Posting to the Blog

Home ownership means responsibility.  We're home, but it's not like we're sitting in our easy chairs waiting for the next contract to start.  Praise the Lord we have wonderful, magnificent chores to do!

During our absence our kids have visited our home and left it as clean as a whistle.  But there's oh, so much more to our home.  There have been storms and trees are down in our "forest."  (We call it a forest, but in Texas it really is just a stand of trees on the land.)  There are flower beds that could use a little attention, acres to mow, the round-pen I work the horses in either has to have a complete makeover or be totally taken down, there is some touch-up painting that could be done on the outside of the house, and because we have a log home, there are logs to wash. 

Yup, I said wash the logs.  You can't power-wash the logs because you'd eventually eat away at the log itself.  These babies need to be hand washed.  Because we have wrap-around porches all the way around the logs are protected from the sun and wind and rain.  Because there is no rain on the logs they tend to get pretty dusty.  So, over the next couple of days I will be bathing the outside of our home.  It's not as bad as it sounds, but I do with I was taller than my 5' 2" ...  The walls are 10 feet tall, which means I'm up and down a ladder 40 million times.  But it's our home, so it's totally okay!

All of that to say that my posts to the blog may be a bit sporadic over the next two weeks.  Then we're on to Arizona for the new contract, and our son and his family will be here in their home to look after the day to day business of home ownership.  God bless our sons and their families!!  We couldn't travel without their love and support!  They are all so very good to us!

Hang in there, readers, we will return to the regularly scheduled postings very soon!  And I do hope you enjoy reading about our travels.  Very, very few ever "comment," but thousands of you keep reading, so I must be doin' okay "talking story."  Thanks for your patience.

Shuffle Off to Buffalo (Texas)

Tomorrow Granpa and I are going to shuffle off to Buffalo (Texas) to meet our Hawaiian friends for lunch.  Buffalo is kinda in Central Texas in Leon County and was established in 1872 on the International Great Railroad Line.  The city was named for the herds of buffalo (American Bison) that once roamed the area.  By 1892 the town had a population of about 500, and during the 1890's just about every business and church that a Texas community could wish to have had been established in Buffalo.

Not much has happened in Buffalo, Texas except for a plane crash in 1959 that killed a couple of dozen folks, and the city changing it's name to "Blue Star," Texas for a short while in 1993 and again in 1994 when the Dallas Cowboys went up against the Buffalo Bills in those two Super Bowl years.  (The Cowboys' logo is a blue star.)  Then the Dallas Stars went up against the Buffalo Sabers during the Stanley Cup in 1999, and the city changed its name again to "Green Star," Texas for a bit.  The Bills and the Sabers are both based in Buffalo, New York.

Oh, yeah, Buffalo, Texas is also home to "Slayer" bassist/vocalist Tom Araya.


There is also a place in Texas named Buffalo City that was established by John H. Reagan - but that's in Henderson County in east Texas.

Now, why, might you ask, were towns in such far-away-from-each-other-places as New York and Texas both named for buffalo?  That's pretty easy to answer:  before the Europeans came the American Bison roamed nearly the entire North American continent from Canada to Mexico and from the Rockies to the Appalachians.  They roamed in many distinct herds, but roam they did - by the millions.  The only reason the Europeans slaughtered them is because the Native Americans quite literally couldn't live without them.  To control the Indians the white man thought they had to destroy their food source.  The Indians, indeed, couldn't adapt and were conquered.  'Tis a bummer, too, because bison meat is higher in protein and lower in fat content that a cow. 

But Buffalo, Texas is a pretty good half-way point between our Hawaiian friends new home in central Texas and our home in east Texas.  So it's off to Buffalo we go!

Paperwork

Being a medical traveler requires a LOT of paperwork.  Think if you changed jobs every 13 weeks (give or take) how much paperwork you'd have to complete.  Well, that's what's required.  Now, I type about 93 wpm (words per minute); Granpa types about 20.  Guess who gets to fill in all of the blanks and guess who just has to sign at the bottom of the page.  Yuppers.  I type; he signs.  Skill related, financial related, health related, HIPPA, happa, and a hoppa.  It all has to be done, done and re-done.  Over and over and over.  Used to all that was needed is to submit a resume.  Now we have to submit everything but the kitchen sink!

It's okay by me.  I have everything saved to a single file, and uploading is a cinch.  Even if I'm not allowed to upload all the info, I pull it up on one side of the screen with the form that needs to be completed on the other side, and I just type away.  I simply canNOT image what it must be like for someone who's not a fast typist or computer savvy!

