Church

2022-10-17 Branson, Missouri

This morning we visited The College of the Ozarks, just south of Branson. It has nick-named itself as Hard Work U; its students work on campus for their entire time here in various jobs and trades, from hospitality (cooks and waiters), agriculture, administration and marketing, etc. As a result, there is no cost to the students for tuition and housing. The college obviously also has generous donors. Most students are lower income and from the Ozarks region; they also have students from many other parts of the country and from other countries.

We gathered in the admissions and visitors center; we were given an overview of the college by a student, a senior.

After the information session we headed off to explore the campus. This is the Williams Memorial Chapel, built in 1956 by students. Try as I might, I could not find out who the architect was…

The interiors are quite beautiful…

After the chapel we visited the mill and store, and the greenhouses…

Of course, no visit would be complete with a visit to the tractor museum. Most of these tractors were originally in use on campus, and they were restored by students…

After our walking around we had lunch in the college restaurant, prepared by students, from ingredients grown by students, and served by student-waiters: The menu? Beef brisket, chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans! Except that this time it was fresh, farm-to-table, not out of a can! The table setting was even perfect: the silverware was properly placed, not rolled up in a paper napkin… The meal was as good as a mass-produced banquet meal can be expected to be. The servers were top notch and very professional…

We returned to the Villa to warm up… It is COLD!

This evening we attended Dolly Parton’s Stampede. I expected a tryical country music show. Boy! Was I wrong!

Walking towards the entrance we were given a hint:

The “theater” looks more like a rodeo arena. (Luckily for me, this is NOT a rodeo… As much as I don’t like killing animals for sport, I don’t like torturing them for fun, either…)

Of course, this being a dinner show, we were served a dinner of soup, corn on the cob, potatoes. and chicken…

But first the MC rode in…

More horse and riders appeared… They rode around in fancy circles…

And then the bison came into the arena…

And then the covered wagons and the “settlers”…

Finally the chicken arrived on our plates. A whole chicken!

This next part was fun but it didn’t photograph well. It was the pig races!

Of course there was the obligatory tribute to veterans and patriotic song…

A good show, but something I never would have selected. That’s the fun of caravans – I do things I wouldn’t ordinarily do…

We returned to the VIlla.

An enjoyable time was had by all…

October 24, 2022 0

2021-08-14 – The Oregon Trail caravan … Day 17 – Traveling Fort Bridger, WY to Montpelier, ID

We spent just one night at Fort Bridger, and we move today to Montpelier, Idaho. This will be a three state day: Lunch in Wyoming, Dinner in Utah, and sleep in Idaho.

We began again with the ever-changing Wyoming landscape…

We are headed to the Fossil Butte National Monument.

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These bluffs are the shoreline of an ancient inland sea… The fossils we will be seeing are all sourced from here…

We proceeded to the Visitors Center

We were not the first to arrive…

Inside is a nice collection of fossils found nearby. There was also a good video showing how the fossils are found and extracted… Also, there was a man uncovering fossils as we watched…

We saw a crocodile…

A palm frond…

And a turtle…

We discovered that many rocks contain lots of Carbon…

In fact, note the Calcium Carbonate shown here; you will see mention of it later in this blog…

More views of the bluffs…

We headed out and shortly found a fuel stop and an opportunity for lunch…

More Wyoming landscape…

And then we entered Idaho!

We parked the Villa at the RV park, and headed over to the National Oregon/California Trail Center…

We had a guided tour of the exhibits depicting life on the trails, from getting prepared and buying provisions to actual travel down the trails…

There was an entire gallery of artworks prepared by a local husband and wife team…

We heard descriptions of the wagon, and contents (1,200 – 1,500 lbs. of food), and life on the trails…

We saw a typical supply store where anything you wanted could be purchased…

Then we heard some tall tails after we spent a few minutes inside a simulated wagon ride…

After the museum we headed south to Utah for dinner… We soon found ourselves on the shores of Bear Lake.

Bear Lake is a natural freshwater lake on the Idaho–Utah border. About 109 square miles in size, it is split about equally between the two states. The lake has been called the “Caribbean of the Rockies” for its unique turquoise-blue color, which is due to the refraction of calcium carbonate (limestone) deposits suspended in the lake. Limestone! I told you I would mention it again! Its water properties have led to the evolution of several unique species of fauna that occur only within the lake. Bear Lake is over 250,000 years old. It was formed by fault subsidence that continues today, slowly deepening the lake along the eastern side. In 1911 the majority of the flow of the Bear River was diverted into Bear Lake via Mud Lake and a canal from Stewart Dam, ending 11,000 years of separation between the lake and that river system.

