Gypsies of the Caribbean

December 11, 2015 thebigsteve66@gmail.com Leave a comment

“Mark well what ye saw here today, mateys, and always remember this as the day you sail with Captain Jack Sparrow.” – Talking Skull

October 29 – November 7, 2015

Sometimes an unexpected surprise can drop right into your lap. After my mom passed away, my dad decided that he no longer wanted to pay for the Bahamas time-share that the two of them had enjoyed for many years. While calling to cancel his membership, I learned that they were already paid-in-full for 2015 and so he had one more trip coming. He decided he would make the trip so we helped him book a flight and make all the arrangements. A few weeks later he said he’d only go if we went with him, so we agreed to join him. A few weeks after booking our own flight, he decided he really didn’t feel up to going at all without my mom. Thus, we were left holding tickets for a week at a Bahamian resort. Darn the luck!

But first, we had some business to take care of back at our old Florida stomping grounds. Our friends, Clare and Kelley DeBoef, were kind enough to let us stay at their guesthouse, where I got to haul some wood, feed horses, and help build a porch. The guesthouse came with nice furnishings, a hot shower, free Wi-Fi, bagels and coffee, and a wild boar’s head above the commode. First item on the itinerary was to return to Foundation Christian Academy and visit our friends and my former students. We received a couple hundred hugs and toured the campus, which is undergoing major renovations and improvements. They were also kind enough to let me speak in chapel. Love that place! Next up, we resumed our 4-year long weekly hand-n-foot card night with John and Laurie Walsh…one of the traditions we miss most from our time in Florida.

Our primary reason for coming to Florida, though, was to officiate the wedding for Kristen Walsh, a family friend and former youth group member, and her fiancée, Louis. I’ve done one other wedding and three funerals…just infrequently enough to not really know what I’m doing. Fortunately, it all came together, people cried, and it was a beautiful ceremony. The following weekend, just prior to departing for the Bahamas, we had the added bonus of being invited to the surprise engagement of Brittni Walsh (Kristen’s sister) to her boyfriend, Bobby Wilkinson. He proposed in a hot air balloon over Orlando, at the same time Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs fame) was filming an episode of his show Somebody’s Got to Do It. So apparently Rowe may somehow incorporate them into an episode. It was a really special day and we were glad to be there to celebrate with them at the landing zone. I can only hope the video shows that when Bobby asked Brittni to be his wife, she shrugged and answered, “Somebody’s got to do it!”

Somebody's Got To Do It — Somebody’s Got To Do It

November 8-15, 2015

Our Bahamas trip got off to a rough start. We boarded a small plane in Fort Lauderdale and sat on the very last row. Just in front of us sat a tall man of European origin with unbelievably bad body odor. I think it was the worse thing I’ve ever smelled. Worse than Boys Cabin 9 at Florida Bible Camp on day 6 after two days of rain. Worse than the bucket of spittoon juice and Limburger cheese I had to bob apples from during pledge week in college. It was so bad that I took out Janet’s scented Chap Stick and applied it to both inner-nostrils, and then we both buried our heads in her jacket for the thankfully short flight. At one point she observed, “I think he might have a problem.” I replied, “His problem is that he smells like raw sewage full of dead, rotting fish.”

After safely landing, my next big challenge was driving the Bahamian rental car. It seems everyone in the country drives on the wrong side of the road…an unfortunate practice established by their former colonial master, Great Britain. Apparently the islanders never got word that the right-side-of-the-road driving United States won the Revolutionary War. For me, that meant thirty-two years of driving reflexes were suddenly rendered useless. It was a terrifying 20-minute drive in the dark to the resort, with cars zooming towards us at high speeds in the “wrong” lane. I grabbed the wheel at 10 and 2, applied more Chap Stick to both nostrils, and kept reminding myself, “Stay left…stay left…stay left.”

Fortunately, we pulled into Island Seas Resort without incident and began a fun and interesting week on Grand Bahama Island. The island is one of 700 that comprise The Bahamas. The Siboney Indians originally settled it some 7000 years ago, and the Lucayan Indians superseded them between 5 and 7,000 years ago. There were about 4,000 Lucayans on the island when Christopher Columbus arrived, at which point they were enslaved and transported to work the gold and silver mines of Hispaniola and Cuba. After claiming the island, the Spanish largely ignored it, perhaps due to the treacherous shallow reefs that made landfall dangerous. The British claimed the Islands of the Bahamas in 1670 and eventually took control of it from Blackbeard and other pirates who used the reefs to run vessels aground. The pace began to pick up on the sleepy island when the American Civil War broke out. With a Union blockade and embargo in place, The Confederacy received smuggled goods from the West End of Grand Bahama. The next smuggling boon, during the Prohibition era, involved West Enders smuggling alcohol 56 miles to the coast of Florida. In the mid-1950s, a concerted effort was made to turn the island into a tropical Caribbean playground…no easy feat considering the country is technically not in the Caribbean.

Now after that history lesson, here are our Top 10 share-able memories from our time in this tropical Caribbean playground…

Once again feeling the need to take a road all the way to the end, we decided to head east until the road and the island ran out. Our first stop was beautiful Lucayan National Park, home to one of the largest underwater cave systems in the world. We hiked the park and looked in the mouth of the caves, but decided not to underwater spelunk them because we didn’t want to die.

One scenic Lucayan National Park trail took us to Gold Rock Beach, considered the best beach on Grand Bahama. It was stunning, incredibly scenic, and mostly deserted. We learned that it was one of the filming locations used in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. As we walked along the beach, I began channeling my inner-Johnny Depp. I soon realized it’s nearly impossible to have deep, meaningful, borderline romantic conversation while talking like a pirate… “I love ya, matey! I’ve sailed the seven seas, and you’re the sleekest schooner I’ve ever sighted! Aaaaargh!”

At the East End, we ate at Bishop’s Beach Bar, which came highly recommended by the locals. They were correct! The grouper fingers were delicious and turned out to be the single best meal of the week. After lunch, I saw the nearby beach hammock and yelled, “Blimey! Let’s dance the hempen jig!”

Is It Still a Hammock if Your Butts Touch the Ground?

We travelled to the Port Lucaya Marketplace, which is full of souvenir stands and restaurants, and home to UNEXSO (Underwater Explorer Society). After walking around in the sun for several hours, we stopped for some ice cream. Unfortunately, Lil Jan over-heated, turned pale, and vomited the ice cream in the Port Lucaya Marketplace ladies restroom. I wasn’t in there, but could hear a very piratey “Aaaaaargh!” I yelled back, “Aye! You’ve got chum in ye timbers, matey!”

Among many possible touristy excursions, we decided to spend one day doing a Glass Bottom Boat Tour. While we looked down through the glass bottom, the captain positioned us over several reefs, thousands of tropical fish, and two shipwrecks. Apparently, the ships’ poor lads were hornswaggled and ended up in Davy Jones’ Locker.

Coral & Fish, Through the Boat's Bottom — Coral & Fish, Through the Boat’s Bottom

Wednesday nights on Grand Bahama feature the popular Fish Fry at Smith Point. This beach eatery has the perfect combination of music, fun, and fish that stare at you while you eat them. For an appetizer, we had conch fritters and they were amazingly delicious! It’s hard to imagine how something that looks like an embryo from the Alien movie inside a shell can end up tasting so good.

We took several long beach hikes throughout the week. One of the neatest things about Grand Bahama is that there are miles and miles of beautiful, deserted beaches. Take Siesta Key beach in Florida, add clear turquoise-blue water, remove all the people, and you have a typical beach on Grand Bahama. One of the locals told us most locals don’t go to the beach unless they’re fishing, and most tourists stay near the resort beaches. While hiking, we searched for and found several conch shells, watched some horseback riders in the ocean, and used seaweed to make chest hair. Good times.

Once again, it was time to explore the outer reaches of the island, so we headed to West End. Along the way we stopped by the Xanadu Beach Resort and Marina. Millionaire Howard Hughes purchased the resort in 1972 and lived in its penthouse floors for a few years prior to his death. It was also known as a gathering place for celebrities such as Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, and Lucille Ball. Next stop was the Pier One Restaurant where, for $10, you can feed sharks off their dock at 7, 8, and 9 p.m. A little later, as the road began to narrow with water on both sides, we began to see massive piles of conch shells. Apparently the fishermen pull the conch out to sell and then toss the shells away into piles. I rolled down the window to get a picture and immediately breathed in a brutally awful smell. As I reached for the scented Chap Stick to line my nostrils, I couldn’t tell if the smell originated from the conch shells baking in the sun or the European gentleman who was on our plane.

