Feb 21
Wow. After a day of driving in rain we arrived on the beach. Last night we were in Galveston and tonight we are in Corpus Christi. On the beach and loving it. We ate dinner on the water and are loving fried oysters, shrimp, and crawdads. We drove back to our hotel with the windows rolled down to let in the sea air. There was a misty haze that made all the lights fuzzy and mysterious. This is what retirement is all about. Tomorrow we visit the USS Lexington and roam North Padre Island. There is even a whooping crane festival this weekend. We feel really lazy. Not that we haven't been busy this trip. We have made amazing strides on our family history. In Missouri and Oklahoma we made progress and saw a lot of mountain ridges where my Richardson lines lived for a time. In Arkansas we found my Reeder line at a tiny cemetery in Perry County. I found pictures of my great great grandparents on both my Hulse side and my Anderson-Fort lines. We spent a wonderful day with my cousins Frank and Sue Cullum who have seven huge notebooks on my Anderson lines. We finally figured out where the May name came from and added new names and talked a mile a minute. What a treat. Then one of my great uncle's daughter (born in 1932) I have never met called from Washington state and we plan on getting together in the near future in Wyoming. We had a great time with my cousin Janet and my cousin Chuck. Janet made a truly wonderful southern dinner with seven vegetables including fried okra! Heaven. It was fun to remember our childhood time together. There is a unique feeling to walk where our ancestors walked and lived. In the south people don't ask where you are from but who are your people. Who you belong to matters. We are the dream they had of a better life for their heritage. It is why they left settled life and came from across the seas and across the unknown land to build their dreams. When we connect with them, it is magical and humbling. In Texas, Marv found the grave of his great great grandfather Absolom Burton. (grave was under Abb). We also visited areas his grandmother lived. We tramped in tiny graveyards down country lanes and loved it. Now we are tramping the beach and palm trees. There are even bayous and alligators here too. What fun! It just keeps getting better and better. Next week we will be in New Mexico with three of our grandkids. All this and our upcoming mission to Italy. Our mission start date has been changed to July 1 - we will spend two weeks in Provo and be in Italy by July 13. It fairly takes our breath away. We will post pictures of the beach soon. We think of all of you especially as we watch the weather channel for up north. Ciao for now!
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
The Call
Monday February 11, 2013
While at the Rib joint on Friday in St Louis, we checked our email on the phone and found that there was something from the the Senior Missionary Department. The email was one of congratulations and telling us that a certain couple had been assigned to answer any questions we had about our call. Also that we did not need to call them unless we had not received the call in the mail yet. We of course had been checking with our daughter Leigh daily to find out if the call call had arrived at her mail box (she was our designated mail recipient while we are on this Retirement trip). She had not received anything from Salt Lake so we give this couple a call. He is not in the office and on the way home. He tells me to give him a call the next day (Saturday) and he will hop on his computer, log in and check on our call.
Along with this email are a couple of attachments. Both of them have to do with paying bills and handling financial affairs while serving in a foreign country! We were excited before and were trying hard not to get our hopes up, but this certainly hinted that we had been called to a foreign mission.
Saturday morning I give this guy a call and patiently wait while he goes to his computer, logs on, and pulls up our information. He then says "nice assignment". I ask him what the assignment is and he says that he is not allowed to tell me over the phone. He asks where we requested to go And I tell him Italy doing anything. He asks where in Italy and I tell him that it does not matter. I press him again for some indication where we are going and he says that we will not be disappointed. He tells me that our call should have arrived and that if we have not received it in the Monday mail that we can call him and he will send us an email with a scanned copy of the call letter.
Now we have to wait another couple of days. The wait was even more excruciating because we were both in pain due to the food poisoning incident. This was not a good weekend!