Today the lake is a popular destination for tourists and sports enthusiasts, and the surrounding valley has gained a reputation for having high-quality raspberries.

Unfortunately, due to smoke from fires in Oregon, the air is very hazy, obscuring the mountains across the lake…

On our way to Bear lake we passed a marvelous Mormon Tabernacle in the town of Paris, ID.

We stopped for a little refreshment before dinner at Coopers, a restaurant at a golf course in Fish Haven, ID

At the appointer hour we arrived at the Bear Trapper, in Garden City, UT…

All the Airstreamers are here!

After dinner Lynda and I walked down to the shore of the lake.

Garden City is a vacation area tourist place, much like the coast of Maine, Cape Cod, and the Wisconsin Dells. Lots of ice cream and fast food places that are absolutely overrun with tourists out for a good time. The traffic was terrible…

Boaters are everywhere…

And late on a Saturday afternoon in August the line to bring your boat trailer in to take your boat out of the water was hours long…

We returned to the Villa in time to see the sun set into the smoke…

An enjoyable time was had by all…

August 19, 2021 0

2021-04-23 – Scouting The California Architecture Food and Wine caravan…

Los Olivos to Bakersfield

It was 43 degrees at sunrise in the vineyard. As the light hit the solar panels I switched on the furnace to warm up the place. We treated ourselves to bacon and eggs for breakfast, along with coffee. After a relaxing while we hitched up, locked the vineyard gates behind us, and aimed the rig towards Bakersfield! Bakersfield? Yes. In Bakersfield there is a very large house by Frank Lloyd Wright and two smaller houses by Richard Neutra. In addition, there is some celebrated ecclesiastical architecture, the last operating Woolworth’s lunch counter, and several fine dining restaurants. Bakersfield is not to be missed!

To get to Bakersfield from Santa Maria is a 100 mile long lonely road, through the towns of New Cuyama and Cuyama. Finally we arrived at the town of Maricopa, population 1,229. This fine church stands at the center of town:

This church was built in 1908 by C.H. Hoogenboom, my grandfather. I have a snapshot of the church taken by my grandmother in 1908. It has not changed one bit!

We pulled into the River Run RV Resort, right alongside the Kern River. The Kern River has not one drop of water in it… But there is a nice pool and lots of shade. It is 80 degrees this afternoon…

We had lunch, a short dip in the pool, and a quiet dinner in the Villa. An enjoyable time was had by all…

April 30, 2021 0

2019-06-02 – Traveling West – Eureka Springs and Bentonville, AR

We attended Sunday Services at Thorncrown Chapel. Worshiping in such a beautiful place is a very special experience…

An interesting point was that the preacher was the son of the founder and of the chapel… And there was some good old hymn singing going on…

A mystery occurred behind the blue pilaster on the right. The minister suddenly appeared from behind the pilaster, then he went back again during some of the singing. Is he just sitting on a chair back there, and had he been there since before we arrived? Or is there a hidden back door there that he can slip in and out of? Or is there a stair to a basement with an exterior entrance? Any ideas?

After the service we drove to Bentonville; along the way we found, quite by accident, Hoss’s RV Repair. The place was littered with old Airstreams (23), in various stages of repair and restoration…

We traveled on…

Bentonville is home of Sam Walton and his family. And his family’s store:

The town Square is very nice…

We had brunch at a very nice modern diner…

We were very impressed with the center of this town of 70,000 people. (In 1960 when the first WalMart was built the town had about 3,000 people…)

We wondered, as we looked around at these downtown buildings, how much of this was built, rebuilt, and/or owned by WalMart? Did the first WalMart, built outside of town on the highway, kill the town? Did WalMart buy up the deserted buildings and create this Disneyesque town square? I don’t know…

(By the way, the original Walton’s 5 and dime is just a facade for the WalMart Museum. There is a WalMart Neighborhood Market just a block away…)

In any case, the reason we were here was to see Crystal Bridges, the Museum of American Art built by the Walton Family Foundation… It is about 3/4 mile from the heart of town…

The museum was designed by Moshe Safdie, world famous architect…

The museum sits atop a small creek that has been dammed to form several ponds at several levels. The weirs (dams) are under the buildings, so the surfaces of the ponds are kept mirror-still…

The vaulted roofs are supported by suspension cables. Remarkable!

