Wild, Dangerous Beasts are Everywhere!

One of my bigger problems is all of the dangerous animals we encounter in our travels.  I have kids of all ages and it seems that most places we go they are like bait.

Last year we spent the winter in central and south Florida.  I couldn't believe all of the alligators!  They were everywhere.  One campground had a pond in it, and guess who lived there?  Yes, an alligator!

The parks we walked in and playgrounds we played in had signs everywhere that said to beware of alligators!  Why in the world have they not killed them or at least relocated them?  Kids run right by those ponds every day!

This sign is found on the way into the Florida Keys!

Then, of course, there were the sharks in the ocean.  I have never let my kids watch Jaws, and never will.  We had a lot of fun playing in the surf and kayaking the waves.  Cody got a little freaked once when he saw something swim by him in a wave, while he was on the kayak. 

Cody on his kayak at Playa Linda, Florida

I actually paid to hold an alligator!  I rested it on by pregnant belly.  The kids thought I was crazy!
 But then they did it, too!

We can't seem to get away from snakes.  I grew up in the northwoods of Wisconsin.  Nothing deadly can live up there, except bears, lymes disease carring wood ticks, and millions of mosquitos.  But, when I was a kids I didn't even really notice them.  Up there, though, no poisonous snakes.  I could walk through a swamp and not even worry about it. 

Living in Missouri, I have had to get used to copperheads.  We had 13 on our property one year!  We saw one in northeast Kansas, in Marysville.  It got real close to Shae and Josie.  Shae was so mad at it, he chased it down the hill with a tree branch, trying to kill it!

There was one, huge rattlesnake at Superstition Mt. near Phoenix.  He was right on the side of the trail, all coiled up.  Nasty thing. 

Heading into South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana brought a whole nother' level of beast.  Mountain Lions are down right evil.  I hate the way they watch us at the zoo.  Then the black bears, grizzlys, and moose, sure keep us on our toes.  I remember hiking in Glacier National Park.  We all sang, "This is the Day", clapped our hands, rang bells, carried bear spray, and stayed together as we walked to see an amazing water fall.

While at Yosemite, we giggled that the sign said to not even leave food in the open because bears will break into our cars! 

We did see a grizzly and two black bears at Glacier National Park.  I was thankful we were in our van, but just in awe of those magnificent creatures.  Now, if I had been on foot, it would have been another story!

A grizzly at Glacier National Park

A black bear at a bear encounter in Bozeman Montana.

 A black bear at Glacier National Park eating huckleberries.

Black bear in Glacier National Park

Yummy huckleberries

Grizzly at bear encounter

Since being in Missouri, we have killed 3 rattlesnakes and two or three copperheads!  I can't believe it!  I have decided there is nowhere safe, no place is free of its beasts, I just have to learn to live with them, or at least in the same forest as them.  Now, if they come after me or my kids, well, that is another story.  I have hunted my whole life and am not afraid to kill an animal of any sort.

I remember in Key West, there was a scorpion.  It was on my kid's toys.  I took their play hammer and beat it so badly that the only thing that was left was a claw!

I unloaded a whole clip on a copperhead, just to make sure it was dead.  I didn't want to get close to check, so I just kept shooting.

Now, I did check the law, and it is illegal to kill poisonous snakes in Missouri unless they are a threat to people.  Well, all of these were in our yard and where the kids play.  We had to kill them.

Speaking of scorpions, there was a very poisonous one sitting on our atv tire when we were in Arizona.  Cody kept it in a cage for a while until it climbed out.  It was a good thing he didn't have it in the camper! 

Lastly, Cody was riding his atv this afternoon and came across a huge tarantula.  I am thankful they aren't very harmful.  He wanted to catch it of course.

We try to read up on what are the dangers in a particular area or state.  Education is the one of the best deterrents to fear.  We try to learn all we can, and then do all we can to not be a victim.  Beyond that, it is out of our control. 

We pray and trust and have a lot of fun!

