o/` o/` Lot's of Curves You Bet, and Even More When You Get ... o/` o/` OR "I thought you meant the road to BENI Hana!!"

If you are old enough to remember the 60s TV show "Petticoat Junction" then you might remember the theme song of the show that included the first part of the title to this blog posting.  The second 1/2 is a take off on the idea of going to somewhere named Hana (i.e. - Beni Hana the Japanese Teppan Yaki Steakhouses).

Hana, Maui is a small, isolated town at the far eastern end of the island.  Maui isn't a BIG island.  It's only 48 miles long and 26 miles wide at its widest part.  So the trip from our hotel in Kahului to Hana is a mere 51 miles.  When you ask how long the 51 miles will take during the daytime, my iPhone said 1 hour 31 minutes.  So you think "Ok, that means you average 33.6 miles per hour.  OK, GOT IT.  It ain't going to be a quick trip."  But let's just say that apparently an iPhone will never be permitted to be a judge in an Olympic Diving competition because apparently they have no understanding of the concept of "Degree of Difficulty."  In other words, there are EASY 51 mile roads where the road is straight with the occasional curve and you are only permitted to go 30 mph so it's going to take you about 1 1/2 hours and then there is the "Road to Hana."  The first 15 miles of the  "Hana Highway" is EASY - 45 mph and flat.  It's the last 35 miles that are virtually beyond belief: 

Below is a picture of part of the island of Maui showing Kahului (where we began our trek) on the left and Hana on the far right of the island. You travel on highways 36 and 360:

These last 35 miles of the "Hana Highway" have well over 600 turns (That's over 17 curves per mile) many of which were tight, hairpin curves.  PLUS It also has almost 60 bridges (most of which are one lane bridges) and all of which have a 10 ton weight limit. PLUS the fact that the road has no shoulders on either side.  On the "coastline" side there is either steep cliffs or guard rails virtually right on the edge of the paved road.  On the "island" side there is virtually always volcanic rock (that has been blasted away to make the road).  It's often so close that when our car was going around a corner, it brushed the foliage growing out of it. PLUS on about 15-20% of the road it is so narrow that there isn't even a center line, because it's only a one lane road with signs that say "YIELD to oncoming traffic."  Given all of that, the POSTED speed limit on the last 35 miles is 15 MILES PER HOUR.  (That was too fast in many instances.)

Below is a 3 minute + YouTube compilation video of some of the videos we took along the way on the "Hana Highway."

The road is so (in)famous that they sell T-shirts like the ones in the picture below:

Personally, I think they should be obligated to give them away!

Well, (in an homage to the movie Jaws 2 and its 'tagline') - "Just when you thought it was safe to get back on the Highway again!"  Two nights later (our last night on the island of Maui) we decided to go around the OTHER end of the island which Irene said had a road which she'd "driven on before" and it was "paved and was a LOT nicer"than the Hana Highway.  Soooo, off we went on highway 30 north out of Lahaina to Kapalua.

Once again practicing the subtle art of "Highway Deception" this road was great for the first 5 miles: paved and even 3 lanes wide with numerous nice bridges.  "PIECE OF CAKE" I'm thinking.  Then, it got worse and worse and WORSE.  To top it ALL off, it was nighttime.  At least on the highway to Hell, er I mean Hana, it was daylight while we were driving on it.  Below is a 1 minute video that Irene took of actually some of the NICER 1 lane road part of it.  At least this part was paved.

So, here's a question for all of our devout readers: Who is it that decides to put their business out in the middle of ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE, Maui, Hawaii.  We were on this road which, by this time, has disintegrated to become a pot hole ridden 1 lane DIRT road --  We are about to drive over a bridge that had a 5 ton weight limit (but we wondered if that was correct) -- and BOOM! right there over the bridge someone has a restaurant.  Bizarre.  Apparently they don't believe in the first 3 cardinal rules of retail business "Location, Location, Location."

The one upside to this trip was we got the most beautiful picture of the full moon I've ever seen.  It is below:

Have a blessed day.

46, 47, 48, 49. 50! or The Yin and Yang of the USA

As followers of our blog know, we have gone to Alaska the last 2 years on sojourns - in 2016 to Homer and in 2017 to Soldotna.  We've written numerous blog posts on our travels there - the mountains; the animals; the roads, etc.  Here's links to some of them if you'd like to read them nostalgically:

Denali Flyover

Our Sojourn in Homer, AK

Our Trip to Seward, AK

Alaska was the 49th state.  It became a state on January 3, 1959.  This must have made for an interesting flag for almost 9 months - it would have had 7 rows of 7 stars = 49 stars, I suppose.  

As we write this Irene and I are in Maui, Hawaii - the 50th state.  It became a state August 29th, 1959.  

Despite all the obvious differences - the weather; the people; the size, etc., there is one possibly not so obvious similarity (without thinking about it first).  Both of the states have been shaped by volcanic activity.  As you may remember from the previous post "One Hood Beats Three Sisters and a Jefferson" I really am into volcanoes.  So I was impressed to know that in the case of Alaska there are over 130 volcanoes.  Most of them are along the "Pacific Rim of Fire" shown in the picture below:

The Pacific Ocean and the "Ring of Fire"

As you look at this picture above, right underneath of the "of" in "Ring of Fire" you'll see 2 "Volcano Triangles".  These are on the Hawaiian Islands.  Each of the largest of the Hawaiian Islands (the ones we think of when we think of Hawaii) are all of volcanic origin.  FYI, the state of Hawaii is MUCH more than most of us realize.  Below is a picture of the entire Hawaiian Chain:

The Entire Hawaiian Archipelago.  The Hawaii we "know" is the green islands on the bottom right side of the picture.  The rest of the state of Hawaii is in the circle from the center right to the upper left of the picture.