But the REAL reason we are here is to see a Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian house. The Bachman-Wilson House was originally built in New Jersey in the mid 1950s. Over the years it was lived in by a variety of families. In 1980 it was restored; unfortunately, the adjacent river took up a bad habit of overflowing its banks on a regular basis. By 2004 the owners appealed to the Walton family and convinced them that there is no greater American Art than a Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian house. The house was disassembled and moved here, and it was reassembled on a site adjacent to the museum…

It is a classic Usonian, which typically turns a blank face to the street for privacy. FLlW also typically hides the front door…

There’s the door…

(Sorry, no interior photos…)

The house bears remarkable similarities to the Spring house in Tallahassee and the Rosenbaum house in Florence, AL. The board and batten siding, the views out to the forest, the horizontal lines, the cantilevered carports, and the stenciled cut-outs applied to the glass…

The house has been beautifully restored and preserved… It is, indeed, a piece of American Art…!

But we move on!

In the little town of Bella Vista, in the far northwest corner on Arkansas, within a mile or two of the Missouri and Oklahoma borders, is another Fay Jones chapel…

In contrast to Thorncrown Chapel, this chapel is built of steel. Again, the details are beautiful…

Built to honor Mildred Borum Cooper, wife of John A. Cooper, Sr., founder of Cooper Communities, Inc, the Chapel is a fitting memorial. Besides being a devoted wife, mother, and member of the community, Mrs. Cooper had a deep spirituality and a love for nature. Her family commissioned the Chapel in her honor to celebrate her life and her dedication to God and his creations.

We returned to Eureka Springs and enjoyed a dinner in a fine French bistro: Le Stick Nouveau:

We enjoyed five courses of appetizers and hors d’oeuvres… and a bottle of fine Pinot Noir from Oregon…

As is our custom, we returned to the Villa for Happy Hours and a light supper; an enjoyable time was had by all…

June 6, 2019 0

2019-05-09 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Springtime in Kentucky; Country and Country Music – Day #15

We visited three local points of interest today… We started at Mountain Home Place…

This is a working farm; all the buildings here were moved onto this property from adjacent land that was taken when the Paintsville Lake State Park lake was built. The buildings date from 1850 to 1900.

Of course, we start in the Gift Shoppe… They sell all hand-made products produced by local craftsmen…

The old men caravaners enjoyed sitting on the front porch…

We strolled the property and saw the vintage buildings; we also enjoyed their animals…

I enjoyed what appeared to be really tentative foundations…

We saw the local church…

And the local one-room school house, in use until 1958…

A typical cabin…

Interesting ladder to the attic lofts…

Then we moved on to lunch in Paintsville…

I enjoyed a local delicacy… Fried Bologna Sammich…

The next local landmark we toured was the Mayo United Methodist Church; the church was donated in 1904 by Mr. Mayo, who made his fortune in coal mining. (We are only about 50 miles from the West Virginia border.)

The stained glass windows are remarkable…

The organ was relatively small (1,000 pipes, 18 stops, two manuals), but high quality, and still in good condition; it still uses the original mechanical connections to operate the pipes. The manual pumps were replaced by electric fan chambers in 1914 when electricity arrived at the church…

Our own caravaner played for us, and we returned the favor by singing a few hymns…

Next door was Mr. Mayo’s house… The Mayos only lived here for a few years; Mr. Mayo died suddenly, and Mrs. Mayo moved to Tennessee to be with her family. The house (45 rooms) is now a Catholic School…

And finally we visited the Highway 23 Museum…

It was so-named because of the many country music stars who were born along Highway 23…

The only country music stars I had known anything about were Loretta Lynn and her sister Crystal Gail. We also saw a video of an interview with Loretta Lynn about the making of the movie, “The Coal Miner’s Daughter”… We will visit her childhood home in nearby Butcher Hollow tomorrow, and re-watch the movie in a few days…

The museum is small, but it was enjoyed by those who followed country music… We returned to the Villa, and walked along the lake again…

Happy Hours ensued, and an enjoyable time was had by all…

May 12, 2019 0

2019-05-05 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Springtime in Kentucky; Cinco de Mayo! – Day #11

We had a busy day today, but everything was easy-going and enjoyable. We began by driving 20 minutes into downtown Lexington; we attended services at the 2nd Presbyterian Church…

The 8:45 am service was very sparsely attended; maybe 60-70 people. I trust the 11:00 am service would be better… It was a very traditional service; it was a little odd that their hymns had familiar tunes, but totally different words.

