SLOW AND PEACEFUL JANUARY IN FLORIDA

Hello friends!  January has been passing by very slowly as I conclude visiting my brother in Port St Lucie, Florida.  It is the height of golf season for Terry, but my days have been spent reading, bicycling, and listening to music at a popular Saturday morning farmers market on the waterfront in Fort Pierce.  Terry and I usually sit down in the evening and watch a movie on TV and go over our days, if they were not spent together.  Most of what follows, I did not share with him...

Slowing Down

Scene of Near-Miss Bicycle Accident

Almost ran into a person on the corner in front of the library, as I was riding my bicycle the other day.  It was one of those wide walkways down here in Florida, with apparent room for both pedestrians and cautious cyclists.  I yelled ahead and told him that I intended to turn right where he was standing on the corner, hoping to get him to move one way or the other so that I could continue on my way unimpeded.  I thought “surely he must realize what my intentions were”, but after slowing down as much as I could without stopping, he still hadn’t taken a step and actually appeared to be shaking ever-so-slightly.  It didn’t seem as though he were capable of making a decision as to what to do, so at the last second I had to stop a few steps in front of him and dismount.  With some aggravation and an “excuse me please”, I finally convinced him to move ½ step so that I could turn the corner and proceed right down Ravenswood Drive.  

As I peddled away, all I could think of was the fear that I saw in this individual’s eyes.  I expected the person on the corner to be ‘normal’ like all of the other pedestrians that I had encountered on the streets of Port St Lucie.  If his reactions had mimicked those I anticipated there would have been a “hello” and a tip of the hat.  It made me feel bad.  How often are our actions misunderstood by, and perhaps hurtful to others?  What can we do to prevent this or at least reduce its frequency by caring more for the people we come across in our daily lives?  Perhaps just slowing down a little and being more observant, while wearing a kinder cloak or mantle would do the trick.  Will I be ready next time for my encounter with someone just a little bit different?

The 2-Minute Warning!

I’ve been watching so much football this winter while staying with my brother here in Florida, that I couldn’t help make at least one comparison between the game of football and our lives in general.  

I used to be the only one who knew the official time!

In most professional, college, and high school football games, the two-minute warning is given when two minutes of game time remain on the clock in each half of a game.  The origins are from the days when one of the officials actually kept the time remaining in the game on a watch or timepiece.  The purpose of the warning was a checkpoint to ensure that the teams knew how much time remained in the game (usually more important to the team that was losing). Since the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, large stadium clocks have become official nearly everywhere through use of an official timekeeper.  The two-minute warning has been retained however as a commercial break during televised games, to serve as "tension building" time (for fans primarily), and a somewhat important part of the game's flow.
    

Often I get frustrated when I see football teams change their whole strategy during the final 2 minutes of a game.  One team employs a “prevent defense”, which hardly ever seems to prevent the other team from scoring.  The other team runs a set of plays called their “2-minute” drill, which often involves a lot of passing and frequent scoring of touchdowns.  If it is so easy to score, why didn’t they just play like that during the whole game, rather than waiting until only 2 minutes was left?

But the 2-minute warning would appear to have outlived its original usefulness in football.  Let's think about a 2-minute warning in the context of our lives.  I bet many if not most people would rather have a “two-minute warning” before their death.  Is that what a doctor gives to some when they tell them that they have 3 or 6 months to live from an inoperable form of late-stage cancer? What would you do with such knowledge?  Does that give us time enough to go through a "2-minute drill" to score favor with God, or even to prepare and execute a short bucket list (for example, visit Paris, go sky diving, or apologize to a family member with whom we’ve been on nonspeaking terms)?

So wouldn’t the same seem to imply to our lives?  Why should we wait until the very end of our lives to do the things that we should have been doing all along? Isn't that what God expects?  Why not go see something that you’ve always wanted to see, or do something that you’ve always wanted to do?  Why not forgive or go visit that family member now instead of waiting?

