Our 33 Day, 6731 Mile Road Trip–part 4

Our fifth day on the road, April 26th, started out with rain.  We received a light shower or two during the night and woke up to a rather cool and damp morning. We got on the road a little later than normal, about 9:00 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time, primarily because we planned to make a stop about 75 miles on up the road and the place didn’t open until 9:00 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time (the time zone was just a few miles from us.)

Here is a photo Connie took as we traveled.  Some of her photos taken that morning showed a lot of rain drops on the windshield so this must have been during a slight let-up in the rain or she caught it just after the wiper blades had cleared the glass.

 
Our stopping point for the morning was the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center near Baker City, Oregon.  As their brochure says,  “The National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center at Flagstaff Hill brings to life aspects of the Oregon Trail experience through living history demonstrations, interpretive programs, exhibitions,  and special events.”  We came away, after our nearly 3 hours there, with a much greater appreciation for the hardships, endurance, etc. of the 300,000 plus immigrants that made the journey westward along the Oregon Trail.  And, those folks traveled much the same route we took, without the interstates and highways that are there now.  It is hard to imagine facing the mountains, rivers, etc. with nothing more than a wagon and a team of oxen.


This is a view of a full size representation of a wagon and people making the trip.  We learned that of the 300,000 plus that made the trip, nearly 30,000 died in route. 







Another representation.  It was interesting to look at the many exhibits showing the limited amount of space in the wagons and the amount of food, tools, and personal effects each family tried to take along.  Much had to be discarded along the way due to various factors.



We were amazed to learn that over 300 miles of wagon ruts from over 150 years ago still remain.  We were able to view some on the grounds of the Center.  The ruts were so deep and packed so hard that to this day they are free of weeds and other growth and erosion has not totally wiped them out.  You can make out the ruts in the photo below.




By the time we had traveled northward and reached the Columbia River and began going westward again the rain had come to a stop.  The view along the river was great.  I’ll post some photos of the river in the next installment. 

We stopped for the night at a Pilot Travel Center at Biggs, Oregon.  The parking lot overlooked the Columbia River.

  
This photo was taken from the corner of the Pilot lot.  The mountains in the picture are in the state of Washington.  Although we had been in the state of Washington before we just had to drive across this bridge the next morning before continuing westward, just to say we had been in that state on this trip.

In the next installment I’ll post some pictures of some gorgeous waterfalls.

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Our 33 Day, 6731 Mile Road Trip–part 3

I promised in part 2 that I would include some photos of the mountains we began to see as we got into Wyoming.  Here are a couple.

This was taken by Connie out of the windshield, somewhere in western Wyoming.









As we neared Cheyenne, WY we began to see snow on some of the mountains in the distance.









Day four of our trip, April 25th, we left the Wal-Mart lot in Rock Springs, WY and continued our westward journey.   Less than two hours later we were entering into the state of Utah. Within a few miles we left I-80 and got onto I-84, which we would follow all the way to Portland, Oregon.  Although we were unaware of it prior to coming upon a turn-out situated for viewing it we saw a quite unusual geological formation called The Devil’s Slide.  It consists of two parallel limestone strata that protrudes 40 feet out of the side of the mountain with a 25 foot wide channel between that runs down the mountainside for hundreds of feet.  Here is a photo Connie took.

 
By taking I-84 we did not go through Salt Lake City nor did we really get to see the great Salt Lake,  just a few spots where we got a brief glimpse of some inlets.  We did continue to see mountains.  Here is another photo taken in Utah.

We were obviously going down at this point, as you can see the road stretching out in front of us.









Our goal for our fourth day had been Mt. Home, Idaho but as we had been getting ahead of our goal the previous couple of days we did so quite easily this day as well.  This was another 500+ mile day and we crossed into Oregon and stopped for the night at a Pilot Travel Center in Ontario, OR.  It was here that we “bought” our first shower at a truck stop.  We found the shower rooms to be very nice and well maintained.

With the next installment we will begin to detail the many places we visited in the state of Oregon.

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Our 33 Day, 6731 Mile Road Trip-part 2

Our second day on the road, April 23, 2012, began about 8:00 A.M.  We continued West on I-70 to Kansas City, MO and then turned North on I-29.  We crossed into extreme Southwestern Iowa, travelling only about 10 miles, and turned back West on Rt. 2 which we followed all the way to Lincoln, Nebraska.  There we got onto I-80, which we would remain on for hundreds of miles, crossing all of Nebraska and Wyoming and into Utah (not all that day of course).  Our goal for the day was Lexington, Nebraska but we exceeded that by a few miles making it all the way to North Platte, Nebraska.  We stopped for the night at the Flying J, which is a part of the Pilot Travel Centers family.