And so, I have been doing my Director of Operations thing and working on getting into compliance with this stuff.  If the government IS spying on all of us, it must be a real challenge to keep tabs on Granps and I.  I love it!

Finding a Home in Kingman, Arizona

When we have a new contract I use several methods to find housing.  This time I first tried VRBO.com.  That's Vacation Rentals By Owner.  Bingo!  Just the ticket - if the owner will work with our long-term stay.

You can see what I found by clicking on this link:  http://www.vrbo.com/430366.  Scroll down to get the details.

Yes.  Yes, I see that they will do long-term rents... Wow!  This even gives access to a swimming pool and tennis court!  We're right on the golf course, too.  (I tell Granpa that, and he immediately switches the TV to a channel showing a golf tournament!  He played golf in college.  That was so long ago I think he almost forgot it ever happened!)

Air-conditioned, heated, washer, dryer, dishwasher, microwave, patio grill, 3-bedroom, 2 full baths, 2-car garage, flat-screen TV, fully furnished including pots and pans and linens...

Hmm.  No cable or satellite connection - but there is wireless internet.  Books, DVD collection.

Yuppers.  I think this will be more than adequate!  We are all set!  I truly can just sit back and enjoy our Texas home for a couple of weeks.  Praise the Lord!!

End of Contract?

Friday is the end of Granpa's contract.  We've been preparing for that by very carefully planning meals so as to end up with as little refrigerated food  and as few non-perishable foods as possible.  We've gotten pretty good at that.  As I did laundry last week, rather than hang up the clothes I folded them for quick and easy packing.  We began yesterday making a couple of "leave in Texas" totes because we do tend to accumulate things...

About 10 a.m., Granpa calls to say - shock! - that the hospital wants this day, Monday, to be his last day.  Wow.  Talk about good news, bad news!  The ramifications of that jewel of information are pretty extensive.  First and foremost, we don't work for the hospital.  Granpa's contract is with the agency, and if Granpa doesn't get paid, the agency doesn't get paid.  We need to call our recruiter.

While half my brain is dialing her, the other half is trashing all of our careful planning and drawing up a new battle plan:  what to do with a week's worth of food we won't have time to eat, packing in one day what should have been easy over the next five days, telling our landlord we're going to short her a week's rent, oh, and there's that pair of new eyeglasses that's not due in until Thursday...  Well, first things first.  What's the agency going to think of this.

Our recruiter has been on vacation, and today is her first day back.  I hate to ruin her first day back, but, hey, we're grownups.  She surprises me by saying that we are the third travelers to call with basically the same information.  It's been so long since a facility has wanted to end a contract early that she can't even remember how to accomplish the paperwork much less allow it to happen.

Now a third of my mind goes to wondering what politics create this anomaly.  (My daddy was an inventor.  He told me to never look at a problem for one angle.  Walk around the problem, pick it up, turn it over, try to look at the inside and the outside, figure out the why's and wherefore's, look for what to do - and then look for the unintended consequences of doing each action.)  Why politics?  Because several facilities in several different states simultaneously want to cut costs.  What else besides politics (Obamacare maybe?) could cause that?

The recruiter has to get her account manager to reach out to human resources at our facility who will call the department head who will tap Granpa's supervisor on the shoulder and ask what's up.  Then information will reverse up that chain and back to us.  In the meantime, I'm reassessing our household.

Within the hour Granpa calls to say they have realized breaking the contract isn't as easy as they might have supposed - so they're just gonna bend it a bit.  Granpa is to stay home Tuesday and Wednesday (officially known as being "called off by facility"), but work Thursday and Friday.  Bummer.  No pay for two days.  Ha!  But Granpa gets to help me pack!  There's always a sliver lining if one chooses to look for it!

Beyond Friday?  Well, agencies have submitted Granpa's resume to facilities in New York, West Virginia, Kansas, and "the mid-west."  Beyond that, our Disaster Relief team is headed to Colorado Springs to feed the firefighters battling a wildfire out there.  If timing works out, we may deploy to Colorado Springs!  Ya' just never know where we might turn up next, but "home" would be a really good place to start...

Kingman, Arizona

Just prior to the Civil War, in 1857, Lt. Edward Fitzgerald Beale was ordered by the War Department to take his Corps of Topographical Engineer position and survey and build a federal wagon road across the west on the 35^th Parallel.  One day in the future this wagon road would become the famous Route 66!