Howard Hughes' Xanadu Resort — Howard Hughes’ Xanadu Resort

Our last 24 hours in the Bahamas was a combination of sad and bizarre. The sad part was learning, on our last night in town, that terrorists had killed several people in Paris. The bizarre part occurred during our final long beach hike on our final morning. While heading west about a mile from our resort on yet another stretch of deserted beach, we spotted what appeared to be a large seal in the distance along the water’s edge. As we got closer, we realized it was a local Bahamian man lying on his stomach in about a foot of water, with the tide going out. As we walked along the beach near him, he hollered, “Hey, mon, can you help me?” Apparently, he had no idea we were pirates. Sadly, my first thought was that he might be up to something. Perhaps he was concealing a knife or had some buddies in the nearby bushes waiting to jump us. We cautiously approached him and asked what was going on. It turns out the man, probably in his early 60s, had a stroke a year earlier, and likes to occasionally swim in the water for therapy. On this particular day, he went too long, got weak, collapsed, and couldn’t get up. Had the tide been coming in, he would have been in a world of hurt. We got on either side of him and turned him over, got him to sit up, and eventually helped him to stand. When Lil Jan realized he was in his boxer shorts, she muttered, “Arrrrgh! I’ve sailed the seven seas, and you’re the sleekest schooner I’ve ever sighted!” Not really. Well, he was in his boxers but she didn’t say that. Anyway, we slowly walked him over to his clothes and offered to call someone on his behalf. He declined and said he’d be fine after sitting there awhile. A half hour later, as we approached that stretch of beach on our return, he and his truck were gone.

Island Seas Resort barely visible through trees

The final memory of our trip happened after landing back in Fort Lauderdale. As we descended an escalator with our luggage, an elderly couple was in front of us. As the man got to the bottom of the escalator, he tripped over his large suitcase and fell. Blimey! Two seconds later, as we scrambled towards them, his wife fell on top of him at the bottom of the escalator. Arrrgh! With the help of several people, we managed to get them and their luggage un-scrambled and upright again. They were embarrassed and she suffered a leg scrape, but nothing too serious.

We regretted that Grandpa was not up to joining us on this vacation because he is such fun to hang with. Still, it was a great week of interesting food, sights, water rescues, and other experiences. We had a delightful smelling return flight to Dallas and were happy to be back in our home on wheels. Thanksgiving was fast approaching, and that meant time to go searching for some Diamonds. Aye, matey!

Big Steve

Uncategorized

A Leg Up in Big D

December 4, 2015 thebigsteve66@gmail.com Leave a comment

From the lakes of Minnesota

To the hills of Tennessee

Across the plains of Texas

From sea to shining sea.

– Lee Greenwood, God Bless the USA

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

– John F. Kennedy

October 15-18, 2015

One of the coolest things most parents get to do is watch their children grow up, and hopefully leave the nest, find a soul mate, and decide on a profession about which they are passionate. As full-time RVers, one of the coolest things we get to do is stalk our children at will, rolling into their towns to get caught up on their lives and make sure they are showering. While there is something to be said for extended families that all live in the same town, there is also something special about the time spent with family and friends that we don’t see every day. We tend to really appreciate those moments and not take them for granted.

It was time to visit our eldest son, Jason, and his lovely wife, Rachel, and that meant a trip to the Big D…Dallas, Texas. This year we literally have gone from the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of Tennessee. It seemed inevitable that we’d eventually cross the plains of Texas. Texas has a bit of an attitude that I love. We were stationed in San Antonio for a few years in the mid-90s and came to appreciate Texans’ fiercely independent nature and love of guns, their state flag, rodeos, and beef barbecue. They also love their 5-time Super Bowl winning Dallas Cowboys, as do I. Things are bigger in Texas and you certainly don’t want to mess with them. We tend to see and do things in Texas that we haven’t seen or done in other states. For example, you can go to Austin, sit on the banks near the Congress Avenue Bridge, and watch 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats come out every night. It’s the largest urban bat colony in North America and cool doesn’t begin to describe their nightly exodus. Just as impressive…you can pull into a gas station and order Sonic while pumping gas. Leave it to Texas to solve the age-old problem of having to pump gas and then go inside to eat.

Seriously? It's come to this? — Seriously? It’s come to this?

These days, our favorite thing about Texas is the people, starting with Jason and Rachel. Visiting family or friends with cats is always a bit unpredictable for us, as Lil Jan is highly allergic to them. Sometimes her eyes water, her face gets puffy, and she begins scratching at furniture. Throw in menopausal hot flashes and she becomes, well, a carnival attraction. Fortunately, the cats weren’t too much of a problem and we were thrilled to be able to visit Jason and Rachel and see them fully nested in their cute east-Dallas apartment.

They took us to downtown Dallas for a tour of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. As a high school student, I wrote a book report on a book highly critical of the Warren Commission and its findings on Kennedy’s assassination. Ever since then, I have been fascinated with the subject, and have visited the sites where Lincoln, Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr., were assassinated. I’m not necessarily a conspiracy theorist, but I do enjoy studying the history, motives, weaponry, logistics, and contexts for these tragic events. We did a lot of historical tours and museums during our journey down the Great River Road. Some are better than others and each has its strengths. The Sixth Floor Museum’s strength was in the amount of information and insights presented via an audio tour. We took an elevator to the 6^th floor of the former Texas School Book Depository and began the self-guided tour using nifty audio headsets. Even with a big crowd, the headsets allow you to go at your own pace and not have to strain to hear a tour guide. We learned about JFK’s life, the major challenges and achievements of his presidency, Cold War history, and the events surrounding that fateful day in Dallas.

A Killer's Point of View — A Killer’s Point of View

The tour winds its way around the floor and eventually takes you to the stack of boxes where Lee Harvey Oswald positioned himself near the window and fired the fatal bullets at the presidential motorcade as it passed by. I looked out the window and tried to imagine the throngs of people lining Dealey Plaza, so excited to see their young energetic president and his wife pass by. In an instant, in an act of cowardice and evil, he was gone. He once challenged the nation to “ask now what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” With today’s emphasis on self over service and handouts over hard work, his words still ring true.

Our next stop was Klyde Warren Park, the 5.2-acre downtown park which is a gathering place for residents and visitors. As we ate lunch from a food truck, we watched the children play and dogs being walked in the park. We then boarded a train and headed to UT Southwestern Medical Center, where Jason is pursuing a graduate degree in Prosthetics-Orthotics at their School of Health Professions. Those of you who know Jason know that he has a big brain and an even bigger heart. It’s not surprising, then, that he would pursue a career designing, constructing, and fitting artificial limbs to help people literally get back on their feet again. I’ve been in some places where people have lost limbs. At the Egyptian field hospital at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, I’ve stood at the bedside and prayed for children who have lost legs and arms from landmine explosions. I always walked away sad that I couldn’t do more for them and actually make them whole again. So, you could say I’m more than a little proud of Jason for choosing a career focused on helping and healing others. He also knows how to give a good tour, as he actually has a part-time job giving tours at his school. He showed us around the campus, pointed out some of his classrooms and labs, and answered our many questions.

Mario & Koop Troopa — Mario & Koopa Troopa

Hangin' with the Gentrys! — Hangin’ with the Gentrys!

That night we were invited to dinner at the home of Lonnie & Lynne Gentry, long-time friends from our assignments in Georgia and Texas…along with their daughter, Megan, and her husband and daughter. Lonnie is a former preacher who is now pursuing a doctorate in Philosophy and Medical Ethics. He is a deep thinker, and it didn’t take us long to get into a good discussion about the nature of the soul and the afterlife. Lynne, among many talents and interests, is a published author and a great friend and mentor to Lil Jan. It was great catching up with them and learning about their latest projects and pursuits in Dallas. The next morning, we enjoyed worship at Jason & Rachel’s congregation, the Prestoncrest Church of Christ. After lunch, they took us to a nearby, drought-stricken Par 3 nine-hole golf course for an afternoon of fun and exercise.

