Sunday, September 28
After some slow “getting around,” we were finally ready to venture back to Richmond for the 11:00 a.m. “traditional” service at Grove Avenue Baptist Church. We had visited the church in previous visits to Richmond to attend with Mike and Kelly. The kids are now heading up one of the Sunday school classes, so they attend the early service and teach their group during the traditional service. Our plan was to attend, and then we would get together afterward.
Today was “Biker’s Sunday,” and one of the parking lots was full of every kind of shiny motorcycle on the market. My first thought was that I could have been in Amarillo on a ride with the CMA group from Artesia, but I didn’t dwell on that thought very long, since we were in Richmond and were enjoying being here with Mike and Kelly.
The senior pastor was out of town this week, but he had invited Pastor Geronimo Aguilar of the Richmond Outreach Center to fill the pulpit. Wow…What an amazing message was delivered! Basically, Pastor Aguilar told about the work of ROC, the outreach center. It is an organization that seeks to bring the story and message of Christ to the inner-city of Richmond. Since he began his ministry here, the organization has grown immensely; for example, they run buses and pick up more than 1,000 young people for their Saturday services and activities. They also have a biker ministry with over 120 bikers participating.
Geronimo also gave his personal testimony, which was in itself an amazing story of an even more amazing journey. He was a child of the Los Angeles inner-city, an area of more than 150,000 gang members. When he was three years old, his father, a drug user/dealer and a member of Hell’s Angels, put him on the seat of his Harley, and told him that he had to leave to go ride and party and that he wouldn’t be back. His father then set him back down on the sidewalk and rode off, never to return to his family. At the age of 8, he watched as his mother was killed when someone broke in to their house to rob them.
When he was 15, Geronimo dropped out of school and began hanging around and dealing drugs, and by the time he was 17, he had switched to using every kind of street drug imaginable and stealing to support his habit.
It was when he was 17, deep into drugs, and almost suicidal that he first encountered Christ. His story is truly amazing; that encounter turned his life around and led him into a ministry in which he says he now wants to make sure than no child in the Richmond area ever has to wait until they are 17 to hear the story of Christ.
Needless to say, we were educated and uplifted this morning. If you ever get a chance to hear Geronimo Aguilar, put everything else aside and go…you will be astounded by his story and the work he is accomplishing.
When the service was over, we got together with Mike and Kelly and went to one of their favorite Chinese restaurants to eat and talk. When we were finished, Barbara and I went off to do some shop-looking at the Short Pump Mall, a really nice upscale mall that we had visited before when we were here.
We were still looking for wedding activity clothes, but couldn’t find anything we liked, so we finally gave up and drove back out to Cozy Acres to spend the afternoon and evening just vegging out.
Monday, September 29
Happy Birthday to daughter-in-law Cathey Colwell in Lubbock and to Francisco Camacho in Malpica, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico!!
This morning we decided we’d better go visit with the manager at the restaurant where we will
have the rehearsal dinner on October 17. The dinner will be held at the Village Garden Café, a delightful little place in historic center of Powhatan.After seeing the room and visiting with Wanda, the manager, we felt much more comfortable with our plans for that evening. Wanda is going to be great to work with, and the café, which Mike and Kelly had picked out, will be perfect for the occasion.
After taking care of business, we walked around the town center to get a feel for the place. It is built, as most colonial towns are, around the courthouse square. There are some newer restaurants, as well as a few of the old historic buildings.
Established in May, 1777, Powatan has a county government for its approximately 26,000 citizens. Located in east central Virginia, about 40 miles west of Richmond, Powatan County is primarily an agricultural area. The county is bordered on the north by the James River and on the south by the Appomattox River and encompasses 273 square miles.
Powatan County has its own school district with two elementary schools, a middle school, a junior high school, and a new and very modern high school. Also providing educational services are the Powatan United Methodist Church Pre-School and the Blessed Sacrament-Huguenot Academy that has a pre-school and a private school for grades 1 – 12.
Churches abound in the county. At the latest count, there are 55 different churches representing 13 major denominations. Of the 55 churches, 27 are some persuasion of Baptist.
The first record of a white man being in the area now known as Powhatan County was in 1608, when a band of approximately 120 men led by Christopher Newport made an expedition up the James River.
Between the years of 1699 – 1705, some 500 to 700 Huguenot refugees fleeing from persecution in France settled on the James River in abandoned Monacan Indian villages.