At the heart of this road, in 1882, the town of Kingman was founded in the Arizona Territory.   It’s in the Hualapai Valley between two mountain ranges: the Cerbat and Hualapai.  The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad had a siding near there, and the town was named for Lewis Kingman who was a surveyor for the railroad.

Now Kingman will be the location of our newest contract beginning August 5^th!  Granpa starts Monday through Friday for two weeks.  After that, he will be working three 12-hour days.  That will give us 4-day "weekends"!  Lots of time to explore the ghost towns in the area, zip up to the Grand Canyon, and - uh-oh!  Vegas is only an hour and a half away...  Prayer.  Prayer would be good.

Yet Again - - - Home!

We are back in our little log cabin in Texas - for two weeks...  We were greeted at the corner of our land by the remnant of our flock of Guinea hens.  They stood by the side of the road long enough for me to snap a picture:

 

And when we got down to the other end of the land we smell the welcoming fragrance of wood smoke.  Then up the drive to our front door!  There lies one of our many cats, ol' Bootsy girl.  And here comes one of our grandsons to help unload things - oh, my!  He has a beard!  Mercy, it's good to be home!!

Our sons have left the place immaculate and laid in fresh staples like bacon, eggs from the flock and bread.  All we have to do is unload the van and settle into our personal recliners - from which I may not get up from for the whole two weeks!

Mount Mitchell State Park - The Highest Point East of the Misssissippi River

On our way home from Chimney Rock State Park in North Carolina, we moseyed up the Blue Ridge Parkway.  (See our post http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2013/07/flowers-of-blue-ridge.html.) This 469-mile roadway was built by several "alphabet agencies" beginning in the Franklin Roosevelt administration: the CCC (Civilian Conservatin Corps), the WPA (Works Progress Administration), the ERA (Emergency Relief Administration), and the CPS (Civilian Public Service - made up of World War II conscientious objectors).

The Parkway literally runs across the top of the mountains from the Great Smoky Mountains, thru the Blue Ridge Mountains, up to Shenandoah Valley and the beginning of Skyline Drive.  The views are wonderful.

Remember, there are almost 500 miles of these views - each spectacular in it's own way.

It is also possible to hike the Parkway and Skyline Drive.  Some folks have been known to toss a backpack on and spend a whole summer hiking from one end to the other.   Other folks just make a day of it.  Hiking it allows you to get up close and personal to sights you can't see from the road:

This is Glassmine Falls.  It is found at an elevation of 5,200 feet, and the waterfall itself is over 800 feet high!

But the highest point along the Parkway, and the highest point in America east of the Mississippi River, is the 6,578 foot peak of the Black Mountains.  Go back to the first picture.  You can see rows and rows of peaks - there are numerous different mountain ranges separating the eastern seaboard from the interior plains of America.  Geologists say that more than a billion years ago, the Black Mountains were as high as the Himalayas.  Time has worn them down (just like it's worn me down - I think I've lost an inch, and I didn't have an inch to lose!)  Even so, six of these peaks are among the ten highest in the eastern U.S.  It's because of those elevations that the flora and fauna here is more like Canada than the rest of the middle-eastern seaboard.

And here at the top of the world we find a grave!  This is the final resting place of Dr. Elisha Mitchell, the science professor who was first to measure the mountain.  In 1835, he calculated the highest peak to be 6,476 feet high.  He re-calculated it in 1844 and came in at 6,672 feet - just 12 feet off of what today's most precise instruments have come up with.  So they named the park after him, and eventually he was buried here.  That's pretty cool.  Better than the pig pen on the back of our land in Texas that I want to be buried in!

Tobacco Plant

Friday Granpa went out and took pictures of the beautiful flowers atop the tobacco plants.  

  

That was a really good idea, because on Saturday they came along and cut off all of their heads!

  

Before:

After

I wonder if they were harvesting tobacco seeds? or extending the growing life (and therefore the number of leaves to dry and sell to manufacturers)?  or both?

To read more about the tobacco plant, check out one of our earlier posts:  http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2011/10/huron-indian-myth.html

Flowers of the Blue Ridge

Yup, the flowers of the Blue Ridge have been around for a long, long time.

Tom Landry

One of our sons got this genuine official Tom Landry hat for Granpa.  He likes it so much I thought he was gonna sleep in it that night.