Jason and Rachel are off to a great start in their marriage and careers. Here are some of their initial impressions on married life and other topics…

What do you like least and best about living in Dallas?

J: Least- It seems like it takes at least 30 minutes to get anywhere, assuming there are no wrecks. Best- The variety of things to do… I’ve never lived in a big city where they have almost anything I could want to do.

R: Least- Everyone is so spread out, it’s hard to feel like a part of a community. Even our church friends all live super far away from each other. Best- Living so close to my parents. It’s awesome to be able to meet up for dinner or see each other on weekends so easily.

2. Jas, why did you chose a Prosthetics/Orthotics career and how is school going so far? Do you want to specialize?

J: I didn’t choose PO school, PO school chose me. But actually, I’d say I’ve always wanted to help people, and I really love learning about the body and anatomy and all the science-y stuff. Honestly I’d say that when PT didn’t work out, I felt like God just kinda dumped this in my lap. I didn’t know much about it before that, but it allows me to combine the enjoyment of science with really impacting people’s lives for the better, and being able to be creative as well with building prosthetics. I really love school, and I actually enjoy learning the information that I have to learn which makes the long days much more bearable. I don’t plan on specializing because the only real specialty you can do is with breasts and, well, I’m not about that life. I might like to work in pediatrics but I’m not sure where God will lead us.

3. Having done the married thing for 15 months, what have you learned? Advice for others?

R: I’d say that a big thing for me is that we can’t create a healthy marriage, we need God to do that. When we have a problem come up, we can’t expect to resolve it on our own… When we try it always seems to fail, and sometimes even make things worse. Praying for our marriage and each other is huge in having a successful relationship.

J: I was sort of going to say something along the same lines. Basically, the example of marriage that we have is of Jesus and the church. For me as the male, to be the perfect husband I basically have to be Jesus… I don’t come anywhere close to that, but I try to keep that as a reminder when I’m upset or frustrated or tired, and also in the good times too because Jesus celebrates joy with his church as well. For advice, I would say that honesty is super important, not just with your spouse but with yourself as well. It’s the only way to have a healthy relationship because when you’re honest with yourself and then with each other you can really trust one another. I would also say to spend as much time together as you can, whether you’re doing stuff together or just sitting and reading or doing two totally different things. Just being together helps make you more like a unit, a pair, not just two individuals who live together.

R: I definitely agree with what Jason said, those are huge. Another one I would say is to consciously make sure that love is your goal in all of your interactions with your spouse. When I started asking myself what my goal was in my interactions with Jason, oftentimes I would catch myself being more concerned with being understood, communicating effectively, being happy, etc., and acting unloving in the process. Even though communication, being understood, happiness, and more are fine, when they come before love they don’t mean much, especially in a marriage.

4. Rach, how are you using your Speech Pathology degree?

R: I am working as an independent contractor Speech Pathology Assistant for a home health speech company called Preferred Therapy Services. Basically, I go home to home to provide speech therapy for all the kiddos in my caseload. I see kids from ages 3-16 with a variety of speech-language disorders. It’s a cool opportunity to get to know not only the kids but also the families, and to make a lasting impact in their lives. Working in homes makes my job much more personal and allows me to have an impact in more areas than just speech. It also helps me care more deeply for my kids and their families because I see into their lives and really get to know them.

5. How will your experience raising cats help you to be better parents?

R: Seeing as we don’t have any children, I’d say that raising cats has had absolutely no impact on how good of a parent I am.

J: I agree with Rachel, I think I’m just as good of a parent as I was before we had cats. But someday when we have kids, it’s purrfectly acceptable to let them drink out of the toilet when they’re thirsty. It’s not my fault if they choose that over their water bowl.

R: I need to teach them to bury their poop at a young age, before bad habits form.

J: No need for baths, they can lick themselves clean.

R: Wet food is technically better for them, but kibbles are so much easier. Not sure if that makes me a better parent or not but it sure is gonna make my life simpler.

J: I’ve learned that they’ll sleep better in a cardboard box lined with tissue paper than any nice bed you provide.

R: Always raise the blinds before you leave for work so that they can sit on the windowsill. They like that.

J: We’ve learned a lot about proper punishment techniques. No yelling, no smacks, just pick them up by the scruff of their neck and throw them in the bathroom for a while. Make sure you leave the light off. It works every time.

6. Do you have any future plans after school?

J: I will have to do two residencies, one for prosthetics and one for orthotics. We want to have children and are especially interested in adopting. We are interested in moving somewhere in the northern U.S. but are open to living wherever God wants us to go, including overseas. We can make all the plans we want but we know they will likely change many more times so we are trying not to get too set on anything.

7. Funniest or most memorable thing that’s happened in Dallas?

R: One day while I was home alone, just relaxing in a recliner next to the window, I heard “I’m gonna –beep-ing kill you!!” from outside. I looked out the window and saw two cops running across our courtyard, guns drawn, yelling, “Drop to your knees! You better hit your knees!” A few minutes later (when clearly whoever it was had not hit his knees), a search helicopter starting flying over our apartment complex. Jason was on his way home from school at this time, and said that there were police cars lining the roads around our complex. Later, when telling this story to a friend from church who was a Dallas police officer, we found out that our apartment complex is its own police patrol zone. Good news is, our monthly rent is way cheaper than all of our friends.

J: I decided to take Rachel on a hike for her birthday. I found a list of top hikes in Dallas online, and number 2 was right down the road from us and looked really pretty, so we went for it. The hike was supposed to be four miles long, winding through the woods and ending up at the dart station where my car was parked. Unfortunately, the blog I read was from 2010, which we decided was probably the last time the trail had been used. After roughing it for most of the hike, but being determined to finish, we found that the last half-mile of the trail was completely under water, and had to backtrack and take a different route. Four and a half hours after we began the hike, we emerged in our matching rain jackets, wet from the rain, covered in scrapes, leaves, and mud, still unsure of whether or not we had ever found the trail. To top it all off, once we got my car to a gas station, it wouldn’t start again… We spent about an hour sitting there, finally got the car started, and then had to drive it around for half an hour to charge up the battery. We were starving, so we drove home and Rachel ran inside to make us food, then we sat in the parking lot and ate our hotdogs with the car running. Rachel said it was her favorite birthday hike ever.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the Big D and are happy to see Jas and Rach off to a great start in their marriage. As for us, it was almost time to pack our bags for the Bahamas! More on that next time.

Big Steve

Sojourners, Uncategorized

Mission Possible: The Sojourners

November 29, 2015 thebigsteve66@gmail.com Leave a comment

“Give me Your eyes for just one second

Give me Your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me Your love for humanity

Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted

The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten

Give me Your eyes so I can see.”

– Brandon Heath, Give Me Your Eyes

About forty years ago Paul and Peggie Scott had a brilliant idea. Paul was a career Navy man who had travelled the globe. He and his wife frequently observed small struggling churches that needed help. They felt a calling to do mission work but weren’t exactly sure what form that would take. They met another couple with an RV and together their dreams began to take shape. They decided they would travel the country by RV, ministering to small churches and others along the way. In 1978 the two couples held their first planning workshop and a year later they named their mission the National Evangelism with Sojourners. They began to bring together other mostly retired Christians who owned RVs and had a desire to continue serving others. They were aware of many small churches, Christian schools, and Bible camps that needed help, but often don’t have the necessary resources. So this new churches of Christ-affiliated mission, the Sojourners, began to unite servant-hearted, RV-based Christians with churches, schools, camps, and children’s homes that needed a helping hand. Paul and Peggy’s dream had come to fruition, a new mission work had begun, and the Sojourners have been making a difference ever since.

Fast forward to 2015 and the Sojourners mission has grown to 520+ active members all around the country. It is sponsored by the eldership at the Burleson Church of Christ in Burleson, Texas. Each year more than 120 requests come in and are vetted by the Sojourners’ leadership. There are usually enough Sojourners to fill about 90-100 of them. Some of the projects, called sojourns, are physical in nature…building a cabin, painting a church building, fixing the plumbing or electricity at a school, remodeling classrooms, trimming weeds, landscaping, fixing what’s broken, etc. Other sojourns are more spiritually-oriented…conducting Gospel meetings, door knocking, leading parenting seminars, organizing Vacation Bible Schools, teaching, preaching, conducting family counseling, visiting the sick and shut-ins, etc. Some sojourns are a combination of meeting both physical and spiritual needs. Either way, the Sojourners are self-supporting, and even make a contribution at the conclusion of each sojourn to cover their utility expenses. Among the hundreds of places the Sojourners have made a difference is Pennsylvania’s Camp Manatawny, where I attended as a teen, and Florida Bible Camp, where Lil Jan and I counseled and taught Bible classes.

