Neuharth family travels across America: November 2017

November 18, 2017

We arrived at a church in Myers Beach Florida to park for the night on Friday night. There were cars in the parking lot and a meeting going on so we decided to use the restroom. We got stopped in the hallway and invited it. The people were extremely friendly and then left their church unlocked all night so we could use the restrooms and their showers! What a pleasant surprise!

Dave is so paranoid about alligators and snakes down here that he told the kids when they were headed to bed that they had to shut the windows so a snake couldn’t drop on the roof of the motorhome and come through a screen. Lol I was laughing hilariously at this thought. Now remember, it is muggy, hot, and we aren’t using the a/c so we kind of are depending on those open windows to be able to get a little breeze to sleep. We did see alligators in the pond in front of the church, but none in the parking lot. And no snakes…

The church there Sabbath morning was great. The people were all very friendly – especially for being a large church. Many people came out of their way to greet us and invited us to join them for the afternoon. Instead however, we went to Sanibel Island and walked the beach. There was hardly anyone there after we passed the initial 100ft. and it was like walking on our own private beach. Sanibel island is known for its shells and it did not disappoint us. There were piles and piles and piles of perfect, beautiful shells. I filled all my pant pockets and then even bean to stuff my shirt. We also enjoyed watching a pod of dolphins swim just off short – we could have gone swimming with the dolphins for free if we hadn’t been having so much fun finding shells.

SPORTS

The pastor brought up a very interesting point in Church. I guess in Florida, sports are even more important than in Seattle. He was saying this last week the NFL Commissioner was negotiating for his salary. (For non-sports people like me, Dave said all he basically does is put his approval seal on major NFL transactions and shows up at games.) The commissioner proposed a salary of 55 million a year and his own private jet for the rest of his life. The pastor brought up that America obviously has a reversed order on priorities when people get paid that much in a profession constructed from a game 12 year old children play in their backyard. But what do teachers make? Mechanics? Nurses? People who make a tangible difference in society? He said that as Christians we are to have different values, and that if we are sports fans we are aligning ourselves with the same values as those of the world. He was a pretty gutsy pastor to speak these words! But he also said he used to be a sport fanatic, but that God had convicted him of this and he had cut it out of his life.

FLORIDA GEOGRAPHY

We have learned Florida is basically 4 feet above sea level at the highest point – everywhere. When you go over a bridge, that is the largest elevation change you experience in Florida – and I’m not exaggerating… We wondered where they got fill dirt to raise their roads and places they build, and we found out. When a development goes in, they dig a lake, use the ground from digging the lake to raise the elevation around it, and that’s where you build! That would never fly with government regulations in Washington state! They would ban all homes in Florida… They are ALL in wetland. Florida IS wetland.

November 19, 2017

The best things in life truly are free…. Today was one of them… We arrived on a beach just south of Venice, FL at 6:30 am. We were told Venice is the shark tooth capitol of the world. Our hopes were not very high. We had been told Chesapeake bay had shark teeth sitting on the ground easy to grab and yet we searched for 2 days and only 3 of us found a few. When we arrived there were already beachcombers out there and the sun wasn’t even up! We hadn’t beat the crowd! We began digging through the shells and a very nice young man came up and told us to quit digging and just look on top. He bent over and picked up 2 as if to show us how easy it was. We looked…. Nothing… but a couple minutes later we found one, then another, and another. Before long all 6 of us had found teeth and we were ecstatic! Serenity kindly went back to the motorhome to get plastic bags so we could collect them all. We collected teeth for 3 hours before breaking for breakfast. Then the kids played in the waves while Dave and I walked the beach for 4 hours. By then Benjamin and Dave were fried, Serenity (the only one who had applied sunscreen) was still white with a some new beautiful freckles, and Lucas, Levi and I were nicely browned. We had some smoothie in the motorhome to cools down and started showering and cleaning up. The shark tooth counting began. When we did our grand total our family had close to 800 shark teeth, 2 alligator teeth, a bunch of stingray teeth, and a few added we-don’t-know-what.