There is always something, everywhere.  We enjoy our trip and deal with what each day brings.

I Really am Blonde Even Though my Hair is Getting Darker....

I know that if I am driving the van, it is my responsibility to know how to take care of it and what to do
in certain emergencies. Shae does all of the oil and maintenance, so I just rely on him for most things
to do with our vehicles. I rarely even put in gas. When I am out driving around, I have to purposely
look at the gas level, because sometimes I just forget to; I have gotten so used to Shae just filling it!

I don’t believe in blame or excuses, so I take total responsibility for what I am about to tell you. We
knew our van had an overheating problem. This was going to be my first big mountain pass to drive
over. I was hauling the flatbed with all of our toys on it. I should have researched overheating.

BUT I DID NOT

I DID NOT RESEARCH ANYTHING

Well, I know you know where this is going...

We began going up Hwy 16, from Buffalo to Ten Sleep, over Powder River Pass, in Wyoming. I hadn’t been climbing the mountain long when I noticed my water heat gauge rising. It was just a little at first. I tried to slow down a little, but that didn’t help.

I called Shae on the walkie talkie and he said to slow down
and .....what?

Oh no! We lost signal.

I hurried and tried him on the cell phone....

Oh No! No signal!

I really didn’t know what to do. I had Hanna dial Shae’s number over and over, but no answer.

The gauge kept rising.

I knew I needed to pull over. I found a spot and got off the road. My father passed away in 04’, so I
couldn’t call him,

WHO ELSE?

I tried my father-in-law. He said to turn off the air.

BIG OOPS ON MY PART!

Never turn on the air if your vehicle is over heating. My mother-in-law shouted from the background...”I just read in a travel book to turn your heat on high if you are overheating!” So, I cranked the heat.
After a few minutes, the temperature began to go down. I got back on the road and drove ahead to
where Shae had finally found a spot to pull over. He couldn’t believe I had the air on. It was pretty
dumb of me. I should have known better.

I did learn a lot that day...

•First, be prepared for what situation I am in. Shae may not be there to help me.

•Second, do not turn on the air when we are driving up a mountain.

•Third, my mother-in-law knows random facts that she doesn’t need to know living in flat Florida.

Volunteer Work

Recently, many people have asked me about our volunteer work. Here is your answer, thank you for being so patient!!


A quick note… I am a Christian, so I do mention God and church. If you are not a Christian, there are still tons of camps to volunteer at. We were going to go to one in southern Nebraska. We just ran out of time last fall and couldn’t make it. Please keep reading if you are not a Christian. I have a lot to say about volunteering.

One of the main reasons we did this trip was to serve the Lord. For us, our volunteer work usually deals with helping a church somewhere. But, we do not limit ourselves to that. I believe volunteerism is a life style. It is something we should do every day, everywhere we are. It is an attitude of the heart, a constant wanting to make the world a better place for no other reason than it is the right thing to do. I believe we should teach our children young, even one year old. I have had our second youngest sweeping, mopping, dusting, picking up limbs in a trail, giving money to a homeless people, and more. Just like we teach our children to talk, we must also teach them to think of others. Selfishness is the root of so much evil. It must be dealt with young.

Sometimes we volunteer at great camps, by lakes and rivers, in the mountains, where there are pools and playgrounds. That is great fun for our family. But, I think it is also important to volunteer at those places where there is nothing to do, nowhere to sight see, and no one that appreciates it. I would like to share a few stories with you. I want to tell you about RVMaps, a volunteer group we are in, but will do that in the next post.

We used our ATV to pull their trailer and pick up garbage.

We all had fun trying the great obstacle course.