We returned to the Villa, and then we walked over to the Horse Park.

We saw horses.

The big barn houses the draft horses – Clydesdales and similar hard working horses…

The Big Barn is supposedly the largest horse barn in the USA…

There was an interesting display showing the earliest and biggest horse farms and estates. There was no mention that the horse farms, dating to the early 19th century, used slaves to work the horses. In fact, all the early jockeys were slaves, and later, former slaves, until the Jim Crow laws and attitudes eliminated blacks from horse racing tracks altogether; this changed finally in the late 20th century…

We watched a potion of the “Showcase of Breeds”, where we saw four different saddle horses on display…

We walked through the “Hall of Champions”; this is where former winners are spending their twilight years living in the lap of luxury…

And we walked back to the Villa…

We drove to the tiny town of Midway, so named because it was at the halfway point of the Ohio and Lexington Railroad; it was the first town in Kentucky founded by the railroad. It was a delightful town, with railroad tracks running down the center of Main Street… Did I mention that it was laid out by the Railroad?

This corner building used to house the local IOOF lodge – Oldfellows. If I ever wanted to move to a small town I would find a building like this to convert to living quarters… What could be better than living in a place like this?

The former train depot is now a bank…

We had lunch at the Brown Barrel. Good burgers (a blend of ground brisket, short rib, and chuck – just like I use at home…), and The Best French Fries Ever!

The building is a former distillery, but I suspect the roof had caved in, because this roof structure looks pretty new and pristine to me…

After lunch we drove to do another bourbon tasting. We are in the heart of the Bluegrass country – green pastures and horse barns as far as you can see…

We arrived at our destination:

Woodford Reserve is a very pretty place! The distillery was built in 1812, and is on the National Registry of Historic Places. But Woodford Reserve was founded here in 1996…

They have a nice deck area where you can enjoy a cocktail or a light lunch…

We started the tour overlooking the 1812 stone buildings…

You know the song, “Roll Out the Barrel”? This is where the barrels are rolled out from the distillery to the Barrel House…

The traditional cypress wood fermenting tanks…

The pot stills…

Woodford Reserve is unique in that they use ONLY pot stills; there are no column stills here. The fermented mash is distilled three times to get the whiskey to about 168 proof…

The barrel house…

The tour guide talked about the historic stone barrel house… However, when questioned, he told us that it only holds 5,000 barrels. They have five other modern barrel houses over the hill, which each contain over 50,000 barrels each…

Another thing we heard for the first time is that they use steam heat in the barrel houses during cold winter months; they add heat, then turn it off; the result is that the temperature changes from high to low many times throughout the winter. I was shocked! This would kill any fine wine; wine needs a constant temperature to mature in the bottle. But bourbon ages in wooden barrels, and the hot-cold cycle allows the wood to expand, sucking whiskey into the wood, then contract, pushing the whiskey back out of the wood. This is what provides the flavor to bourbon, and it seems like they know what they are doing…

We tasted the Woodford Reserve and the Woodford Reserve Double Oaked. The regular WR was good, the WR Double Oaked was better. The Double Oaked is aged in the regular way for 4-5-6 years, then the bourbon is poured into another new oak barrel that has been heavily toasted and charred; the bourbon is aged for another 9-12 months…

Driving back to the Villa we saw even more beautiful vista across the Bluegrass countryside.

We enjoyed Happy Hours (6:00 – 9:00 pm) with another couple that we had not met at the various GAMs… And an enjoyable time was had by all…

May 8, 2019 1

2019-04-28 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Springtime in Kentucky; Traveling from Bowling Green to Bardstown, KY; Jim Beam! – Day #4

Time to move on… The caravan moves to Bardstown, KY, the center of Bourbon production in Kentucky…

But first, we attended services at the Christ United Methodist Church in Bowling Green…

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(I didn’t take this photo – I stole it off the internet…)

It was a remarkable little church and the services was excellent – lots of singing by EVERYONE! ABout 130 people by my estimate. Old People, young people, everyone! Olde time hymns, plus the Gloria Patri and the Doxology… It felt good to sing!

And then we moved on.

We hitched up the Villa and headed to Bardstown, KY. We are staying at the White Acres RV park.

We set up easily and quickly, then we drove about 1/2 hour away to check out the Jim Beam Distillery.

Unfortunately, tours were sold out for the day; we made a reservation for Tuesday.