Day three, April 24th, we continued on West, with our original goal of Wamsutter, Wyoming.  As we had exceeded our goal for the second day we easily did the same this day, making it to Rock Springs, Wyoming.  We stopped at the Flying J there, intending to spend the night but the auto lot was quite small.  We needed a few things and checked out the Wal-Mart store.  We discovered that they had a huge parking lot and there were several RV’s already there so we decided to spend the night in the Wal-Mart lot.


This photo is one Connie took from the van while we were driving, showing a general view of much of the state of Nebraska.









As we got into the Western part of Nebraska we began to see more hills and the beginnings of mountains.

The photo below shows the Wal-Mart “campground” in Rock Springs, WY.

 

In the next installment I’ll include some photos of the mountains we began to see as we got into the Wyoming area.

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Our 33 Day, 6731 Mile Road Trip—part 1

 

Early this year we began discussing making a trip to Oregon to visit our youngest son and his family.  We last saw them two years ago when we took the train out to Oregon.  We considered doing that again but Connie suggested that we drive.  As we began to plan the trip we decided that we would make it a little longer, time-wise, and a little longer, distance wise.  Our plan was to travel to Oregon, stay several days, then drive down through California, across Arizona and New Mexico and into Texas.  As I wrote about last fall, we are part of a prison ministry, and we desired to visit some of our brothers there.

To afford to make such a trip we began to plan ways to cut expenses.  There wasn’t much we could do to lessen the fuel costs but food and motels we could do something about.  We began planning to take much of our food with us—much of it being some of our home canned items.  To cut out the expense of motels we (along with help from my son here on the farm) designed a platform bed that would fit into our mini-van once the rear seats were removed.  I cut cardboard to fit the windows so that we could cover them at night.  Our plan was to stop at truck stops, Wal-Mart parking lots and campgrounds.

We embarked upon our journey on April 22, 2012.  Our goal for the day was the Pilot Travel Center in Boonville, MO.  We were up and on our way by 7:00 A.M.  By 4:30 P.M. we had completed the first 509 miles of our trip and had arrived at the Pilot in Boonville.  One of the landmarks we saw on this first day on the road was the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO.

 

Below is a pix of our mini-van parked in the auto parking lot at Pilot in
Boonville, MO.



You can see that the cardboard window covers are in place.  The side seen from the outside is covered with a reflective insulation.  Our mattress was the thick futon mattress from the futon in our spare room at home, and it was quite comfortable.

Part 2 will be posted later.

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WHAT KIND OF A DOG IS THIS?

In the late 1990’s we lived in a mobile home park in Bloomington, Illinois.  One of our neighbors in the park was quite an accomplished wood carver.  He offered to teach some of us how to carve.  So, for several weeks a few of us would go down once a week to his garage workshop and work on small carving projects.  One of the projects we did was an old hound dog.  The pattern for this dog was in one of my woodworking magazines.

The photo is rather dark but you can get the idea.  He is about 4-1/2 inches tall.  A few weeks ago we kept the grandchildren who live here on the farm while my son and his wife were away for a week.  Somehow the subject of wood carving came up and the boys were ready to try their hand.  We found some old knives that could be used and then it was to the magazines we turned to find some patterns.  I found my copy of the magazine that contained the plan I had used back in the ‘90’s.  Included was a companion dog to the one I had carved.

So, one of the grandsons and I decided to carve this dog.  I don’t have a pix of the grandson’s finished carving but he did a good job.  Here is a photo of my dog.



He is a bit shorter, only about 2-3/4” tall.  The original dog from the ‘90’s was carved from bass wood.  The 2012 dog is carved from tulip poplar from here on the farm.  Both were finished with water based poster paints.

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LOOKS

The following story, by an unknown author, was sent to me by a friend.  I enjoyed it so much that I thought I would share it with all of you, the readers of this blog.

One Sunday morning the pastor of a fairly large church was about to begin his message when a man dressed in grease riddled jeans and leather jacket walked in and sat down in one of the pews.  The pastor felt rather embarrassed by the burly man’s appearance.  So, after the service was over he asked the man if he would pray and ask God if it was right to dress in such a way when attending his church.  The man said he would.

