Gila Bend Arizona Flood Day Two


Big change from yesterday…

We dodge heavy equipment and remediation work all day.
Dark line mid window is the water line…
Kitchen drawer full of mud…
I like trains, but they are annoying here. All of the jobs involve crossing these tracks. These are short trains either! I thought there’s a law about the length of trains. Guess I was wrong about that…

Gila Bend Arizona Day 1…


I sometimes think that a disaster brings out Jesus in people that don’t have Him. We hear good things in bad situations…
We are barely recovered from our work in Colorado, but God has given us the strength to start serving Him again in Gila Bend. We are based in the high school gym with the Red Cross and Salvation Army.
These roads look like dirt roads, but this is actually dried mud. The city is out in force clearing debris.
Massive debris pile that continued to grow all day. It is a terrible tragedy just on a smaller scale. It’s heartbreaking to see homes that are full of mud and mold. Norm prayed and used her Chaplain skills all day…

Camping at 10,000 ft


From Currcanti NRA we traveled west along hwy 50 to Montrose. It’s a nice town with one of the better Walmart’s we have shopped in. Turning south on 550 we stopped in Ridgeway Colorado, one of our favorite towns. Very laidback with friendly people.
Lunch in Ridgeway…
Afternoon cold brew. We then headed to the local thrift store…
Continuing south to another favorite place of ours, Ouray. It was crazy busy, with cars, jeeps, motorcycles, and people. So we just pushed on.
South of Silverton, just east of Molas Pass, we found this dispersed camping spot
This is what we woke up to. Too cheap to run the furnace, we had coffee with Jesus, and headed south ASAP. Arriving in Durango a short time later to a very nice 71 degrees and sunny…

Day 12, Grand Lake Colorado


Our longest day was saved for our last day of nonstop work days. But, CBDR was up against a time crunch, so Team Arizona and CBDR’s best stepped up and completed filling two roll offs in ten hours. CBDR Blue hat Doug and his spotter (wife) Carolyn are in the photo above.
It takes a lot of moving of debris to get all in order for loading.
Our crew awaiting the chance to swing into action…
Poetry in motion, is CBDR Doug on the mini-x…
My machine. I spent almost the entire day operating it. Yes, now heavy equipment operator can be added to my AZDR resume.
Our hats tell the tale of this call out. As I write this we are already praying, thinking and planning for the next time we can be in service to our King of Kings and Lord of Lords. God’s word says “WHOSOEVER” do you know where you will go when this life ends? You can know! Be sure today…

Day 9, Grand Lake Colorado


Not the kind of day we want to have. Hitching our fire response trailer to the DR truck, we noticed that the wheel did not look normal. After lifting the left side we checked how secure the wheel actually was. Not at all! There was no washer to secure the axle nut, so the nut was one or two threads from coming off. The bearing was out of place allowing the wheel to wobble. With the help of CBDR Doug, we spent a lot of time fabricating a way to secure the nut. After finishing the left side, we thought we probably should check the right side. That is the photo above. No washer, no lock washer, and no NUT! Our Blue hat Patty and driver Joe spent all morning searching for the parts, only to have to order them…This is a brand new, from the factory trailer. Sad…
The only real job Norm and I had was to go to a property and report to CBDR White Hat Dennis, if the always elusive, and rare roll off dumpster had appeared. As usual and sadly, not. So we thought we would take this photo… Not sure why…

Day 8, Grand Lake Colorado…


First thing Billie puts the ‘Krav Maga’ smack down on these concrete blocks. After these blocks have been exposed to fire, they become brittle.
Out of uniform, Norm is trying to keep from getting a farmers tan
We were Arizona 2 today and this was our first task of the day.
When a roll off shows up at your job site, it is a time for celebration!
Who knew? Dust devils in Colorado. We counted five today.
First task completed…
We joined up with Arizona team 1 and finally got to work together. This was tough going at nearly 9,000 feet elevation.
Ash pile made by hand.
Just a small part of the beautiful view from this property.
A long hard day is almost completed…

Day 6 Grand Lake Colorado…


Today the team was split into three groups so we could try to finish these properties…
Our debris bags…
Metal has to be separated from ash…
This property was supposed to be completed, we were just cleaning the outside area and found this piece of gold.
We try to always leave a signed Bible for the property owner. God’s Word, something more valuable than gold…

Day 4, Grand Lake Colorado


This is the view from the house we worked on today…
This is the first time we have met with actual homeowners…
Gary and Terri center and right making me look good…
My first of three jobs today, spotting for Colorado DR Doug. Doug is a master with these machines. I praise God for heavy equipment…
My second job site of the day…
Third job and then a nice meal with the Colorado DR team…

Day 2, Bluff Utah to Meeker Colorado…


We drove more miles than we wanted, but it seems that you can’t get an RV site without planning ahead. We are more of the plan on the fly type of campers. Leaving I70 we turned north on hwy 13 and found an RV park that left us dry camp for a nominal fee…
Yesterday we spent the night next to the San Juan river, today, lunch next to the mighty Colorado river.
Safe and secure…

Psalm 63: 1-5


1. O God, You are my God, 
   And I will seek You so earnestly,
   My body and soul thirst after You,
   In a land that is so dry and weary.