Sarah’s Kitchen

This organization, which was begun in 2009 by a group of spiritually motivated laymen and clergy, is an interfaith group representing 30 churches in the Port St Lucie area welcoming and providing hot nutritious meals to those who are hungry and struggling financially. In response to God’s Love and in the scriptural spirit of hospitality, volunteers meet each afternoon to prepare and serve 

Volunteers Preparing an Evening Meal

these evening meals.  They believe that everyone can make 

a positive difference in the lives

of others.  Several Monday 

afternoons this winter I have had 

the opportunity to assist with the preparation of meals in the kitchen of the First United Methodist Church.  Over 1,200 dinners are served weekly by Sarah’s Kitchen at First UMC and at other churches Tuesday through Friday.  It has been fun, and I met a lot of wonderful people from the community of faith.

 

Well, I'm leaving tomorrow (Jan 23rd) in the motorhome to meet up with Paula again in Bradenton, Florida (on the Gulf Coast), where we'll start the next phase of our adventure by celebrating her mother's birthday!  We anticipate spending the next month in Bradenton, Cape Coral, and Everglades City before venturing to Miami for an 8-day Virginia Key Grassroots Music Festival.  I'll post next after that festival!  Take care.

Love, Tim

Vermont December Interlude

Hello from Florida again.  Earlier this month, I flew from Palm Beach to Vermont for two weeks. 

Burlington Airport

Luckily all flights to and from were routine and on time, so I'll not be sharing any airline horror stories.  Carla, one of my best 'buds' from Waterbury, picked me up on December 4 and returned me to the Burlington airport in the wee hours of the morning on December 17.  That left 12 days for me to jam pack as much visiting and playing as I could.

The first morning Carla and I shared a breakfast bagel at KC's Restaurant on Stowe Street in Waterbury, while unbeknownst to us, Skip Flanders (another best 'bud') and friends were unloading Christmas trees off a large trailer at the Wesley UMC only a block away.  This tree sale is an annual large fundraiser for the local Food Shelf.  Later that day, I attended a lasagna supper, which was held at St. Leo's hall by Juniper's Fare (local charitable restaurant supported by Moretown non-denominational church).  The proceeds of this meal were given to the Wesley UMC to help complete their rebuilding efforts after the 2011 Hurricane Irene floods.  A wonderful example of the circle of love in this great Vermont community...

The following week continued to be filled with entertainment and action (and of course, food).  I was fortunate to catch: 1) the first 

and second wins of the season for the University of Vermont's (UVM) women's basketball team, as well as a men's team win; 2) a Bella Voce women's chorus holiday concert; 3) a holiday party at the Pines (senior apartment community to which I plan to return in June); 4) the Children's Christmas Pageant at Faith UMC in South Burlington; 5) several high school ice hockey and basketball games, and 6) a knock-down drag-out evening game of Mexican dominoes at friend Jan's house in Waterbury with Skip and wife Cathy. 

Sarsaparilla High?!

This latter contest followed a mean plate of tacos, ginger beer, and sarsaparilla (two nonalcoholic Australian beverages).  In spite of the good table fare, Cathy and I were whipped pretty soundly by both Jan and Skip though they play an odd version of Mexican dominoes called "Chicken Feet".  Sounds more like what Skip's feet looked like after the flood cleanup!

Yes!

On Friday, friend Andy Holt (played hooky from work? :-) )and I had a fantastic afternoon of skiing at Smugglers' Notch.  This proceeded a large midweek storm which dumped 8-10 inches of snow on most of the New England ski areas.  We topped off the day with a pizza and cold drinks at Papa McKee's in Richmond.  It doesn't get much better than that ... especially at 65!

The last few days before my return to Florida were filled primarily with dentist and doctors' appointments.  All went well.  The dentist re-attached a loose crown (with crazy-glue I think!), and my Dartmouth doctor suggested perhaps I should keep on motorhoming since my bloodwork results came back better than normal.  Only my local Waterbury doctor
provided any levity, however, which is what I always seek.  When I told her that my one foot felt sore or tender on occasion, especially after walking or hiking some distance, she said it was probably just normal 'wear and tear'.  When I asked her if that was the same thing as "old age", she winked at me (or was I dreaming that?) and repeated "just wear and tear".  

Back to Florida for Christmas and New Years!

I'll catch up with you in late January.  Stay Warm.

Love,

Tim

Autumn in the South



Florida! 





Sittin' Here Restin' My Bones...