In May, 1777, the Virginia Assembly created the County of Powhatan out of land from the eastern portion of Cumberland County between the James and Appomattox Rivers. A portion of Chesterfield County was later annexed to Powatan County.
Of the nine counties in Virginia bearing Indian names, only Powhatan is named for an Indian chief. Chief Powatan, father of the famous Indian princess, Pocahontas, is regarded as one of the greatest and best-known of the eastern Indian chiefs.
The first courthouse was built around 1783 and around it grew the village of Scottville. Named for Revolutionary War General Charles Scott, who was born in the area, the town later became known as Powatan Court House.
The oldest building in the court square is the clerk’s office, built about 1798. It now serves as a county office.
In the picture on the left, Barbara is standing behind a memorial marker with the clerk’s office in the background. Notice that at some point in time, an addition was built on the back of the original building.
The present courthouse was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis of New York, and built in 1849. It is a masterpiece of Greek Revival architecture.
Across the street from the courthouse is an 18th-century double-galleried courthouse tavern (shown in the upper right of the collage).
Powatan also figured prominently during the Civil War, but that will be a story for another day.Following our walk around the historic area, we drove back to the RV park for lunch and then headed off down Highway 60 to do some more shopping. While Barbara was still looking for an outfit to wear to the wedding, I was searching for a pair of dress shoes, not an easy task when one wears a size 6 ½ D shoe. We had previously found a pair that might work in Sears, but I wasn’t thrilled about them. One of our stops today was at that same mall, but with a stop at Macy’s this time…too bad, the smallest size in anything was an 8, and even that one didn’t look like something I would wear.
Meanwhile, we made stops at Wal-Mart, Cato’s, and Macy’s so Barbara could look for something, but nothing jumped off the shelf and said, “Take me!” However, the sales lady at Cato’s was very friendly and helpful and provided information about their other stores in the area.
With time running out and the sun dropping in the west, we hurried back to Cozy Acres and settled in for the night.
Tuesday, September 30
We decided we’d try a new schedule starting today – we’d take our time getting up and around…just goof off during the morning and then get busy in the afternoon. So, that’s what we did.
Mike had called yesterday and invited us to come to his office during his lunch break, so we fixed a picnic lunch and headed off to new territory around 11:30. We figured it would take us 35 – 40 minutes to get there if all went well. Most went well, and we eventually found his office in about 50 minutes, but not without calling him when we were in the neighborhood to have him give us the final directions.
We went inside and met his bosses, a very nice couple who have taken him under their wings and are teaching him the insurance business.
When we left the office, we drove about a mile up the roads to a beautiful wooded area around a large reservoir (it looked more like a large lake to us, but remember that where we come from, a large reservoir is about 30 yards by 50 yards, and lakes in Eddy County, New Mexico, aren’t much larger than that).
There was a very nice covered pavilion that no one was using at the time, so we sat down and enjoyed a quiet 30 minutes or so of eating, visiting, and observing the area wildlife. Some squirrels were very interested in our meal and Barbara got this shot of one of them finishing off the few crumbs that got thrown away in the trash basket.
After taking Mike back to his office, we visited a couple of shops in the little center where he works…one was a printing shop where we got some information about having Journal 4 published; the other was a nice little craft shop where we found a couple of things for a project we wanted to do.From there we traveled back to Highway 60, stopping at various specialty shops to look for the final items we needed for our wedding and rehearsal dinner outfits. We finally found another Cato’s and, wonder of wonders, Barbara found the perfect skirt for the occasions. Unfortunately, the matching top hadn’t been delivered. The saleslady called other stores, but they hadn’t received that item either, so she put Barbara’s name on the call list.
From there we traveled down the highway to Chesterfield Center where we had looked earlier at Sears and Macy’s for outfits and shoes. This time I was lucky enough to find a good deal on shoes at the Bostonian shop in the mall and walked out with new shoes, socks, and a dress belt. It’s been difficult finding the things we want/need, but we’ve really been pleased to find so many helpful sales people along the way.
After leaving Chesterfield Center, we went back to the first Cato’s we had visited to see if they had a top that would go with Barbara’s new skirt. They didn’t, but after making a couple of phone calls, the saleslady told us that the store in Ashland (where stayed the first two times we came to Richmond) had one in her size and they would hold it until we could get there tomorrow…Yippee!
From there, it was a race with the sun to get back to Cozy Acres before dark and wind up our day.
Wednesday, October 1
Happy Eleventh Birthday to granddaughter Jaycie Colwell in Lubbock, Texas!!!
