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Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas in Wisconsin... or Attack of the Flu!

Nope, I have not had the flu but almost all eight of the other people in this house have had it! I flew to Wisconsin on Thursday. Some of my family were already sick before I arrived. Since then there have been others sick too, the latest being my grandnephew Jesse around noon on Christmas Day. Poor thing, he only got half of his presents opened when he threw up and then fell asleep before opening the rest.

These days we've remained flexible. The company who were coming over for lunch on Thursday night were told to stay away, and then then came to eat with us on Saturday noon. My brother's family usually has lasagne for their Christmas eve meal but we had vegetable beef soup instead. In fact, we've had soup meals. There are many cookies and candies in the house but they are not being eaten much.

Most of us did go to the movies on Friday afternoon to see "Arthur Christmas". That was cute. Then Saturday late afternoon most of us went to the Christmas Eve church service. Only my brother Larry and I went to the Christmas morning service.

Although the days have been "strange" and not at all what we expected, it's been nice being together. I've not been with my brother for Christmas since we were kids. Here are some photos.

My brother in church Christmas Eve. The church was very nicely decorated.



My sister-in-law and her grand-kids, my grandnephews and grandnieces.



Eleven month Josie and I.



My nephew Joel and his kids.



Before this weekend I had never seen these grands before, except for Asher the oldest but when he was about three months old. He is now 7 1/2 years old.

Today's Positives:
1. I have not yet gotten the flu and I don't want to get it!
2. I've enjoyed being with family and getting to know the grands.
3. We did not have a White Christmas but I do enjoy the WARMer weather.

My plans are to fly back to Omaha tomorrow BUT...... today I'm borrowing my brother's car to drive north about an hour to meet up with and have lunch with an online friend Roxie. It will be fun to meet each other.

Merry Christmas!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Misdirected by a GPS!

Well, I wouldn't really say "misdirected" by the GPS. HOPEFUL, which is the name I gave to the GPS in the van I'm leasing did at least take me in the right direction!

Let me back up. This morning my nurse friend drove me to the airport for a 7am flight, on her way to the hospital for a 7am shift. I flew to St. Louis, MO via Minneapolis. While in Mpls Well, I wouldn't really say "misdirected" by the GPS. HOPEFUL, which is the name I gave to the GPS in the van I'm leasing did at least take me in the right direction!

Let me back up. This morning my nurse friend drove me to the airport for a 7am flight, on her way to the hospital for a 7am shift. I flew to St. Louis, MO via Minneapolis. While in Mpls I got a call from a lady at the ministry that was going to lease the van. She said that there was ice on Hwy 70 and that there had been about 6 accidents already on one stretch. She said that when I got to St. Louis, that I might want to wait til later or tomorrow before leaving for my trek back to Omaha.

Well, I arrived in St. Louis and was picked up by a man, driving the van that I would use. We drove to "Righteous Rides", the ministry that has  fleet of vans that they lease to ministers and missionaries at a "good rate". The car had just joined their fleet of 38 other vehicles and needed a bit of tweaking. After an orientation to the car, I started off driving, listening to GPS HOPEFUL tell me to turn left onto HWY 61. I did as told. I drove, hoping to find Hwy 70, the one I expected to cross Missouri to get to Kansas City and then go north to Omaha.

HOPEFUL never did get me to Hwy 70. Of course, I didn't know where it was. I just kept going north. The van has a compass so as long as I was driving North or West or NW, I felt I was ok. I finally stopped at a filling station and looked at a map to see I was heading directly North and was almost to Hannibal. Mark Twain's territory I'm thinking since there were lots of things with his name attached. Anyway, before getting to Hannibal HOPEFUL directed me to turn left onto Missouri A. That turned out to be the "scenic" route which is might have been if it had been a sunny day. It was however cloudy with snow flurries the whole trip. That road was the most snow covered but no where the whole day did I hit anything that made the car slip. I road West on Missouri A until it had me turn North for a few miles to get to HWY 36. I turned left on 36, headed towards St. Joseph, MO and completely bypassing Kansas City. That's fine with me.

By this time it was 5pm and dark. My prayer was twofold. That I would not have an accident (with the possibility of ice) and that I would find a hotel with internet for the night. About 5:30 HOPEFUL got me to Mason, MO where I spotted ONE known motel, a Super 8. I got the LAST room, a smoking room for four people. Of course I do not smoke and I am one person but the price wasn't really much different, only about $8 more. And it was the ONLY room!

I left my stuff in the room and checked out the internet. If there had not been any, I would have taken my computer to the restaurant when I went out to eat. There WAS internet. Why did I doubt?  I ran off to the Burger King and had a grilled Chicken salad with honey mustard dressing. It tasted oh so good. I am now in the room watching NCIS LA and computing. WooHoo!

Today's Positives:
1. My flights were good and I got some exercise walking through the airports.
2. I picked up my nice van, easy to drive with a nice ride.
3. Although there were snow flurries in the air, I didn't hit any patches of ice on the road.
4. I got the LAST available room at the motel!
5. I chose a chicken salad for supper instead of some highly caloric, not so good for me meal.
6. I was able to buy a snow scraper after supper in case I need it in the morning.
6. I'm here in my warm room, doing INTERNET! I don't yet have it yet in my home in Omaha. That should be installed on Friday.

Thanks for the many who have been following my adventures from the Equator to the snow storms of the Midwest. After finishing my trip to Omaha tomorrow I hope to stay put for awhile. No trips!!