Well, yes, of course it is a little warmer here in Florida than in New England.  Did you think I took a wrong turn or something?  I've been in the state since the last week in October, and the weather has reminded me of a Vermont summer.  My brother Terry, who joined me in northwest Florida (the "panhandle"), and I spent many pleasant days at St Andrews State Park near Panama City Beach and later visiting members of his extended family in Sopchoppy (south of Tallahassee).  We fished, biked, cooked out over a campfire and found a nice local place to watch the World Series outdoors on a big screen TV.  

 



Sopchoppy Campground







When Do We Do Our Best?

It was during this period of time that his
grandaughter, Jeanna, was running for her high school cross countryteam in District, Region, and later State competitions.  She ran her fastest race of the year at the Regional meet,  which made her family very  proud.  It also reminded me how often we just don't know what we ourselves are capable of accomplishing in life given the right set of circumstances or conditions.


From Sopchoppy, we drove the motorhome (and Terry's car) to Sebastian Inlet State Park on the Atlantic Coast, about halfway between Jacksonville and Miami.  This park is a very popular fishing spot on a barrier island, and includes access to both the ocean and to the Indian River lagoon.  Day and night, anglers sought jacks, Spanish mackerel, flounder, bluefish, sheepshead, snook, and many other species.  My largest 'catch' was a 6 ft stingray that fortunately broke off my line on the rocks at the base of the fishing pier, while I was looking around for advice!



Sebastian Inlet Fishing Jetty

  

Biked to Presbyterian Church

There was a small protestant church only a few miles away (biking distance) that provided a comfortable home one Sunday morning.



On November 17th, I drove the motorhome south 40 miles to Terry's home in Port St. Lucie.  The following day I dropped it off at a large RV dealer for repair (damaged side compartment due to an encounter with a large redwood stump in CA in August) and a furnace heating problem.  They 'promised' it will be ready for me in early January.  In the meantime, brother Terry and I will try to get in some quality time outside of his golfing and my 2015 motorhome trip planning. There is a very nice Saturday morning Farmers Market (with music!),and a large United Methodist Church in the area for Sunday 'festivities'.

 

Ft Pierce Farmers Market



I hope all of you had a nice Thanksgiving.  I'm sure we all gave the Lord thanks for his blessings for our homes, food, health, friends, church communities, and families.  Despite all of the problems comfronting us, I'm sure that we all have a lot to be thankful for.  Chad, my son, called on Thanksgiving evening from the West Coast, and we had a rich conversation. 

Several of you may see me during my short 12-day visit to VT in early December, primarily for doctor and dentist appointments...but I also hope to get in some visiting (and skiing)!  Then I will return to Florida and my brother, and await Paula's return later in January, when we will begin the second half of our 12-month motorhome adventure. 

Be Safe, and May God Bless

Love, Tim

Crawdads and the Western Gulf

Paula and I visited the Gruene (pronounced “Green”) United Methodist Church (UMC) on Sunday, October 21.  Gruene is a historic south central Texas town, started by German immigrants in the 1840’s between what are now Austin and San Antonio.  The Gruene UMC, begun in 2006 as a daughter congregation of the nearby New Braunfels UMC, is currently thriving with 3 pastors and a youth director.

New Gruene UMC

  During our short Sunday morning visit, they demonstrated a thriving outreach ministry with plans the following week to send out teams to:

1. clean a playground at St. Jude’s Ranch, a Christian-based center that focuses on abused and at-risk kids;
2.  deliver cookies and cards to local fire and police stations, and hospitals;
3.  paint interior walls and hold fellowship with youth at a family services shelter; and
4. frame a home for a new Habitat for Humanity project family.

Gruene Historic Music Hall

After the service, Paula and I attended the annual Gruene Music and Wine Festival a short distance away.  [Since we began the day with music and wine, we thought it only right to continue the afternoon in the same vein.  Forgive me Lord. :-) ]  For most of the afternoon, we listened to a variety of western, folk, and rock music groups perform at  both outside and inside venues (see photo of 1878 Historic Music Hall).  The wine and beer taste selections were primarily of Texas origin.

As planned, Paula flew out of Austin airport the morning of October 16th to spend a few months in Vermont with friends and family.