Monday, we painfully left St Louis and headed south. Even though we were not feeling good, we needed to make some progress on our trip. By mid day Leigh had called a couple of times each time she went up the road to her mail box to check the mail and told us the mail had not come yet. We pulled off the road after 1 pm (noon Salt Lake time), to make the phone call request to have call emailed to us. Of course they were not in the office (gone to lunch?) so I left a voice mail and also sent an email to them. In another hour we pulled over again and gave them another call. They finally reluctantly agreed to send us the email scan of the call letter. We waited - nothing. So we decided to drive on down the road to our hotel for the night.
About 30 minutes down the road Peg checked the email there was something there! There was no indication in the email. Perhaps it was in the two attachments. As she struggled to read the extremely small print as the attachment came up on her phone, she finally deciphered that the call was to Milano Italy! This is a dream come true. This is the same mission that Peg severed in back in 1972 & 1973 before we ever met! It is too good to be true. Our assignment is as "Office Specialists".
The tears were flowing! Peg began to call family and others to inform them of our call. I was trying to stay on the road and ended up driving past the exit for our hotel. Wow! What a day!
While at the Rib joint on Friday in St Louis, we checked our email on the phone and found that there was something from the the Senior Missionary Department. The email was one of congratulations and telling us that a certain couple had been assigned to answer any questions we had about our call. Also that we did not need to call them unless we had not received the call in the mail yet. We of course had been checking with our daughter Leigh daily to find out if the call call had arrived at her mail box (she was our designated mail recipient while we are on this Retirement trip). She had not received anything from Salt Lake so we give this couple a call. He is not in the office and on the way home. He tells me to give him a call the next day (Saturday) and he will hop on his computer, log in and check on our call.
Along with this email are a couple of attachments. Both of them have to do with paying bills and handling financial affairs while serving in a foreign country! We were excited before and were trying hard not to get our hopes up, but this certainly hinted that we had been called to a foreign mission.
Saturday morning I give this guy a call and patiently wait while he goes to his computer, logs on, and pulls up our information. He then says "nice assignment". I ask him what the assignment is and he says that he is not allowed to tell me over the phone. He asks where we requested to go And I tell him Italy doing anything. He asks where in Italy and I tell him that it does not matter. I press him again for some indication where we are going and he says that we will not be disappointed. He tells me that our call should have arrived and that if we have not received it in the Monday mail that we can call him and he will send us an email with a scanned copy of the call letter.
Now we have to wait another couple of days. The wait was even more excruciating because we were both in pain due to the food poisoning incident. This was not a good weekend!
Monday, we painfully left St Louis and headed south. Even though we were not feeling good, we needed to make some progress on our trip. By mid day Leigh had called a couple of times each time she went up the road to her mail box to check the mail and told us the mail had not come yet. We pulled off the road after 1 pm (noon Salt Lake time), to make the phone call request to have call emailed to us. Of course they were not in the office (gone to lunch?) so I left a voice mail and also sent an email to them. In another hour we pulled over again and gave them another call. They finally reluctantly agreed to send us the email scan of the call letter. We waited - nothing. So we decided to drive on down the road to our hotel for the night.
About 30 minutes down the road Peg checked the email there was something there! There was no indication in the email. Perhaps it was in the two attachments. As she struggled to read the extremely small print as the attachment came up on her phone, she finally deciphered that the call was to Milano Italy! This is a dream come true. This is the same mission that Peg severed in back in 1972 & 1973 before we ever met! It is too good to be true. Our assignment is as "Office Specialists".
The tears were flowing! Peg began to call family and others to inform them of our call. I was trying to stay on the road and ended up driving past the exit for our hotel. Wow! What a day!
Escape
Monday, February 11, 2013
Well we decided to get out of St Louis (if we can). Still not feeling good.