2. I have seen You in the sanctuary,
   And beheld Your power and Your glory too.
3. Because Your love is better than life,
   My lips will praise and glorify You.

4. I will praise You as long as I live,
   I will lift up my hands unto Your name.
5. My soul satisfied as with rich food,
   Praise to You, my singing lips, proclaim.

The complete Psalms in Meter, by Ryan Stewart.

Arizona SBC Disaster Relief…


Just last week we got a message from one our former Pastors (and favorite) Dean Stanley. His church, Golden Valley Baptist church, through their week of VBS had collected an offering for AZDR. We were just overwhelmed, so we made plans to go last Sunday to receive the check on behalf of our state director.
Pastor Dean and his wife, Rhonda, gave us a check for $1000.00 for Arizona Disaster Relief!!!… This could not have come at a better time, as two teams from AZDR will soon be traveling to Colorado for home cleanups from the 2020 fires.
In addition to the check, ( did I mention that is was $1000.00?), the VBS guys and gals collected a wheelbarrow full of much needed supplies…Praise the Lord for His goodness and grace. Praise Him for churches that would think of the pretty much unknown missionaries of Disaster Relief.

Day Six…


Laundry day. This is how we do our laundry, find one, choose a spot to park out of the way, and enjoy lunch while waiting for your clothes to get done…
Lots of logging going on in Idaho.
Turkey family…
We are standing next to our RV parking spot for the next two days. Ravenwood RV Resort, Athol Idaho, $54.00 per day for water and electric only. We wondered if this spot is like getting a table next to the kitchen in a restaurant???

Day Four…


For a brief thirty seconds we entered Washington state, and just like that, we were back in Idaho…
It took us a while to try to figure out what this yellow crop was. They were all over and very pretty. We really should have gotten a better photo. After some time we consulted with Norm’s Dad, Paul, he told us it was canola. Who knew?…
Beyond all expectations, Praise God, we snagged a spot in Tamarack RV park in Coeur d Alene Idaho. Nice park with friendly workers.

Day Three…


Payette river, a major tributary to the Snake river
We could hardly hear each other, the roar of the water was loud!!!
For some reason, we thought it would be a good idea to travel 2.1 miles uphill on this skinny trail to stay in a National Forest campground. Ignoring a sign that claimed up to two hours of delay for logging activities we pressed on only to come to a halt with two machines logging away. Norm spotted as we backed about .3 tenths to a place where we could turn around…
Driving further north near Riggins Idaho, we scored a free campsite on the Salmon river. Also known as “The river of no return.” The water temperature was 69 degrees. The sound of the river is like music from God…
Our new kitchen setup. Working well so far…

Day Two…


Most all of Highway 93 looks like this…
The town name says it all, Norm counted 7 casinos…
We think this is north of Buhl Idaho on highway 30
Trailbreak RV park in Glenns Ferry Idaho. Nice park, we snagged the last site available. Really hard to just stop and find a campground anymore. You have to plan ahead and we’re just not that good at planning ahead…

To all Veterans, Thanks for your service…


Military Service…

On some air bases the Air Force is on one side of the field and civilian aircraft use the other side of the field, with the control tower in the middle.
One day the tower received a call from an aircraft asking, “What time is it?”
The tower responded, “Who is calling?”
The aircraft replied, “What difference does it make?”
The tower replied, “It makes a lot of difference.
If it is an American Airlines flight, it is 3 o’clock.
If it is an Air Force plane, it is 1500 hours.
If it is a Navy aircraft, it is 6 bells.
If it is an Army aircraft, the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the 3.
If it is a Marine Corps aircraft, it’s Thursday afternoon.”

Someone asked the question “what would you do if you found a scorpion in your tent?” to members of different branches of the military, and these are the responses he got.

Army said, “I’d step on it.”

The Marine said, “I would crush it with the heel of my boot.”

The Ranger said, “I’d smash its head, cut off its tail and eat it.”

Then Air Force said, “I would call room service, tell them to take it away, then ask why there is a tent in my hotel room.”

Campsites….


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We traveled from Kentucky, to Tennessee, to Arkansas in just a few hours. Almost always, unless we have a destination with a time restriction, we amble. I sometimes feel bad and do the speed limit, but mostly we like to amble. This is our first time in an Arkansas state park, and we liked it a lot. This is the kind of park we would have spent a few days in, if we would have had the time. Way off the main road, no cell service, no close neighbors and plenty of squirrel’s….

