Run that Road Block, A Memory Trigger

Copyright 2018, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

A friend was relating how she had to take her hubs to the ER at 1:00AM and she might be testy today.

Reminded me of my doing the same, in Moab a few years back. Man was sick, I had no idea where the hospital was. I did the GPS thing and at 3:00 AM or there abouts, said GPS delivered me to a ROAD BLOCK!

I called the hospital ER, nice man there calmed me down and told me, just run by that ole road block, the road is fine, and you won't fall off a bridge or anything nearly as sinister.

SO, this prude, did just that, I ran the road block. Yes, I did. You should be proud of me! LOL

And, within 36 hours, Man graciously shared a horrific flu thingy with me. Loads of fun.




* Story first posted on my Facebook wall.

** GIF Clipart, courtesy of http://www.clipartpanda.com/

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Come With Reflections and Visit Nova Scotia

Copyright 2018, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

As some of you know, around 2016 I was bullied and stalked. It was traumatic, as I thought they were friends. SIGHHH



Anyway, in July and August 2016 Man and I escaped for about 6 weeks. I went underground, and only told a few close family and friends. I did not post much on Facebook, but, I did have a secret group there where I kept a running dialog of where and what we were doing, for those family and friends that would have fretted about me.



I have wanted for some time to take those posts and transfer them into a blog/posts. Lately what with all the weirdness that Facebook has become, I decided enough procrastination. So, I spent these last couple of weeks hitting it hard, windy days that kept me inside Tana,  those days were helpful. 

I have extracted the info into 41 posts in a new blog, named "Reflections Visits Nova Scotia 2016".

Now, since my primary goal is to record our travels and adventures for me, I do not expect you all to go running over and reading this post by post by post! LOL. Seriously.



But, if you want, there are a few really nice photos, if I do say so myself.



If you want to spend some boring hours, here is the first post. After you read, or not, if you go to the bottom of the post, left side, you will see the word “Newer”. That will take you to the next day in the excursion to Nova Scotia. It’s the easiest way to maneuver.

I have also placed a permanent link to the entire blog at the very top of this blog.

By the way, along the way, we decided that Nova Scotia was Maine on steroids. It is stunningly beautiful!  Man speaks frequently of returning.




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A Travel Story From A Different Time

Copyright 2016, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Geneva Halterman, my great aunt, or grand aunt.  My grandmother's sister.  I have written about her before here on Reflections.  She was a favorite of mine. Recently I was given this typed transcription of a piece she wrote on her 1972 travels to the Holy Land.  It seemed appropriate to share at this time before the Holy Week for Christians.

It was a different time.

A VERY BEAUTIFUL DESCRIPTION 

OF

A TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND

in December 1972

By 

My Friend, Miss Geneva Halterman

Yes, it was a wonderful trip to the Holy Land.  The food was excellent on plane and boat.  I should like to go again to see the beautiful country and to see how the people live on the other side.

I went with friends from the United Methodist Church in Philadelphia.  It was exciting to fly in those large jets, B-747s, at the rate of 610 miles per hour.  Made the trip from New York to Amsterdam in 6 hours, a distance of 3,700 miles, at an altitude of 39,000 feet (almost 8 miles).  The temperature over the North Atlantic in places was 33 degrees below.

Amsterdam is a beautiful clean city.  Then we transferred there to another plane, stopped in Athens, a beautiful city, then flew to Nicosea, the capital of Cyprus.  There we toured the island with a guide from the country who explained things in English.  Everywhere we traveled we always had a guide from the country in which we traveled.  In the evening near Nicosea we boarded a nice boat which we traveled in was our hotel for nine days. Only one night we spent in a hotel in King David in Jerusalem.  During the winter months the Mediterranean Sea is very stormy.  IT was very stormy in sailing to Metsin and Tarsus Turkey at night.  We traveled by boat at night, and in the daytime on sight seeing buses.

It was a beautiful trip to Lebanon, a nice agricultural state with many vineyards.  Then we went to the capital, Beruit, a beautiful wealthy city where the rich people from Saudi-Arabia have lovely summer homes.  A thriving city where the people live leisurely.  Next we visited Boalbek where the ancient people worshiped false gods.  The temples are now partially in ruins due to earthquakes.  It was picturesque, as down in the valleys the citrus fruits were growing while 10,000 feet of barren mountains peaks were snow covered.  They really glistened in the sunshine.  There the mountains are barren due to volcanic origin.