We then headed to Dave’s Uncle and Aunt’s house: Paul & Gayle Neuharth who live in Lakewood Ranch, Florida. We had a WONDERFUL dinner with them and had a great time chatting. We both shared how God has been working in our lives the last couple years and it was amazing how many similarities we have. They also sold two homes and prematurely retired and God just opened doors and closed doors and they just walked by faith. They have gone through a lot of changes, but God has been so good to them. What inspiring stories! We have been getting emails from several of our friends too and just hearing inspiring stories of how God is working in their lives. God is truly so very good!

November 20, 2017

We awoke talking about our dreams. Several of us remarked that as we were falling asleep but still awake, we kept thinking in our brains we were seeing shark teeth and needed to reach out and grab them. I guess that tells you how addicting shark teeth collecting is!

We drove by an old sugar mill – that was interesting! Then we went to Crystal Springs to see manatees. Each fall, as the ocean temperatures drop, the manatees come into the natural springs that are a constant 72 degrees. We saw about 30 manatees less than 50 feet away from us. There were several babies. You would think they are high in fat but actually it is pretty much all intestines. They have a complicated digestive system for the grasses they eat. They are very curious creatures and sometimes will even voluntarily “hug” a human to check them out. They usually breath about every 4 minutes while active and 20 while sleeping. After a couple minutes the park ranger said, “You guys must be home schooled; I can tell because you are asking good questions.”

We had our first major trip catastrophe. We got back in the motorhome and nobody knew what to do. Benjamin wanted to go swimming somewhere – anywhere…. The rest of the family didn’t want to swim. Serenity wanted to go to an animal wildlife refuge, but it was a little expensive (after just spending $70 for our family to see manatees for 10 minutes), Dave didn’t want to spend the afternoon walking with his sunburned feet, and nobody cared really to see the animals. I just wanted to know what the plan was and do it! Levi and Lucas just wanted to go see their cousins in West Virginia. In that moment we were at a funk and a standstill. Meanwhile we are looking at our itinerary and realizing we could change it and travel west and hit Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana because realistically it will probably be our only opportunity in life… So now I have a bunch of research to do on that and of course it is Thanksgiving week and off-season so many things are closed. I realized in that moment that if we were home, it would have been a simple fix. Everybody would have gone to their corner and done whatever they wanted to do. But we were all stuck in the 33ft. motorhome together and could only go one place…. So, I suggested Dad’s feet might feel better in a spring – and the rest of us would be content either playing there or chilling. Everyone agreed. WHEW….. that was a close one! I was ready to just pack it up and come home since we didn’t know where to go next! (We are all homesick, but we are all enjoying the trip too.)

There are many natural and beautiful springs in Northern Florida. They are all a constant 72 degrees. We checked prices and found they were between $80-$150 for our family to enter one. We drove to one and they were going to charge us $80 for 2 hours! I complained, and the employees volunteered there was a state park just 2 miles away that was actually better than their springs and only $6 for the family. So we headed there and found a beautiful turquoise water paradise! We were even able to rent a double kayak for the afternoon for $20 and we all took turns exploring the natural spring that ran out into a river. The water was the clearest I have ever seen and we could see the fish and turtles swimming by – even the snails and their pathways in the sand below! Dave sat in a chair and let his feet sit in the water. Poor thing – they are fluorescent pink and very swollen. Benjamin enjoyed swimming to cool down his back. Serenity and I enjoyed reading, kayaking, and just staring at the beautiful water - but the water was too cold! The boys had fun sitting in their chairs and having minnows come eat their dead skin off their feet. At one point the medium sized fish came and scared the tiny minnows to take over. That sounded pretty disgusting to us girls though… we stayed clear of the fishy pedicures.