My husband got laid off last fall, for three months. We weren't scared or terribly upset. We knew God would take care of us, He always does. We called up the RVMaps office and asked them if there was anywhere nearby that we could go serve the Lord and be in His presence. We had a lot of praying to do and planning. They told us about a camp in Honea Path, SC. We stayed there for three weeks. My son and husband built a boardwalk and we cleaned the garbage on huge portions of the 60 acre camp. We helped with the airsoft and paintball games. We cleaned cabins and the playground. We volunteered about 30 hrs a week total. While there we were able to go fishing in the private lake, kayaking on the river, enjoy the obstacle course, play basketball in the huge gymnasium, and meet some incredible people. It was an amazing experience. The campground hosts were so friendly. We enjoyed going to their church. My kids also made friends with the kids from the church. We were the only ones camping there. On the weekends we went to Greenville, into the mountains hiking, to historic sites, and to beautiful waterfalls. It was such a blessing to serve the Lord and be at such a great place. We still keep in touch with the people there. My kids made lifelong friends with the youth at the church and talk a lot of Facebook.

Fishing on the private lake at the camp.

The guys built a boardwalk for a cabin at the camp.

We also went to Lusk, WY to help a church out there. We were getting ready to leave the Custer, SD area when I felt the Lord tell me we needed to serve Him. We had a great time in southwest South Dakota, and I just felt like we needed some balance in our life. We do not want our kids to become “fun/self” centered. We had a lot of fun and did everything we wanted. Too much of that and we could become spoiled. We have to constantly think of others and what God has entrusted us with. I got an email from RVMaps and it had Lusk, WY as a place to volunteer. I called the pastor and told him, “All we do is clean. We are not skilled laborers. I am not sure if you can use us. We are not regular volunteers; we do it as a family.” His response was amazing. He told me that is exactly what they needed. They had just finished the project and needed someone to come clean up. His wife and sister were going to do it, but were pretty worn out already, so they would be so happy we were coming.

We drove from Custer to Lusk, not too far of a drive. We had never even heard of Lusk, so we weren't sure what to expect. As we pulled into town, we weren't too impressed. It was a little town, with not many sights to see, no fancy museums, and a little tiny grocery store. We made our way to the other end of town and pulled into the parking lot of the church. From the outside, the church looked so tiny. The building used to be a restaurant/bar that was remodeled. No park, no slides, no river, pond or even a mud puddle. No atv trails, no kayaking. I told the kids, “You have to serve the Lord when there is nothing in it for you.” We parked and met some other volunteers there. They were just getting ready to leave. Later, the pastor came over. As he walked up I began to get excited. He had a big cowboy hat and cowboy boots. Oh…it felt good to be out of the big city. He was so nice! He didn’t talk a lot, just said what he had to say. Gabriel about freaked out when Pastor Dale walked up. Gabriel is our cowboy, so he was so impressed with Pastor Dale. We got a tour of the church. It really was a nice little church. It had a great kitchen that I hoped to be able to use the ovens in. I sure miss baking bread. My oven in the camper is not the easiest to bake in. I wasn't sure what needed to be cleaned, everything looked so good already! But, sure enough, there was drywall dust over everything, it needed to be wiped down, mopped, and vacuumed. Shae and Cody helped take out an old furnace, and haul other heavy items. We worked over 60 hours in 3 days, between Shae, Cody, Hanna, and I. RVMaps likes you to put in 30 hours a week, so we had surpassed that easily.

Hanna and Cody washed the churches windows.

It was fun to change the letters on their sign.

Some great people broke down during the Sturgis Bike Rally.  They were awesome brothers and sisters in Christ.

We absolutely fell in love with the people there, and even the town. It is amazing to me how God can take a place that we thought was wanting in the entertainment area, and make it one of our best experiences. My kids made friends with some of the youth at the church. We still keep in touch with them. They took us out for pizza, to their ranch to ride atvs and to their 4H animals in town. They were so great.

They even brought their racing lawn mower to the church where Shae, Cody, and Hanna got to drive it. They all had a great time cruzing around the parking lot.