The Hawaiian Chain is over what is called a "Hot Spot" in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  A hot spot is a thin region in the mantle of the earth.  This allows molten lava to leak and begin to build a mound at the floor of the ocean.  Eventually that mound begins to appear ABOVE sea level, at which time it is called an island.  (Another hot spot - in the North Atlantic - is responsible for the island of Iceland).  As the Pacific tectonic plate moves the hot spot remains in the same location and continues to bubble mounds at the same spot BUT now where these mounds are at when they reach sea level is NOT at the same place because the tectonic plate itself has moved.  

We spent our first week on "the Big Island."  While on the island, we went up to Kilauea, an active Volcano on the southwest side of the island.  

Below is a picture and a video we took of the Kilauea Crater.  It can be best seen at night since none of the lava in the chamber appears above the caldera rim.  It's like a pot of boiling hot rock. What is seen in our picture and video below is the "glow" of the lava in the caldera in night sky.

Below: A picture of the Kilauea Volcano when it is actually erupting.  This picture is from its 1983 eruption:

We also took an helicopter flight over the Pu'u o'o crater that has been continuously active since January 3, 1983 (34 years and counting).  In that time it has added 45 SQUARE MILES of new land to the island.  Some of the lava flows are over 80 deep.  It was both mind-blowing and awe-inspiring to see.  Below are some pictures of the crater and lave flows:

Above: 2 Pictures of the Caldera of the Pu'u o'o Crater,  The dark gray on top is essentially the same thing as the scum that forms on tomato soup when you make it with milk! LOL  It is lava that, since it is contacting the air above the caldera is cooled enough to begin to harden.  This volcano has been in one long, continuous period of activity since January of 1983.

This is one of the cliffs where the lava from the Pu'u o'o crater falls into the sea.  Just left of the center of the picture you can see a red/orange column of molten lava dropping into the ocean.  A close up of the same picture showing the lava fountain is below.

On its path from the caldera to the sea the lava goes through "lava tubes."  These are literally tunnels through the lava beds caused by the lava cooling on the surface (like in the caldera pictures), but becoming cold enough to become rock.  This allows the lava underneath to stay hot enough to continue to be a liquid on its path to the sea.  The temperature of the lava is from 1300 - 2200 degrees Fahrenheit. (700 - 1200 degrees Celsius for all you wacky metric freaks out there).

These are unburned trees laying on the top of a long-cooled lava flow.  Interestingly, the lava cools fast enough on the surface that, while the trunk of the tree BENEATH the lava burnt, the tree ABOVE the lava flow did not.  So, it just falls over unburned because its roots and trunk are gone - burned in the molten lava that was beneath the surface at one time.  These are still just laying there from an eruption that occurred 10-20 years ago.

You can see the paved road that USED to go along the southern side of the Big Island (from the bottom right hand corner at about a  30 degree angle).   It was covered by 4 FEET of lava in the mid 1980s.  When Irene and I first went to the Island in about 1984 - 1986 or so, this had just happened.  There was still steam rising from parts of the cooling rock.

Above: Two pictures of the miles and miles and miles of cooled lava rock.  The lava on the Hawaiian Islands is essentially basalt.  That's why it is dark gray to almost black.

Below: A representational map of the lava flows from the Pu'u o'o volcano since it began erupting in 1983:

Hey, YOU! Listen to what I'm telling you OR How to make 30 Minutes become 2 1/2 hours without really trying

One of the "Instructionals" that some sojourners do is called the "Listening Lab."  The idea of a Listening Lab is to teach people how to have better listening skills.  In the book of James, chapter 1:19, James writes: "Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak."   There's an adage "I know you think you know what I said, but I'm not sure you heard what I think I'm saying."  In this adage is the idea that communication is oftentimes hindered by the speaker trying to communicate something to the hearer, BUT the hearer not understanding what it is that the person speaking is actually trying to communicate.  This is because I verbalize what I mean in ways effected by MY culture and MY upbringing using MY vocabulary using MY understanding of the meanings of the words I am using.  You, however, hear me through the interpretive filter of YOUR culture and YOUR upbringing through YOUR vocabulary using YOUR understanding of the meanings of the words I'm saying as YOU understand them.

A good illustration of this is in George Bernard Shaw's statement that the British and Americans are: "Two peoples separated by a common language."

Let's look at a car from the British and American point of view:

BRITAIN          AMERICA

bonnet               hood
boot                   trunk
silencer             muffler
windscreen       windshield
accumulator     battery
cubby box        glove compartment

You get the point.  If you are speaking to someone from Britain about your car, they might not understand some of what you think should be perfectly clear to anyone that speaks "English."

Anyway,  the listening lab is designed to teach people different skills to understand what someone is ACTUALLY saying.  Words, Tone, Body Language - these all go into truly understanding what someone is saying when they speak.  There are 10 different ways that your spouse, or parent, might say your name and they all mean something different just from the TONE of their voice.