We left the park at 5:45pm and began a 3.5 hour drive to Andersonville, GA. Within a few minutes the kids were knocked out asleep for the night. I haven’t pinned what it is yet, but our kids sleep A LOT on this trip – and we do too I guess…. Usually we are in bed by 9pm and up at between 6am and 8am. Maybe it is the lack of routine; we have as much routine as possible for a roadtrip. We have a consistent bedtime, meal times, worship morning and evening, etc. Or maybe it is that we don’t work hard enough during the day to ever truly wake up! Or maybe we are catching up from our workaholism the last years of our life… It’s 8:01pm, kids are all asleep in bed, Dave is driving in the slow right lane following the cell phone GPS, our odometer shows 9,720 miles we have driven, we just passed the sign welcoming us into Georgia, I am huddled in the front seat wearing my fleece sweater and wrapped in my fleece blanket while Dave has the cold air blasting, and our front windshield is plastered in bugs. This is a pretty “normal” moment in our lives these days.

November 21, 2017

I awoke and left the rest of the family sleeping while I went into Wal-mart to do our Thanksgiving dinner shopping. I had already ordered the gluten flour through Amazon prime and had it delivered to Dave’s aunt and uncle’s house. We will have several crazy things to factor in like how to find enough time to cook without the motorhome driving around corners… and how to have it all warm when we only can fit a 8X10 pan inside, but I have come up with some ideas to deal with the oven issue. We are going to eat a 3 course meal that goes on all day…. Breakfast will be salad, stuffing, and sweet potatoes; lunch later in the day will be gluten steaks, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, and sparkling cider; supper will be pumpkin pie and pecan pie. This should work to have warm food, but it will probably turn our motorhome into an oven with the oven going most of the day. Thanksgiving day we need to drive 7 hours, so it could be interesting! But as my dear friend Velma pointed out, we have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving with how much the Lord has guided us and protected us, and not to mention the addition of our lovely daughter to the family.

We then went to Andersonville National Historic Sight – this was the Prisoner of War (POW) camp the Confederates used during the Civil War for the Union soldiers they captured. It was built as a stockade – trees put into troughs standing straight up into the air 15 feet. It was built very quickly by slaves and in the end surrounded 26.5 hours. It was only used for 14 months at the end of the war. It was built in this location because it was away from enemy lines, close to the railway, had a creek running through it, and had ample food in the area. What they did not expect was 53,000 prisoners to be there – 33,000 at one time. There were no buildings or anything provided for the POWs, but rather they would take sticks they could find and whatever military rations they had with them and attempt to make a shelter. There was not enough food, there was not enough water, and chaos reigned. 13,000 soldiers died from starvation or illness. Trenches were dug everyday and the dead soldiers were laid in them and a number put on top of them. Some of the POWs got together and formed a gang called the “Raiders.” They would go through the prison getting whatever they wanted even if it meant killing fellow POWs. Some of the POWS appealed to the prison guards and they held trial and the 6 gang leaders were hung.

The site contained a POW museum from all through history. It was fascinating and very educational. It really made me think about how blessed I am and how thankful I am. First of all, I am greatly blessed to have freedom – to not be a prisoner, let alone a prisoner in a foreign country. Second of all I am blessed that neither my husband, children, or any other loved one is a POW. How challenging it must be to live not knowing if your loved one is alive or if they will ever return. Things might be rough at home – but do we ever stop to count how truly blessed we are? Let’s count those huge blessings we have and take for granted every day.

Andersonville had a major water problem. The summer of 1884 was an even hotter summer than usual. The water dried up. POWs would dig wells attempting to find water, some 50 ft. deep. A group of them got together and were praying earnestly for God to intervene. A giant rainstorm came that flooded the creek to the point that it broke to stockade wall it flowed through, the rains poured through the camp cleaning it, and lightning struck and in that spot a spring with clear refreshing water immediately began to flow. The POWs called this “Providence Spring” and confessed that God was still providing for them and answering their prayers.

POW SURVIVAL

POWs are put in very challenging situations emotionally and physically. Many of them simply give up and die, others kill themselves, and still others go crazy. Those who make it have a hope, never give up, are stubbornly determined to survive, and keep their minds and bodies as useful as possible. Even the POWs who spent all day burying fellow dead POWs had a better survival rate than those who sat around.

In this I find many great spiritual lessons. We are blessed to ALWAYS have hope if we are living in Christ. If Christ is for us, we need never to give up always knowing he will not bring upon us something we cannot endure. As we have a relationship with Christ we need never let our minds go idle or crazy, we can always keep our minds on Christ in thought and prayer and reciting scripture we have put to memorization. No matter what difficult tasks we have ahead of us – even one of the most difficult of being a POW – if we are with God we are prepared to endure. Christ is the best life insurance policy we can have.

