October 7 to October 13, 2017

October 7, 2017

                We headed to the local SDA church (turned out to be bilingual Spanish/Enlgish) and had a lovely Sabbath with yummy vegan potluck.  There was lots of delicious rice and beans.  Afterward we went to the nursing home and played music and sang before heading over to the Pastor’s home.  They were very kind and insisted we take their Suburban the next day so we could go into Acadia Park without motorhome restrictions.  Church family sure is amazing!  Tell me where else you can meet someone one day, and the next day they give you their family vehicle for the day?

October 8, 2017               

                Sunday we got up early and after eating and reading our Bibles headed in the suburban to Acadia National Park.  It was beautiful!  We went on a challenging hike called Precipice Trail where some basic rock climbing skills were required.  We climbed large boulders and walked along steep cliffs.  The boys and I loved the challenge and we all loved the beautiful scenery.  Maine has some gorgeous coastline, especially with the beautiful fall colors.  We even saw several gigantic cruise ships off the shore of the National Park.  We drove up to the top of Cadillac Mountain – the first point in the United States that the sun touches each morning.  When we arrived it was pouring and the wind was blowing sideways, so we ate our peanut butter sandwiches and apples inside the car and watched everyone else get soaked.  We went to a lighthouse, tide-pooling, and then went to a farm stand and picked up fresh fruits and veggies.

October 9, 2017

                Monday we all decided we have seen enough of Maine.  Really – we are tired of traveling – but we know we are only coming out to the East coast this once, and there is a lot more we want to see….  But we are all ready for the convenience of a shower, kitchen, steady bed, yard to get around in, etc.  It can be hard to have “routines” when living on the road, and we are all creatures of habit.  We started driving, but stopped shortly at Marden’s Surplus and Salvage.  It was the largest salvage store we had ever seen and they had some amazing deals – so we loaded one whole cart with food (a huge praise since the food has been very expensive here especially since we can’t eat from scratch like we normally do), another with overalls and boots, and 3.5 hours later we were headed down the road again towards Boston.  Traffic was terrible – for hours – and it was raining the whole day.  Everyone is doing very well though at keeping their spirits up and having a good attitude while being crammed in a motorhome.  While driving I am busy navigating and doing the research for the coming week’s activities.  Boston will be our first big city, so that will be interesting! 

October 10, 2017

                Tuesday morning we started in the Concord/Lexington area.  We visited the area Paul Revere road through to sound the alarm and was captured, where the first shots were fired at the Old Bridge, and the battle green of Lexington.  I have loved history from my youngest age, and standing here in person I have simply added to my knowledge and love of history.  But things I have changed since then – not history – but my perspective.  I am older, and I have spent a lot more time reading my Bible and developing a Biblical worldview.  As a child I was inspired by the courage and independence of the colonists.  I wished I could live in their time and fight like they did! I shocked though as I feel my sentiments changing.  In many ways the colonists remind me of my rebellious children and my own rebellious nature against God at times.  The attitude was definitely not one of godliness and following the Bible.  It is somewhat scary to me as I see my opinions of decades changing – but I ask myself, Will I follow the opinion of God or of man?  Will I look at things through my selfish opinion or through the eyes of the Bible?             

                Tuesday afternoon we went to the National Historic Adams Family homes. We went through a ton of traffic and ended up at a parking garage with a height limit.  There was no RV parking.  Our first major challenge…  I was told tickets were selling quick and the last tour would be in one hour – so we had an ahour to attempt to find street parking for a motorhome in outerskirts Boston…. Yah right…  I told Dave – he has had a great attitude about all the challenges of navigating a motorhome through unknown roads and routes; I thought this would test his limit, but it did not!  A young man walked by and Dave mentioned he had to find a parking spot.  The young man said he would be right back.  We waited at this deadend street we were barely able to turn around it.  He returned a minute later with an instructor from a school that was nearby who said the school was released early that day and we could park in front of their industrial building for free!  Praise the Lord! We saw little homes they began in, and the mansion they ended up in.  It is interesting to note that most great people, began with very humble and difficult means.  There is something about the challenges of life, that breed a life-changing character.  Most of these men at about 10 years old traveled to Europe and worked for their father as secretary in national affairs.  Amazing!  Another interesting note is the Adams men read through their entire Bible each year and were very avid readers in all kinds of knowledge they could obtain.  None of them enjoyed school though.  Lol

                Serenity and I found a place and chopped off hair -  6 inches for me; 4 inches for her.  Life in an RV with a once a week shower just doesn’t cater to long hair very well…  We spent the night in another Walmart parking lot.