In Louisiana, I stumbled onto a barbecue cook-off competition sponsored by the Ponchatoula Chamber of Commerce and held at their Memorial Park on a beautiful Saturday morning.  Believe me, these people took their cooking seriously and were all members of the BCA (Barbecue Competitors Alliance)!  I was disheartened to find out that the competitors prepared their meats solely for the judges, and the Chamber had hired a local restaurant to feed the public (that was me)!  I nearly lucked out though when I sat down at a park table next to the daughter of the couple who were the head judges.  It seems that only moments prior, her parents had been looking for another volunteer judge! 

Ponchatoula BBQ Broadcast

Somewhat dejected from this lost opportunity, I found a shady picnic table and began to assess my situation.  I introduced myself and chatted with a local radio station DJ about our shared strong Christian beliefs, and befriended Lily (granddaughter of the judges) who had a leopard face painted on her by some artistic high school Key Club members nearby.  

Lily the Leopard

A couple of them were even undefeated Ponchatoula High School Green Wave football players who had knocked off a respectable 3-3 Slidell High School on the previous evening! Later that afternoon, I walked the mile back to the motorhome on the outskirts of Ponchatoula, and headed east to Mississippi.

Biloxi is a gulf-front community that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  It has a beautiful white sandy beach,

Biloxi 2014 Beachfront

but many of the hotels, casinos and stately older homes that had stood here in the past were destroyed during that storm.  

While attending a yard sale at nearby J.T. Leggett UMC, I spoke with an elderly lady named Mae who told me that pre-Katrina she lived next door to the church in a very large United Methodist Retirement Home (apartment building complex), and many of the residents were members of the UMC congregation.  After the disaster, the Biloxi Housing Authority bought the building from the UMC and converted it into an assisted living facility for low income families. Mae and most of her friends did not qualify, and thus had to find another place to live. I could tell that Mae still held a lot of personal bitterness toward the United Methodist Church for ‘abandoning’ her and her friends who had lived in the area their entire lives.  Mae said that she still lives in another area in Biloxi where only 30 of the original 280 houses that were inhabited prior to Katrina have been restored to a living condition.  

New Leggett UMC Sanctuary

By the way, the J.T. Leggett UMC congregation just occupied their new sanctuary on Easter of this year, over 8 years (and 3 pastors) after the 1950's era church building was blown apart by Katrina's winds and flooding.  As with the Wesley UMC in Waterbury after the hurricane Irene floods along the Winooski, the property insurance that this church had did not cover the rebuilding costs.

Off to St Andrews State Park in Panama City Beach, Florida tomorrow, Oct 26th, for some gulf coast camping and saltwater fishing with my brother, Terry!

The Southwest

Friends,

During the early fall, we have moved through the southwestern States of Arizona, New Mexico, and finally to Austin, Texas where Paula has two friends, Jose and Anne-Marie.    

Camp Verde UMC

Water and outdoor campfire restrictions were in place throughout the region. 

.  

Native American Cliff Dwellings

We stayed in a central AZ RV Park outside of a small town named Camp Verde, not far from Sedona. We visited their small UMC that was doing a great job picking up children and bringing them to church on Sunday morning.  The congregation was demonstrating some new audio-visual technical equipment in their Sunday morning worship service that had been donated by a young professional in their midst.  Most of our time in AZ was spent with Cheryl and Rob, friends of Paula's from Phoenix, and being inspired by the red rock formations and beautiful sunsets.

   We only spent 3 days in New Mexico, but all three of them ended with wildlife suprises!  On the first evening, we ended up driving the motorhome into a remote high-elevation Apache National Forest area, where we were the only campers 

Apache National Forest

present.  As we munched on smores and snuggled under our blankets (first night below 40 degrees!), we listened to bull elk bugle the night away in the surrounding forest.  That experience was matched by one the following evening near Cloudcroft, NM where a small herd of elk occupied a grassy pasture across the highway from our rv park.

On our third afternoon in New Mexico, we visited Carlsbad Caverns National Park.  
Besides the truly amazing underground sights, we also returned at nightfall to view an amazing daily bat emigration from one of the major caves in the park.

