Nomads2

“I can only spread the sail; Thou! Thou! must breath the auspicious gale.” Charles Spurgeon

Highway 60, east of Interstate 25, in New Mexico, west bound driving into winter weather.

Two views of the same road. The photos do not do the landscape justice. The vehicle shows up in only one image.

Meers Oklahoma, home of an outstanding hamburger.

Our favorite and much experienced teacher, Bertha.
Just some of the displaced people enjoying our flapjacks.

We finally get to work in disaster relief, not in chainsaw work, but in the new kitchen that our Arizona chapter just acquired. Although we were not trained in this discipline, we learn fast cooking around 180 pancakes and upwards of 120 burgers. It was a great learning experience and we had fabulous instructors helping us with finding our way around the cook trailer.

This trailer is brand new and works really well for an event this size.

Our location was Salome Arizona at the towns high school in support of the Red Cross.

From high school to marriage, kids, grand kids, from Pennsylvania to West Virginia, to Florida and surviving Hurricane Andrew together, the four of us have lots to talk about. We meet when we can at our favorite pizza joint. We call it our place. None of us can remember why we go there, we just do. We usually stay a long time and tip the staff very well. Friends forever.

We have driven on this road in Missouri many times and somehow never managed to stop here for “rest.” Way cool as far as rest areas go. Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona have some good ones and also a fair share of bad ones (read stinky).

Pig facts.

A cool little travel trailer.

Listening to Blue Grass at the fair.

Norm loves the swine.

We lived in Miami for nine years and ate our fair share of Cuban sandwiches, but we never thought we would eat them in Pennsylvania.

This is the best way to handle living in Oklahoma. Laugh, a lot, and often.

Our daughter-in -law recently travelled to Italy and knew just the car to rent and just the right wine to drink!

I’m not sure, but I have heard rumors that the state of Oklahoma could be considering a change to this species as the new state bird. This particular bird, a male, I believe, was photographed in Pennsylvania, they have quite a range for such a heavy bird. They are well built and solid, just smell funny.

A few of the best fed animals in central Pennsylvania.

Michael Jackson dies and it’s 24/7 news coverage. A real American hero dies and not a mention of it in the news. The media has no honor and God is watching Ed Freeman You’re a 19-year-old kid. You’re critically wounded and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley , 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam . Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in. You’re lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you’re not getting out. Your f! amily is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away and you’ll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day. Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter and you look up to see an unarmed Huey, but it doesn’t seem real because no Medi-Vac markings are on it. Ed Freeman is coming for you. He’s not Medi-Vac, so it’s not his job, but he’s flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come. He’s coming anyway. And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire as they load 2 or 3 of you on board. Then he flies you up and out, through the gunfire to the doc tors and nurses. And he kept coming back, 13 more times, and took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out. Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman died on Wednesday, June 25th, 2009, at the age of 80, in Boise , ID. May God rest his soul. Medal of Honor Winner Ed Freeman! THANKS AGAIN, ED, FOR WHAT YOU DID FOR OUR COUNTRY. RIP

• Philosophy says: Think your way out. Indulgence says: Drink your way out. Politics says: Spend your way out. Science says: Invent your way out. Industry says: Work your way out. Communism says: Strike your way out. Fascism says: Bluff your way out. Militarism says: Fight your way out. The Bible says: Pray your way out, but Jesus Christ says: “I am the way (out)…”

“And a child shall lead them”….He is called the “Cow Whisperer.”

Thanks to our friend Todd, for this great shot of how chess is played in the middle east.

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

-John Adams

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free…it expects what never was and never will be.” Thomas Jefferson

We travel to Boalsburg to eat and shop in a town that is nearly 200 years old.
This is the tavern where we had a nice sit down dinner of soups, salads, sandwich’s and steaks. Built in 1819 by Col. James Johnston and his wife Hannah Bethesda, the Boalsburg Tavern originally catered to town folk and travellers not just as a pub, but as an inn as well. Legend has it, there was nightly fan dancing by local girls for “entertainment” but we didn’t see anything like that during our visit. In 1934 the building was destroyed by fire but was purchased three years later by Mrs. Billy Hill Windsor, who completely restored it. In 1946, Harry Duffy bought it and renamed it Duffy’s Tavern. Harry died in 1961 and in 1971 Carl Hacker and his family bought it, moved in and still run it today.
We were told that many of the old houses have shops in the lower floor and the owners live on the upper floors of the house, with the blessing of the town councils. More small towns should develop like this and maybe more would be saved.
Oh yeah, we spent some time in this store, that is till the smell of chocolate did Norm in. She had to flee before her head exploded.