Our new schedule worked so well yesterday that we thought we’d try it again today.
We left the park at 11:00 for the 45-mile ride to Ashland. We could have taken a couple of main roads and the interstates, but chose instead to ride along some back-country roads. It took about an hour to get to the small shopping center we were going to, but it was well worth the time as we saw some beautiful country along the way.
While Barbara was trying on the blouse at Cato’s and looking at some accessories (whatever those are), I went to Dollar Tree to find some items we needed to decorate the tables for the rehearsal dinner. Then, it was off to Wal-Mart to buy a few groceries and to a couple of other shops to just look around. I feel that I have used up about two years of shopping time just in this one trip to Virginia!As a matter of expediency, we took interstates 295 and 64 back to Goochville, where I went to the local Food Lion to get some items that we couldn’t find in Wal-Mart; then, it was back across the James River and down the highway to Powhatan County and Cozy Acres, where we again whiled away the evening after checking all our clothing purchases to make sure they were what we wanted and needed.
Thursday, October 2
We took our time getting around this morning and finally decided that I’d take Barbara up to the park laundry room so she could get started on the wash; meanwhile, I’d drive up toward the historic district to drop some mail off at the post office and get some clothes from the cleaners.
When I got back to the park, I put things away and then went back to the laundry to help fold clothes, bring them back to Big V, and get them put away.
With all that done, it was time to start getting things ready for our supper tonight. Mike was coming out at 6:30 to join us for a couple of hours and we had decided to fix spaghetti. Since I already had a loaf of garlic bread going in the bread maker, the next step was to start my sauce recipe. Soon, Big V and the surrounding area were filled with the aroma of steaming garlic, Italian seasonings, and rich Italian sausage.
Later, I got the pasta started while Barbara got the salad makings put together. It wasn’t long after we had everything ready that Mike showed up and we sat down to great meal and more catching up on what is going on in his life.
After supper, Mike pulled out a shoebox full of old pictures of his family and some of Kelly’s family. It seems now like forever ago, but right after Mike asked Kelly to marry him, he and Kelly asked Barbara to develop a slideshow presentation to show during the wedding reception. She came up with a model of a presentation using pictures that we had and music that we liked and sent it to them. They liked it and said they’d get pictures to us (also said they’d probably have some different music for the background). No surprise there!
Well, the time is getting short and we needed the pictures, so Mike brought out the first batch last night. We had a great time looking back over the years. He had some “way back” pictures that I’m sure I took, but didn’t remember (but then, I have trouble remembering what I had for breakfast these days) and it was fun to think back on those times and to see how much the kids have grown.
After Mike left we played with the scanner for a bit to make sure it was going to work the way we wanted it to. Then, we watched the Palin/Biden debate and called it a day.
Friday, October 3
There was no goofing off this morning. Barbara was up at 6:30 to start work on the slideshow program for the kids. When I got up around 8:30, she started teaching me how to use the scanning and editing program on my laptop, something I’ve never done and never intended to do. But, one thing we’ve learned about retirement is that learning never stops, so I settled in to do my best.
The scanning was no big deal…just a matter of keeping track of the pictures and making sure they were properly aligned on the scanning surface before I pushed the buttons. However, when it came time to work the editing program, I ran into a few snags. The program didn’t work the same way on my laptop as it did on Barbara’s, so after she showed me the basics, I was on my own to figure out the differences. She worked one batch of pictures while I worked another and, by the time we were finished with the cropping and editing, she had done far more than I had; but, I had learned something new. I’ll probably forget it all by the next time I need to use it, but maybe it won’t take as long to learn it again.
We finally took a break at noon to fix breakfast – bacon, eggs, and pancakes – before getting back to the chores at hand. Barbara worked on the slideshow program (only one person can do it), so I focused on washing dishes and cleaning up the mess I had made while cooking.
We took a break later in the afternoon…just too tired of looking at computer screens and racking our brains trying to get the project done. After just resting for a bit, we went outside and walked around the park, something we really haven’t done yet. There are three ponds in the park and this evening we walked past two of them and got some really nice pictures.
Tonight we just sat around in Big V and relaxed. With the TV going in the background, Barbara did some more work on the slideshow while I watched the webcast of the Artesia football game and tracked the Red Sox/Angels baseball game on the computer.
