Catching Up...

With Thanksgiving being on Thursday, we needed to get our work time put in early in the week so as not to lose much time. On Wednesday we met up with our friend Judy for breakfast at IHOP. It's been almost two years since we've seen Judy. Judy's mom was a resident at the independent living senior center where we worked and we got to know Judy when she'd come to visit her mom. She is so much fun to be around and we had a great time catching up.

Right after breakfast, we went by the store to get a couple of grocery items for me so I'd have food at the rig while Linda was gone (with the car). Got the shopping done, dropped me back at the rig and she headed out for Virginia Beach for one last visit with her kids and grandkids. She will return Saturday afternoon...come pick me up and then we have more people to visit in the area.

A few weeks ago, Oprah had been the celebrity anchor on Good Morning America (while Robin is out for her bone marrow transplant) and they had some "deals and steals" on items that she loves. One was a book, called The Untethered Soul - the journey beyond yourself by Michael Singer. I bought it and had it shipped here, to the campground in Mocksville, NC so it would be here when I arrived. It came last week and I started reading it...finished it today What a great book ! It's been a long time since I've picked up a book (can't keep my attention that long) but this one was great. It's about spirituality but it breaks things down into a lot of "Aha" moments and into concepts that you never thought of before. It's a book that would be applicable, whether you believe in God or not, because at the center of each of us is a unifying thread of energy that ties us all together. It covers thoughts from across a spectrum of beliefs but they all boil down to the one universal point of how to obtain the untethered soul. I've never heard of this author, Michael Singer, but his educational training is in economics. He has a nice way of addressing what can sometimes be a hard to understand concept (if you've read any in-depth books on spirituality, you'll know what I mean - sometimes they talk in circles). It's the kind of book that really gets you to thinking and hopefully live life in a more meaningful and "present" manner.

Boomer and I have been enjoying daily walks around the campground and getting things done on the rig. Although he's not much help, he is a great companion while I defrost the frig and wax the rig. I've tackled almost everything on my "to do" list. Linda's back tomorrow night so I will have pictures to post of her trip. Her son-in-law returned from his Navy training (been gone a couple of months) and his family is sure thrilled to have him home. He hasn't had much time at home over the last year, with his wife and kids, so wishing them a wonderful holiday season filled with great family memories together.

Mendenhall Plantation

On Saturday we met up with our friends Wendy and Cindy for lunch at Fresh Manna...a small cafe with great home-made food in Jamestown, NC. We all decided to have breakfast, even though it was 11:30 because they serve it all day and everything on the menu sounded great. Linda had a veggie omelet and I had sausage gravy and biscuits, along with home style potatoes. Everything was great and it was good to catch up with the girls.

After breakfast we went about a mile down the road to Mendenhall Plantation. This is a Quaker homestead that was pivotal in this part of North Carolina. The Mendenhall family had migrated to Jamestown, from Chester, PA in 1762. Jamestown was named after Richard's (the one who build the homestead) grandfather James.The Mendenhall homestead serves as an interpretive center of the "Other South" of non-slaveholding  and peace loving people. In fact, this homestead served as a training center for blacks to learn a trade so that they could be self sufficient when released from slavery. Although there is no clear documentation, it is believed that Richard and his family were part of the underground railroad. The homestead had around 100 blacks working on the farm, originally as slaves, but left as free men with money in their pockets and trained in various trades.

We had the privilege of having the curator of the plantation serve as our personal guide. Usually it is a self guided tour but he told us so many neat stories about the farm and showed us things we never would have seen by ourselves.

 

 

A false bottom wagon that was used by the Quakers to transport blacks up north to freedom.

 

 

 

 

 

It was very interesting to hear how the house was laid out to make best use of the fireplaces, to see the architectural details and some of the old furnishings. It was a fun day spent with our friends and a great place to meet (we each drove an hour to meet in Jamestown) and spend part of the day.

On Sunday, we drove to Zionville, NC (close to Tenn. border) to see the beginnings of a community that is being built in the mountains. They've had snow already as we saw remnants of it in the ditches and along the roads. It was a great drive and a fun adventure but an area that was a little too primitive for our tastes. We did get to enjoy a great lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Boone on our way back home. A fun weekend with lots to check out and learn about. What neat discoveries did you make this weekend ?