Irene and I were trained LAST YEAR (2016) at the Camp Bee Workshop in Marshall, TX how to teach the Listening Lab.  In August of this year we helped to teach our first Listening Lab with Rick and Gail Northen at the Grayville church of Christ in Grayville, Illinois.

AUGUST 21st, 2017

Three days before the Listening Lab began was the Solar Eclipse.  The  "Totality Track" was only about 25 miles south of Grayville.  So, Irene and I decided to go down to watch the sun be totally eclipsed.  Two things were absolutely amazing.

1. Yes, it kept getting less and less light as the total eclipse approached.  "Well, DUH, Jim!"  But that isn't the amazing part.  It was still absolutely daytime and without special glasses or heavy welding glass or a "viewing box" you could NOT tell the the moon was eclipsing the sun.  It was more like the battery in a flashlight dying.  The light was getting less intense but there was still light.  I can see why thousands of years ago eclipses scared people.  The sun was still there, but WHY is it getting less and less radiant.

Here is the sun when about 95% eclipsed.  It was still plenty bright outside.  I'm having to take the picture through my "Eclipse Glasses" or I would destroy the CCD in the camera and turn the camera into an expensive paperweight.

This is the sidewalk under some trees.  The sunlight shining through the leaves shows up as Crescent because you see the moon blocking out the rest of the sun.  Here the sun is about 98% eclipsed,  Notice on the left where the sun is NOT going through leaves how bright it still is.  It is still very bright outside.

2.  Suddenly, and I mean B-O-O-M suddenly as the moon totally eclipsed the sun it was literally dark enough that you could see the bright stars in the sky.  Someone had turned out the sun.  Where we were the total eclipse lasted about 2 minutes.

In the picture above you see the moon covering the sun.  The "halo" is the corona of the sun's light shining AROUND the moon.  I took this picture through the eclipse glasses that we had purchased to watch the eclipse.

So, I got to check an item off of my "bucket list."  The one that I still haven't seen is a tornado.  I want to see a tornado out in a farmers field some day where it comes down for 5 seconds so I can see it and then goes up into the clouds again so no one gets hurt and nothing gets destroyed.

As I mentioned the eclipse totality zone was 25 miles south of Grayville, IL.  It took all of 30 minutes to get there but it took 2 1/2 hours for us to cover the same 25 miles coming back to the Trekker AFTER the eclipse due to the volume of traffic.

As I write this Irene and I are in Hawaii on the island of Oahu.  We just landed about 5 1/2 hours ago.  It's bedtime here.

There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother - Proverbs 18:24b

(editorial note: Check "Our Sojourns" tab on JITrekking.com for our 2018 Sojourning Schedule)

Irene and I with the Pruitt Family - 

(l to r)  Amy, Jim, Irene, Vicky, Richard, Becky

From September 1975 until July 1977 I attended White's Ferry Road School of Preaching (WFRSoP).  At the time WFRSoP was an elite school in the brotherhood and schools of preaching across the brotherhood were pumping out preachers at an amazing clip.  The brotherhood was coming to the close of its most evangelistic period in its history.

The class I was in at school was the largest class that would ever attend WFRSoP.  There were 35 in our class and that didn't include the 3 or 4 in the School of Personal Evangelism that attended many of our classes with us.

We were a motley crew:  2 or 3 were in their 40s; a couple had already served 20 years in the military.  We had at least one that had already served a nickel in a state penitentiary for drug issues.  We had several who had decided at a mid-point in their lives to go into the ministry.  

I had just been discharged from the military as a conscientious objector having become a Christian in Minot, North Dakota while in the Air Force and believing (and still do) that Jesus meant what he said in Luke 6:27-36:

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

So, I believe that belonging to an organization (the military) whose sole purpose is to kill people and break things is inconsistent with faith in God who "loves all men and desires for them to come to repentance."

But that's another theological discussion for a different blog posting I suppose because what THIS post is about is Richard (and Vicky) Pruitt.

Richard was in my class and came to school having left his job with 3 small children in tow - Amy was 6 or 7, Becky was 4 or 5 and "little Ricky" was not quite 3.  They lived in Alabama near (or in) Birmingham before he started school.  He was a "good, old southern boy."  

Richard struggled with WFRSoP academically speaking.  You know how Forest Gump's momma used to say "Life is like a box of Chocolates, you just never know what you're gonna get!"  Well, I'm pretty sure Richard's momma used to tell him "Richard, you're about a dumb as a box of chocolates!" lol But they always said in school "If you're putting forth 100% effort, you will NOT fail a class."  Richard, studied, read and wrote those papers for every class.  He struggled with memory work.  I never saw his "report cards" but I'm pretty sure they were "Mercy Bs" and "Grace Cs" down the line.

Richard always had a funny saying; a quick witted line to make a point or explain his struggle.  He was self-effacing in the most hilarious way. He was a joy to be around and the best of classmates and friends.

I was quite on the opposite end of the spectrum when it came to the academics of school.  While others spent hours and hours pouring over and writing and rewriting their research papers - I read some books while writing down cogent points and wrote mine while watching Monday Night Football.  I got ONE C+ while I was in school.  Every other class was an A with a rare B showing up on my "report card." 

