TEXAS

When we entered Texas from New Mexico, we quickly understood that we were entering “the great state of Texas”.  Wide, concrete, good highways where the speed limit is 80mph.  A road sign said: El Paso 6 miles; Beaumont 854 miles. (West to East.) After miles and miles of oilfields we arrived in Dallas on October 15 where we spent of couple of days with our good friends John and Lynn Beimers. It was wonderful to spend some time with them.

The 6^th floor museum was awesome.  Like all people over 58, we remember the day of the JFK assassination very well.  It was amazing to be in the very spot where Lee Harvey Oswald (according to the Warren Commission – all conspiracy theories aside) took his three shots that felled JFK.  What was the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository has been converted into a museum where all the angles of the Kennedy assassination are thoroughly covered.   The audio guide, visual displays and videos which also included coverage of the three years of the JFK presidency and his legacy were very engaging.

J&L standing on the grassy knoll. Many people who were there said that the gun shots came from behind the grassy knoll. It is forever referred to as the grassy knoll because a reporter called it that after the shooting.

Peter pointing to the sixth floor window on the 
far right from which the shot was taken.

                                                                                   View that Oswald had from the 6th 

                                                                                   floor window. (Trees have grown!)

The set for Raisin in the Sun. 

The night we arrived, we went to the Dallas Theatre Center to see Raisin in the Sun the 1959 play by Lorraine Hansberry – the first African American woman to write a play produced on Broadway.  It’s about a 1950’s black family who, in their quest to follow the American Dream in Chicago’s south side, wants to move to a white neighbourhood, but is prevented from doing so by the “neighbourhood association” of the white community. Very well done.  In the 60’s the movie version came out (starring Sidney Poitier) which I remember seeing in high school.  Hansberry’s own family made this move in the 50’s and contested  “restrictive covenants” (preventing blacks from moving into white neighbourhoods) all the way to the US Supreme Court making them illegal. Two nights later we were back to see Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park which deals with that same neighbourhood 50 years later and wonders how much things have really changed in race relations.  Thought provoking, but not as well done as Raisin – we both thought.                                                      
   

Harlem

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore-

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over-

Like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

                                        By Langston Hughes

                                                                 
                                                                                                                                        

The front facade of the Alamo

On to San Antonio.  The main attraction here is the Alamo.  Tremendous place.  Learned a lot about Texan, Mexican and US history here and the story of the siege and capture of the Alamo.   But just as interesting for us, was the demonstration by the local gun lobby right in front of the Alamo that just happened to be going on that morning.   Already when we parked the RV, an Iraqi war vet was telling us that we just had to see this demonstration, that our second amendment rights have been slipping away, and that it was time to take a stand.  He then went on to explain that Obamacare was a disaster, etc.  I tried to point out that socialized medical care is working well in Western Europe and Canada, and hoped that the US would eventually be able to make that transition. I don't know the details of why it's "not working", but do know that a well-run government health care saves the taxpayer a lot of money and provides health care for all.  He was not convinced and for him it was an intense conversation. 

When we got to the Alamo, there must have been a couple hundred people, many carrying guns to express their right to bear arms. During a rant by Alex Jones, a popular radio talk show host, we were interviewed by a couple of journalists from The Texas Observer.  They included  a few of our comments in their write-up – which you can read at http://www.texasobserver.org/alamo-protesters-get-arms/ .   San Antonio police were on hand as well just in case things got out of hand.  

Gun toting American citizens taking the Pledge of Allegiance

The number one attraction in San Antonio - The River Walk. The  River Walk is two parallel sidewalks
 along the San Antonio River lined with many restaurants and shops.

On one of the bridges that allow you to get to the 'other side'.

                

We are in Houston for a few days before we head down to the Gulf Coast towards New Orleans.  We have been accepted by World Renew’s Disaster Relief Service to volunteer for two weeks in early November in La Place, Louisiana – very close to New Orleans, which is still recovering from Hurricane Isaac in 2012. You can google that. Hope you are all well. We'd love to hear from you.

Had a fabulous Texan steak dinner with nephew Bruce Stol in Houston.

Picture Journal #2

We camped overnight in Ranger.
It's sad what can happen to a small town.

                                                              These shops were all deserted.

A nice home in the area.

Looking for a bed and breakfast in Ranger?
This is the one!

We lost our sunshine! It rained for 3 days and temperatures dropped. No wonder the scenery got greener and greener as we headed towards Dallas.                          

A flower box downtown Dallas.
Guess what kind of flower?
See below.

Picture Journal from Phoenix to Dallas

The changing scenery from Phoenix to Dallas

Tigua Indian Reservation and Pueblo - A very poor area right across the street from El Paso, Texas.
Mexico is on the other side of the mountains.

Does "Take time to smell the roses" mean anything here?

Compare this to the Rocky Mountains in BC - These are truly rocky mountains!

TEXAS OIL!

Trucks and more trucks!!!!!!




 Dallas Skyline

                         

Buckeye, AZ. A small town along the way. Not a very busy place! Notice the contrast in the shop picture below.


        

        We were held up by a local parade.

Pueblo Grande - old wall structure still intact.

What it might have looked like then.

A rebuilt home based on archaeological evidence.
Our RV is luxury accommodation compared to this.
See inside below.  

                    

A surprise border patrol check on the middle of the hwy.
 We had to dig out our passports from their hiding place.