October 11, 2017

                Wednesday morning we awoke at 4:30 am and drove to a subway parking lot before it filled up too fast.  We went back to sleep…  Awaking a few hours later we ate a pancake breakfast in the motorhome, bought subway tickets, and headed into Boston.  The subways were extremely crowded; Serenity was pretty uncomfortable with it because she had never been crammed into such a tiny space with so many people before.  Just wait until the Mexico Mission trip…  lol  At Harvard University we saw the amazing buildings and read the sign that is now totally covered by a tree and can’t be seen unless you know.  It talks about the founding of Harvard as a Christian school – that is truly our foundation – but how far we have strayed as a nation.  I never thought I would pen such words; they seem blasphemous; but they are true. 

                We then walked 5 miles through Boston.  First we walked through the Beacon Hill Neighborhood.  These are very old brick/stone houses, no separation between them, with beautiful window boxes of plants in them.  They are very thin and go up high.  There are brick and cobblestone streets.  While being in downtown Boston, it seems such a clean expensive neighborhood.  We then walked “the Freedom trail” – a walk of 16 historic places throughout Boston.  We went through several museums all centering around the Revolutionary War.  My thoughts that begin yesterday, are only further entrenched today.  Rebellion is a dangerous seed – it can come in all sorts of human fashioned excuses that appear very logical, brave, and worthy in our own eyes – but rebelliousness is a dangerous seed that when sown, reaps some ugly results.  Years of wars followed, thousands died, to build what?  (Look at October 13 for more on the guilded age.)  We toured Boston Commons, the state capitol (which was AMAZING!!!!! – look it up – the beauty and artwork inside and out was amazing!), Paul Revere’s house, Bunker Hill, and the USS Constitution (Old Iron Sides.)  We left again on the Subway – wondering if we would find a way to all cram in – and drove out of Boston to a Walmart in Plymouth, MA.

                While some of you may think I am crazy, and you are more than welcome to write me and enlighten me – the attitude at the center was rebellion, not of personal reform.  This is an attitude of Satan, not God.  The Puritans had arrived, but adventurous rebellious people had come seeking a new life.  The foundation of the revolution wasn’t a desire to follow God more closely, it was a desire to be free from authority.  They wanted to be free from taxes.  Question though, if we rebelled to free ourselves from taxes why are we paying taxes now?  And my guess is we pay more now than before…  what did we really gain?  I fear we rooted rebelliousness deeper in our generations and are now paying the final fruit of that.

                In our young minds many times we put things in black and white boxes.  “This is all good” and “This is all bad.” But life really isn’t that way.  There are stories I see of courage and virtue.  And there are stories I find of straight up evil.  The puritans had a lot of good – they came here seeking God.  And yet everything they did not was perfect – but God blessed their earnest effort.  But it is all part of the reformation.  It was a beginning, but God still wanted to bring His people out of their partial darkness into His full light.  Kind of like my life.  I am not all good or all bad.  There are good things in my character, but there is still a lot of bad that I must sift through and surrender to God.  It is to be a daily, personal battle of onward and upward.

October 12, 2017

                Thursday we awoke in Plymouth and went to the Monument to the Forefathers.  There is a documentary called “Monumental” which we saw before we left on our trip that is outstanding.  This monument was constructed in the late 1880’s – so not long ago – and portrayed the values, morals, and principles that established the government of this country.  Liberty for all to follow God, a Law to provide justice, Education so that all could read their Bibles and learn to personally follow God, and Morality.  It is HUGE!  And beautiful!  How far we have strayed.  Next we visited Plymouth Rock – a rock in the Harbor with the year “1620” engraved.  Then we visited the Pilgrim Museum.  We learned the Pilgrim’s made huge sacrifices to come here with their children so they could follow the Lord.  While England would not allow them to leave the church of England without persecution, they did give the Pilgrims permission to come to America and begin a colony.  It was hard work – but it was worth it.  The world watched in wonder as this little band of people established a very successful colony.  Not a drunk man could be found, or fowl language heard.  They grew and prospered.  But as so often the case, when Satan sees a group of people standing up for what is right, he sends infiltrates – and so the adventure seeking men came and brought a different purpose and attitude. Is there anything new under the sun?  where there is truth there will always be hypocrisy.  An interesting fact – the first baby born in America was White – yes, an ancestor of James White.  We saw his basinet at the museum.