But, two "life changing events" happened to me while I was in the School of Preaching:

1.  7 months after school started my sons, Joshua and Joel were born while I was in the school of preaching.  Vicky was there to helped the boy's mom any time she could be, knowing she was struggling with depression:  Giving her advice;  Watching the boys to give her some down time.  

2. During the 2nd year I was diagnosed with having a Malignant Melanoma on my upper left chest necessitating an excisional surgery, skin grafting from my leg and removal of all the lymph glands under my left arm.

Following my surgery, Richard was the first school mate at my bedside when they rolled me into my room from the recovery room.  "Is there anything I can do for you, Jim," he asked.  "I'm kinda hungry.  How about a mushroom pizza from Round Table Pizza, brother."  Off he went and within 1/2 hour I had that "nectar from God" - a mushroom pizza sliding into my empty belly.  It was marvelous. (My Surgeon was traumatized when he found out I'd eaten ANYTHING much less a whole small pizza so soon after surgery. "Are you hungry Mr. Gordon?" "No, I just ate a pizza about an hour ago." "YOU DID WHAT????)

When he graduated from school, Richard and a team of about 3 or 4 other classmates moved to Argentina to preach the gospel.  He did an amazing work.  The team started one or more new churches.  He was there for 7 or 8 years.

Flash forward 10 years after school.  It's 1987 and Irene, the kids and I are traveling through Huntsville, AL and find out that Richard, Vicky and the kids are living there.  We stopped and Richard, Vicky, Becky and Ricky (Amy was already at Harding College) met Irene and this new passel of kids we had.  They made us all feel so special.  Vicky made us spaghetti for lunch.  Becky taught the kids a card game called "nerts."  Richard told me they were just about to move to Smithville, TX.  The congregation there had hired him to be their minister.

Why the nostalgic look back through time.  Flash forward another 30 years to this week. We found out earlier this year that Richard, Vicky and the Girls all live in Longview, TX.  That's only 20 miles from Camp Bee where we sojourners have our Yearly Workshop where we select the Sojourns we want to be part of the NEXT year. So, we made contact and met them this past Tuesday night for the evening.

Other than being older, "fluffier," saggier and more forgetful - the years just melted away.  What a lovely evening.  We went to Papacita's for dinner.  We saw a grown up Amy (whom I hadn't seen since she was 8 or 9).  She's now a social worker at a hospice.  Becky is now married and we met her husband Chris and her son Caleb.  Both Becky and Chris are teachers.  She's a ..... Spanish teacher (thanks Argentina) and Chris is a middle school PE teacher (I think).  Caleb is 13 or 14.  Richard and Vicky live in a "mother-in-law" wing of Chris and Becky's house.  Richard is one of the elders at the Alpine Church of Christ in Longview, Texas.

Thank God for His wonderful grace of putting people in your life that can be your example of becoming like Christ.  Richard is one of mine:  Loving Husband, Faithful servant of God who has squeezed every bit of talent and ability God gave him out upon the altar of God to say "Thank you Father for saving me in your Son, Jesus the Christ."

(editorial note: Check "Our Sojourns" tab on JITrekking.com for our 2018 Sojourning Schedule)

We got in the ring with the wrong boxer BUT we had creations best "cut man" in our corner!

It's been a tough month for the Trekker and her crew.  On June 27th we were driving through Tennessee (lots of hills) on our way to our next Sojourn.  We were holding a Vacation Bible School (VBS) for the church in Spencer, WV.  As we were driving along when we heard a clang, the kind of sound when dishes are dropped.  When we arrived at the lot we own in Derossett, TN we didn't see anything, so we chalked it up to the dishes we store in the dishwasher shifting going over the hills. So, we started to put out our slides.  Putting out the front driver's slide about 6" from totally extended we heard a crunch. STOP!!!!! Went back to look and... What is THAT? It looks like a tile! Sure enough it was.

Actually it was 2 tiles off the outside bathroom wall that had fallen right down into the 3" area between the wall and the end of the kitchen) and along the edge of the slide out. 

The Offending Tiles.  You can pretty clearly see the part that got caught in 

the slide itself.  It is in tiny pieces

In falling, the tile went right down the side of the kitchen cabinet pushing the rubber "shielding" aside and then got caught when the wall was sliding out, SOMEHOW this caused our wall to be unable to retract more than about 4 inches.  (Night mare time! 😱)

This is where the tile had fallen into.  It pushed the dark brown rubberized plastic protective

piece to the side as it went right down the kitchen cabinet on the right.  This is about a 2" gap.

So, I worked with Corey Davis from the Tiffin Motorhomes Service Department for two days to try to get the slide back in.  It just was NOT going to happen.  On June 30th we drove 260 miles with the slide OUT 😱😱😱😱 to Red Bay, Alabama.  We had to put a heavy duty nylon strap around the rig and have a pilot car driver ahead of the rig; a wide load sign on the back of the RV and Irene as a trail car behind the rig with her 4-way hazard lights blinking all the way there.

Driving to Red Bay, AL from DeRossett, TN.  That's 260 miles with this slide stuck OUT.

If you look closely at the slide you can see the yellow nylon strap we put all the way around the 

RV to try to assure the slide would not go OUT any further.  The only thing worse than having a slide stuck out is to have a slide FALL out on the road as you are driving to get it fixed.

