One More - then back to normal on Monday.

Last weekend was our 50th Anniversary. On Friday we had a nice dinner (followed by ice cream) with our son, Gregg and his wife, Jessica. On Saturday -after Tom went all out to make things special at his house, we had brunch with Kathy and Dennis and saw their new house under construction, reminisced on an afternoon walk at CW and a nostalgic dinner at the Jefferson where we ate our on wedding night. We enjoyed dinner there Saturday with Tom, and David and Jean —- thank you Tom! And Tom provided a special blackberry lime cake for the occasion as well. Wow. On Sunday we went back to church for the first time in a long time at Lifepointe and while Cindy visited with a friend Tom and I ate at Pierces. I miss that place. On Sunday night we were treated to a special evening by Cindy’s college roommate, Beckie and her husband Phil that included lots of laughter and Disney robes for Cindy and me. I look stunning. We were back to work on Monday but the celebration was not quite over. Geof and Laura arranged for the four of us to eat at the Chef’s Table at the Angus Barn. Fabulous was coined just for this meal. We ate whatever the chef chose, five courses, five wines and one unforgettable evening. And sharing all of this with good friends and family, priceless.

“Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NLT

And still more on the personal journey

The photo on the top of the page is not mine but was taken by Dennis Mook (The Wandering Lensman) when we had brunch with Kathy and him in Smithfield last Saturday. So this has turned out to be our official 50th Anniversary photo. Please don’t tell Dennis his rate will escalate and I still have to figure out how to pay for this showing.

The other photo was a quick shot of where Cindy lived from the age of 7 until college. There was a big tree in the yard and all of that parking was grass then. She and her Aunt B occupied the upper floor and used the door on the right side of the house. She lived just over 8 miles from me and I made that 20 minute drive a lot. I also worked just a bit past her house at the American Family Raceway where I started before they opened helping to stock and assemble tracks and often managed the store for my boss, Ralph. Sometimes when Cindy was at college I would spend the night at her house, Aunt B was great, because it was occasionally very late or very bad weather. One of my memories of this place is sitting on her couch with Cindy and Christy Monroe, a college friend of Cindy’s, while we watched the first moon landing in 1969.

That stoop, as we called them in Pittsburgh, in front of the door is where Cindy and I shared our first kiss. I still remember that 56 years later.

More Personal Story

This is the house I lived in in Cheswick, PA from the age of four to 11. When Kellen and I traveled through the area we stopped at Glenn’s for custard (yesterday) and then went to this house. I had looked up the owner on some municipal web site and it was H. Coelle. Now the story. Mrs Coelle is now 94 and still living in the house she and her husband bought from my mom and dad in 1960. She and her husband were both in Russian concentration camps after WWII and were released in the mid 1950’s as a part of an effort to prove the Russian were open to peace with the West. Actually she was released and he was mistakenly released. They both ended up in an American run facility to prepare them for reentry into society and that is where they met. Not sure how the got to the US. When they were at our house he told us that in the camp he was allowed to do two things, sing in a choir and play chess. Nothing else. I told him I played chess - what you don’t know at 11! He said lets play a game. Well he beat me in the classic four moves, then in about 9 moves - telling me after move two it would be checkmate in 7 more. Then he set up the board, me with the full complement of pieces and he with king, knight and 8 pawns. Needless to say I lasted a bit longer but still lost. He was a very nice man and went to to earn two degrees in the US and carved out a significant career. It was neat to see the yard now rather beautiful - it was mostly clay and rock when we lived there. Kellen and I had a nice visit with Mrs. Coelle.

Working Life

I have had a lot of jobs. I sold donuts door to door and delivered newspaper while in grade school and Junior High School as it was then. But Glenn’s Custard was my first “real” job the summer I was 15 and the next summer at 16. It is still going well - with very good custard, under the ownership of Glenn’s grandson. I worked at a slot track at the same time for 50 cents an hour when I could get there 8 miles away by bike. I also sold lots of things, which brings up the Gulf building. I was in school downtown post HS and had at that point three jobs but that was not enough so the USPO started the ZIP Code process at that time. Unlike today where there are more zip codes than anyone can count they started with a few thousand and no one knew what they were. So enter the small ZIP Code directory. And I started selling them with .40 cents profit per book. One day I went into the Gulf building and came out with an order for 200. I was wealthy.