One day we went to Damascus, Syria, a large beautiful city, the capital.  There they have excellent shops of beautiful silks, brocades, etc.  We traveled over the road that the Apostle Paul did going from Tarsus, Turkey to Jerusalem. There we visited a Mosque carpeted with Persian Rugs.  We had to put on a black robe and take off our shoes before entering inside the Mosque. Inside, the Moslems were lying on rugs, kneeling and bowing as in olden times.  Then we went down the street to one called "Straight Street," There we came to a building where the Apostle Paul was let down in a basket.  One day we went to A Tel-A-Aviv, a modern Israeli city, resembling New York with its large skyscrapers.  One building I noted was 33 stories high.  Then we visited Joppa in the suburbs of Biblical significance.  From there we went to Caeserea, where Cornelius became a christian.  We saw the old Roman theatre and many excavations.

We visited the area around the sea of Galilee which is so beautiful.  We rode on the sea of Galilee in a boat.  Then we had a delicious fish dinner at Tiberias near there.   Rode along the Jordan River, although I did not get any of its water to bring home as some of friends did.  The Jordan River Valley is beautiful.  The Jews have really made the desert bloom with their up to date farming methods, irrigation and fertilizers, enabling them to grow cereal crops in winter and cotton in summer.  They have the finest oranges, enough to supply Europe if they had the labor to pick them, although, ten thousand Jewish refugees, some there annually.  Strangers are welcomed there as they desire to build a strong National State since Israel became a State in 

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1948.  Taxes are understandingly high there as money is needed to get the refugees established.

Their citrus fruit is fine, much better than Florida.  I believe the State of Israel has 100,000, acres devoted to citrus friends.  I never saw so many olive trees.  The cabbage was the size of a dishpan, and the red radishes the size of turnips.

Mekiddo is a beautiful place in the Jordan Valley.  This is supposed to be Armageddon in the latter days.  There I walked through a large old tunnel 200 feet in length that led to the city's Water System in the early days, tasted the salty water of the Dead Sea.  The cities are located on high hills with beautiful walls, a wonderful piece of masonry that put America's to shame.

We visited Capernaum, Acre, Nazareth, Jericho Bethlehem, Shepherd's Field, Mt. of Olives.  Spent one day and two nights in the beautiful city of Jerusalem.  While there, it snowed and sleeted while poinsettias bloomed outside. Jericho is so beautiful too, much excavation is in progress there.  Saw the Mt. of Transfiguration from which Christ ascended into Heaven.  Nazareth is so beautiful with its many walls situated so high.  On top of the Mt. of Transfiguration's barren ledges is a large monastery.   Jericho has many beautiful walls which impressed me deeply until they are worthy of a trip just to see them. Bethlehem is so lovely.  We went into a number of churches there.  About ten miles away we visited Jacob's Well.  We hiked five miles through Old Jerusalem through rain and snow.  The Alleys were full of water from the heavy rains.  We saw so many shops there. We visited St. Anne's Church, also The Church of Many Nations, was in the Upper Room. Visited the Garden of Gethsemane.  There were so many old olive trees there and many flowers in bloom.  I had my picture taken there.  Also visited the Rock of the Dome, where stands a beautiful gold domed Mosque of many stones where King Solomon's temple was.  This can be seen all very the old city of Jerusalem.  Saw the Wailing Wall where the Jews wept when they saw the temple had been destroyed.  There are some beautiful churches there.

Saw via Dolorossa, the Steps Jesus took to Calvary.  It was so inspirational to walk in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was betrayed.

Then to think that one walked where our Lord once walked and talked.  We spend one night in Haifa, a beautiful thriving city of Israel, on the Mediterranean Sea.  There is where we meet our boat.  This city is the only one with a subway that leads from the top of the hill to city center.  Automobiles are quite expensive there, we did not see as many cars there as in America.

It was the Jewish Sabbath when we were there, so cars didn't run, everything was very quiet in observance of the Sabbath.  It was 168 miles from Haifa to Jerusalem over the Mts. of Samaria, so that is the reason we spent the night in Jerusalem that we would not have to return to Haifa where our boat was.  It was most divine riding over the Judean Mountains, where the roads were good, but not many with hand rails, traveled through Israeli-Arab occupied territory.  All was peace and tranquility.

We saw many Bedouinc taking care of their flocks of goats and sheep on the hillsides.

I am sorry we did not go to Egypt as was scheduled as I had wanted to see the Pyramids, Sphinx and the Nile River Valley.  Due to tension between the Egyptians and Israeli it was called off.

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On our return we went from Haifa to Nicosea by boat, from there to Athens by plane.  In Athens we transferred to another plane to Amsterdam, from there to New York in another plane (Royal Dutch Airliner).  In all that one day we traveled 7,000 miles via boat, three planes and two buses.