Making new friends...the McLartys — Making new friends…the McLartys

As a couple who loves to travel, but also wants to continue to serve others, the Sojourners seemed like a perfect match for us. So we joined them! (Special thanks to Rex Dutton, Todd Mikula, and Jonathan Smith for emphasizing the positive on their letters of recommendation on us!) We are so excited to be Sojourners! They, or I suppose I should now say “we”, have a number of workshops around the country throughout the year. The biggest is in October at the Sojourners headquarters, Camp Bee, in Marshall, Texas. I’ve heard Camp Bee described as “sort of like an RV-based Bible camp for old people.” So we rolled into Camp Bee in October for two weeks of orientation, training, fellowship, mission planning, and edification. This was also the opportunity to sign-up for whatever sojourns we want to volunteer for in the coming year. As rookies on the team, we are known as “Green Dots” because on the various sojourn sign-up sheets, there are designated spots for rookies with green dots next to them. This helps ensure you don’t have a team consisting of all rookies.

More new friends...the Williams — More new friends…the Williams

Our fellow Sojourners are, in a word, awesome! They could not have been kinder or more welcoming to us. With some exceptions, they (we) are mostly from working class backgrounds. There are retired farmers, business men or women, teachers, policemen, engineers, chemists, hair dressers, college professors, military, electricians, secretaries and homemakers. Most are retired although some continue to work and do sojourns on their vacation time. Of the 267 or so in attendance at Camp Bee, we were the youngest. In fact, the average age is about 70, but that didn’t make a difference to them or us. They seemed excited to have some new, younger blood on the team and we were excited to join such a loving, giving group of people.

I’ve heard two descriptions of Sojourners that seem to fit. One guest speaker, who is not a Sojourner, said that in every congregation, you tend to have about 10% of the people who do most of the work. He said that among those 10%, you’ll find the Sojourners. That was evident when it was time to clean up after a banquet or stack chairs or whatever, and everyone pitched in. Another guy privately told me, “Steve, we are past the stage of trying to achieve career goals, make rank, and impress people. You could say our testosterone levels are low. We just want to serve others, and travel while we’re at it.” After spending 23 years of my life trying (at least subconsciously) to impress some general to make rank, his words were like music to my ears. Just serve. Two thousand years ago, Jesus captured his mission, and ours, pretty succinctly: “But I am among you as one who serves.” (Luke 22:27b) I think the Sojourners may be on to something.

Sojourners hold hands during EVERY SINGLE prayer...something all churches should do — Sojourners hold hands during EVERY SINGLE prayer…something all churches should do

In addition to worshipping together and hearing some motivating keynote speakers and Bible class teachers, we attended several classes on topics ranging from RV maintenance to Electricity 101. I could have used that class prior to taking possession of our RV. We also attended a Green Dot Orientation session and a Green Dot banquet, complete with a 1960s theme. By the end of that night, Lil Jan had somehow managed to volunteer us to head up next year’s Green Dot banquet.

We played lots of cards at night and learned several new variations on how to play “hand ‘n foot”. Jabs and trash talking by 70-year-old winning teams can be quite hilarious. So can the stories of exploding toilets and other “RV fails” on the road. In my spare time, I caught (and released) 14 catfish at the Camp Bee pond and went on some nice runs out in the east Texas countryside. We also went out to eat with and got to know several couples who have been Sojourners and full-time RVers for a number of years. We even ran into Cliff and Sharan David, who we worshipped with years ago back in San Antonio (had no idea they were Sojourners). It’s funny how when we first told people we were planning to unload most of our possessions and go RVing around the country, many looked at us like we had a third eyeball. Well amongst the Sojourners, that is considered a quite normal thing to do. In fact, some of them have been full-time RVing and Sojourning for more than a decade. We fit right in here.

Our "Host Mom & Dad", the Northens — Our “Host Mom & Dad”, the Northens…full-timers for 9 years! I call him “Dad” now.

Green Dots Live Here — Green Dots Big Steve & Lil Jan Live Here

We, along with the other couple of dozen Green Dots, got first dibs to sign up for 2016 sojourns. This is a privilege you only get your first year as a Green Dot. In subsequent years, we’ll have to stand in line and “battle it out” (in a loving, Christian way, of course) to sign up for desired sojourns. 2016 will be a highly unusual year for us in that I will spend about six months of it attempting to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail. Thus, our Sojourning windows of opportunity are in the winter and fall. After looking at all the opportunities out there, we settled on two workshops and three sojourns. We’ll spend most of January and February back in Florida, doing sojourns at Mount Dora Christian Home and Bible School (where we brought our former Youth Group for 7 consecutive years) and Central Florida Bible Camp. We’ll also attend the Sojourners winter workshop at that same camp. Then, after I get off the trail, we’ll head to Paragould, Arkansas in late September to do a sojourn at Paragould Children’s Home. We’ll then head back to Camp Bee in October for the annual workshop. We are thrilled to have these opportunities to serve while still fulfilling a desire to travel and live like gypsies. Lord willing, at the next Camp Bee workshop, we will be able to sign up for some 2017 sojourns in the southwest and/or northwest parts of the country.

As for the Sojourners, we couldn’t be happier serving alongside these wonderful Christian people. As a guy who played lots of sports growing up, I never had the honor to be on a “travel team”. I was a “good” and occasionally a “very good” athlete…but never an all-star that was selected for a travel team. So now, at age 49, I finally made my first travel team! Lil Jan did too! We love these folks. They are great examples to us of not “throttling down” as you get older, but actually shifting into high gear and continuing to serve with abandon. We learned of one Sojourner who, at 89 years of age, was still climbing ladders, hauling bricks, and basically out-working all the “young 70 year olds” on the team. What a stud! I’m adding him to my short list of role models.

Why? So Steve doesn't fry the planet — Why? So Steve doesn’t fry the planet

If you are affiliated with a Christian school, Bible camp, children’s home or small congregation (less than 150 members) that could use a sojourn, please let me know and I’ll get you the request form. If you are potentially interested in joining the Sojourners, let me know and I’ll get you an application. You can also get these forms by contacting the Sojourner’s Camp Bee office at office@sojourning.org or check out the web page at www.sojourning.org for more information.

We ask that you keep this mission in your prayers, and that God will help us to plug into these sojourns and make a difference in the churches, camps, schools, and children’s homes where we’ll be serving. In some ways the various ministries we’ve been involved in throughout our lives have prepared us for this new opportunity. The mission we’re undertaking is exciting, challenging and most certainly a “mission possible”. If it’s anything like our experiences in Honduras and Costa Rica, I suspect we will be changed and blessed by these upcoming sojourns. You are never too old to take on a new challenge and a new mission. Really it’s not a new mission but an old one, going back to the challenge given to us by Jesus. Just serve. We thank God for this opportunity, and give him all the glory, honor, and praise! May he open our eyes, and your eyes, to the needs of those around us.

Big Steve

Uncategorized

Steel Magnolias

November 25, 2015 thebigsteve66@gmail.com Leave a comment

“Honey, time marches on and eventually you realize it is marchin’ across your face.” – Truvy, from Steel Magnolias

October 9-10, 2015

On our way to Texas we decided to overnight in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Natchitoches, pronounced “nack-uh-tish”, should not be confused with Nacogdoches, a Texas town, or with Natchoswitchees, a high calorie snack food. The town, established in 1714 near a village of Indians of the same name, is the oldest permanent settlement in the region and has Cane River Lake running through its downtown. For a number of universities, it serves as the spring break training location for their crew teams. For Civil War fans, it’s known as the town set on fire by Union solders as they retreated after failing to capture Shreveport. Music fans may know it as the site of the 1973 plane crash that claimed the life of singer Jim Croce, who was unable to save time in a bottle. For shoppers, it’s the place to visit Kaffie-Frederick, Inc., which was founded in 1863, has been featured on Duck Dynasty and Cajun Pawn, and is the oldest general store in Louisiana. For Louisiana sports fans, it offers the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. Tourists may know it for its Christmas Festival lights and Bayou Pierre Alligator Park. Food fans will head to Lasoyne’s Meat Pie Restaurant, home of the famous meat pie, one of the official state foods of Louisiana. For history buffs, it offers the Cane River National Heritage Area, a 116,000-acre area that includes sites such as the Oakland Plantation, Melrose Plantation, Magnolia Plantation, and several more. Put all that together, and you get a town named one of the top six places to retire in the United States by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine.