Driving through hot and dry west Texas was not an exciting adventure.  A great deal of oil and gas drilling and extraction were taking place, and very large tractor-trailers hauling all kinds of liquids and heavy equipment filled the otherwise remote highways.  When we entered the Austin-San Antonio area, however, car (and pickup) traffic began to increase, and we looked forward to visiting with Jose and Anne-Marie, Paula's friends, who used to live in Vermont.
  
For the first few days, we stayed in McKinney Falls State Park, southeast of Austin, and became familiar with the prickly pear cactus and chiggers. 

McKinney Falls State Park

Prickly Pear Cactus Fruit

Both would cause you to itch if you weren't careful!  During the following days, we did learn how to use the prickly pear fruit ('tunas') in smoothies and in a pie.  During our last weekend in Texas, we attended the Gruene (pronounced "Green") Music and Wine Festival and the Gruene UMC Sunday morning worship service on Oct 12.  I will tell you about those more in my next post.

Later this week, I am headed east to Biloxi, Mississippi and St Andrews State Park near Panama City, Florida.  Talk to you soon!

Love,
Tim

Crisscrossing California

Since leaving Redding on September 6th, we have wondered south along the northern California coast through some majestic redwood forests, picturesque beaches, and sunny vineyards.  After  


Tim on "Xena" in Redwood Forest

 motorhoming through the southwestern corner of Oregon, we camped in Jedidiah Smith State Park along a beautiful stretch of the freeflowing Eel River, and among 10-15 ft diameter redwood trees.  Most redwood forests that yet remain are now preserved within state and federal lands, and lie very near the cool and wet coastline.  
As we traveled south along U.S. Highway 101 through this sparsely populated part of California, we visited some coastal communities such as Trinidad, Arcata (home of Humboldt State University), and Eureka (the largest).

Arcata, CA Area Coastal Preserve

There are remote sandy beaches with dune communities, and rocky coastlines, typically harboring small fishing boats.  Also, many small native American communities can be found in this part of California, now with small "casinos".  We enjoyed are short stays in these areas, as the coast was 20 degrees cooler than inland areas only 30-40 miles to the east.

We re-entered the dry heat of central California on September 11th, as we arrived at an RV park on the shores of Clear Lake in Lake County.  Lake County is one of 3 or 4 premier grape vineyard areas in CA, and lies directly north of Napa County.  Daytime temperatures were again in the upper 90's, but night-time temperatures would often fall into the lower 60's.  Unfortunately, 

Lake County Vineyard

with the continuing drought situation in California, Clear Lake docks were de-watered, and the lake level was a good 20 feet below 'normal' September levels.  Filamentous plants and algae filled most shallow bays, and made swimming and most water sports impossible in this normally large lake.  Nonetheless, we made the most of it and visited vineyard tasting rooms during the day and attended a local bluegrass festival during the evening.

On September 14th, we headed east back through the central valley and into the high Sierra's near Lake Tahoe.  California continues to be plagued by large wildfires.  Smoke from that area has darkened the sun and sky during midday here in Squaw Valley for several days, even though that particular fire is over 50 miles away.


Wildfire Smoke Over Lake Tahoe

This morning Paula and I stuffed some bears with a small group of people here in Squaw Valley.  It was enjoyable.  The bears are intended for children in Africa with AIDS.  Talk to you soon!

 

Heading for the Northern California Coast - Early September!

We're driving north into southern Oregon along Interstate 5, to Grants Pass for an overnight. Our pleasant 2-week visit with Doug and Della came to a close.


Motorhome Parked at Doug's House

 Doug and I worked together in Anchorage, Alaska for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from 2004 to 2007. They live in Redding, California now, close to Della's parents. Our stay with them was punctuated by local fun recreational trips in the area, in addition to a 3-day trip Paula and I took (with the assistance of their Jeep) to a Blackberry Music Festival, the Lava Beds National Monument, and to Burney Falls State Park. The trip to higher elevations provided a brief respite to the otherwise hot 95-105 degree weather. It has been a long time since they have received any rain here, and drought conditions seem to have permanently set in. Wildfires are common and longlasting in northern California, and water supply reservoirs are at all time lows.  Despite this, it is a region of striking natural beauty, and extremes.

Rafting on the Sacramento River

 

Exploring a Cave at 
Lava Beds National Monument



All Time Low Water Level in Shasta Lake