POW QUOTE

“If, as it has often been remarked that ‘war is the result of a nation’s sin’- then the sins of this nation must have been very great, and the atonement is truly one of the most painful mortality.” During the civil war 700,000 soldiers were killed, 350,000 were taken captive, and over 56,000 prisoners died. I a reminded today afresh, was the cost of life worth it? As we were discussing this in our family, Levi brought out a very interesting point. In several battles such as with Gideon and the battle of Jericho – when God sent His people to war – not a single soldier was killed on God’s side and yet the battle resulted in total victory. It would be very interesting to do a Bible study comparing the outcomes of battles directed by God vs. humans. Another example I think of is when Moses killed a man, and yet 40 years later the entire nation of Israel simply walked out of Egypt without fighting. Truly “If God is for us, who can be against us?” And yet if God is not for us, we pay the price of life. Oh how I wish we were a Godly nation!

HOW CAN GOD BE A LOVING GOD AND YET KILL PEOPLE?

I think this is one of the age-old questions… For me that was answered when I read EGW’s Patriarch’s and Prophets. She was talking about the wars between the Israelites and the godless nations. I will paraphrase… She said God allowed the Israelites to kill the other nations for 2 reasons #1 because if sinful beings kept reproducing, the influence of sin would be so strong that those wanting to follow Christ wouldn’t have a chance. #2 People who live in sin become so miserable that God is actually merciful in putting them out of their misery and laying them to rest.

Delaney, a POW Raider at Andersonville said as his last words before being hung, “I would rather be hanged than live the way most prisoners have to live.” This quote reminded me of EGW’s words and of the situation at the end of time. God is merciful when he allows those who are miserable to be put out of their misery to experience no more of it.

CHAOS REIGNED IN POW CAMP

Once again we see what humanity does without God when they are put in difficult situations. While we might appear all mostly nice when we have comfortable life, food, clothing, etc., when locked up the POWs even though they were on the same side began to attack each other even killing each other. This is sin at its worst; pride and selfishness at its worst. While I have heard some people predict that Americans will bind together and help each other when the natural disasters of the end days come, we must see from reality that we can only come together and help each other if we believe in God and know that ultimately He will provide for our needs and He will reward us for sacrificing our own needs to help others. When we do not have trust in God and get in a hard spot and in a panic, sinful human nature will take over and do whatever it takes to have the best. We must really look at our own hearts and minds and ask ourselves what kind of attitude we have and really seek to draw near to God. When our trust is in Him we can say with total peace: The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside cool waters. He restores my soul. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. For the rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemy. Thou annointeth my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

SOUTH

While we might be “One nation under God” – uh…. Just a second… I guess we aren’t anymore… While we are still one nation as a legal country, there are many distinct parts. We experienced New England’s unique feel: its own kind of people and its own way of operating. While we still all speak English but with a little different accent and we all shop at the same stores, there are different products on the shelves and different cultures and ways of living. (There is no Adam’s peanut butter on the East Coast!) After studying the Civil War and visiting so many states, I now see why many truly wanted each state to rule because the areas are very unique.

Please know I am not racist, and I will risk being thought of as such to express my thoughts… One thing that saddens me in the South is to see the state of the blacks. While in the Northwest we have some punk blacks, we also have a lot of very educated high-class blacks. (Just like we have punk whites and educated whites.) While in New England I saw the same. I am not saying there aren’t any upper-class blacks in the South, but there are many blacks that I see working poor jobs and they still have the look of a slave. You can tell in their eyes that they know their place in society; they know they aren’t worth as much. It breaks my heart. I am used to looking at everyone equal and treating everyone equal. I am used to being friendly with everyone and having a mutual understanding that we have different colored skin, but we still are of equal value. An example is we got off a ferry a couple weeks ago and there was a group of black people ready to get on and clean. I noticed they were all looking down at the ground waiting for us to pass as though they couldn’t look at us in the eyes.