General Store... General Nerd — General Store, est. 1863… Specific Nerd, est. 1966

What drew us to Natchitoches, however, had nothing to do with any of those things. Instead, we chose it primarily based on a popular and award-winning movie that was filmed there: Steel Magnolias. This 1989 comedy-drama is about the bond between a group of women in a small southern community, and how they cope with the death of one of their own. The film is based on a play by Richard Harling, which is based on Starling’s real life and death of his sister due to early diabetes. Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah, Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Olympia Dukakis, and Shirley MacLaine star in the movie, which grossed over $135 million.

Nacog Riverfront Garden — Natchitoches Riverfront Garden

We did a combination driving/walking tour to several homes featured in the movie, including the Steel Magnolia. We shopped along Main Street, which lines the beautiful Cane River Lake. We had lunch at Lasoyne’s Meat Pie Restaurant and ordered, of course, their signature food, meat pie. It lived up to the hype. While there, we got a picture of a picture of Daryl Hannah visiting the restaurant during the filming of Steel Magnolias. We walked through the gardens along the riverfront where a wedding had just taken place, and enjoyed the various Halloween and Thanksgiving scenes throughout the downtown. Kaffie-Frederick General Store lived up to its billing, “You can find ANYTHING here!” We had an excellent lake-side fish and burger dinner at Cane River Bar and Grill. Needing our free WiFi fix, we finished off the night chillin’ at McD’s, where I blogged and tried to salvage my Fantasy football team and Lil Jan watched (drum roll)… Steel Magnolias on Amazon.

Miss Hannah Loves 'Em Too — Miss Hannah Loves ‘Em Too

That brings us back to the movie, Steel Magnolias. Why that title? It is supposed to reflect the idea that the film’s female characters can be both as delicate as the magnolia flower, yet as tough as steel. Trading in three man-cards, I did a little more research on the magnolia, and found that there’s more to its story. Magnolias are multi-faceted with the potential to become trees, shrubs, evergreens or deciduous plants. They produce magnificent flowers in different colors, which have been popular around the world for centuries. The Japanese use the magnolia tree for its medicine and also grow ornamental shrubs. The bark is believed to reinvigorate a person’s chi, the life energy that breathes through all. (In America, that’s called mojo.) In China the magnolia denudate, or “jade orchid” is associated with China’s mighty imperial past, and was often used in Chinese art. During Victorian times, the magnolia flowers symbolized dignity, nobility, poise, and pride. Elsewhere, the flower has symbolized endurance, eternity, and long life, perhaps fitting since there are magnolia fossils dating back 20 million years.

In the United States, and especially the South, the magnolia grandiflora blooms with foot-long, scented white flowers, and symbolizes magnificence and splendid beauty. For some, the flower means the South. In fact, its been called the Southern emblem, and both Louisiana and Mississippi have the magnolia as their state flower. Even the magnolia’s colors have significance and have served as coded messages. White means purity and perfection; pink recalls youth, innocence and joy; yellow means joy and the coming of spring; green is associated with health and luck; and purple means power, sort of an explanation point that you would use with the other flowers…like a Pokemon Energy card. So, if you want a sick person to get well in an amazing or powerful way, you might send them green and purple magnolias.

So it is an amazing flower. It’s strikingly beautiful, yet very tough, unlike other delicate flowers. When you add “steel” to it as a modifier, it suggests something of amazing strength and beauty…a flower tough enough to survive even with changing climactic and geological conditions. Steel Magnolias, then, becomes a rather brilliant title for a movie about strong Southern women.

“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” – 1 Peter 5:10

We have been blessed to know and be inspired by some real-life Steel Magnolias. We’ve known some women who have faced adversity, overcome obstacles, and kept their faith. These women are as strong as steel and courageous as lions. They are beautiful inside and out. Their lives and examples are better than any Hollywood movie. So we thought we’d close by recognizing a few of our favorite Steel Magnolias.

Our first Steel Magnolia is Jaye Trovillion. Jaye lost her husband, Allan, to cancer several years ago. By all accounts, he was a loving husband, father, and friend and his death was an incredible blow. Although we moved to Florida shortly after his death and never got to meet him, we feel like we know him through the testimony of others. We can’t pretend to know the level of pain and sadness Jaye has endured. But we know this…Jaye got back on her feet. Jaye loves the Lord and held on to her faith. In the years since his death, she has taught Bible classes, inspired and served on multiple mission trips, and been an example to young and old of what it means to walk with the Lord. Wanting to help others deal with similar losses, she established and leads a grief support group. The loss of a loved one is not something you get over and put behind you. And yet, it is possible for healing to occur and to begin functioning again. For a steely few, women like Jaye, it’s even possible to continue to live lives of joy and passion, encouraging others along the way.

Becky Beggs is our second Steel Magnolia. Becky was diagnosed with advanced cancer a couple of years ago. The news was devastating, knocking Becky, husband Todd, the entire family and their friends off their feet. There seemed to be a lot more questions than answers. Why her? Why now? She is a faithful Christian, wife, and mother to two teenage boys. She’s in her 40s, full of life and has so much to offer to so many people. In the midst of disappointment and frustration, she too regained a foothold and began to fight back. She started an intense regime of chemotherapy and surgery. Our church prayed for her individually and collectively, and continues to do so. Even with her hair falling out and at times feeling sick all over, she returned to her Guidance Counselor position at the local Christian school whenever she was able. The Guidance Counselor title doesn’t do her justice, as she is also a life coach, mentor, friend, and Christian example to hundreds of young people…and more than a few adults. We don’t know the precise outcome of the cancer battle for Becky, or anyone else for that matter. But her steely resolve to fight cancer while keeping and professing her faith is such an encouragement to those who know her and those who are going through similar fights.

Foundation Christian Academy in Becky's Corner — Foundation Christian Academy takes the court for Becky

Our third Steel Magnolia is Hayley Waldron. We don’t know Hayley as well as the other two. We went to college with her parents, Tim and Lisa Smith, and remain friends. We’ve gotten to know her through her friends, including our son, Kyle. We have also gotten great insight into her character and faith through her Facebook posts. Hayley’s husband, Harrison, was in a serious 4-wheeler accident a few months ago while they were in New York for a wedding. He sustained a life-threatening traumatic brain injury, and the doctors weren’t sure if he would survive. As a young, immensely talented newlywed couple, they were living for God and making a difference in the world around them. And then this happened. More questions. Why him? Why them? Why now? Why God? While I suspect Hayley has asked her fair share of questions, she hasn’t lost her faith. She hasn’t given up on Harrison or on God. Rather than withdrawing into a shell, which would be understandable, she has kept her family and friends updated on his status, and has continued to proclaim the awesomeness of God. She has inspired thousands of people across the country and around the world to go to their war rooms, drop to their knees, and pray for God’s healing of Harrison. That’s faith, folks! It’s trusting in God even when you don’t have all the answers. It is knowing, even in the darkest storm, who is piloting the ship.

Fighting the Good Fight — On the road to recovery

Earlier this year, we had the opportunity to hear Dr. Kent Brantly, an Ebola survivor, speak at Lipscomb University. Kent said that faith isn’t believing that everything will be good and pleasant for Christians in the here and now. In fact, the Bible tells us to expect difficulty, suffering, and even some persecution. Rather, Kent’s definition of faith is “believing that God is who he said he is, and will do what he said he will do.” Wow! Let that sink in for a moment. That’s a game changer. Because if God is who he says he is and will do what he says he will do (spoiler alert: He is and will), then that changes everything. It means that things end really, really well for Jaye and Allan, Becky and Todd, Hayley and Harrison, and all who put their faith in God. God has written the final chapter in their stories (and ours) and they end amazingly well, regardless of when or how our earthly stories end. Jesus once said, in John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take hear; I have overcome the world.”