247I got a call from a lady at the ministry that was going to lease the van. She said that there was ice on Hwy 70 and that there had been about 6 accidents already on one stretch. She said that when I got to St. Louis, that I might want to wait til later or tomorrow before leaving for my trek back to Omaha.

Well, I arrived in St. Louis and was picked up by a man, driving the van that I would use. We drove to "Righteous Rides", the ministry that has  fleet of vans that they lease to ministers and missionaries at a "good rate". The car had just joined their fleet of 38 other vehicles and needed a bit of tweaking. After an orientation to the car, I started off driving, listening to GPS HOPEFUL tell me to turn left onto HWY 61. I did as told. I drove, hoping to find Hwy 70, the one I expected to cross Missouri to get to Kansas City and then go north to Omaha.

HOPEFUL never did get me to Hwy 70. Of course, I didn't know where it was. I just kept going north. The van has a compass so as long as I was driving North or West or NW, I felt I was ok. I finally stopped at a filling station and looked at a map to see I was heading directly North and was almost to Hannibal. Mark Twain's territory I'm thinking since there were lots of things with his name attached. Anyway, before getting to Hannibal HOPEFUL directed me to turn left onto Missouri A. That turned out to be the "scenic" route which is might have been if it had been a sunny day. It was however cloudy with snow flurries the whole trip. That road was the most snow covered but no where the whole day did I hit anything that made the car slip. I road West on Missouri A until it had me turn North for a few miles to get to HWY 36. I turned left on 36, headed towards St. Joseph, MO and completely bypassing Kansas City. That's fine with me.

By this time it was 5pm and dark. My prayer was twofold. That I would not have an accident (with the possibility of ice) and that I would find a hotel with internet for the night. About 5:30 HOPEFUL got me to Mason, MO where I spotted ONE known motel, a Super 8. I got the LAST room, a smoking room for four people. Of course I do not smoke and I am one person but the price wasn't really much different, only about $8 more. And it was the ONLY room!

I left my stuff in the room and checked out the internet. If there had not been any, I would have taken my computer to the restaurant when I went out to eat. There WAS internet. Why did I doubt?  I ran off to the Burger King and had a grilled Chicken salad with honey mustard dressing. It tasted oh so good. I am now in the room watching NCIS LA and computing. WooHoo!

Today's Positives:
1. My flights were good and I got some exercise walking through the airports.
2. I picked up my nice van, easy to drive with a nice ride.
3. Although there were snow flurries in the air, I didn't hit any patches of ice on the road.
4. I got the LAST available room at the motel!
5. I chose a chicken salad for supper instead of some highly caloric, not so good for me meal.
6. I was able to buy a snow scraper after supper in case I need it in the morning.
6. I'm here in my warm room, doing INTERNET! I don't yet have it yet in my home in Omaha. That should be installed on Friday.

Thanks for the many who have been following my adventures from the Equator to the snow storms of the Midwest. After finishing my trip to Omaha tomorrow I hope to stay put for awhile. No trips!!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Yesterday's Equator Crossing!

I have closed down my home here in Africa and started my six month trip to the States. Yesterday I left home at nearly 7am, about an hour later than I had wanted. There was just too much to do to get ready to leave. I picked up Odile, the wife of the High School Chaplain, and we started out of town.

Here is some of what I saw on the trip:

The highway from the town to the capital city, Libreville, is a mix of newly paved roads, those roads were the tractors are still working and some bridges not yet done, places where there the road is still dirt or mud when it rains and old paved roads. By far, the worst road of the trip was that which had been paved many years ago but has not be repaired for years. The potholes were absolutely terrible!! Three times I had to pull over to close my eyes because I was quite sleepy. We stopped in a larger city for "fast food", in my case, and omelet sandwich. When we got to the capital city the traffic was bumper to bumper because of road construction in many areas. Our trip took 10 1/2 hours.

What did I see? Lots of trees as I live in the jungle. There were "umbrella" trees, palm trees, mango trees, banana plants (bananas do not grow on trees), huge bamboo plants. There were wild flowers, poinsettia looking bushes and some as big as trees, ferns, Safou trees (the “Butterfruit”). Here is an article on the Butterfruit.

 blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/safou-the-%E2%80%9Cbutterfruit%E2%80%9D/

Most houses in a village are on the main highway as there are usually no other roads in town! In front of the houses people put 55 gallon steel barrels and each one usually has a wooden board on top to expand it into a small table. This is where food goods or other items are placed for sale. As we drove around yesterday we say sweet bananas, plantains (cooking bananas), pineapple, mangoes, wild garlic, a monkey, an antelope, manioc (cassava), tomatoes, cabbages, baskets, short wooden stools, etc.

Yes, I did "see" the equator. I wanted a photo for this blog. As soon as I got out of the car the little man pictured with me came up to me and said in French, "God Bless You". It turns out he goes to a church near the equator that is connected with my church. The sign at the equator shows that there are 10,300 kms (6,400 miles) from there to New York City.



Today's Positives:
1. I did not fall asleep on my 10 1/2 hour trip yesterday. Thanks for those who prayed for me about that. I have had a history of falling asleep at the wheel before.
2. I slept very well last night, 7 hours. For me, that is exceptional.
3. I have today and tomorrow until 11pm to catch up on blogging, emails, personal financial files, etc.

Thanks for visiting my blog!