On our return, the visibility was good flying over Europe.  We were able to get a bird's eye-view of cities in Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Austria, and Germany as well as the Alps Mts. in Austria.  Could see fairly well the tops of buildings in Frankfurt, Munich, and Darmund, Germany.

Must close as I shall tire you with my hieroglyphics, so in all, I had a real nice trip and if the opportunity were to present itself, I think I would go again.

It would be nice hearing from you again.

With love,

Geneva Halterman

It really was a different time to travel.

* For the most part, the spellings put forth in the typed transcribed copy of Geneva's writings were kept as presented.  Forgiveness is begged for my typing errors, as I am sure there are some.

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Reflections and Spring Cleaning

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

OK, so I know I take tooooooo many photos.  17,000 in one year, that is a lot of photos!  SIGHH

And, now, I must do some spring cleaning.  The Baby HP is way over loaded, and I am afraid to even try to down load more photos from the Sony.

I have been having so much fun blogging that I have not done enough cleaning, and now the Photo Piper must be paid.

Man and I have been playing tourist pretty hard for about 3 weeks, oh, we have seen some fabulous stuff, beauty that is beyond description.  Truthfully, I am on sensory overload, and Sony is too!  Man and I are also tired from running hard and sightseeing long.  We have gone on a few hikes too, and I must say, we both are really sleeping well at night!  LOL

But, I have to address this storage issue and I have to address it NOW.  I am not quite sure how or what steps I will take.  I am not sure how long it will take me since I have no idea what method or strategy I am going to use.  (Suggestions gladly accepted and considered. LOL)

Plus, Man and I are within a few weeks of Salt Lake City, that family history mecca.  And, sadly, I am not prepared for the visit.  See, we have tried to take this trip for 5 years, it was cancelled each year for one reason or another.  I became rather depressed about the whole thing and adopted an attitude that it was probably never going to happen for me.  So I stopped working on a to do list.  Well, it looks like it really might happen, and oooops, no to do list!  Well, that is not the real truth, I have one, but it pathetic, only 30 items.  I have a few tricks up my sleeves tho, and it will all work out, I have faith.

So, I am going to slow down on the blogging and work diligently on the photo issue and then I am going to spend a bit of time on that to do list.

I have several posts in the can and scheduled to go.  How soon I can finish more posts will depend on my energy levels, the amount of sightseeing and hiking we do in the next several weeks, and how fast the spring house cleaning goes.  And, off to work I go:

* And, just you wait, the stuff we have been seeing since we left the Gold Canyon Arizona, well, I running out of words, awesome, out of this world, overwhelming, beautiful, spiritual.

** Clip art of CD courtesy of Daily Clip Art.  Clip art of lady and computer courtesy of Clipartheaven.
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Smile for the Camera, 18th Edition, Travel

"The word prompt for the 18th Edition of Smile For The Camera (link only partially function in 2018) is "Travel." Planes, trains and automobiles. Horses, mules, carts, and wagons. Bikes or on foot. Show us your family and how they traveled. This is going to be a good one, I feel it in my luggage."  This challenge is hosted by footnoteMaven.

OKKKK, lets go through the list:

Planes -- got those, see:

Above, my father and one of his planes.

Above, my mother flew our plane to Kitty Hawk North Carolina,

note in the background the Wright Brothers National Monument.

Trains - - did ride one from Virginia to Michigan when I was younger, and a few touristy type rides, but, not really.

Automobiles - - Yep, got a LOT of travel time in automobiles.  Lookie what I found part 2, don't always trust your brother, was actually a automobile trip.

Horses, mules, carts and wagons - - nope, cannot say I do.  Bikes or on foot - - mmmmm, ya right, not this gal.

One that footnoteMaven did not include in her list was RVs.  And, since that is such an important part of Man and my lives, I really must share some of that with you.  A couple of years ago, I did a web page about our camping gear history, I think you might find it fun to have a look at, here. 

Man and I have traveled with one or more of our RV's to:  Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Maine, Massachussets, Ontario Canada and probably a place or two I have neglected to list.

Some of our travel logs and stories can be found at Beyond Reflections From the Fence.

My second blog post here at Reflections From the Fence was titled, And her name is Tana.

Even, the description of my blog mentions, RVs, "This and that from my world of family research, Yorkies, RV's and traveling."

To Man and Moi, travel = Rving, as I freqently am known to say, "Every day spent on earth is a blessing, every day spent in our Montana is a day blessed twice."  
 

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