Tom Landry was an awesome man, and Granpa has always admired him.  He was a football player and a Pro Football Hall of Fame coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

Landry was born in Mission, Texas in 1924.  Mission is over 500 miles from Dallas, about as far south as you can go in Texas and right on the border with Mexico.  He served in World War II as a B-17 bomber pilot with the United States Army Air Corps.  He flew 30 missions out of England including one that crash landed in Belgium when they ran out of fuel.  When he returned to Texas he finished his interrupted college years.

Tom Landry was a Methodist Sunday school teacher who would not even skip out early on game day.  He would get to the field with only minutes to spare when the Cowboys played in Dallas and had a noon kickoff.  Landry was a quiet man, calm in any storm.  He was active in the FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes), and a friend of Reverend Billy Graham, the humble yet larger than life evangelist, who had Landry speak at many of his crusades.  Landry was even featured in a comic book in 1973 promoting Christianity.

Some people think Christians are weak and need to lean on someone or something.  I think Landry proves that there is no truth to that misconception.


Landry's first year as a pro-football player in 1949, was with - of all teams! - the New York Yankees of the All-American Football Conference. (What's a Texan doin' playin' with those Yankees?  Ah!  Texas didn't get it's first pro-football franchise until 1952.)  From 1950 to 1955 he played professional football with the New York Giants.  In 1954, he played AND was a defensive coach for the Giants.  His on-field career ended in 1955, but he stayed on as a coach for another season.  Guess who the offensive coach was at the time... Vince Lombardi.  That's pretty cool.

In 1960 he was appointed as the very first head coach the Dallas Cowboys ever had.  He was pretty good at it, too, taking the Cowboys to - are you ready?  are you sitting down?  not just 20 winning season, but 20 winning seasons in a row (1966 - 1985),  including 13 division titles, 5 NFC titles, and 18 playoff berths!  He also, through his amazing coaching, took them to multiple championship games and five Super Bowls.  He was named NFL Coach of the Year in 1966 and NFC Coach of the Year in 1972.  And you wonder why Granpa admires him...

Only George Halas and Don Shula have more career victories than Landry ( he compiled a 270-178-6 record), and nobody tops his mark of 20 playoff wins in a row.  Landry also mentored two future coaches:  Super Bowl head coaches Dan Reeves and Mike Ditka began their coaching careers on Landry's staff in Dallas.  To be a Super Bowl coach you have to be an "innovator, motivator, tactician, and teacher."  Or so says ESPN, and Landry was certainly all of those things.  Tom Landry died in February, 2000, at the age of 75.

I think all of these things are the reasons Granpa is and always will be a Dallas Cowboys fan, in remembrance of Tom Landry.  I'm certain that when Landry got to heaven the Lord said, "Well done, My good and faithful servant."  (I think He'll say the same to Granpa, too.)

I Love Lucy

I'm so glad that there was an "I Love Lucy" show because there are so many times in my life that I've had those "I Love Lucy" moments.

The most recent was last week.  I had to have a few days to put it all in perspective because, you see, it was a Granpa-induced event...

We drive a van that has what I call wing-windows at the very back.  The way far back.  So far back that you almost have to open the hatch to get to them.  Granpa likes to open those wings up to improve the flow of fresh air.  He never tells me that he's done that, and he usually forgets to close them.

Last Monday, after our trip to Chimney Rock, I decide to fill up the gas tank and run the van through the car wash.  Mmm-hmm.  You guessed what happened next, but let me play it out for you.

When you pull into the bay, a sign lights up telling you it's time to stop and put the car in neutral.  This is when I usually start cleaning the steering wheel and dashboard, etc. with my handy-dandy baby wipes that no car should be without.

The mechanism that sprays water and moves itself around the car kicks on, and high pressure water begins to bombard the car.  I'm scrubbing away when I think I feel water coming at me from somewhere.  Granpa also has a tendency to lower all windows just a tad during the summertime because it can get so hot in Texas that if you don't, the windows may break.  (Our son sent me an iPhone photo yesterday of the reading on his digital thermometer that he had pointed at the ground on our lil' hobby farm back home: 157.  The weatherman only tells you the ambient air temperature not the ground temperature...)  So, guessing that's where the water came from, I hit the electric window buttons to make certain all windows are up tight.

I go back to my cleaning; the high pressure spray is now putting out soapy water.  Suddenly I'm being hit with globs of soap!  What in heavens name?  I twist in my seat and realize that Granpa has done the wing-window thing again!  Good grief!  I can't get out of the car, open the hatch and close the windows while that thing is moving around the car, not to mention the tons of water spraying everywhere.  If those windows are going to get closed it's going to have to be from the inside.