A family at the church had a huge ranch outside of town. We were invited to go four wheeling around their 5000 acre ranch. It was so beautiful. The sun on my face, wind in my hair, the dry air in my lungs. We saw the old homestead, ponds, windmills, and cattle. We made it back to the house and had a wonderful cookout followed by riding their horse “Fatty”. It was such a wonderful experience for all of us and we truly appreciated their hospitality. Gabriel followed Pastor Dale around like a shadow. He just walked about 3 steps behind him and did everything he did. It was so cute. Gabriel told us, “I want to be a cowboy pastor like Pastor Dale!” We enjoyed playing country worship music with them. The “cowboy” beat on the guitar is much harder than I thought! We left Lusk wanting to come back next year for a month! It is one of our favorite places.

These are just two stories of many about our great experiences volunteering.

Some of our favorite memories are of the times we volunteer. Working and serving with others brings rewards that cannot compare even to mountains and deserts, rivers and oceans. Now, we do love to go to those places, also.

I do believe that volunteerism is a lifestyle. I think it is something we can do every day, everywhere.

When we go to a campground, we try to leave it cleaner than when we came. We pick up our garbage and the garbage that was there when we arrived. We help people when they need someone to carry something or open a door for them. It is the little things in life that really make a difference, not just the huge volunteer/missions trips.

We wanted to serve somewhere in Montana. I got on the phone and internet and began contacting church camps around the state. We are members of RVMaps, which is Assembly of God, but we don’t limit ourselves to just serving with them. I found a camp outside of Bozeman, MT, Yellowstone Alliance Adventures. It is a camp owned by Missionary Alliance churches. I had never heard of that denomination before, so I called my mother-in-law to see what she knew about it. She thought they are pretty main stream churches, so we asked if we could come wash their windows. They weren’t quite sure what to do with us. They were very friendly and welcoming. They really need help there. It was a great camp. We have a professional window washing business that we have made almost no money on, but have done free all over the place. They loved having their windows done and Cody got to help make some benches.

The views in Bozeman were gorgeous.

Cody and Hanna got to sing and play with a church camp.

Everyone worked hard to wash windows.

I also found all sorts of camps south of Glacier National Park that were extremely interested in having us come stay and work. I just got on line and started calling camps I found. I usually just Google with these key words:

Kids camp

Bible camp

Church camp

Youth camp

Retreat

Followed by the name of the state, city, or area we are going to.

Usually we stay for free with full hook ups. We do not expect them to feed us although some camps do. I prefer to feed my family in our camper.

We try to do all of our volunteer work for free. Even though they pay for our utilities, we give them a check upon leaving. I usually make it for $5 a night. That covers all electric and such. If we use a lot of electric I will give $7 a night. We try to let them know before we come what kind of work we will do and how many hours. It is important to let them know these things up front.  If we stay long term and work exceptionally hard, we do not always leave a check for our utilities.  The camps are always more than happy to have the help and don't really care about the small cost to them.

We usually offer to wash windows, pick up garbage, clean, and do any grunt work so they have time to do their jobs only they can do.

I had to work on my wrong belief that any kind of missions/volunteer work has to be difficult and we must suffer a little. I have found that we have such a great time volunteering. Not only are we helping them, but we are benefiting also.

• It builds great character in us and our children.

• We help people that desperately need help and a break.

• We usually get to use wonderful facilities and have a lot of fun.

• We stay for free, or in our case, we give enough to cover our expenses which are way less than what we would pay at a campground.

We do not volunteer full time, though. I find that unless I specify certain hours, they tend to expect us to be there all week. I usually tell them we will work Monday thru Wednesday, six hours a day. Or maybe Shae and Cody will work 30 hrs between the two of them in a week. It kind of depends on our situation. If we have a lot of school to do, we tend to have different hours, maybe Monday thru Thursday, 3pm – 5pm.

It does take a lot of time and we do not have the freedom to take off and sight see as we do when at a campground.

We do have to really watch our kids. We are there to serve, not just use the facilities. We always ask if we can use their playground or lake, river, or obstacle courses. Do not just assume you get to.