Unfortunately, the Tiffin Service department worked with a skeleton crew the week of July 4th and the slideout repair bay was one of the bays that was off for the week.  So, we had to end up cancelling the Spencer, WV sojourn.  Also, unfortunately, there was an RV with some MAJOR slide issues that was ahead of us in getting into the slide repair bay.  So, all we could do was wait.  You just can't continue to drive with your slide out.  They started working on the other RV on the 10th of July.  (It ended up taking 8 days to get everything on it fixed).  

Since it was taking so long, I decided to send Irene up to Lafayette, Indiana (Were she used to practice medicine).  There just wasn't any point in having both of us sitting there twiddling our thumbs.  Besides, she was having some pain in her chest that concerned her.  Since just one year ago she had a clean angiogram, she figured it must be her gastric reflux acting up.  She knew since it was her old group she'd probably  be able to get into see a gastroenterologist quickly.  Besides, one of our granddaughters was up there, so it would give Irene some time with her.  She had a consult on Monday, July 17th and had an upper end endoscopy on Tuesday.  The doctor assured her the pain wasn't gastric related.  Therefore, he had his staff take her to the hospital ER to get a heart work up.   In the ER she had an abnormal EKG, heart enzymes in her blood, and a blood test that showed possible clotting issues.  So, they admitted her for observation.   The next day she had a nuclear medicine chemical/treadmill stress test and an echo cardiogram (an ultrasound of the hetart). These indicated that she had insufficient blood flow to the entire front part of her heart.  Therefore, a cardiologist took control over her case.  He scheduled a heart angiogram (aka cardiac cath) for Thursday morning.  He told her he wanted me there if at all possible.

In the mean time, back in Red Bay, on Tuesday afternoon they got OUR RV into the slideout repair bay.  Two hours of diagnostics gave them a direction to attack the problem on Wednesday, July 19th.

On the 19th, they got the Trekker in and had it repaired in 3 hours.  The problem was the screws they used to attach the "J Section" of our sofa to the floor.  They were too long and had gone all the way through the plywood and had made grooves in the tile floor.  When the slide was brought in the torque on the screws as the slide started to come in crooked, twisted them, bent them and broke them off.  So, now they where getting the whole slide bound up as it tried to come in.  They took out the old screws and put in shorter ones of the same dimension.  BOOM, ready to go! 😎

I called Irene and she told me that she told they were going to be doing an angiogram to find the blockage, it's severity and if necessary to stent it.  That would be done Thursday morning.  NO PROBLEM! I can leave Red Bay now (11:10 AM) and be in Lafayette, Indiana by 10 or so tonight.  Piece of Cake! 😎😎😎

Into the Trekker I bound and toward Lafatyette I head.  78 miles down the road, suddenly the engine of the RV begins to de-rate (as in it goes from 70 mph to 25 mph in 300 yards.  I get off to the side of US Hwy 72 Alt/AL 20 just before I am about to get on I-65 North toward Nashville.  I turned the engine off and tried to restart the RV.  On the Odometer information panel it just cycled through ECM COMM ERROR; TCM COMM ERROR; ABS COMM ERROR again and again. (ECM = Electronics Control Module; TCM = Transmission Control Module; ABS = Anti-Lock Braking System Control Module).  In other words, I am 79 miles into a 554 mile trip to be with my wife while she is having heart procedure and suddenly our just repaired RV has become an undrivable wind break.  I call Tiffin Service and work with Ricky Brown to try to get the Trekker up and moving again.  NO LUCK! 😭😭😭😭

To make matters worse, when I call Coach-Net and AAA (our roadside assistance coverages) they can't find any Tow Truck in the Huntsville area that has a tow truck with the proper kind of lift on it to haul our Independant Front Suspension RV back to Red Bay until the next morning at 9 AM. 😠😠😠

Our Trekker is built on a proprietary chassis built by Tiffin itself.  The PowerGlide chassis.  It's a great chassis, until it breaks down.  Then, since it IS proprietary, you can't have just ANYONE work on to.  They have to be trained on it.  So, I email Gary Harris, the head of the Tiffin Motorhomes chassis division, to explain to him the problem.  I'm still stuck on the road and WILL BE all night.  I will NOT be able to get to Lafayette to be with Irene during her procedure and this thing is B-R-O-K-E-N.  GARY HILP ME PLEASE!! 🙏🙏🙏

I get a call from Gary at 6:51 AM the next morning.  He is going to send Jason, the best electronics guy in the chassis department to diagnose what is wrong.  It takes Jason about 1/2 hour.  One of the 2 signal multiplexers in the passenger side rear (the engine control multiplexer) had a total failure.  He switches the plug from the bad one to the other multiplexer (the rear end cap control multiplexer). (Internally all 4 multiplexers on the RV are identical) and BOOM, the rig starts right up!! HOO-RAY!!!!  But now it is back to Red Bay to get a new multiplexer installed.  That's an 1 1/2 trip.  
Within 20 minutes Jason had the new multiplexer installed and Gary Harris said the Chassis Division would "eat" the cost of it.  He said that the multiplexers are extremely reliable.  They only average 2-3 failures of the components per year.  So, I'm back on the road to Lafayette, Indiana again. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉  