I shut down the engine (because I can just see me hitting the gear shift when I try to climb over the console and through the front seats...), unbuckle the seat belt, shove the seat all the way back, and try desperately to twist my enormous ol' buttinsky out from under the steering wheel and over the console.  I essentially fall headfirst through the two front seats onto the back floorboard, all the while trying not to think of what the guy monitoring the security cam for the car wash is seeing.

As I raise up, my head smacks the clothes rod that our hanging clothes go on when traveling.  It falls, and as I try to step to the back of the van, I trip over it landing in a heap on the back seat.  Just then the rinse cycle of water sprays in under high pressure from both wing-windows, and I'm drenched - as is the whole interior of the van.  The cup holders now have a half-inch of water in them...

I know that what comes next is the wax, and I must get those windows shut before that stuff gets all over the upholstery!  The problem is, I never can get that silly latch to un-latch so that the window can close, and this time it's covered in slippery soapy water!  It's a race against time, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna lose.  Granpa is in SO much trouble!!

I clamber back to the front of the van to grab the roll of paper towels we keep under the console, then back to the windows.  How does this latch work!?  Truthfully, I still don't know, but somehow I manage to dry it off enough to get a grip, release one and close it, but by the time I get to the next one - whoosh! in comes the rainbow colors of the foaming wax right in my face!  He's gonna pay.  Granpa is gonna pay, and pay, and pay for this one!

More paper towels to wipe my face enough to see, close the window, try to get as much wax as possible off the upholstery, ceiling, side panels, and floor.  Then back to the front seat before the rinse cycle is done and the "go" light comes on.  My blouse catches on the arm rest, flipping it down so that my behind lands on it as I try to straddle the console and slip under the steering wheel.

The light goes green.  I have to start the engine!  Put it in gear, calm down, and inch forward (no easy task since I'd been on an adrenaline rush the last few minutes...) so that the monster blow dryer could dry the van on the outside.  I suppose it's up to me to dry it on the inside since Granpa doesn't get off of work for another eight hours!  Trouble.  The man is in trouble.

* * * * * * * *

I am so tempted to call him at work and give him a scolding as only wives can, but that's not something to do when he's at work.  Besides, I need a lil' distance from this event before discussing it with him.  I need a lil' perspective...

* * * * * * * *

About noon-ish my phone rings.  It's Granpa.  He very, very rarely calls me during the day.  I don't even remember what he called about, but I begin telling him about my morning.  I choose to give him the "I Love Lucy" version because, no matter how much trouble he's in, he doesn't need to get chewed out at work.  By the time I'm through he's laughing pretty good.  I calmly tell him how much trouble he's in.  I can still hear a big smile on his face - but he knows he's done a bad thing.

* * * * * * * * 

Throughout the evening, after each string of conversation, I end by saying, "Oh, by the way, I'm not talking to you."  After I say our bedtime prayer to the Lord out loud, I pause, and quietly say to Granpa, "I'm still not talking to you."  Granpa hugs me tight and kisses my ear.  "I know," he says, "I know."

Skunked!

Granpa was on call yesterday and had to go in about 4 p.m.  When he got home about 6 p.m. - still plenty of daylight left - he came in the house, grabbed his camera, and went back outside for what I thought was a long time.  When he came back in, he seemed very pleased with himself - but not for the reason I suspected.  He was pleased because he got lots of pictures of a new critter - and came away unscathed - or should I say, un-skunked!

 

Now, that's a pretty big skunk!  But, what's it doing out in the daytime?  I thought skunks were nocturnal critters.  Being rabid makes animals behave out of the ordinary.  Jeepers, I hope that's not the case.  So I do a lil' research...

Yup.  They are nocturnal.  Yup.  Rabies makes them mis-behave.  What's this?  As baby skunks realize that they have a built-in defense mechanism they run around squirting stink at anything and everything just because they can.  That's just like a bunch of teenagers, eh?

But why is this rascal coming around here?  We don't put out cat food, or dog food, or leftovers.  What else do they eat?  And the websites say:  bird seed.  Uh-oh.  Who?  Me?  With a bird feeder?

"Now, let's see.  Exactly how do I go about stealing some bird seed???" says the little squirrel.

"Mmmm.  I think this will work."

"Yeah, yeah.  I think so...."

"That's a stretch!"

"No sweat!!"