There are some real dumps down here, but there are a lot of large gorgeous homes out on acreage that we don’t see a lot of in the Northwest. I keep trying to figure out why and the only conclusion I have is that the cost of living is so much cheaper here that they can afford to live like that. Also the weather is better and so they have a longer period of time to work on their homes and yards. We talked to several people at the beach in Florida and one couple had purchased a 3 bedroom home in the beach community 2 years ago for $200,000.

I also spoke to a couple who had done a lot of vacationing on the west coast. They expressed how culture shocked they had been. They said, “We are trying to figure out how to say this nicely… We were shocked at how progressive it was.”

We each grow up in our own environment and think it is “normal.” But traveling out of our comfort zone can really show us how abnormal we are. In many ways I feel like a foreigner here. And it is so odd how almost everyone in a conversation brings up the Lord. The west-coasters sure have become the cutting edge of the godless generation. So, if you live on the west coast and think you are ultra conservative, just put yourself in a new geographical location and you will realize you are still really liberal. Maybe we will show our spiritual sincerity when we show up at church at 8:45am to have prayer meeting before Sabbath School and church begins. (This is standard New England Adventism.)

November 22, 2017

We awoke in Vicksburg, Mississippi. We drove west over the Mississippi River into Louisiana, turned around, and headed to Vicksburg National Battlefield. Here we learned about the fight for the Mississippi River during the Civil War. Both the North and South believed whoever had control of the Mississippi River would win because that is where supplies were through. Vicksburg was a high-class city in those days with large plantations and riches. The city sits up on a bluff several hundred feet off the Mississippi River and looks out over the area. There were also very educated people who lived there. It was an easy life for the whites, and an enslaved life for the blacks. As in the Eastern U.S., The Union had more soldiers but the Confederates fought with better tactics. The Union attempted to come from the North and from the river unsuccessfully. General Grant out of a last ditch effort of desperation circled around Vicksburg to the West and South and approaching from the East. He went through the heartland of the South but where there weren’t many military divisions to resist him. He attacked repeatedly but with the elevation advantage of Vicksburg, mass amounts of Union soldiers died. Finally Grant decided the only way to win was a siege. They circled Vicksburg cutting off all supplies and bombarded the city with bombs day and night. Finally, Vicksburg surrendered. 13,000 Union soldiers had died in this costly battle. We drove around the battlefield lines where we could see signs of who was where. There were large monuments built throughout to commemorate this battle.

We visited the USS Cairo – an ironclad ship that had been created to go through the Mississippi River during the Civil War. It was impressive! They recovered it from the bottom of the river a few years ago.

Next we went to the Lower Mississippi Museum. We learned how vast an area the Mississippi River encompasses, how it regularly changes its course, how it floods, how shallow it is from all the deposits of sand that are constantly changing, and the development of the Army Corps of Engineers to attempt to control the Mississippi River. This river drains 41% of America! Without the Army Corps of Engineers doing their work, much of this land would be uninhabitable due to the changing course and the overflowing riverbanks during floods. We also went to a little museum that had hundreds of miniature replicas of all sorts of boats and ships – many that had been on the Mississippi River.

On our way out of town we drove through beautiful old Vicksburg, MS. There were gorgeous tall brick and granite buildings. There were also slums. We drove to the Confederate cemetery. One thing I notice about the east, there are large cemeteries everywhere. With this area being lived in longer, there are more people who had died and been buried. It makes me wonder what the cemeteries are like in Europe and Asia… It also reminds me of how long this battle between Satan and God has been going on – how many victims have fallen – and how soon this battle is going to end! Just like the Civil War – they thought it would be just one big battle and over. Adam and Eve hoped their son would be the Messiah and it would be over, but 6,000 years later the war is finally ready to win. The Lord has won the strong points, and although it looks as though the world will fall to the devil and his grand strategies, the Lord is coming soon in victory!

We didn’t think very well before driving through the cemetery. We got ourselves pretty stuck. But Dave was a miraculous driver again!

We headed east towards Chattanooga, TN. I made gluten steaks, stuffing, and sweet potato casserole while driving – we were successful!