                In the afternoon we drove to Fairhaven – a large sailing port in its day and the house of Joseph Bates.  Behind the home of Joseph Bates is the oldest building in Fairhaven – a brick wall which is from a settler from the Pilgrims in 1688 who was exiled from the colony because he believed in baptism and so he settled in Fairhaven.  It was neat to walk the home Joseph Bates grew up in, knowing all those great stories of his life.  A new one I learned – Joseph Bates was a millionaire by today’s standards when he retired at the age of 35.  He spent his entire fortune within the next 20 years teaching temperance from alcohol, and the abolition slavery.  He lived the rest of his live a poor man day to day trusting that God would survive as he then spread the truth of the 7^th day Sabbath.  The gentleman leading the tour is a brother of an acquaintance in Bremerton, WA: Linda Rickaby. Small world…  We then drove down the coast into Newport, Rhode Island.  We arrived in time to visit our first mansion.  All the mansion details tomorrow.

October 13, 2017

                Friday we awoke to complete the mansion tour.  You have got to look these up online: The Breakers, Marble House, Rosecliff, Chateau-sur-Mer, the Elms.  We learned about the guilded age – this was a coined term by Mark Twain for pieces of garbage covered in gold.  These homes were built in the late 1880’s to early 1900’s.  The nation was experiencing a boom as it erupted in industrialization and families such as the Vanderbilts were becoming rich overnight.  Their riches were surpassing the riches of Europe and they wanted to show it off.  They built gigantic mansions on an Island and a town called Newport, Rhode Island.  Here they could take their yacht from their home in New York City and reside for about 8 weeks in the summer.  (Yes, a mansion for 8 weeks of living.)  The largest mansion was 135,000 square feet, and the rest not far behind.  Ceilings were about 30 feet high, each room was enormous and made to entertain hundreds of people.  The mansion was poured in cement and then each room was completed inlaid with pure marble, pure wood, gold, etc. from the floor, walls, and ceilings.  Magnificent paintings were throughout.  Each room was made and themed from a different country around the world.  It took 40 servants to run the household. In my lifetime, the most elaborate building I have seen is the Catholic church in Mexico City – extremely elaborate – but these mansions way surpass it.  One room was completed covered in gold.  Each room isn’t just inlaid – but it is completed carved with statues and 3d carvings coming out of the wall.  My words cannot even begin to describe the wealth.  They were built for millions in their day – which is obviously many more million in today’s standard.  Each of these has a gorgeous view over the ocean with extensive beautiful gardens.  Part of me was jealous for a second – wishing I could live like that…  and then I see the lives of these people and I change my mind.  Within generations, the people are ruined…  Even within these generations the people spoke of what a curse it was to be that rich – forced to marry for money and not knowing if you have a single true friend who loves you for who you are.  It caused me to contemplate our mansions in heaven God is creating.  I have no clue what they must look like – but after today’s tour through these mansions – my eyes are enlightened to realize God’s mansions are even more glorious that I ever imagined.  “No eye has seen nor can mind imagine what God has in store for those who love Him.”  This was the guilded age – covered in gold to look pretty, but underneath it was an empty life – a white elephant.  It all ended when the US brought in income tax and inheritance tax and nobody had the money to maintain them anymore.  These mansions then sold for around $20,000 or were donated because nobody could afford to maintain them.  Time for another revolution maybe because of the increased tax?  Just kidding! 

                As the sun begins to go down I think of what a blessing it is to have a Sabbath’s day rest to remember what is truly important.  To develop my relationship with Christ and those around me so that I don’t just paint my outside to be beautiful, but I work on the inside – the part that matters.  I feel the Lord stretching me – testing me – asking me – do I really love Him with my whole heart and mind?  Am I giving him every detail of my life? I say I do, but I have a lot to surrender.  I hang on to such garbage - such sin.  In my eyes it is beautiful, it is covered in gold, it is so desirable and luxurious, but on the inside, it is just a big bunch of heavy cement that weighs me down, ensnares me, and causes me to lose what is really important and valuable.  I choose Christ.  I choose to let the pleasures of this world pass me by, that I may enjoy a mansion up in heaven – and my mind is going in circles tonight trying to imagine what that must look like.  And can you guess what song our family is singing as we drive along and the sun is going down as we drive from Island to Island through the Atlantic Ocean along the beautiful Rhode Island coastline?  “I’ve got a mansion, just over the hilltop, in that bright land where, we’ll never grow old.”  And in that great mansion – I can see my beloved friends and family everyday!