It was a bad night for my high school football teams; Artesia took the worst shellacking it has had in 19 years as they ran up against the No. 1-ranked 5-A Las Cruces Bulldawgs. While the hometown AHS Bulldogs held their own in the first and third quarters, Las Cruces owned the second and fourth, resulting in a 49 – 14 defeat for Artesia. The Liberal Redskins also ran into a buzz saw in their game with Garden City, losing 38 – 14.
Saturday, October 4
Since, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, we thought that we’d let these pictures of Cozy Acres speak volumes about our temporary home.
“The great difference in voyages rests not with the ships, but with the people you meet on them.” - Amelia BarrAs the LHS Redskins would chant,”Nuff said.”…Jim & Barbara
After we finished with the meal and said goodbye to new friends, we went back to the church, took some pictures, said goodbye to Bob and Nell, and got back into Big V to start the day’s journey. Bob had showed us an easy way to catch a bypass to I-285, and it wasn’t long before we were mixed in with the regular Sunday traffic (which is only slightly less than the regular daily traffic) and finding our way out of town.
We decided to stop at a Love’s along the way, but found when we got there that the lines of cars were backed up from the pumps to the back of the truck parking lot. We could tell right away that there was no way to get Big V and the trailer to the pump islands, but had no choice but to join in the line and wait until we could break away and get back to the main road. About 20 miles down I-20 we finally found a good spot to pull in and have lunch and give Big V a short drink (at a “reasonable” price).
Wednesday, September 24
After getting the place all set up, we drove to Powhatan to look in a couple of stores at the small shopping center and do some grocery shopping at Food Lion. Mike had said he would come out to welcome us tomorrow evening; when we asked what he wanted for supper, he said that Mexican food would be great, so we had to buy a few items to fill out the menu.
Jim: Ernie, Billee, Barbara, and I were waiting at the Wal-Mart parking lot when Ladd came by after work and delivered our big trailer. Ladd had to be someplace else as quickly as he could get there, so as soon as he dropped the trailer, he took off. With instructions from Ernie, I backed Big V up to the trailer and we got it hooked on to the hitch ball. All that was left was to hook up the chains and the power to the lights and electric brakes and we’d be ready to roll.
Once we found the problem, it didn’t take long to install new couplers and re-wrap the wiring bundle. With that accomplished, I hit the light switches and bingo, we had running lights, turn signals, and brake lights.
We left the Welcome Center and drove another 85 miles to a rest area where we decided to stop for the evening. The Alabama rest areas along I-20 are beautiful; they are set well back from the highway so there is minimal noise, and they are surrounded by beautiful tall trees…a perfect setting for camping out along the highway. We even found a spot where we could open the kitchen and bedroom slide-outs for more comfort..jpg)
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Needless to say, we spent about three delightful hours talking, cooking, and eating. The food was beyond wonderful…barbecued ribs, baked beans, hot bread, homemade cole slaw, Puerto Rican potato salad, and plenty of sweet tea, all topped off with slabs of butter pecan cake. It was difficult to get up from the table; not because we wanted to eat more, but because we were too stuffed to move!
We even had the idea that we could go outside and wash the car and Big V and then have a rainwater rinse, but when Barbara tested the waters (literally), she declared that it was just too cold and not worth the effort. We formulated a new plan…when the rain stops, we’ll get all the washing materials and equipment out of the bin and set them in a handy place; then, we’ll get our cycle rain suits out and put them on to go out and do the wash the next time it rains. Okay…so it’s a plan!
While we were down at the beach, we noticed a loud roaring noise and saw what we thought was smoke coming up intermittently over in the far corner of the earthen dam. I said I thought it was probably a diesel engine running a pump to help drain the lake. Later, we found out from John, the RV park manager, that what we really heard was the roar of the water as it drained into an underground spillway; what we thought was smoke was the spray flying back up because of the air and water mix that couldn’t move smoothly into the spillway. We later learned from John that the spillway wasn’t designed to drain that much water at one time; it normally just moved excess water created by the slow-feeding underground springs.
The top photos show the beach area from the side of the lake across from the RV park, and the other shots are of the spill way and the head of Little Sandy Creek.
Set apart from the memorial wall is a small lake with an AH-1 armed attack helicopter mounted so it appears to be hovering above it. This particular helicopter was from the line of the world’s first armor and close support/attack helicopter group. The tours of duty for this helicopter included Vietnam (1970 – 1973) as a Cobra Gunship for both the 7th and 8th Armored Air Cavalries, in Alaska (1974 – 1978 for USAF Cold Weather Operations, in Germany (1979 – 1989) as a U.S. Army missile launcher, and in the U.S. (1995 – 1996) for the New Jersey Air National Guard. It was retired from active duty in 2002. In 2004, it was donated from the retired inventory at Fort Drum, New York, and donated to the Greater Hawkins Area Veterans Memorial Park.