The following week the pastor was just beginning his message when the man walked in wearing the same greasy jeans and leather jacket and takes a seat in the back of the church.

After the service the pastor was furious and went to the man once again and said,  “I thought I asked you to pray to God and ask Him if He thought it was right to dress in such a way while attending my church.”  The man replied,  “I did.”  The pastor said,  “Well, what did God tell you?”  The man said,  “He told me that He didn’t have a clue as to what to wear in this church because He’s never been there before.”

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“I Was In Prison, and Ye Came Unto Me”

The past few weeks have been quite eventful for my wife and myself.  Those events have taken place, not on Cedar Ridge, but in the state of Texas.  While on a trip to visit my wife’s sister and brother-in-law we spent several days with the founders of a prison ministry that we came in contact with a few months ago.  My wife had been reading from the 25th chapter of Matthew where the Messiah answers the question “when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?  Or when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in?  or naked, and clothed thee?  Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?”  His answer was “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Connie asked me, “How do we visit anyone in prison?”  We didn’t know many prisoners.  There was one young man that Connie had written to off and on over the last several years.  Perhaps writing to him was in effect visiting or coming to one in prison.  However, a short time later we were brought into contact with Broken Vessels Prison Ministry.  We were drawn to this ministry in a way that is hard to explain except to say it was a divine calling.  We began by contributing a bit financially, then by corresponding with a prisoner and later by “adopting” a couple of men who had no financial support whatsoever.  (In the Texas prison system inmates are required to work if they are able but receive absolutely no pay.)  A few dollars a month on their books allows them to obtain personal hygiene items, occasional snacks, stamps, etc.

We felt the need to receive a bit of an education regarding the needs and what we can do to assist in filling them.  The few days spent with Thomas and Raquel was a crash course in prison ministry.

We went down to Huntsville and observed and participated in what is called “first contact.”  Each day, Monday through Friday, quite a number are released from the Huntsville Walls.  Those who do not have family waiting across the street for them to come out of those gates walk down the street about two blocks to the Greyhound Bus station, carrying their meager possessions in an onion bag.  They have in hand the $50.00 check they are issued, a voucher for a bus ticket to their destination in the state of Texas.  Their check will be cashed there for no charge.  The voucher is exchanged for a ticket and soon they are boarded for either Dallas or Houston, the transfer points for most.  They are given a free cell phone (or the phone number to call to get one if phones are not available on that day.)  These are made available to individuals that have no income.

Perhaps the most important thing that is offered by those who were there from  two or three different prison ministries is a smile and a warm welcome back.  We were blessed to be able to join in that morning.  We visited with several men, many who had served many years, such as Robert who had been behind the razor wire for 20 years.  It was hard for him to fully express the emotions he was experiencing;  fear, strangeness of everything, anticipation of meeting family and especially grand children he didn’t know.

After the fellows had all boarded their buses we went to the Texas Prison Museum.  We saw and read about many interesting things but perhaps the most striking was a full-size prison cell.

The following day we were able to meet and spend some time with one of the fellows we had been writing to.  He is now in a half-way house and had a pass for a few hours.  We were able to take him with us to a local park and enjoy some time along with a picnic lunch.

The following morning, before heading on down to Connie’s sister’s home, we went to Navasota, Texas, to the Pack Unit and went behind the razor wire to visit two men we have been in contact with.  When we began planning our trip they had added our names to their “visitor” list.  We went in together and visited Troy for 2 hours.  We had to come back out and go through the security check again to re-enter to visit Wesley for 2 hours.  We certainly enjoyed our visits and found it sad to have to go.  It really was heart rendering to learn that our visit was the first that Wesley had received since 2002!

After leaving Connie’s sister’s home we drove to Beeville, Texas where we spent the night.  The following morning we went out to the McConnell Unit, a maximum security unit, and had a 2 hour visit with Robert.  (A different Robert than referred to above.)  All 3 visits were non-contact visits.  Regular visits are all non-contact if you aren’t family.  At the Pack Unit we could talk through a heavy mesh but at the McConnell Unit it was over a telephone, just seeing Robert through heavy glass.

We stopped by and spent a bit more time with Thomas and Raquel before heading back to Cedar Ridge.  The many hours of discussion, asking questions and being given countless bits of information hopefully has prepared us for greater service to our brothers and sisters behind the razor wire that our Father is dealing with in some amazing ways.

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