We attract every kind of bird you can imagine:  Bluejays, Cardinals, Purple Finch, Chickadees, Nuthatches (They're fun.  They don't move like normal birds do.), Woodpeckers, Dove, Brown-headed Cow Birds, Mockingbirds...

They all knock seeds on the ground so we also get:

I don't even KNOW what this is!

But this is one of many cottontail rabbits we have hangin' out.

 

And the cutest lil' chipmunks!

The big ol' turkeys are attracted by the bird seed, too, but also the deer corn we put out.

I call this one, "A Lady In Waiting."

Which brings us back to the skunk, because I think the corn brought it in, too.  So, at bedtime last night, I suggest Granpa go out and at least bring the bird feeder in overnight.  He dutifully grabs the spotlight and heads out the door.  In a flash he is back!  Hehe.  The spotlight only worked long enough for him to see the skunk standing underneath the bird feeder.  LOL!  No, ROFLOL!

Eventually I got hold of myself and suggested he turn the car headlights on and make a lot of noise to scare the skunk away and then go get the bird feeder.  Granpa is such a hoot!

Back to Chimney Rock

Before we go any further, I have to go potty.  I step into the restroom and am totally surprised by the fact that the walls are painted in the most beautiful scenery:

Can you believe it?  In a toilet?  I like it!  Every inch of every wall was a continuous mural.  When I came out I asked Granpa if the men's room was painted also.  He grins kinda sheepishly and shows me the pictures he took.  LOL!  He even got the fixtures in the picture!  Can you find the door handle?

Whew!  Now that we got that out of the way...

The next thing up is the tunnel into the mountain to the elevator that goes up, literally, inside the mountain to the next level.  If we were young and spry we could take a trail that leads up the 26 stories to the same spot.  Make that young and foolish:  26 stories?  Mercy me!  After that, the only way to get to the top of Chimney Rock is to climb.  Why waste yourself on the bottom half only to realize you're too pooped to get yourself to the top half?

I can't say that this graphic is an encouragement, however to take the elevator:

It lets you know that if the elevator breaks down you can exit out the back side of it and take this stairway.  That doesn't seem terribly important - until I realize that there are no other openings, like in a skyscraper where there is another floor to get off on about every 15 feet.  That elevator door isn't going to open again - can't open again - until we ascend over 200 feet.  Yikes!

So we mosey down the 198-foot tunnel hollowed out of 509-million-year-old Appalachian Mountain granite toward the elevator ...

reading interpretive signs about geology and the mechanics of creating first the tunnel and then the elevator shaft.  The miners accomplished their feat in just 91 days in 1947.  They brought their equipment up to this location by using a bridle trail developed in 1938 for the first visitors to get to the Chimney on horseback.  (Twenty-six stories up an almost vertical incline on horseback?  Not me, baby!  Not even on a Grand Canyon mule would I do that!)

The first thing we see as we step off of the elevator is, woo-hoo! Daniel Day-Lewis.  Well, his picture anyway.

(Sorry about the glare.)  And his clothes - that he wore in the making of "The Last of the Mohicans."

(What's Madeleine Stowe's hat doing in there?  She was his love interest in the movie.)  Aren't the shoes great?

Ok.  We can go home now.

Granpa says, "Not so fast, sugarbunch!  You dragged me all the way down to Asheville and over to this mountain.  We are climbing to the top."

Hmmm.  I was afraid he might say that.  Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, as they say.  (Took me forever to know that they were talking about the British pound/dollar, not the weight of a pound.  Kinda like hearing "chester drawers" instead of chest-of-drawers.  Diction is so important.)

And so we climb...

Very Interesting Response to Prayer Request

I posted someone's true need for prayer, and I posted the outcome of those prayers.  There were more people reading the results than the prayer need.

That says to me that people are still wondering if God answers prayers, or maybe they're wondering if God is real.  Well, of course He does, and yes, He is!

For those of you who say you have personal experience proving that God does not answer prayer, I say, read the Bible.  It says in the New Testament Book of James, chapter 5, verse 16, that the prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  The key word there is righteous.  That word means that you are acting in accordance with divine law, that you are free from guilt or sin.  The only way we can be free is by accepting Christ as the one and only Son of God, confessing our sins to Him, asking His forgiveness, and submitting to His will.  If you say your prayers are not answered, perhaps you should review those simple steps.

Going through the motions does not make you righteous.  God knows your heart.  There is absolutely nothing that you can hide from Him, so if you are just following the "how to" steps, your prayers will still not be heard by Him.  Again in the New Testament, Matthew 7:21-23 says:  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but (only) he who does the will of My Father in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’  You may say words, but in your heart you don't really mean them or believe them.  God knows your heart, God knows the truth - and so do you.