I did drive by the Chokia Mounds. These are ancient Indian Mounds that were built between 950 and 1250 AD. The largest mound is over 23 million cubic feet in size! This is almost 1 million cubic yards! To put this in perspective, at the tailings basin of Northshore Mining, one of the largest projects was building the West Ridge Railroad Grade which was over 1 million cubic yards. About the same size as these mounds. It took us over a year hauling 2 - 3 train loads per day, for a whole year to complete this project. These Indians did the same amount of work with no equipment. They didn't even have wheel barrows. They were only using baskets!! Unbelievable!
Well after this little side trip we drove about 150 miles and stopped in Sikeston. Doesn't sound like much, but feeling a poorly as we did - it was far enough.
Well we decided to get out of St Louis (if we can). Still not feeling good.
I did drive by the Chokia Mounds. These are ancient Indian Mounds that were built between 950 and 1250 AD. The largest mound is over 23 million cubic feet in size! This is almost 1 million cubic yards! To put this in perspective, at the tailings basin of Northshore Mining, one of the largest projects was building the West Ridge Railroad Grade which was over 1 million cubic yards. About the same size as these mounds. It took us over a year hauling 2 - 3 train loads per day, for a whole year to complete this project. These Indians did the same amount of work with no equipment. They didn't even have wheel barrows. They were only using baskets!! Unbelievable!
Well after this little side trip we drove about 150 miles and stopped in Sikeston. Doesn't sound like much, but feeling a poorly as we did - it was far enough.
Friday in St Louis!
Friday, February 8th.
We went to the Temple - great session and then to the Missouri Horticultural Society. While there we saw the Orchid Exposition. Very nice Flowers.
I went for a walk around thier outside gardens. They were enormous. Acres and acres of all different types of gardens. Below is a pic of some funky wind sculptures that were 20 feet high.
We went to the Temple - great session and then to the Missouri Horticultural Society. While there we saw the Orchid Exposition. Very nice Flowers.
I went for a walk around thier outside gardens. They were enormous. Acres and acres of all different types of gardens. Below is a pic of some funky wind sculptures that were 20 feet high.
This was to be our last night in St Louis so I choose a highly rated Barbecue restaurant. We drove there but found out it was only open for lunch. I recalled another spot that was on the road back to the hotel so we chose plan B. Not a good choice. We got food poisoning. Both Peg and I were terribly sick. Coming out of both ends. We had to extend our stay at that hotel 3 times. There was just no way we could travel. No I do not know if I can ever eat another Barbeque rib again. I am sure time will heal this wound. But I cant face it yet.
Thursday, February 7, 2013
St Louis
Today (February 7th, 2013) we visited the St Louis Arch. WOW! very impressive. We rode in a small elevator car that took 4 minutes to go to the top. Really spooky. I had the willies the whole time I was on the top. Wonderful views!
We also visited the History Museum, Art Museum, and Science Museum today.
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| Smiling - but still feeling the willies |
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| Busch Stadium |
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Church History
We have seen a number of Church History sites here in NW Missouri. We visited Adam-ondi-Ahman, Far West, Haun's Mill, Liberty Jail, Independence, and Richmond. It was very interesting.
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| Haun's Mill Site |
Far West Temple Lot
Monday, February 4, 2013
Retired!
January 31, 2013. Last day of work. WOW! The day actually arrived.
At the retirement party - They had peel and stick mustaches for everyone. Everyone had a mustache but me. (A play off of when I shaved my mustache after 29 years last November). The party was great. Lots of folks showed up. Lots of great stories. Many of the things they remembered about me, I had forgot. It was wonderful to take a look back and see how our lives had touched each other.
Mike Swanson, our 3D modeling guru had been dabbling with a 3D printer. This is an exact replica of the a Rod mill from the Northshore concentrator. It has all of the liners, bolt holes and drive gear. A very nice memento of my time at Northshore Mining.
The Happy Retired Couple
Reminiscing with Chris Viola and Mike Osmundson
My retirement cake is a picture of a lazy boy recliner on wheels
Mike Mlinar, Theresa, Kris Small and Dan Scamehorn - all with mustaches.
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