I arrived in Lafayette at 11:30 PM.  Irene had already had her procedure, which involved putting a stent in the proximal end of her Left Anterior Descending (LAD) artery.  It had a 90% blockage.  This artery brings blood to over 1/2 of your heart and most importantly, the Left Ventricle (which sends it out to the rest of your body), a 100% blockage of the proximal end (near end) of this artery causes the most profound type of heart attack.  It is commonly known as the "widow maker."   So, the Lord saved Irene's life by having her go to Lafayette to chase down the cause for her chest pains.  At 90% blocked, I would think there is virtually NO WAY that the angiogram she had 1 year ago was actually a "clean" angiogram.😕😮😞

We left for our Middletown, NY sojourn on Friday Morning.  We were already 1 week late for it.  We had to drive to Spencer, WV on the way to Middletown, NY because we had packages and our mail sent there thinking we would be there for the VBS in early July. OOPS! 😮

We arrived in Middletown Saturday afternoon at about 3 PM.  It felt great to see our sojourner friends again.  Two of our closest friends in Sojourners, Brenda and David Blair were here also.  Her brother, Rick and his family attend the church here.  That's how Sojourners got involved in helping them renovate the building they purchased.  It's been 4 years of renovation and it is finally been given a Certificate of Occupancy by the county inspectors.  We were privileged to attend the dedication ceremony yesterday afternoon and I was honored to both teach class and preach yesterday morning.

Another Seward's Folly? OR "I oughter see a Sea Otter!"

We arrived in Seward, Alaska late on Monday Afternoon.  Tuesday (June 13th) we went on a boat tour of Resurrection Bay (the bay in which Seward is located.  This bay is a “fjord.”  “Fjord” is  a Norwegian word for a deep water narrow bay with cliffs or mountains on each side.  They are the result of glaciers that cut the rock away as they advanced during the last ice age.  As the earth warmed 10,000 years ago (it wasn’t caused by man THAT time either! 😜) the sharp walled, narrow gorge left behind came to be called a “fjord” by the Norwegians.  They made for excellent harbors because they were very defensible.  There was only the one entrance (up the gorge) and the side walls made attacking from on high very difficult.  The Resurrection Bay fjord is 950 feet deep in its central channel; about 3 miles wide and 11 miles long (that’s a LOT of melted ice cubes).

A “funny” thing happened when we went on our cruise Tuesday:  We took our Canon EOS 500D camera complete with charged battery – uhhhh, somehow I forgot to put the SD card back into the camera 😱😱 (Sometimes I put the MO in MO-ron)!  So our marvelous camera complete with a 200-500mm hyper-zoom lens became a “uniocular”.  That’s a bi-nocular but for only one eye.  Other than that it was functional only to hold our table down. OOPS!! 😢😭. So, we got what pictures and videos we could with our iPhone 6s.  Unfortunately, there isn’t anything that drains the battery on an iPhone faster than recording videos.

The tour was terrific.  We saw humpback whales, seals, puffins, cormorants and orcas (“killer whales” – though they aren’t whales at all, they are the largest member of the dolphin family) + thousands of “rats with wings” – AKA seagulls.  We also saw Bear Glacier, the largest glacier in the Harding Icefield.   We got what pictures we could given our photographically crippled state.

Ergo, we decided that we would go out AGAIN Thursday, June 15th.  This time we would be “camera-ready.”👍🏻👍🏻. Besides the Canon, I took my iPodPro for videos.  It has a terrific lens on it – 6,000 gazillion megapixels or something like that.   Today we’ve seen a humpback female and calf feeding; seals, orca, puffins and cormorants, kittiwakes and 4 different glaciers – Bear, Holgate, Peterson and Aialik. HUBBA-HUBBA

So, before we get to our picture presentation, I have a couple of “meteorologically incorrect” questions for everyone that is reading this post:  

• About 25,000 years ago much of the northern hemisphere was encased in ice: Alaska; virtually ALL of Canada (in the USA the southernmost remnants of the Canadian icefield are the Great Lakes that, as they melted, became the lakes we know today); All of Scandinavia and even Scotland were all ice covered.  Now then, the question: What caused those glaciers to melt?  It certainly wasn’t the “advancing technology of man” or “man’s use of ‘fossil fuels’” creating “greenhouse gases” to rise the temperature of the earth.   According to scientists (those unassailable paragons of deductive logic) 25,000 – 10,000 years ago mankind was at best loose bands of hunter/gatherers.  Wouldn’t the meteorological phenomena that caused the retreat of this glacial age be, by definition, “global WARMING?”  NO, this was not due to man. What caused it was the forces of the universe: The cycle of increasing and decreasing temperature of the sun itself; Solar Radiation; the earth’s magnetic field collapsing in upon itself and at times reversing; the wobble of the earth on its axis; the natural variance in the earth’s orbital rotation around the sun (Causing increasing perigees and apogees). EXACTLY NONE of these natural phenomena are within the control of man and all even an exceedingly higher effect on the temperature of the earth than man's level of pollutants.  For instance, in the 1783 the Laki fissure system eruption on Iceland spewed forth forth an absolutely MASSIVE amount of ash (14 cubic kilometers or 3.3 cubic miles) into the upper stratosphere.  This led to a winter which averaged 1 degree (Celsius) lower around the northern hemisphere.