It is important to have the right motivation of the heart. We are there to help, serve, work, and clean. That is primary. Secondary is playing around. My kids have found that working together is a lot of fun! We went for a walk yesterday by the church we are working at here in the Phoenix area. We walked by the building and my kids said, “Hey mom, look at all that garbage! Let’s go clean it up!” So, we went in and picked up construction garbage and used the magnet wand to get screws and such on the ground. One of my children went by an electric breaker. I told him to stop and he didn’t. I grabbed him and we walked right out the door. That child cried and cried because he wanted to keep cleaning. I told him that he cannot go by any cords and since he didn’t obey the first time we have to leave. A construction site is no place for children who don’t obey to be in. If they don’t obey the first time, do not bring them in. I never, never, never let them play in a construction site. It is not a playground.

Usually kids are not allowed on construction sites. Do not bring your kids there. Don’t let your kids run rampant around the camp. If you set a good example they will tell you to use their facilities.

There have been a few times that we wanted to stay at a camp, but didn’t want to do volunteer work there. We just wanted to get out of the cramped campgrounds. Usually they will just rent us a spot.

My next post is going to be specifically on RVMaps and other organizations you can volunteer through. Let me know if you have any questions!!!!

Sheri

Heart Mountain Japanese Relocation Camp

We have never been to a Japanese Relocation Camp. At the beginning of WWII, the Japanese from the west coast were gathered up and brought to camps like the one near Powell, WY. It was occupied from 1942-1945 by 10767 Japanese Americans. They had their own hospital, fire and police department, judicial system, post office, sewage treatment plant, power station, water system, 2 grade schools, 1 high school, pool, sports teams and more. While there they built 2 miles of irrigation systems that still flow through the area today. They planted 2700 acres of crops. There were barracks that the families were crammed in with little insulation and no privacy. The living conditions were terrible in the beginning and improved some as time went on.

We were told there were death threats made on the Japanese Americans while they lived in California. So, the gov’t decided that for their own benefit they would be relocated to these facilities. I am sure that some of the reason was because they were Japanese. I was also told that they were concerned that some of these people were actually spies and could attack America from within.

This is a very difficult subject to teach my children.

Did locking up these people of Japanese heritage save our country from attacks from within our borders?

Did locking them up save them from beatings and death from other angry Americans?

These are questions we cannot answer. It is always easier to look back in time and make judgements on decisions made by our government. I used to have a Top Secret clearance. I know there is so much we do not know. For our own security the government cannot tell us everything. What did they not tell the American people back then? Did that information justify locking up innocent Americans along with some that might have terrorized our country?

These are the questions I discuss with my children. Whether or not the decision was right, we must remember and always try to learn from history. Maybe in the future we can handle it better, maybe we can learn from mistakes of the past and make better choices down the road.

The only thing I do know for certain is that the facilities should of been better. If there was justification to lock up some of the Japanese Americans and they had to lock up innocents with them, the facilities should have been warm, humane, private. Women and children lived there. Pregnant women and children. They deserved better. Should they have been left in their homes and only their husbands taken?  What would they have done financially with out him?  The women and children deserved better - enemy soldiers do not. Our soldiers know that when we join the military we are willing to risk our lives for our country including being taken captive and held in prison. Soldiers do not expect pools, schools, hospitals. Soldiers can handle it. There is a difference.

 Was our gov't trying to protect these citizens? 

Was it better to keep families and communities together?

Heart Mountain was like a small city. Some even earned wages. It is a tough subject..... with many angles.  I think most Americans have a really hard time understanding this type of profiling.

Such a tough subject to teach my children.  It is such a sad time in history.  I love being able to discuss these difficult questions with them and especially since we cannot answer them.

What do you think?

More info go to www.heartmountain.net

Lusk, Wyoming

Custer, SD Sturgis Bike Week

We had a great trip in Custer, South Dakota.  Now, our trip took us south west to Lusk, Wyoming.  As we were pulling out of Custer, we squeezed our truck and camper and van and trailer through the streets crowded with motorcycles parked in the sectioned off area in the middle of the street.  It was quite a sight to behold.  I know my sister and brother in law would have loved to have been there for Sturgis Bike Week.