Thank you, Hayley and Jaye and Becky, for being Steel Magnolias, living examples of holding on to faith in even the most trying of circumstances. Please know that your lives and your faith have encouraged and strengthened many people. If God ever decided to write a sequel to the Bible set in the 21st Century, and wanted a Job-like book on faith in times of trial, I suspect he might include the Book of Jaye, the Book of Becky, or the Book of Hayley. Thank you for putting your faith in a Savior who loves you and has overcome this world. We count ourselves among the many who have been blessed and inspired by you.

Big Steve and Lil Jan

Note 1: To learn more about Harrison and Hayley’s story, check out Hayley’s Facebook page or this excellent article: http://www.christianchronicle.org/article/he-s-with-me-and-he-s-fighting

If you’d like to donate funds to help with Harrison’s medical care, you can send a check (w/ “Harrison or Hayley Waldron” in the memo line) to their home congregation which is serving as a collection and distribution point for donated funds. The address is:

Tusculum Church of Christ
6117 Nolensville Pike
Nashville, TN 37211

Note 2: To learn more about Becky’s journey, check out her blog at: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/beckybeggs

If you’d like to donate funds to help with Becky’s cancer treatment, use this link: https://www.gofundme.com/dp7odg

Great River Road

The Great River Road, Part 23: Venice, LA – The End

November 19, 2015 thebigsteve66@gmail.com Leave a comment

“Although we’ve come to the end of the road,

Still, I can’t let go. It’s unnatural.

You belong to me, I belong to you.”

– Boyz II Men

“In the end, every person’s life is a tough act to follow.”

– James Michael Rice

October 8, 2015 – Day 40 – Venice, Louisiana

Today, our journey would come to an end. After 40 days, 2340 miles, 10 states, and 30 river crossings, we were approaching the end of the Great River Road. We were determined to follow the road as far south as possible, although we knew we’d run out of road before we ran out of river. Unlike Minnesota, which celebrates the Mississippi headwaters with a plaque, interpretive center and lots of tourists, Louisiana doesn’t celebrate the end of the road or river. The river simply meanders unheralded through Louisiana and dumps into the Gulf of Mexico.

We left New Orleans, headed south through bayou country, and decided on one final excursion: the Jean Lafitte Swamp Tour. Queue the banjo music. We boarded a pontoon boat with a dozen other folks, including a friendly minister and his wife from Kansas. They are shopping for an RV and considering full-time RVing some day, so we talked to them about gypsy life. As we travelled through beautiful mangrove swamp canals, our tour guide told jokes, explained the landscape, and helped us locate multiple alligators. After 7 years of living in Florida, gators aren’t quite the novelty any more, but it was still neat seeing a few big ones approach the boat. We cruised by an old hut along the bank, and our guide explained that the hut and that area of the swamp have been featured in a number of movies, including Django Unchained, Pelican Brief, Tempted, Beautiful Creatures, Hatchet 3 (a love story?), and some episodes of NCIS. In fact, Nicolas Cage, who we practically hung out with yesterday (okay, we walked by his former house), Jamie Foxx, and Ryan Seacrest have all previously done the swamp tour. Towards the end of the tour, our guide pulled out a live baby alligator and we got to pass him around and pet him. He seemed thrilled.

We left the swamp and continued south along the southernmost peninsula in Louisiana. We drove through Buras-Triumph, the town where Hurricane Katrina made its second landfall as a Category 4 hurricane, with 145 mph winds. Evidence of Katrina’s destruction still dots the landscape, with several abandoned houses and businesses. Further south, we came to our final tourist stop, Fort Jackson, a Historic National Landmark located 40 miles up river from the mouth of the Mississippi. Between 1822 and 1832, it was constructed as a coastal defense of New Orleans, and was a battle site during the American Civil War. More specifically, Flag Officer David Farragut and his U.S. Navy fleet besieged the Confederate-controlled fort for 12 days. The siege resulted in a mutiny inside the fort against the officers and conditions, and the fort fell to the Union, as did New Orleans. Fort Jackson was then used as a Union prison and much later, after World War I, as a training station. Hurricane Katrina’s deadly storm surge flooded and badly damaged the fort in 2005, but it’s still open for tours.

We continued our journey southward to Venice, an unincorporated community in Plaquemines Parish. With a population of 202, it is the last community on the Mississippi accessible by automobile, and it is the southern terminus of the Great River Road. Thus, the town has earned the nickname, “The end of the world.” It’s also known as the launching point for offshore fishing. If Venice were a person, you would say she’s had a tough life, and is a survivor. She was almost completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She got back on her feet, and has spent the past decade rebuilding, reopening, and reoccupying. That comeback took another hit in April 2010, as Venice faced an environmental disaster when oil from the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion began washing ashore. Oily birds from the spill were treated at the historic site we had just visited, Fort Jackson.

I wondered, if Venice is the southernmost town on the Mississippi reachable by car, is there a town even further south reachable only by boat or helicopter? (Because geeks wonder about things like that.) It turns out there is, and it is named Pilottown (or Pilot Town). Originally, in 1699, French settlers established a settlement and fort known as La Balize, located about ten miles downriver from Pilot Town. La Balize meant “seamark” and the French built a 62-foot-high wooden pyramid to help guide ships on the Mississippi River. This was where river pilots came to live. After an 1860 hurricane storm surge blew down its buildings and destroyed the area, La Balize was abandoned. Mississippi River pilots then built a new settlement further up river and named it Pilot Town. Below it the river splits into multiple branches as part of the larger Mississippi River Delta. Pilot Town consists of a few buildings, including temporary housing for river pilots and a weather station, and some large oil tanks. Unfortunately, Hurricane Katrina struck near Pilot Town, damaged nearly every structure, and drove away its few remaining residents. Today, it serves as a temporary home for members of the Crescent River Port Pilots’ Association and as a base for offshore oil exploration.

As for Venice, the southernmost inhabited town on the Mississippi, we pulled into the last store, a combination gas station/convenience/hardware store. It was obvious it had taken a mighty punch. Its sign was still down and the floors had rusty streaks and other evidence of flooding. There was a picture near the cash register that showed the store after Katrina hit. It’s really a miracle anything was left to salvage. I asked the clerk, now in her mid-twenties, if she was around when the storm hit. She said that she was. I asked her what it was like to be a part of that history. She said they first focused on surviving, and then on getting back on their feet and rebuilding. I’d say that’s pretty good advice for towns, and people, whose lives have been dealt a heavy blow.

The Great River Road eventually becomes a dirt road, and then a private road for workers at an energy company. We had reached the end. We climbed a riverbank, gave each other high fives, and took a final selfie. Helen Keller once said, “Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all.” Or maybe she just signed it. Regardless, we are thankful that God has given us this great adventure…40 days to travel, be inspired by some amazing people, and see some incredible things along the Great River Road. Although this particular journey is over, there is still so much of our great nation to see, and more adventures to experience. So we did some laundry, topped off the gas tank, said a prayer, and set our sights on the great state of Texas.

Big Steve

Great River Road

The Great River Road, Part 22: New Orleans, LA

November 15, 2015 thebigsteve66@gmail.com Leave a comment

“That’s why I love road trips, dude. It’s like doing something without actually doing anything.” – John Green

“America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.” – Tennessee Williams

October 7, 2015 – Day 39 – New Orleans, Louisiana

It was time for New Orleans to join Minneapolis, St Louis, and Memphis as large cities we would visit on our Great River Road journey. We arrived last night to our base camp, the campground at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans, located in nearby Belle Chasse.