Yesterdays question: The other building by the way is the Koppers Tower, an Art Deco design with a copper roof that is now quite green.

Confusion

When I grew up in Pittsburgh the building on the left, the Gulf Building was the tallest in town at 44 stories and was completed in 1932. The top used to have two colors, the Gulf colors. Steady blue, cold or colder, flashing add snow, or orange, warmer weather, when flashing, add rain. Now it has a host of colors with different floors meaning different things like wind speed, humidity et al. I asked a man who lived on Mt. Washington what they now mean and he said, “Nobody know any more.” The only thing people pay attention to is when the beacon flashes during a Pirate game, it means Pittsburgh hit a home run. That was started by the night clerk all on her own. By the way the top is modeled after the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, but I am sure you already noticed that! So, if you know what is the smaller building directly beside the Gulf building? And I will tell you a short story about me and the Gulf building from the late 60’s.

Castle Mountain

This is the last photo I took of the park. The park is nearly inaccessible - and it was so for us. A four-wheel drive is required and it is still a challenge. I was content for getting reasonably close, about 2 miles on one end after a several mile drive on very poor roads. It is the eastern end of the Mojave Desert.

Johnstown Flood

This is one of the National Park units Cindy and i had visited but before camera. So I had the opportunity to re-visit and take a few shots, so that park is now off the need to finish list. This is the infamous stone bridge, still the same foundation as it was in 1889, on the 31st of May. The dam upstream broke and released water at the rate of the Mississippi. It swept debris and mud for 14 miles before this bridge held and the shattered homes, trapped people and trees began to build up. Then it caught fire. In all more than 2200 people died that night and several communities were mostly or completely destroyed. It left a long-term scar on the country and changed the way the law was applied to a liability based system.

Depth

This is Emerald Pool at Yellowstone National Park. You cannot see the bottom of this pool and the colors are vivid.

“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.” Ephesians 3:18,19a NLT

FIFTY

Today Cindy and I celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary. I had some photos to put up from May, 8, 1971 but they will have to wait for 51 and 52 etc. I took this shot at the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine, California just last month. It is perfect for today.

In those 50 years of marriage and together even longer, we put hundreds of thousands of miles riding side by side in a variety of cars from a 50 Chevy Deluxe Convertible, a 62 Tempest, 63 Karmaan Ghia, and 34 more to a MINI and a Subaru. We have crossed the country repeatedly, driven to Alaska, travel to Maine or Florida like it is next door and have driven in 49 states and all but one multiple times. We crossed Pittsburgh to buy a donut then the opposite direction for ice cream. We are now nearing 300 National Park Service units in the last few years. There is always something else to see, somewhere to experience a different part of the country, more ice cream and undiscovered restaurants. Planning for this year has taken us to Florida, California, Nevada & Arizona and are now scheduling stops in MN, WI, OH, MI, NY VT, NH, ME and back through Pittsburgh.

But what makes it special is who you travel with, who shares those journeys and dreams. How blessed I have been. We have a great family with extraordinary grandkids, good friends and find joy and gratitude every day. This is a glimpse not a book of the joy of having years together to experience the rich blessings of God.

When you travel with that one special person you see love in every mile, every turn and every mountain.

Last One

I know you come here for the fabulous photos and scintillating writing, or so I tell myself over and over and over. However, today and tomorrow are more personal. This morning I leave for the final quarterly meeting I will attend before I retire after 35 years of trekking to these meetings. I remember my first one in a church basement on uncomfortable metal chairs next to a very noisy air handler. A lot has changed in that time. We are now the Waypoint Church Partners covering multiple states with multiple staff - then we were the Virginia Evangelizing Fellowship serving the Commonwealth of Virginia with the sterling Marion Harris. I started by developing a new church planting strategy as a volunteer, was giving a small stipend, then part-time, full-time and had every title they could think up. After thousands of miles, hundreds of churches served or started and countless coffees I soon step away from Waypoint and will miss the people I work with and will celebrate the opportunities God has given me. It has been a privilege to see the Kingdom expand and work with superior men and women across the board.

