahoma and we are all hoping we can get it in time to have it installed by tomorrow afternoon.  But if not, we’ll be parked again behind the shop and drive very extra early Friday morning (we have to be at the main gate by no later than 7am for the 9am graduation at Lincoln Hall) in TOAD.  Thank God for a well running TOAD.  And for our campsite behind ‘Integrity’, or we would never have met Norma.

Norma is 83 years old and is MissourAN all the way through.  She was born into a farm family near Springfield, about 50 miles southwest of here along with 18 other siblings of whom she was fifth and is one of twelve remaining alive and kicking.

Norma was kicking when we saw her. Kicking up her heels taking a walk in the refreshing evening air around her nice modest neighborhood. She was quick to point out as we paused her walk with our questions that it was her house around the bend, just to our left, that had all the pretty flowers and interesting yard art.

Her parents had come from Illinois in the 1930’s and settled near Springfield for reasons she no longer remembered.  But the rolling hills of these northern Ozarks suited them all.  She and her husband moved to Lebanon from Springfield and raised their family here, but now children and grandchildren are disbursed all over the country and dad has gone on to glory.  True Baptist glory, for she and he belonged to the same Baptist church in Springfield since their baptism all those many decades ago. She seemed to allow that me being a retired Methodist minister was OK though.

Norma did say she likes the service 'Integrity' offers on her car, and Avery and his wife directed a United Methodist Church camp in Florida for three years and they said they REALLY loved it but their grand-babies were back here in Lebanon, so...   Methodist preachers and camping directors are OK by her!

We’ll be spending tomorrow in Lebanon, MO.  What will we do?  We’ve already hit the Walmart for some foodstuffs.  The library and the interesting Lebanon Route 66 Museum has been checked off (see the pics on Facebook).  And we did the laundry around the corner from the shop. Met another interesting lifetime Lebanese MissourAN there too, but no pic or name provided.

But who knows.  God may have another Norma or two for us to meet! Or, if we’re still here behind Integrity Auto (and diesel) this time tomorrow evening, we may get to meet THE Norma again and learn some more about her marvelous 83 years in Lebanon. After all, she is living well THE life God gave her, isn’t she?

-Ken

Our Weather Routine

Mona and I have what’s become a weather routine. We hear a distant report of thunder.  Or maybe a flash of lightning streaks a far off sky.  Possibly clouds begin to gather in darker and darker array across the horizon.  Either one of the above signs will bring forth a wondering request of Mona, “Shall we bring in the lawn chairs?” or, “Should we roll in the awnings?” or, as I decide to take a walk about town and she stays in the car to read, “You aren’t taking your umbrella / Fold up parka / hat?” And my response, all too often is something like, “No. It’s just clouds / thunder / distant lightning / whatever.” And the result, 8 times out of 10?  Rain.  Sometimes buckets of it.

So this afternoon, when she asked me to put the lawn chairs away and roll in the awnings I did just that.  And an hour later we had the first rain of any kind we’ve seen since departing Eastern Colorado for Kansas.

Nonetheless, this afternoon’s rain was a relief, if only temporary, from the average 100 plus temps we’ve been having since then.  As Mona just now said to me, “It’s amazing how much more comfortable is 91 than 101.

But this morning we rose to a sunny sky and another day at the beach.  That is, we and all our neighbors. Gary, the park host, had told us the geese began as a couple of couples this spring but laid a few eggs and from goslings to more geese they grew.  

The herons have been here the longest, and the turkey vultures just fly in occasionally though they do seem to like to roost in the trees nearest our RV. Hmmm.

Our neighbors are hardly limited to flying friends.  I found evidence of four footed creatures who visited the campsite last evening outside the coach.  No food stuffs had been left out for them but piles of newly cracked and consumed nuts were here and there everywhere.

  

Fish are really abundant here as well.  They jump for bugs all day long, not just in the morning and evening. Hence the probable reason for at least the herons, who walk the lake shore all day dipping their long necks in snake-like strikes spearing, then swallowing, its meal whole. A couple of wriggles down the neck and they are looking for the next gobble.

Well, the sun is setting and the night creepers are creeping. We just finished supper and I’m enjoying my coffee as Mona, for the first time in many a game, loses Scrabble.  Ah, the simple joys of life are often the best.

Now, we’ll get in a little more reading before bedtime in this very unusually cool 

(85 degree) air.

-Ken