Our camper squeezing down main street during the preparation for Bike Week.

The drive to Lusk brought my first, small mountain pass.  Since this drive, I have done much bigger, but at the time it seemed huge.  I got pretty nervous as we got to the summit.  All went well and we headed down the busy road full of motorcycles on our way to Lusk. We saw all of these fences along the highway. I found out later they are to block the snow. They said the snow blows sideways because of the strong winds.

Shae head of me with the camper and all the motorcycles heading to SD.

Driving over the pass!

The day after we got there, there were three bikers that broke down. He and the two ladies with him were sharing the gospel up at Sturgis. They gave us a bunch of bible literature for bikers. The are with Christian Motorcycle Association.

What a wonderful place. Most people would say I was crazy saying that. I heard more than a few people say Lusk is a nasty little town, there is nothing there, they said they would never live in Lusk. As we drove in that Saturday I thought it was pretty blah. But, I also have learned that the seemingly nothing towns always have something. Every city has a past that is worth learning about. The town was just an average country town, but the people are anything but normal. They are absolutely wonderful.

We went there to volunteer at a church. We wanted to be a blessing to them. I called them and told the pastor all we could do was clean, he said, that is all we need! It is amazing how God works.

View down the hwy in Lusk, WY

The church is a remodel of an old bar and restaurant. It is beautiful inside with a wonderful kitchen and a great youth room. We washed windows, wiped the ceiling, walls, counters, lights, and everything else. There was a layer of drywall dust on everything. Shae and Cody tore apart a furnace and hauled it off. We vacuumed and helped with the sign. It was a great experience for all of us. We were very thankful to get to help out Pastor Dale and Janna.

These are pictures of our family cleaning at the church.  It is always amazing to see how excited even the young ones get to help others.  A spirit of volunteerism is something that needs to be instilled from a very young age.

It seems like whenever we try to do something nice for someone, we get blessed even more than we blessed them. This was the case in Lusk, also. Pastor and Janna took us out to a ranch. It had over 5000 acres! Well, to people in Wyoming that is pretty average. To those of us in Missouri, that is huge! It was hard to even imagine what that much land would be like! We enjoyed riding our ATVs through the dry yet beautiful country. I smiled the entire time I drove, it was so wonderful. They took us to all of the water. Cookie said that water is something special in this part of the country. There were active windmills throughout the property that actually pump water up out of the ground for the cows.

The clouds in Wyoming are astonishing. They tower above us like they are going to produce a horrible storm, yet, very little if anything comes out of them. The first big clouds I saw I told the kids to get in the church, but I was told "You're not in Missouri anymore!"

We were thankful to get to spend time with a wonderful family. They have kids about the same age as ours. Cody and Jesse had a blast with all of the livestock, especially their oxen. They also rode Jesse's racing lawn mower. The kids all went to Jesse's house to get it when some cops showed up wondering if they were a bunch of kids getting into trouble! They talked with them and made things alright.

Jesse pulled back on racing lawn mower to make it do a wheelie.

Cody feeding an oxen.

I wouldn't get any closer than this no matter what anyone said!

The guys had a blast on the lawn mower. It flew! Hanna drove it and about lost control. Jesse ran up to turn it off when Hanna couldn't. I didn't know he was playing a trick on her and made it go faster! She screamed her head off! Shae had to drive it and then I knew something funny would happen. He did not let us down. The guys had been doing wheelies with it, so of course Shae had to top that. The guys leaned on the back to make the front go up when Shae tipped completely over, backwards with the lawnmower landing on top of him. We laughed so hard. Shae loved it of course.

Pastor Dale and Janna are such nice people. Pastor with his cowboy boots and hat was a dream for Gabriel. He followed Pastor everywhere. It was so sweet and very wonderful.

We love Lusk, Wyoming and hope to go back someday.

sheri