Day 6
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
George Wyth State Park, Iowa 

When we started this trip last Friday, I promised myself to try to write something every day. That is a promise that is hard to keep. Some of it is the simple discipline of writing. Turn the computer on, connect to the internet, put fingers on keys, write. That's not hard, is it?

Step 2 in that process has been the hardest. I use my Samsung Mesmerize smart phone as a wifi hotspot to connect my computer to the Internet. It is a great concept but has rarely worked as well in practice as it should (or at least as well as I think it should). I log in and sites that are routine stops become impossible to find. Or they take ten minutes to load. Or I get dropped offline. And the hotspot is supposed to take up to five different computer devices and allow them to connect to the internet at the same time. Forget that! If one is connected, the second may or may not connect and BOTH of the computers become slower than molasses in winter. In fact, watching rocks erode may be faster.

Right now, I'm not sure what I'll do. But if I run across a Verizon dealer who can set me up with their MiFi 2200 router hotspot on the spot, I may just leave the US Cellular "tethered" fold and go to Verizon. Last year, I used a MiFi and was generally well pleased. I may even check into their 4G system. But I shouldn't go "techie" on you. Let's get on with the narrative.

On Day 3, Sunday, we went to the Churdan United Methodist Church exactly as we had planned to do. The day started out with serious fog, but as we drove to Churdan it lifted. We were a bit early for the 9 a.m. worship service, so we drove around town looking at the sights and reminding ourselves of what had been and marveling at what currently is. We drove past the Paton-Churdan School where Mary had been librarian for several years while I was pastor of the Churdan-Lanesboro Charge. The Caboose Park was still there. It has just been completed when we arrived in Churdan in 1984. The parsonage hadn't changed a lot since our residence there. It is a nice ranch-style home that was still relatively new back in the 1980s. The church building was well-kept and it was a delight to see the "new" front entrance to the church, complete with elevator, for which the planning had begun while I was pastor. It was a project that I encouraged and even pushed for but didn't get to see to completion before my move to Perry, IA, in 1991. It was a great addition to the facility and made it much more usable for the aging congregation.

It was wonderful to see friends from 20 years ago who were delighted to see us. Pastor David Arulnathan was most cordial in his welcome and delivered a good message to the 20 or so of us who were gathered. It was sad to note the many missing faces of those who have passed on into the Body of the Cloud of Witnesses who are with us in spirit. However, those who gathered were a joy to see.

One of the delights of the morning was a visit with Wayne and Karla King and their two college-age children. I married Wayne and Karla over 20 years ago so it was great to reconnect. Wayne is an amazing craftsman in addition to being a farmer. He built his house himself and it is a beautiful home. The woodwork is absolutely amazing in it beautiful finish, careful craftsmanship, and loving detail. It may have taken him well over a decade to compete the project, but it was obviously a labor of love and well worth the effort.

Sunday afternoon we returned to our camp at Spring Lake Park and welcomed some other friends who came by to see us. John McPherson came over from Boone to introduce us to his good friend, Maggie. John is a great storyteller and a delightful conversationalist. We laughed our way through much of the afternoon as we reminisced about our years together. Later in the afternoon, we were joined by Cindy Dunne from Harcourt and we spent some time catching up on kids, events, health, and home.

Thanks to everyone who made our visit to west central Iowa a joy! You are indeed good friends.

Sunday night was not a pleasant one. About 12:30 a.m., the weather radio started sounding its alarm about approaching thunderstorms and dangerous high winds. Now, high winds and thunderstorms that produce hail and that may result in tornadoes are NOT an RVers friend. They can be frightening, destructive, and deadly. For a while the weather radio was sounding off every 5-10 minutes with warnings of progressing storms and potential danger. I spent much of the night sitting near the radio in one of the comfortable "captain's chairs" of the coach so I could turn off the ringing alarm and listen to the latest National Weather Service bulletin. Thank goodness for NOAA Weather Radio. It is a great service of inestimable value to everyone. About 5:30 I went back to bed to sleep for a while before getting up and breaking camp. By the way, there was a significant storm that passed through the area of the park where we were camped. The coach rocked and swayed in the hard winds, the rain pounded, but we were warm, comfortable, and (most important of all) dry. I think Mary woke up when the actual rain started pounding on the roof of our motorhome but otherwise slept through the worst of the rocking of the wind and the rolling of thunder. When it starts raining hard on a motorhome coach, it gets rather loud (in case you've never had the joy of experiencing it.

Monday dawned bright and beautiful and we broke camp to head toward Cedar Falls, IA, and another visit with friends. Unfortunately, into every RVers life some ... er, mishaps must happen. As we went to hitch the tow car to the motorhome, we discovered we were missing a "link" to fasten the security cable from the coach to the car. A drive into nearby Jefferson furnished a replacement after the fourth stop. The folks at Holiday RV, NAPA, and Harrison RV were all very friendly and helpful even if they couldn't provide the missing link. Everyone of them did identify someone else in town that might have the part. Bomgard's Home and Farm (I may not have the name quite right, but those folks who go to Jefferson, IA, will recognize the place, I'm sure) did have the "missing link" and we returned to Spring Lake Park to finish the hook-up and to drive north for the next leg of our journey.

We drove through the corn and soybean fields of Iowa for hours. Well, not through the fields. That would have been impossible, but between the fields on the highways. If you've never driven in Iowa, one of the characteristics is STRAIGHT highways laid out on a one-mile grid. Much of our journey was on I-35, but it's still straight, flat, and green. Moving from the view of one large grain elevator to another as the miles rolled by reminded us of the importance of heartland agriculture to life in our country and world. Much of the world's food and grain comes from fields like these across the US and billions of bushels of grain are stored in elevators like those we saw as we drove. The drive was windy, which is not always a pleasure in a motorhome, but was negotiated safely.

George Wyth State Park in Cedar Falls, IA, is a beautiful park along the Cedar River. We arrived in late afternoon, made our camp, and got in the car to drive to Reinbeck, IA, to visit friends Jim and Marcia Ellenberger. Jim and Marcia moved to Reinbeck a year ago from Perry, IA, where we had gotten acquainted. They became very special friends to us when we adopted the sibling group of 4 from Guatemala that became our children and the heart of our family. In fact, Jim and Marcia and their two girls, Tiffany and Sarah, met us at the Des Moines airport when we disembarked after the journey from Guatemala with our children arriving at their new home in the United States. It was an emotional greeting and the welcome our kids received gave them friends during their years in Perry and friendships that continue until today. Thanks, Jim, Marcia, and girls for all you have meant to us over the years. We love you all!

Monday night was another stormy night with me sitting at the weather radio to catch it's warnings (and quiet it's howl). Although funnel clouds were sighted on the ground just a county away and although severe thunderstorms did roll through the area and once more rattle the coach with wind and rain, it was a better night that the night before and I was only up for a couple of hours before returning to bed and the blessedness of sleep.

Tuesday was spent visiting some more with Jim, Marcia, and family. Today, Wednesday, 22 June, we will break camp and head for Peculiar, MO, on our way to the Fleetwood Motorhome Association Rally in Shawnee, OK.