We walked around a bit and learned something about the Beam family; here is the family tree of Master Distillers for the past 150 years of so…

Booker Noe was not a direct descendant, but was a nephew of T. Jeremiah Beam; his son, Fred Noe is the current leader. Jim Beam is now owned by Beam Suntory, which is owned by Fortune Brands, an Multi-national holding company that owns many brands of wine, beer, and spirits.

We did do a tasting of three premium versions of Jim Beam Bourbons…

Jim Beam Bonded – 100 Proof Bourbon: Just OK

Jim Beam Black – Extra Aged Bourbon: Not bad; nice and toasty, smooth

Jim Beam Double Oak – Aged in a second new oak barrel after 3-5 years in the first new oak barrel: Pretty good. Very smooth…

Jim Beam also makes Knob Creek, Bakers, Basil Hayden’s, and, of course, Bookers. We will have a chance to taste these after our tour on Tuesday…

We returned to the campground and enjoyed a dinner prepared and organized by a team of fellow caravaners…

And an enjoyable time was had by all…

May 1, 2019 0

2019-04-21 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Easter Sunday and moving from Asheville, NC to Chattanooga, TN

We had a leisurely morning. It was cold! 41 degrees! We had a little hitching up to do; at about 9:30 we pulled out of the RV park and drove 5 miles into downtown Asheville. We parked at the Visitor Center (it was closed), and walked towards the First Presbyterian Church. It is Easter!

By the time we were approaching the church we noted that we were over one hour early. And we were cold! So we stopped into Mayfel’s for brunch. The Crab Cakes Benedict was great!

Brunch over, we walked the 3 short blocks to church. We were none too early. This is not a “five minute church”. We always worry when we attend a church as we are traveling that we are sitting in someone’s favorite seat!

FPC Asheville 1 FPC Asheville 2

We didn’t take these photos while we were there – I stole them off the internet…

This was a lovely, VERY traditional Easter Service; organ, orchestra, choir, and the singing of the Hallelujah Chorus at the end. We were invited to join the choir to sing! (Not just us – everyone was invited…). It was very nice…

We slipped out after the final singing and walked back to the Villa. We pointed the truck west and we were off. Quite a late start for us, but the weather was beautiful, and we had no reason to arrive at our destination (Chattanooga, TN) at any particular time…

The freeway out of Asheville; different than all the other southern states we have seen…

It was great to see blue sky again!

We pulled off the 40 Interstate to the 74. No trucks! It was a beautiful freeway for awhile…

And then we entered the Nantahala Gorge… Two lane road, sharp turns, and a raging river!

We stopped to take it all in…

Eventually we reached Murphy, NC, where we stopped to do a little grocery shopping…

Soon we were in Tennessee…

The small roads continued, with views of rivers and lakes…

We reached Chattanooga and the Raccoon Mountain RV Park at about 6:00…

The park is in a canyon, with views of mountains all around…

Time to affix the sticker for the new state!

Happy hours and dinner ensued, and an enjoyable time was had by all…

April 26, 2019 0

2019-04-18 – Airstream Caravan Travels – Columbia, SC…

This morning we met the VanZanens at the zoo… And you know how much I love zoos!

Just a reminder: Flamingos have nothing to do with Airstreams! There is no connection, no tradition, no reason to wear flamingo-emblazoned clothing, no reason to install flamingos around your Airstream!

Feeding the giraffe!

After the zoo we went to downtown Columbia…

First Presbyterian Church:

The church is surrounded by a cemetery, dating back to the early 19th century. Woodrow Wilson’s parents are buried here, as is the wife and four children of a man who went back to Connecticut in 1855 because he was a northerner and was unhappy with the political climate in South Carolina. There are also numerous political figures, ministers, and church families. Very interesting!

We then walked to the capitol building; great story on the plaque about the construction and destruction… Note that one of the broken columns from the capitol was used as a confederate memorial in the Presbyterian church cemetery…

Lynda and Maria with George Washington…

Inside the main lobby, looking up at the rotunda…

Legislative chambers of the SC House of Representatives… when we arrived into the lobby it was packed with men and women in suits; the House had just adjourned; the Senate was still in session…

We exited through the main portico and continued walking through downtown…

Soon lunch happened at the Blue Marlin; very nice! It is located in the old train station…

After enjoying the streets of downtown we drove a short ways to a river-walk; we walked about 1/2 mile down, then back up along the river…

We reconvened at Brent’s house and enjoyed happy hours; more family time…

We returned to the Villa; an enjoyable time was had by all…

April 22, 2019 0

Adventures in the Villa

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