And Furthermore

One more thought that occurred to us yesterday that we should share: Sunday worship.  We have attended two Lutheran churches, one CRC, and one resort chapel on Sunday mornings.  It was good to experience Christian fellowship in these churches and to find each other in our common faith. Yesterday morning we decided to stay on site to listen to our own pastor Mark Glanville's final sermon at Willoughby CRC which he delivered on Sept. 30: "Telling the Biblical Story, Part IV", about the role and function of the church today.  It was vintage Mark and made us realize how blessed we have been at Willoughby. It can be found at willoughbychurch.com under "latest sermons" and yes, that is a hint.  We pray that God will richly bless Mark and his family at their new church in Vancouver.

Sept. 20 - Oct. 5

We spent about 10 days in Escondido – It was good to slow down, connect with loved ones via the wonder of technology, and catch up on family/household tasks that, in spite of travel do go on.  From there, we used our gracious hosts George and Rosalie’s Pontiac Aztek to get to such places as Escondido, San Diego, Carlsbad, and LA. 

We toured San Diego’s Old Town, the - you guessed it – area of San Diego where it all began, which included La Casa de Estudillo, a large adobe-block townhouse built by Lieutenant Jose Antonio Estudillo in 1829. There were many other interesting old buildings but a lot of it has been commercialized.

One room school house

At The Maritime Museum of San Diego we toured four ships: Star of India – the world’s oldest active merchant ship which first sailed November 14, 1863, two other ships, and B39, a Soviet submarine that was used by the Soviets during the Cold War.  I must admit I (Peter) got a tad claustrophobic after a while and can’t imagine how anyone could spend up to three months in such a small space and under water to top it off.

Her first voyages were to bring cotton from India to England during the American Civil War

Later the she transported English emigrants to New Zealand

HMS Surprise
A replica of a 1700's British frigate

Doesn't this sound appetizing?

  

This B-39 had a crew of 78 men. She stalked many vessels during the
 Cold War, sometimes at depths of 985 feet.

Very cramped quarters in the submarine.
PS That is not Mabel in the background.

Also very impressive was the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, a military cemetery – “row on row” of thousands of graves marked by white tombstones.  

This is only one small section of the cemetery

It never was our intent to be huge sightseers in LA, but in the two days we were actually in the LA region we managed to see and do a fair bit including the Nixon Library and Museum in Yorba Linda. (Slanted coverage of almost everything from his administration - especially Watergate - although “overlooked” might be a better word.)

            

Army One used by the Presidents on
the right

     

                                                                   



We also attended the taping of two consecutive Jeopardy shows - nice to know how that is actually done, but it wasn't thrilling.  Couldn't see the contestants because these huge moving cameras were always in the way - so we had to watch a large TV screen if we wanted to see their faces. Anybody notice any irony there? They will be aired Nov. 28 and 29. We won't tell you who won. 

Spent quite a bit of time on the LA subway system, - there isn’t a better way to really get the feel of a city, -  a few hours in downtown LA, supper at Philippe's the home of French dipped sandwiches since 1909, and an hour at Redondo Beach. 

This is where Christina Hanaoka (John and Lynn Beimer's daughter) and her husband Paul live. She was a gracious host. After this we drove up to Sherman Oaks to visit with my nephew Jeremy VanAmerongen, who lives in Ontario but is following a computer studies program in LA.   It was a pleasure to meet with him.
From Escondido we went to Desert
Springs.
\

We stayed at an RV park called Caliente Springs Resort - one of the places where, thanks to a program called Passport America, you can camp for half price. The place is almost deserted as the snowbirds have not yet arrived. This is the “sister” resort of Sky Valley, which we’d heard about from so many Langleyites. We were actually there Sunday morning for church. There are some people who live here year round. We realize that we are not ready for this live style and would not want to move away from our children, family, friends and community.

Friday, Oct. 4 we left Palm Springs area and made our way to Phoenix, Arizona. We drove through extreme winds that made the whole RV sway. The highway goes right through the desert. The scenery at this point is not very pretty.  This part of the country is truly some place that we have never been before, unlike a lot of the rest of our trip so far. Our plan is to be in Dallas by Oct. 15 where we hope to meet up with John and Lynn. 

Today we visited the Pueblo Grande Museum, site of an archaeological park honouring the Hohokam people who inhabited the area from circa 450 AD to 1450 AD.  They developed a rather sophisticated canal/irrigation system which allowed them to form a large agricultural community. There were many artifacts on display and parts of the original walls were still standing. Very interesting! 

As we are approaching Dallas I've been reading Stephen King’s 11/22/63 a long, entertaining story of a fellow who gets to go back in time and whose goal is to stop Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating JFK.  Might be a good book to be reading before we visit the Texas School Book Depository and the Grassy Knoll.  I’ve also read The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.  edited by Clayborne Carson.  The book came out in 1998, but is a collection of speeches and other things King actually said and wrote.  We will both have read this book before hitting the deep south and it will enrich our visits to places like Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma Alabama, as well as Memphis, Tennessee.  I remember much of what King wrote about, and also how critical many people were of King – dismissing him as a communist agitator.  That way we didn’t have to take his message seriously.   

Slowly but surely we think we know everything about the RV – but we had a setback today:  we couldn’t get the air conditioner to go and had the darndest time finding the fuse box, but we did find it. Why do they put those things in the last spot you would think of looking?  By the way - It’s a beautiful thing to have to use AC on the 2^nd of October.  May it continue.

Hopefully the updates on this blog will provide some idea of how our trip is going, and remind you that we have not fallen off the planet.  God is good, and we have been safe.  We pray that continues and may God bless you all.

Camping right along the ocean in Ventura, CA

Ever changing landscapes!!!!

We also spent time at the Getty Villa in Malibu, featuring Greek,
Roman and Egyptian artwork before we went to Escondido.  

Palm Springs Area

Our wonderful home! Everything we need. We are so grateful!