• A second confounding posit:  Scientists (yes, once again those unassailable paragons of reason) tell us that at the end of the last ice age, the Sahara Desert was about like it is now:  Except for the area along the Nile river it was desert and largely uninhabitable.  But as it says at the "LiveScience.com" Website:

A timeline of Sahara occupation:

• 22,000 to 10,500 years ago: The Sahara was devoid of any human occupation outside the Nile Valley and extended 250 miles further south than it does today.

• 10,500 to 9,000 years ago: Monsoon rains begin sweeping into the Sahara, transforming the region into a habitable area swiftly settled by Nile Valley dwellers. 

• 9,000 to 7,300 years ago: Continued rains, vegetation growth, and animal migrations lead to well established human settlements, including the introduction of domesticated livestock such as sheep and goats.

• 7,300 to 5,500 years ago: Retreating monsoonal rains initiate desiccation in the Egyptian Sahara, prompting humans to move to remaining habitable niches in Sudanese Sahara. The end of the rains and return of desert conditions throughout the Sahara after 5,500 coincides with population return to the Nile Valley and the beginning of pharaonic society.

Certainly man's "industry" didn't cause this meteorologic shift is the weather patterns.

That's enough "head scratchers" for our "Global Climate Change" readers for now.

Here are some pictures and videos from the "Seward Swing" of our Alaska trip:

Above: Orcas - typically known as "killer whales" are not actually whales at all.  They are the largest species in the Dolphin family.  They are the most "intelligent" of all the cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises).  Learned behaviors are passed down from parent to young.  The "Pods" are ruled by the oldest female.  She directs everything.  Even telling the males when they can breed and which females they may breed.

Above: A Humpback female and her young.  She is "Lunge Feeding"and teaching her young how to do it also.  Notice the birds, they start to dive toward the water as the massive amounts of krill or small fish are pushed to the surface by the force of the whale swimming toward the surface with its mouth agape.  Interestingly, the weight of the water in the x4 expanding"neck pouch"weighs more than the whale itself.  It then forces the water through the baleen attached to its upper jaw.  The baleen acts as a sieve - holding in the solid (edible stuff) and allowing the water to be ejected by pressure of the contracting "neck pouch."  For all of their size, baleen whales throats are only about the size of a large grapefruit, so the cannot eat large objects.

Above: Two Stellar Sea Lions having a "game" of "king of the hill."  They would appear to be young sea lions.  Not as big as the ones in the movie below.

Above:  This picture above kind of looks like a Stellar Sea Lion version of "the wave" you'd see at a baseball or football game.  Stellar Sea Lions are the largest of the "Eared Seals."  That means that they have small ear flaps next to their earhole opening which they can turn to hone in on the direction from which a sound is coming. 

Above: A picture of a harbor seal relaxing on an ice floe that Irene took near the Aialik glacier.  Seals use them for resting; interacting with one another and spotting prey in the water.  "True Seals" like this harbor seal only have an ear opening on the outside of their heads on each side.  All seals are carnivores eating mainly fish.  They only have pegged teeth, so they have to swallow their food whole OR come to the surface and bite into it and throw their heads back and forth and allow the weight of the prey and gravity to provide the torque to tear the chunk off in its mouth.

Above: For 5 days Irene was on a mission, she wanted pictures of a sea otter and she wanted them last month!!  The otter union must have had a strike vote.  For 3 days at Homer we saw ZERO, zilch, nada, negative bupkis Sea Otters  so we get to Seward and Irene is still "on the prowl."  She's gonna land her some sea otter pictures or we are going to take up residence in the State of Alaska until we do.  Her chant for 5 days was "I oughter see a sea otter."  Finally on our 3rd day in Seward one "scab" otter crossed the picket line and gave Irene her heart's desire:  Not just a "picture" of a sea otter, but what essentially amounted to a one-on-one "sit down interview."  He was 2 feet away and displayed the full ensemble of otter behaviors - floating on his back, spinning, holding a clam in his forepaws as he cracked through the shell with his teeth and ate the insides.

Above: Cormorants - these are piscivores (fish-eaters) that dive into the water and use their wings as "fins" to swim under water and catch their prey.  Interestingly enough, unlike most other piscivore fish they do NOT secrete an oil that keeps their wings from getting wet.  Consequently, between "fishing sessions" they have to get out of the water and let their wings dry out.  That is what the cormorant on the left of this picture is doing.  Lifting their wings off their body and crooking them allows for a maximum of airflow over them which dries them out.

Above:  One of the more hilarious sights to behold is a Puffin trying to take to flight.  Their bodies are made for diving,  to catch fish to eat.  They have to beat those little wings (which make for GREAT fins under water) 300 x per MINUTE to lift themselves out of the water and take flight.  Sometimes they are so tired they just give up and rest more before trying again.

Above: 3 pictures of puffins.  You can see pretty clearly that the top picture is a "tufted" puffin.  That means it has feathers forming a kind of "duck's tail" at the back of its head.  It has a kind of "Fonzi" thing going on, so to say.  In the bottom picture you can see that fat belly which makes flight harder than possible sometimes when its filled with food.