Look again at those steps.  They can also be an outline for prayer.  We should begin with humility and submission.  Now, I am not a very submissive person - unless there is someone worth being submissive for, like God.  Then we should confess our personal sins to Him and ask His forgiveness.  Always remember to thank Him for His goodness, and then petition Him for your needs.  These things must be done in the name of Jesus, because, even with all of our confession and humility all our righteous acts are like filthy rags (Old Testament Isaiah 64:6).  Only Jesus is sinless enough to carry our prayers and to stand before God Himself.  And so end your prayers with, "It is in the name of Your precious and Holy Son, Jesus, that I pray these things."

Also know that God's answer to your prayer may not be exactly what you were looking for and may not come as quickly as you want.  Well, if you believe that God is omnipotent (that means all-knowing and all-powerful) then you should believe that His timing will be perfect and His response will also be perfect.  If you are not hearing back from God, perhaps that is because he wants you to be still and know that I am God. (Old Testament Psalm 46:10)  Can you do that?  Do you have so much faith that you can go against man's nature and just be still?

For those of you who are searching, God has already found you.  All that is left is for you to accept Him and follow those steps.  Each day you will sin again, but if you become a true follower of Jesus, each day you will sin less.  Your joy will grow, and more importantly, your peace will grow, too.  Accept our God of love, not a god of hate, not a god of earthly success or money.  Your prayers WILL be answered in God's time, in God's way, and in every circumstance.

The Response to Your Prayers

I just received word from R. D. that Oscar's brothers have been SET FREE!!!!  As of this morning, as I understand it, Oscar was still short on the ransom money the kidnappers were demanding.  Apparently they decided to settle for what he could offer them and they, amazingly, released the two men unharmed.  As of now, the brothers are on their way back from  Honduras to be reunited with their family. 

Although the kidnappers released the men, we know it is the LORD who deserves the glory for returning them to their families unharmed. A day that could  have ended in death has ended in freedom and reunion.  Praise the Lord. 

Thank you for praying and for all those you shared this urgent prayer request with. 

Pastor Danny

Fervent Prayer Needed Immediately

Immediate and fervent prayer now! Oscar, a guide for Christians on mission in Honduras, has called his friends here at our church in Virginia and asked for prayer. His 2 brothers were driving from Honduras thru Mexico, and they were kidnapped and are being held for ransom. They will be killed this morning if the ransom doesn't reach their kidnappers. The Mexican government is telling Oscar to NOT send the ransom because they will probably be killed anyway, and it will encourage more kidnappings. Please pray for the kidnappers to release these two men - even if the kidnappers don't understand why they are doing it. Pray for their release and safe passage out of Mexico.  I will update you when I can.

"Dirty Dancing"

We drive up a twisting, turning road to the base of Chimney Rock, take a short walk past the Visitor's Center, and climb a few stairs to the top of Vista Rock.  From here,

we're looking down on Lake Lure.  This is a surprise!  Lake Lure is where actress Jennifer Grey practiced with Patrick Swayze to do the dance lifts in the 1987 movie, "Dirty Dancing."  They even included some of that footage in the movie.  That, too, was a movie set up north, but it was filmed here in North Carolina, just like "The Last of the Mohicans."  (Seems there's a terrific film industry going on in North Carolina!)  "Dirty Dancing" was released 25 years ago;  "Mohicans" was released 20 years ago.  I like both of those movies - a lot.

Dr. Lucius Morse came to this area as a young doctor from St. Louis around the turn of the 20th Century.  (That's like 1900 for all of you centurion illiterates.)  He decided Chimney Rock was spectacular and would make him some money if he turned it into a park.  In 1902 he bought the first 64 acres, and over the next 100 or so years the family put together a 1,000 acre preserve.  Through their stewardship, this area has literally been preserved, so you see things in the very same way that Dr. Morse first saw it.

In 2007, the family sold the 1,000 acres of their Chimney Rock park to the state of North Carolina who has since added 5,000 or more acres.  (As a Texan, I'm not so sure what I think about the government owning any more land in America.  That's what folks came to the New World for - land.  Seems all the land in Europe was owned by the kings, queens, or rich people.  Us little peons could never get ahead because those folks didn't want us to, and all they had to do was not let us get our hands on any land.  To all of you young people across the world, it's never too soon to begin putting together a heritage of land ownership.  Just start with a few acres, add a few more every few years.  It's important.)