 

 

 

 

Temps have been very chilly...at night it gets into the 30's and today it was probably in the high 40's. Too chilly for our tastes....looking forward to moving south.

Annie Git Yer Gun.....

The other day I went into a gun shop to call on them for an ad. It's a small place with a display area with fishing stuff, hunting items and display cases for hand guns and wall space for rifles. I couldn't believe how busy it was in there. I wandered around and looked at some interesting items such as deer urine in a bottle, some weird ass fishing lures, machetes and finally got a chance to talk to one of the business owners. He apologized for the long wait and said it had been really busy ever since the election. As my mind raced through every conceivable possibility of why that would be and came up empty handed, I asked, "What would that have to do with it?" He said that everyone is worried what Obama will do about gun control so they are buying guns now. I really hope my face didn't show the "Are you kidding me?" feeling that was going on inside my brain.

Ok folks, let's think this through. Having grown up in a family of hunters (myself included), my dad used the same 30/30 every year to hunt with that he'd always used (flip up peep sight and all) except when he gave it to me to use and then he'd use the shotgun. If you already own guns to hunt for small or big game, do you expect them to "break" in the near future that you need to stock up because you think that if gun control legislation passes all guns are going away ? From what I've ever heard of any possible new legislation, it was affecting assault rifles and AK-47 type guns. If you feel that your gun collection isn't complete without one of these types of guns, then by all means rush out and get one. But assault rifles and ones that can fire a gazillion rounds a minute are not necessary to hunt deer or big game with. If you really want a challenge, buy a machete like the one I looked at in the store and jump out of a tree to kill your next deer...Rambo style. Perhaps people feel they need to build their own militia or something. Who knows...

It was one of the most ludicrous things I had ever heard but apparently the NRA is drumming up lots of business for gun shop owners across America cause there were bunches of men in there buying guns. They might not have a job or be able to put food on the table (they will now when they shoot a whole flock of pheasants out of the air with a single shot) but they can spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on guns. Sigh.....Just two more weeks here and then we go to the land of sunshine and vacation.

Land of Lincoln

Whew, so glad the election is over ! I was getting so sick of the political ads and negativity. I've never seen the level of anger in the wake of an election like this year and it seems to increase with each election. I think that the word "compromise" has left most people's vocabulary, which is really sad. There is a need to always be right.....to never admit that you're wrong. I even see it in our young people. They have to win at any cost and their world shatters when they lose at something. Life is not about winning or losing but about enjoying yourself at whatever you're doing. If you try your best, that is all anyone can ask of you. Like the old saying goes: If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

John Renesch, a businessman turned futurist and author has this to say about why we are divided as a nation. "We are building silos of ideologies, isolating ourselves into factions, and preaching to our choirs about the faults and defects of “the other.” Each silo is suffering from “groupthink” – reinforcing its own dogma and avoiding any feedback that disagrees with the party line. At its worst, it is ideological bigotry. This subtle form of bigotry is being promoted by extremists who compete for attention. Unless it’s held in check, it could tear our nation’s social fabric. We’ve seen that happen in other countries, where ugly rhetoric eventually turns to violence." But there is hope...Renesch says, "Each of us can make a difference in our circles of influence with a simple yet profound rule for everyday communication: stop opposing what we don’t like, and start proposing what we would like.”

Stop listening to it; stop repeating it; stop encouraging this pattern of divisiveness. Instead of spouting our opinions and preaching to those in our silo, let’s reach out to those who have different viewpoints. Nothing will change unless we do." (excerpt reprinted from The Christian Science Monitor"

I feel that for those who feel it's better to stand on the sidelines and bitch about an issue or problem, get involved. Write your congress representative about the issues you feel strongly on. Go to town hall meetings with your representative and let your voice be heard.