After walking around the park and taking the pictures we wanted, we made a brief stop at Sonic for breakfast and then went back to the laundromat to gather up the clothes. From there we traveled back to the lake to put everything away so we could get down to Lindale to get our hair cut (extremely important), and then go back to Mineola to visit with the family before heading back to the lake.
It started raining harder just a few minutes after 1:00; hard enough that we finally closed up the house and turned on the air conditioner. I decided that I would go to bed to read a while until the brunt of the storm hit. Just minutes after that grand decision, the power faltered several times and then went off. Since it wasn’t too bad outside, we decided to just let everything sit until we needed to fire up the generator.
When we were looking for a site to be in this week, we looked first for a relatively clear area so we could have the best possible cell phone and broadband card. Another consideration was that we wanted to be where we would have the least chance of a tree falling on us. We do have trees beside the pad, but feel that they are well rooted in a good run-off zone, and we are away from where the wind whips up from the lake. Today we were very glad that we made the choice we did!
After our meal, we went for a walk through the mall, stopped at a shoe store to by Little Jimmy a new pair of running shoes (and trust us on this, he CAN run) before saying goodbye to the kids so they could go visit Jim’s folks for the afternoon.
At 7:00 we went back over to the house to visit, watch a movie (Little Jimmy loves The Incredibles), and have some dessert before calling it a day and returning to the motel. Jimmy may love the movie, but Barbara and I enjoyed watching Jimmy more than the movie as we captured his various “watching” positions.
Monday, September 1
Since a large number of people seemed to have had the same plans that we did for breakfast, we got to spend quite a bit of time visiting with Abby, Dan, Whitney, Jim, and Little
After eating, we returned to the house and whiled away the rest of the evening. I started playing a card game with Barbara, Randi, and Sarah, but later turned my hand over to Carol while I went back to the living room to alternately watch a movie with John, help entertain Rhett, and keep an eye on the Artesia vs Hobbs football game that was being carried over the internet. Since it was an away game for the Bulldogs, they only had an audio feed, so I guess I really kept an ear to the game instead of having an eye on it. In any case, 4-A Artesia defeated the 5-A Hobbs Eagles 27-15 and remained undefeated in the young season.
After taking our time getting around on a lazy Saturday morning, we all had a great breakfast that Carol prepared and then got cleaned up and ready to wander out to one of the local shopping centers for some looking (John and me) and shopping (Barbara, Carol, and Randi). Rhett did a little of both and managed to break in a new pair of shoes by running all over the place, exploring and playing hide-and-seek.
Carol and Randi needed to do a few more things so they sent John, Rhett, Barbara and I to have lunch at Whataburger. It was just after we placed our order that John realized he no longer had a wallet! Leaving Rhett with us, he hot-footed it back to the mall area just praying that his wallet would be at the last store we visited, where Randi had bought a purse. Sure enough it had been found beside the chairs that Jim and John had spent time sitting in during that shopping adventure.
Below: Pictures of Rhett as he enjoyed a beautiful Saturday morning in Poppie and Mima’s backyard.
“The trouble with being a parent is that by the time you are experienced, you are unemployed.” - Unknown+to++use+on+blog.jpg)
After our morning devotional, I went down to the lake for an early morning swim while Barbara took care of some things at Big V. The beach was pretty much deserted…just a workman clearing out weeds a grass and me swimming. The water was a little cool, but it didn’t take long to get used to it and I had an enjoyable few minutes just floating around and soaking up some rays.
We cruised around the lake for quite a while before we talked Barb into strapping on her slalom and testing her skiing skills. What we found out in short order was that she is a fantastic water skier. Even though it had been some time since she was last on the water, she put on a great exhibition for us.
When Barb had finally had enough, we loaded her and the ski gear back on the boat and made our way back to the dock and the landing. We had the boat back on the trailer and pulled out of the lake in short order. With daylight running out, we said our goodbyes as Barb and Robbie headed back to Gilmore with a promise from us that we would soon climb aboard the motorcycle and pay them a visit at their home.
Little Jimmy’s energy button shut down a little after 9:00, signaling the time for all to call it a day and get some rest before a busy day tomorrow. We said our goodbyes and headed back to the motel, leaving Whitney, Jim, and Little Jimmy to their nighttime routine.