But today we're here to climb to the top of Chimney Rock and see what there is to see.

 

A Slight Disappointment

It's 6 a.m., and I'm wide awake here in North Carolina.  Once I'm awake I might as well get up and do something constructive.  How do I know that, if I were to lay in bed, I wouldn't go back to sleep?  I usually give it 20 or 30 minutes to convince myself otherwise.  When I realize that my brain is working overtime and my body repeatedly tenses up so that I have to consciously tell it to relax, that's how I know. It's time to rise and shine!

To determine what time the Chimney Rock State Park opens, I decide (belatedly) to check out their website.  Uh-oh.  The trail that leads to the 404 foot high Hickory Nut waterfall depicted in "The Last of the Mohicans," has been demolished by a landslide.  It's closed until further notice.  What a bummer!

Well, we're already here; we might as well give it a shot.  The website says there's a ton of other stuff to see and do.  So, after a Continental breakfast here at the hotel, we head over to the town of Chimney Rock.

A couple of miles on the Interstate, off to a state highway, and then down to a narrow, winding country road.  There's a billboard for the Park:  8 Miles, and Beyond Your Imagination.  I like that!

Here's a country lane that wanders off up the mountainside:  Bearwallow Mountain Road.  Cool!

There's a sign for an "Original Carolina Hillbilly," and, what a hoot! there's a barefoot, shirtless guy with a grey beard down to his belly-button stepping out of the front door of an ancient log home here on the side of the country road and taking a seat in his well worn wooden rocker!  Our timing could not have been more perfect, eh?  (But a flannel shirt would have been nice on this ol' feller...)

Now we're coming into the little village of Bat Cave, North Carolina.  Granpa asks if this might be where Batman comes to vacation.  He's funny!

Well, here's a place our fishermen sons and grandsons would love to come spend a couple of weeks:  Creekside Mountain Camping and Cabins.  Since getting on this small country road, we have seen trout fishermen fly-fishing up and down the beautiful mountain stream.  Here's a place where you don't even have to get in the car and drive from, just step out the back door and you're in the water.  It's beautiful!

We see over and over signs for a place called Manual Woodworkers and Weavers.  Not sure what that's all about, but when we get there it's someplace worth the stopping - but Granpa doesn't stop.  Like most men, he's all about point A to point B, the only reason to stop is to pee.  Well, that and photo ops.  Here's a covered bridge going over the Rocky River Road that he thinks he has to get a picture of.

It seems to be surrounded by power lines.  (He detests that!)  But when that happens there's usually other things he feels are worthy of getting a shot of:

 

And, of course, there's always the mountain stream itself:

Hmmm.  Here's a business for sale, the Old Mill Inn.  And it is old, but looks to be in pretty good shape.  It's right on this river and apparently really was an old mill that has been added on to and turned into an inn.  If I was a innkeeper lookin' for a place to retire, I'm thinkin' I'd be checkin' this one out!

Finally, (I don't know why I say finally, because it's only been 20 minutes or so since we left the hotel.) finally we arrive at the village of Chimney Rock and the State Park.  We cross the river, and we're almost immediately down to, well, less than two lane road.  This is gonna be a good day!

Charming "The Travelers Two"

Now why didn't I think of this earlier?  Several times I have suggested that you check out one of my earlier posts and left it to you to search for it.  Then it dawns on me that, since I know our blog better than anyone, I could find that post much quicker, copy the URL and put a direct link to it in the new post.  Take yesterday for example:

We visited Asheville when Granpa was contracted with Danville Regional back in 2011.  Go to our earlier posts (http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2011/12/asheville-north-carolina.html) and read about the origins of Asheville, their role in the Civil War (or lack of it)... and then check out the posts about the Biltmore Estate...

Now, the posts about the Biltmore Estate are a different matter - there's about a half-dozen or so.  Hmmm.  Well, try this, I say to myself, and it works like a charm:  go to the "Search" field in the top right-hand corner of the blog, type in the word "Biltmore" and it will give you a cascade list of all the posts mentioning that word!

Wow.  If you were to type the word "Union" or "Rebel" it must give you a list a mile long!  The lists for "French and Indian War" or "American Revolution" would be much shorter.  With over 500 posts to search it could take you awhile to find what you might be looking for - unless you use the Search field.

So I went back to yesterday's post and updated it to include the URL and information about how to search for a particular subject.

My, my.  I learn something every day!  I love it!!