This is the start of a new time, with many challenges ahead of us. It's time for all citizens to come together, roll up your sleeves and get in this together. Whatever happened to the old fashioned barn raising bees and such that used to take place ? Neighbor helping neighbor to better their community and help each other. We can't be tearing each other down if we want to get over the problems on the horizon and make a better life for ourselves and future generations. I am especially disgusted when I read comments that stand behind the coat tails of racism or religion to make their point. Our forefathers saw us as "one nation"...it's about time we acted as such.

Oh and the reason for the name of this post...Land of Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln served as the first candidate of the newly formed Republican party but he wouldn't even recognize his party if he were alive today. Lincoln was the first American President to sign federal tax into law. Yep, he invented income tax. And not only that but it was a progressive tax where the wealthiest Americans paid a higher rate. Sound familiar ? He made no distinction between earned income and capital gains...money made was money earned. He knew that our nation needed the revenue to pull our nation back from the brink of collapse.  It wasn't a popular decision but one that was necessary for our country. Sometimes there are lessons to be learned from history.

New Things

I haven't posted lately because we've been visiting family in Virginia Beach and let me tell you....a 5 year old has an abundance of energy that we are not accustomed to ! Teagan, Linda's grandson, stayed from Saturday night through Monday night with us at the campground. Sadly the weather has not been stellar during this time so most of our time was spent indoors. That provided lots of time to color, play skipbo, read books and watch cartoons.

   Our campsite is right across from the boardwalk that goes over to the beach so Grammy, Teagan and Boomer got to check out the beach. Teagan is Boomer's buddy when he comes to visit...they really enjoy each other's company.

On Saturday, all of Linda's kids came to our site for a campfire and food. It was very chilly so a hot fire was a necessity to endure the temps.

 

We had a busy day yesterday. Since Linda and I now have health insurance again, we were able to get our annual check-ups. A provision of health care reform is that all policies have to provide for annual wellness exams and it doesn't count against our deductible (which is high for us since we wanted catastrophic coverage). We went to a local walk-in clinic and got everything done. Tomorrow we'll get our mammograms done. We got a call today with the bloodwork outcome and both Linda and I need to revamp our diet a bit (cholesterol is a little high for both of us and my thyroid levels are too high).

After we left the clinic we went to Sam's Club to get a new mattress. The one that came with the rig has been horrible on our backs so I've been researching memory foam mattresses to buy. I had one all decided on but realized, at the store, that the one we wanted is no longer sold "boxed up". It's sold flat and we felt it would be really difficult to get into the loft and set up so we picked a gel foam mattress that is a higher quality one. It has a 20 year warranty (vs 10 years for the memory foam one).

It comes boxed and on a plastic dolly so it wheels right out to the car and is easy to move around. It fit nicely in our SUV and we got it back to the campsite. I got the old mattress out of the loft and it's currently on the pull out sofa in the living room. We're trying to figure out what to do with it since it's only a year old and in great shape. It would be a whole lot better alternative on the pull out sofa instead of the air mattress (wow, is that uncomfortable and cold to sleep on)but not sure that we have room to haul it around.

We pulled the new mattress out of the box and got it into the rig and up into the loft without any arguing or anything. Linda was convinced, as we stood at Sam's Club debating which mattress to buy, that the whole ordeal of getting the old mattress down and the new one up would result in a major "discussion" but heck it happened so smoothly and quickly that there wasn't time for a discussion. I positioned it in the middle of the loft....cut the outer sleeve and then the plastic shrink wrap around the mattress. The instructions said that it can take as much as 72 hours for it to fully assume its shape and size but you can sleep on it in the meantime. The mattress is 10" thick, which is 3" taller than our other one but still not an issue for those midnight bathroom trips. Man, is it comfy ! Your body settles into a cushioned cradle of softness....We slept really great last night and woke with none of the aches or pains that I have had with the old one. We are very pleased with our choice and look forward to many restful nights ahead.

  I also got a new phone yesterday. I've had the same basic phone for a couple of years now but with some of the new features and products that our business offers, I needed a smart phone to be able to demonstrate them. I researched different ones and got the Droid Razr Maxx. It's about twice the size of my old phone but has alot of neat features (that I'm still trying to learn about). Linda managed to create a three way call today between the mammogram receptionist and my mom without even trying...LOL  New things to learn about and get used to.