Driving

I have been privileged to drive on many if not most of the historic and scenic highways of America. I may make a list someday. But this one, the western approach to Death Valley National Park on Hwy 190, was simply one of the very best. We took it from Lone Pine, CA (where it was #136) through Death Valley and while all of it was a wonderful drive the 12 mile descent to Panamint Springs was spectacular. It was even great fun in a rental Kona, imagine with a decent car. Wow.

The Arch

Alabama Hills had several arches. I scrambled up some of the rocks and found this view from a better perspective than down on the trail. We really enjoyed our time here, hope we can come back some day. There are some campgrounds and lots of space to boondock in the BLM area. I looked through a book that showed old still photos from movie and TV shows and the current place to see where they were shot. I plan to see if I can find some of the old shows to watch.

Smile

I imagine this is just graffiti and as such ought to be discouraged but here in the Alabama Hills, CA this has been painted in with eyes and lips for decades. It does change a bit, one showed spiky teeth and a much brighter star behind the eye, another had elaborate eyelashes. I don’t know how often someone takes the initiative to report this rock, nor do I remember what they called it but in the sameness of the landscape and the dust that swirls into every nook and pore, it makes you smile.

Black-chinned Humingbird

I spotted this little guy on a branch near where I was photographing the Burrowing Owls. This is another new bird, number 398 on my life list. It is a male and quite common in the Southwest but I never saw one on two previous trips. Over all I was a bit disappointed with the three places I had picked to specifically go in search of new birds, a wildlife refuge near Death Valley was nice but only a very few birds, the Henderson Water Treatment Bird Viewing park, again very nice and lots of birds but mostly very common. Although I did get a nice photograph of a Cinnamon Teal a bird I have seen only once before. Finally the Montezuma Well had an extensive list of birds seen in April but when I was there I saw only four kinds and very few of those. So the search continues for 399 and 400.

Serendipity

Cindy and I were sitting on some boulders near Zabriskie Point (named for a movie filmed here) at Death Valley waiting for nightfall and the stars to emerge. There were still people going up to the overlook and just on a whim I started photographing the silhouettes. One couple just separated perfectly against the red sky.

“So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27 NLT

Not a Cloud in the Sky

What appears at first glance to be a cloud pattern is actually salt patterns on the Great Basin of the Death Valley National Park seen from a nearby overlook. 28 degrees cooler at this point than the surface temperature on the flats.

The Trip Post

Kellen and I left LA after the Beverly Hills Auto Service changed the oil. This was a not as elegant as the name but a well run independent shop where everyone spoke German. They did a nice job on K’s car and we were off, north along the coast. I’m not about to detail the trip - you can still read C2C2C and K has a summary post up. It was an adventure. And it was also a lot about the car, car places and showcasing the car in photos. Once I got on to the idea it was fun, trying to get a great shot of the car. The one I picked for today is Kellen making a hard turn on the Bonneville Salt Flats and that place was amazing.

The absolute best part was the opportunity for me to spend 10 days with my outstanding grandson. I realize that time is precious and that kind of opportunity is not likely to come around again so I treasure each weird meal and miles of conversation or comfortable silence. It was a joy.

The very best thing I can imagine is that my wish for Kellen is that he gets the same kind of opportunity in his lifetime. It is a memory I will not forget. And if any of you get such a choice, do not hesitate, just go.

Regular programing returns tomorrow and next week new camping and Eats!

Just One

We arrived back in Raleigh to fanfare and food. Had a super nice time at Geof and Laura’s enjoying being home wtih friends, family and no major distances to cover. The last day was excellent and the time at Chincoteague perfect for the Atlantic photo.So why the Chick-a-dee? I am tired and weary and I will get lots of posts up this weekend. Goodnight!

One more from PGH

What a nice night.

Nostalgia

Growing up in Pittsburgh in the 50’s and 60’s nearly everyone would recognize Bill Mazeroski rounding second base after the World Series winning homerun. Statue is at PNC Park on the Allegheny River. In Detroit we toured the Ford F150 plant, the Henry Ford and ended the day with four hours of Pittsburgh in the evening.