This is the State College Pennsylvania farmers market. It happens every Tuesday from now till November. They close one whole street downtown for a few hours of good fresh shopping.
Just a small sampling of our booty from today’s trip.

“The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” a book by the historian, Gibbon, provides five reasons for the decline of the Roman Empire. Number one, the undermining of the dignity and the sanctity of the home. Number two, higher and higher taxes and the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace. Number three, a mad craze for pleasures and sports becoming every year more exciting, more brutal, and more immoral. Number four, the building of great armaments when the real enemy was within: the decay of individual responsibility. Number five, the decay of religion, fading into mere form, losing touch with life, and losing power to guide the people.

From the Centre Daily Times, Monday, June 1, 2009. “A 7 foot Gumby statue was stolen from a business on the 100 block of North Atherton Street on Sunday while the owner of the store was cleaning, State College police reported. The estimated value of the statue is $250, police say, and it was taken around 6 p.m. Anyone with information is asked to call State College police at 234-7150.” You can’t make this stuff up!

The Mt. Nittany Inn sits on top of a mountain in Centre Hall Pa. (small hill if you have ever been out west) elevation 1809 feet. I think since being located here the restaurant has burned down twice, the second time was during construction after the first fire. As you can see the view is great and we brought most of the customers the day we ate there. The food is as good as the service, good and friendly all the way around.

Our beloved step-Dad Bob, Pappy-Bob and known by all his friends as “Hat” went home to be with the Lord. These photos reflect some of his favorite past times. Eating ice cream, with his great-grandson, spending time with his wife Edie, and his favorite flower for one last time here. We will miss him. Godspeed Hat Walker.

I did some day labor work today helping my Father-in-law with an outside project. Here I am helping my Brother-in-law, Jeff, and as you can see, we are both working hard (really all I did was hold things). It never seems to fail though, when some men are working hard, some women (Norm) are fooling around. Jeff would have driven off to work in Flagstaff with the sticker on his shirt, if I wouldn’t have told him.

“Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul.” [Ps. 103:22]

I was talking to a bus driver today – he ferries people from one side of the airport to the other.  He is a Pakistani man and I asked him what type of hours he worked.  He told me he works 6 days a week, 12 hours a day for 1500 dirham per month!  This is about $400 US dollars per month.  I asked him how much he could make if he worked in Pakistan and he said about 1000 dirhams per month.  Makes me realize how blessed I am, and how blessed the United States is.  I have often heard that the poor in the US really are not poor when compared to the poor in other parts of the world.  Here this guy is working 72 hours a week, earning less than $1.40 per hour.  How much does a welfare recipient pull down per month in the U.S.?  I don’t know, but I imagine it is quite a bit north of $400.

I have also heard where the Taliban and Al Queda have an easy job recruiting soldiers.  They offer them money to join their cause, and obviously it wouldn’t cost them much to give all these guys more than they are making in a normal job.

It really seems wrong that the UAE doesn’t pay these people more.  They could easily afford to.  As it is I don’t see much difference from these low payed workers and the slaves who worked the plantations in the 1800’s.  I should start organizing a union for these hard working people, I am sure that would get me deported quickly!

This is the second time in about three years that a rattlesnake has struck out at Norm as she was riding her quad down the trail.  The first time the snake took a swipe and than crawled quickly off the trail into the bush, but not this one. This snake is bigger than the one we encountered last and had a bad attitude toward trail riders. There seems to be a large crop of reptiles in our desert this year. We have been riding and hiking through this area since 1998 and have never seen this many rattlesnakes. They are also very close to the park. The other thing that surprised us was how loud his rattle was. You could easily hear it from quite a distance. Not only do you have to watch where you walk, but, where you ride! 

We decided to go to our favorite firing range and blast away a gallon jug, but stumbled across a native of our desert. Norm would not get any closer than this.
Just out in the middle of the day catching some rays. Not in the least bit interested in moving on.
That is a face only a mother could love!
I guess I got a little too close and this guy had enough.
A strange looking track, at least to us.

I waited for five days to get just the right shot of the wind that blows almost non stop twenty four seven in Oklahoma. The good thing is it was warm weather even while we walked bent over to keep from being blown over. Poor Leo was actually blown from his wheel barrel while waiting for someone to wheel him around his backyard. I got an early birthday present and some great food and cake. I look good in black. A few weeks ago, my Father-in-law and I put electric in our small cargo trailer. We took it on its maiden voyage and I must say, it worked very well. I did not get any pictures from our stay in Tucumcari New Mexico because of freezing temperatures and darkness. On our return trip we stayed in Grants New Mexico and enjoyed a great campground (The Bar S) and very nice weather.

Leo enjoys two of his favorite activities, watching toons from the back of his motorcycle and driving his new jeep.