Well, this post is WAYYYYY long enough already.  So, I'll have to save the glacier stuff and geology stuff for the next post.

o/` o/` "Big Jim Left Seattle in the year of '17, with Irene beside him because she is his queen" o/` o/`

Only a few of you old fuddy-duddies might almost recognize that title as a really twisted, highly stylized homage to Johnny Horton's "North to Alaska" released in 1960 shortly after Alaska became a state.  It was the theme song for a movie by the same name which starred John Wayne, Stuart Granger, Ernie Kovacs and Fabian (a bubble-gum singer from the late '50s).

Anyway,  we are in Alaska again this year.  We wanted to come up again to see my sister Franny who became a Christian last year after Irene studied with her while we were at Homer, Alaska.  Fran lives in Sterling Soldotna since she was baptized.  She's lived in Alaska for almost 30 years now.  9 or so in Skagway when she first moved up here, then 10-12 or so in Kodiak and now she lives on the Kenai peninsula.  Well, in all that time she had never been to Denali National Park.  So we took her there when we came up this year.

Here are some pictures:

The 2 pictures above are of my sister Fran and I.  We took the opportunity of being in a unique location and surrounded by God's beauty to "spread" some of our mom's ashes.  This is the bridge over the Seattle Creek on the Old Denali Hwy.

The 3 pictures above are of Ptarmigan.  This is the state bird.  

The top one is a female and the bottom 2 are males.  

They are "Alaskan 'chicken'" essentially.

Above - Ridge beyond ridge of beautiful mountains are commonplace in and around Denali.

Above - an small alpine lake surrounded by Cypress trees. 

Above - the Frozen Tundra.  Above the tree line wide expanses of flat 

terrain which in the spring explodes with beauty.

The above picture shows a "forest" in permafrost.  With the ground frozen beneath them, the trees just can't get enough nutrition to grow large.

Above - part of Polychrome Mountain about 25 miles into Denali from the main entrance.  

It is given much of its color by Rhyolite a volcanic rock.

Above - These 2 pictures are Caribou.  Caribou are the ONLY species in the deer family where both the male and females have antlers, but they drop them a different times of the year.  The females carry there's through the winter and drop them in June or July after they are done breast feeding their young.  The males drop them in November or December.

These are Dall Sheep.

Above - a Young Bull Moose (called "elk" in Europe).  Moose are the largest of the deer family.  Bulls can weigh up to 1500 pounds (about 700 Kg).

Above - A female moose (Europe - "elk").  Females are "cows."  This one had given birth less than 24 hours previously to twins.  She is UPSET that cars keep slowing and stopping to take pictures.  Her back hair (hackles) are straight up and she is ready to charge anything that gives her an excuse at this point.

Above - The less than 24 hour old moose calves.

Above - A picture of one of the moose calves.

Above - a Marmot.  Marmots are essentially large mountain squirrels.  

They live on grass, berries, flowers, moss and lichens.

Above - 2 pictures of a porcupine.  Porcupines are rodents.  Interestingly, porcupines climb trees a lot (I didn't know that).  They can have up to 30,000 quills. Porcupines CANNOT "throw" their quills.   People and dogs (especially) just get too close. They eat wood, bark, flowers and berries.

Above - 3 different grizzly bears we saw.  

Bear safety:

• Never approach a bear.  Leave 300 yards between you and any bear you see.  Make LOTS of noise to warn them you are coming if you are walking in the woods.
• Never leave out food of ANY kind in your campground.  It WILL attract any bear in the area.
• If the bear has NOT seen you yet: Back away FACING the bear. 
• If the bear HAS seen you and is looking at you: NEVER run from a bear (it is faster than you), and their instinct is to chase prey.  They much more likely to chase something showing running away.  Back away FACING the bear.  Make yourself as BIG as possible (wave your hands above your head) while you shout.  
• IF the bear charges you:  Make yourself as BIG as possible (wave your hands above your head) while you shout.  Wait to see if it stops, NEVER run from a bear.  Back away FACING the bear.  Many bears do mock charges.
• If a bear attacks you:
• If it is a black bear (dog like ears, smaller claws, NO hump on its back) - fight like the dickens:  Punch, grab a stick and to poke at the bear to keep it away, etc.
• If it is a grizzly bear (small round ears, distinct hump on its back at the shoulder, large claws) - drop to the ground on your stomach.  Protect your neck with your hands or, if you have a back pack pull it up to protect your neck.  If it starts biting - fight like your life depends on it because it does.

Following being at Denali, we had a sojourn at the Soldotna church of Christ.  It's the church that Fran is part of.  It's right about in the middle of the Kenai peninsula.  That's a peninsula just that's on the south side of the Cook Inlet.  [I'll wait while you get a map or look on your phone or computer]. OK, so now you know where the Kenai Peninsula, Cook Inlet, etc. are.

Irene and I were the only couple in the sojourn, so what we could accomplish was somewhat limited.  Still, over 10 days I installed 445 feet of baseboard trim in 7 classrooms, two large open areas, the kitchen and transitional hallway in the basement of the building.  Irene gave a deep cleaning to 2 ovens in the kitchen and 2 refrigerators in the kitchen.  She also deep cleaned bathrooms and applied a weather sealant to a large wooden swing set in the church's play area.

Following the sojourn we went down to Homer, Alaska to visit with the church at which we led a sojourn last year.  It was great to see our brothers and sisters there again.

Then, that evening after Sunday night services we drove to Seward were we are spending this week seeing the sights and MY, OH MY how many sights there are to see here.  More about that in our next post.