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This is the view of our site from the bath house, which, by the way was really nice…

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The bacon Pig. We could not have made this trip without our faithful piggy. The biggest problem with him is keeping him full…

Bardstown Kentucky…


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We decided, for some reason to stay in Bardstown Kentucky at “My old Kentucky home State Park.” It turned out to be fun and we are glad it did as we stayed much longer then we intended to. Our only credit card was compromised so we had to hang around for a few extra days and have two new ones sent to us. We used Kenny’s Cleaners for laundry twice, had lunch downtown, shopped Kroger’s, Boones meat market and Walmart, enjoyed two different sites within the park and four different museums. This little town had a lot going on…

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We do need to wake up!!!

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We found these museums to be great for such a small town. Lots of history on all wars, on woman historically, especially the Civil War….

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Our little oddball always attracts curious looks. This was our second site….

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This is not a good photo, but we spent three days at this spot with no one but a cat around…

We visit the Ark…


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The Ark is very impressive in person, this photo does not begin to put into perspective the size…

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This was taken from a little patio on the back side of the Ark…Looking up…

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This ramp leads to the only door. The door that the Lord closed the day of the Flood…Genesis 7:16 “And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the LORD shut him in.”

If you know Norm, you know she is pretty much freaked out by anything with wings and beady eyes. So she spent quite sometime staring at this display of bats, 16 different species that were on the Ark. This is her, “I am ready to mow down old people and kids if one of these bats moves.”

Creation Museum, part 2…


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Mount St. Helens is an event that evolutionist don’t like to talk about….

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I really don’t know what to say about this???…

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So we came out to eat lunch, and found this classic motor home (classic means old and smelly) next to us with it’s generator running non stop, and you guessed it, smelled of gas fumes, from being old. So, we skipped lunch to finish the museum. Well worth the trip, we were blessed. The next day we pulled out of the Ark Encounter parking lot and passing by the RV parking spots, and yes, there was the same classic smelly motorhome. And yes, the smelly generator was running full speed…

Norm got to feed a camel! He had some big lips, and bad breath… but, he seemed like a nice camel…

We visit the Creation Museum….


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We spent almost two full days at the Creation Museum and can highly recommend a visit. As a believer, it is way cool to see the Bible come to life, using science and common sense to see the lies in evolution. To see the evidence for a young earth. The best thing is they present the Gospel !!!

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I found this especially interesting, in light of our war in Iraq…

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Flight 93 Memorial…


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Circumstances beyond our control has found us in Pennsylvania. So, being ahead of schedule, we stopped by the new memorial. It was a very solemn experience….

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I found this to be one of most interesting displays, with the flight information and cockpit voice recording…

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This panel showed the amount of air traffic over the United States, around 4500 aircraft that had to be landed…

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Our last day at the Beach…


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If you can see the lower right side of this sign, there are some important marine life that one may encounter that were left off of this list…Like sharks and sting rays, which we encountered on our next to last day at the beach…

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We biked to the beach and saw this set of flags, which we had to look up. We knew the yellow flag means to use caution for rip tides, but the purple flag? That means dangerous marine life, like the ones left off the placard from above…Yikes…We did not get any photos, but spotted one large sting ray in very shallow water and several sharks, not very far from shore…

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This is early in the morning. We set the alarm, made coffee and went to the beach to enjoy it. We have never had our morning coffee like this before! We could not stop Praising God for all that He has given us. It was with great regret that we left the Florida panhandle, a place that we never intended to ever visit, after living here forty years ago, turned out to be so great for us…

Camping by the ocean…


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We stayed two days at Grayton Beach state park, near Santa Rosa island. Nice campsite, I reserved it over the phone and the nice lady told me that there was an issue about backing into it. Seems some had difficulty, not us..

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This path led straight to the facilities. Nice showers and they were free….

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A very short bike ride from our spot to here. Even if the weather is iffy, we are at the beach…

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Who knew that pelicans flew in formation? Hundreds passed over at different times, this was the best shot I could get, lying on my back, on the beach, at the ocean…

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We caught this freeloader trying to get out of Florida….He was hanging on the door jam of the truck….

Rocky Bayou State Park, Niceville Fl….


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This is a nice park. A bit of a drive to the beach, but it made up for it in quiet ambiance. The bay can be seen through the trees, included at no charge, alligator warning signs…

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We think the Destin, Santa Rosa area has the best beaches, at least for us…

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Our first of a couple of nights of seafood feasting. A place called Nick’s, east of Rocky Bayou, great seafood and it felt like an authentic panhandle joint…Yes that is a chicken roosting outside of the entrance to Nick’s…

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This was our view from the second big feast, the Original Crab Shack in Fort Walton Beach. More great food, all seafood. We lived in this area 40 years ago and remember it as such a small town, local feel. Now the traffic rivals any big city…

Alabama….


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We were in front but had to take off as the waves were crashing over the bow…

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We never thought that we would drive onto a ferry boat ever. It was way cool. This huge ship passed right in front of us…

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We crossed Mobile Bay on a ferry boat! This is the view from the drivers seat as our truck and trailer were parked in the center and everyone was directed around us. We were first on and last off, which was okay with us.

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