Our goal was simple, overly ambitious, and impossible: do “N’Ahlens” in one day. Game on. We arrived at the Big Easy by crossing the Mississippi on the Canal Street Ferry. We strolled through Woldenberg Riverfront Park and approached the Steamboat Natchez, just in time to hear a woman on the top deck blow her organ. By that, I mean a musical instrument, not that she had a medical emergency. We walked toward the French Quarter, passed by the always-bustling Jackson Square and headed directly for our first stop…Café du Monde. When in Rome, you do as the Romans. When in New Orleans, you eat beignets and drink café au lait at Café du Monde. This iconic restaurant is where Woody Harrelson hypnotized people in Now You See Me, where Rachel Weisz and Dustin Hoffman met for lunch in Runaway Jury, and where Miley Cyrus and Jeremy Piven had a secret meeting in So Undercover. Today, it would be where Big Steve and Lil Jan would get a bag of beignets and coffee to go, find a park bench in Jackson Square on which to people watch, and feast on these powdery balls of fried doughy magic.

With powdered sugar all over our hands and shirts, we stuck our heads into the St Louis Cathedral and then did some shopping on Bourbon and Royal Streets. There were various musicians, bands and street performers to entertain us along the way. We tasted sample hot sauces, saw a skeleton on a toilet, and considered buying some fava beans for our cousin Hannibal. The most impressive of the stores was the upscale and extremely interesting M.S. Rau Antiques. It has been a French Quarter landmark for more than 100 years and has a 25,000-square-foot showroom overflowing with remarkable collections of fine art, exquisite jewelry and exceptional 18th and 19th-century antiques. It’s one of those high-end places where people in ties sit at desks buying, selling, and researching antiques on phones and computers. Half of the store’s items are behind protective glass. I asked the sophisticated-looking woman at the front desk, “What’s the oldest thing in this store?” Without missing a beat, the security guard standing a few feet away glanced our way, pointed at the woman, and said, “She is.” Well done, sir.

Actually, the oldest item is the rare Chondrite meteorite, found in Morocco, and weighing in at a whopping 66 pounds! This extraterrestrial wonder dates from the early phase of the solar system, and is believed to have originated from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter nearly 4.7 billion years ago. The store has rare diamonds, a Paul Revere sterling bowl, dinosaur skeletons, George Washington’s hair, a German Enigma machine, and paintings by Renoir, Monet, and Van Gogh. Be sure to check out their offerings at http://www.rauantiques.com Once we realized we couldn’t afford anything in the store, didn’t really need a meteorite, and were tourists covered in powdered sugar, we gracefully exited.

Let's get a muffuletta! — Let’s getta muffuletta!

It was lunchtime and thus time to visit another New Orleans favorite, Central Grocery. Salvatore Lupo, a Sicilian immigrant, founded this small, old-fashioned grocery store with a sandwich counter in 1906. He noticed that some of his regulars struggled with juggling their usual lunch of bread, salami, cheese and olives. So he put it all together on one sandwich, and the incredible muffuletta was born. It’s kind of a cross between a Cuban sandwich, a deep-dish pizza, and a Frisbee. Because of the muffuletta, Central Grocery has been featured in the PBS special program Sandwiches That You Will Like and on NBC’s The Today Show (five best sandwiches series). The store also sells all of the ingredients to make the sandwich, as well as Italian, Greek, French, Spanish, and Creole table delicacies. For the adventurous type, they sell chocolate-covered grasshoppers and bumble bees in soy sauce. I imagine some Chinese guy had a bee land on and drown in his take-out General Tsao chicken once, inadvertently ate it and thought, “that’s really good!” Lil Jan and I attempted to split a whole muffuletta and ended up sharing 1/3 of it with a guy on a street corner. These delicious sandwiches can be ordered on-line through the store’s website. Or, if you’d like to try making your own muffuletta, check out this recipe… http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/muffulettas-recipe.html

With our bellies full, it was time to creep on some of the many New Orleans celebrity homes. First up was the former home of Nicolas Cage, which may explain why he wasn’t on the balcony waving to us as we went by. The place is supposedly haunted. However, the only paranormal activity we felt originated from the partially digested muffuletta in my large intestine. Better keep moving. Down the street was the home of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, with an asking price of $6.5 million. The pair spent a lot of time in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina pummeled the city back in 2005. They’ve updated the home with Venetian-plastered walls, custom marble mantles and fireplaces, crown moldings, a grand spiral staircase, elevator, private spacious patio with pool, gourmet kitchen with top-of-the line appliances and laundry room. There’s also a separate, two-story guesthouse. We considered making an offer on the home but after pooling our resources, came up just $6.5 million short. Our view down by river is nicer anyhow.

Brad so excited to see us…even puts flag out

Determined to spot a celebrity, we boarded the city trolley and headed to the very upscale Garden District. Over the next hour, we strolled around taking pictures of the homes of author Anne Rice, the Archie Manning family where Peyton and Eli were raised, and the home where The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was filmed. Our final celebrity home was that of Miss Congeniality herself, Sandra Bullock. As we patrolled its perimeter, Lil Jan stood on her tippy toes snapping photos over the fence like a TMZ junkie. We are truly pathetic. Around to the side of her house, we noticed a few of her garbage bags set outside. I said, “If my mother or sisters were here, we would go through that garbage, and sell its contents on E-Bay.” In a moment of rare discretion, I thought better of it, and we slowly walked away with just a remnant of our dignity intact.

Next, we made our final Garden District stop, the Lafayette Cemetery Number One. The cemetery is the oldest of seven city-operated cemeteries in New Orleans, with about 1,100 family tombs and more than 7,000 people buried in a single city block. Among them are the remains of Judge Ferguson of the Plessy vs. Ferguson “separate-but-equal” case. You’ll also find the tomb of Brigadier General Harry T. Hays who led the 1st Louisiana Brigade. Many movies have been filmed in the cemetery, including Double Jeopardy and Dracula 2000. LeAnn Rimes and the New Kids on the Block have also shot music videos there. Interestingly, none of the local residents are buried there. Why? Because they’re not dead yet, silly.

Lil Jan Creeps on Miss Congeniality's Home — Lil Jan Creeps on Miss Congeniality’s Home

With the sun starting to set, we travelled by foot, trolley, ferry, and car to Salvo’s Seafood in Belle Chase, where we feasted on gumbo and fried fish. It turns out we were not able to do all that New Orleans offers in a day, but we did a lot. It’s not really a place we’d want to live, but it’s a great place to eat, shop, wander, get a tattoo, explore, listen to music, creep on celebrities, and be entertained. We returned to the RV exhausted and a little sad, realizing we were almost at the end of our Great River Road adventure. Tomorrow would be our 40^th and final day travelling the Mississippi. It was time to head to the swamp.

Big Steve

Click on below link for sample of street musicians…

IMG_2802

Campground Reviews, Uncategorized

Campground Review: Aviation Arbor RV Park, Belle Chase, LA

November 15, 2015 thebigsteve66@gmail.com Leave a comment

Aviation Arbor RV Park, Naval Air Station (NAS) Joint Reserve Base (JRB) New Orleans, Belle Chase, LA

Dates: October 6-9, 2015

Campsite: 27

Overall Score: 4.46 (out of 5)

Summary: The strength of this military campground is being close to New Orleans and having full hookups.

Recreation/Amenities: 4 – Aside from billiards and Ping-Pong, there is not much to do at the actual campground. However, its location on a military base puts a movie theater, bowling alley, gymnasium, golf course and other recreational opportunities in easy driving distance.

Hookups & Connectivity: 4.8 – electric, water, and sewer. Laundry facilities. Free Wi-Fi. Aside from Cable TV, it has everything you’d want in a campground.

Local Vicinity Things to Do: 4.7 – A high score due to its proximity to New Orleans which has a ton of things to do (see our blog on New Orleans). There’s also the Audubon Aquarium, Insectarium, IMAX, and Audubon Zoo.

Cleanliness: 4.5 – Solid. No major issues. Even the laundry facilities were nice.

Intangibles: 4.3 –

Pros – Quiet, clean, and safe. Very affordable at $20/night. There’s decent spacing between RVs. Upon arrival, we were given a welcome packet with maps and information on the local area. That’s a first. I always love being back on a military installation and hearing the National Anthem played over loud speakers each day. Merica!

Cons – The campground is not what you would consider beautiful…no lakes, mountain vistas, forests, etc. There are just rows of RVs surrounded by some trees and bushes. The campground is close to the a flight line which can get loud at times, although that wasn’t a problem for us.

Big Steve

Great River Road

The Great River Road, Part 21: Darrow to Vacherie, LA

November 12, 2015 thebigsteve66@gmail.com Leave a comment

“The Mississippi River towns are comely, clean, well built, and pleasing to the eye, and cheering to the spirit. The Mississippi Valley is as reposeful as a dreamland, nothing worldly about it…nothing to hang a fret or a worry upon.”

– Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi

“It takes a big man to admit when he’s wrong. I am NOT a big man.”

– Fletch

October 6, 2015 – Day 38 – Darrow and Vacherie, Louisiana

After overnighting at a Wal-Mart south of Baton Rouge, we continued our journey southward, and decided to tour two more plantation homes. There were over 400 plantations along the Mississippi between Baton Rouge and New Orleans in the 1800s. Of the handful that remain, at least 8 are open to the public for tours. After reading on-line reviews and talking to locals, we decided to tour our top 2, the Houmas House Plantation and Gardens in Darrow and the Laura Plantation in Vacherie.

The lawn and gardens at the Houmas House were drop-dead gorgeous, among the most beautiful we’ve ever seen. It’s worth the price of admission just to walk the grounds and see the 600+ year old live oak trees. We noticed several artists on the grounds sketching and painting, and ran into a professional photographer who snapped our picture on a bridge. Not surprisingly, they do lots of weddings here. Our tour guide was dressed in full Antebellum garb and spoke with a semi-authentic Southern accent that only Lil Jan could understand. I appreciated her knowledge, sense of humor, and the patience she showed with a young mother on our tour who was trying to handle an unruly, crying child. Not as patient, I wanted to stuff him in the antique chamber pot. The interior of the home was stunning. I especially liked the statue of Abraham Lincoln containing 60 pounds of silver and a gold clock owned by Marie Antoinette that was given to Napoleon’s brother as a wedding gift. I found it odd that the current owner of the house, apparently a wealthy bachelor, still lives there. He sleeps in one of the antique-filled bedrooms, and each morning picks up after himself to make the room “show ready” for tours. Only his private bathroom is off-limits. I think it would be cool if he slept in one morning and they still did tours, pointing out that the sleeping man in the antique bed is the owner…and the toddler in the chamber pot is a reminder not to be unruly.

Every Southern plantation has a unique story, and the Houmas House Plantation is no exception. Its first owners were the indigenous Houmas Indians who acquired the property via a land grant. In the mid 1700’s, new owners built a French Provincial house on the property. By the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the plantation was a fully operational sugar cane plantation. General Wade Hampton, a Revolutionary War general, purchased the property in 1810 and shortly after began construction on the Mansion. Sugar production continued to increase and the plantation grew to 300,000 acres. It continued to change hands, and would eventually become the largest producer of sugar cane in the country. During the Civil War, Irish owner John Burnside saved the Mansion from destruction by the Union forces by declaring immunity as a subject of the British crown. Well played. John was an interesting character. For some reason, he would pay money to any local residents who would name their sons “John.” He was also heavily into sports betting, and secretly purchased a champion thoroughbred from back east, stored it in the Mansion’s billiard room, and used it to defeat fellow businessmen in a big race. Nice. Apparently they had no Clue it was the thoroughbred, from the billiard room, with the horseshoe.

By the late 1800s, the plantation was producing a massive 20 million pounds of sugar per year. In 1927, it managed to survive the epic “great flood” that devastated so much of the river valley. However, it suffered financial losses that got even worse during the Great Depression just two years later. The Mansion closed and fell into disrepair, but was brought back as a summer home by Dr. George Crozat in 1940. In 1963 the popular Bette Davis film Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte was shot on the property and Ms. Davis stayed in one of the bedrooms during filming. Scenes from other films were also shot here, including Mandingo and Fletch Lives. TV show episodes filmed here include All My Children, Top Chef, and Wheel of Fortune. We enjoyed walking through the Houmas Mansion and around the amazing gardens. Although purists probably don’t appreciate a not true to the period bonsai garden on the premises, we thought it was pretty cool. There are a couple of restaurant options as well, including a high end one that serves a 9-course meal. Unlike yesterday’s tour at Frogmore Plantation, there was no touring the sugar cane fields, no evidence of slave quarters, and no mention of the 750 slaves who labored there over the years. Rather, the emphasis here is on the land barons, the interior, and the gardens. We believe Houmas has earned its title, the Crown Jewel of Louisiana’s River Road.

We continued down the Great River Road toward Vacherie and our next stop, the Laura Plantation. This plantation is famous for its Creole-styled raised main house and several surviving outbuildings, including six slave cabins. If you want a “Gone with the Wind” experience with an impressive interior and grounds, go with the Houmas House. If you are more into history and story telling, and want to tour a slave cabin and get insights on slavery, I’d go with the Laura House. Our tour guide was superb and told captivating stories about the plantation and creole culture, heritage and history. As she spoke, the place came to life. We learned about Guillaume Duparc, the original French owner of the plantation, and how he was banished from France by his father for having shot a dear family friend’s son in a duel. He lived at the plantation for only 4 years, dying in 1808, just 3 years after the house was built. The Duparc daughter, Elisabeth, married into the Locoul family, and generations later, Laura Locoul Gore inherited the plantation after moving to New Orleans.

Laura’s memoirs, published in 2000, provide most of the insights and history of the plantation, and really drove its popularity as a tour stop. In her memoirs, Laura discusses growing up on the plantation and speaking to Pa Philippe, a “weather beaten” slave, when she was 7. “On his creased and wrinkled old face I saw the letters ‘V.D.P.’ I pointed my finger to his face and asked, “Oh Philippe, what is that mark on your forehead?” He turned and laughed in a hard, cackling, old voice saying, “Lord, child, don’t you know this is where they branded me when I used to run away?” I was horror stricken and ran into the house to my mother saying, “Oh, Mamma, they branded Philippe like they do cattle. I saw it. He told me so. Who did it, Mamma?” (Memories of a Plantation Homes by Laura Locoul Gore, p. 39) The incident left a lasting impression on Laura. She inherited the plantation and ran it as a sugar business until 1891, then sold it and moved away, never to return again.

Louisiana Sugar Cane Plantations on the Mississippi

View from Laura's Back Porch — View from Laura’s Back Porch

The tour guide didn’t hide the fact that the owners’ sugar fortune was built on the backs of the 300 slaves working there during peak production. She told about slave owners having children with slaves, how the value/price of a slave was determined (based on their health, skills, and experience…see poster at bottom), and various cousins marrying cousins. We learned that the house was built on a foundation of brick pyramids, due to the clay that runs a mile deep before hitting solid ground. The house is quaint and interesting to tour, but doesn’t have near the grandeur of the Houmas House. In fact, on August 9, 2004, an electrical fire destroyed 80% of the house. Restoration work was completed two years later, despite being interrupted in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina.

The final story on our tour was about Alcée Fortier, a family neighbor and student of folklore, who visited the plantation in the 1870s to listen to the freedmen. He compiled the stories the freedmen told their children in the Louisiana Créole French language. The stories were about a clever, trickster rabbit and stupid fool, Compare Lapin and Compair Bouki. The stories originated in Senegal and were brought to America in the 1720s by enslaved Africans. Twenty-five years later, in 1894, Fortier published the freedmen’s stories in Louisiana Folk Tales: In French Dialect and English Translation. Preservationist Norman Marmillion was captivated by the tales and created a non-profit company that attracted enough investors, including some descendants of former owners, to embark on a ten-year restoration of the plantation. The tales continue to be passed from generation to generation. You may know them as the tales of Br’er Rabbit and Br’er Fox.

Before leaving the area and heading south to New Orleans, we decided to drive by the Oak Alley Plantation, which narrowly missed our cut of places to tour. While it has an impressive house and story like the others, it is best known for the rows of large live oaks that grace its lawn. Movies filmed at Oak Alley include Interview With a Vampire, Primary Colors, Midnight Bayou, Ghost Hunters, Night Rider, and The Long Hot Summer, along with episodes of Days of Our Lives and Beyoncé’s “Déjà Vu” music video. Had it been her All the Single Ladies video, I would have pulled over, put my hands up, and danced among the live oak trees.

Big Steve

Saw my buddy, John Walsh, inside Houmas House

Great River Road

The Great River Road, Part 20: Ferriday, LA

November 9, 2015 thebigsteve66@gmail.com Leave a comment

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

– Mark Twain

“Look back, to slavery, to suffrage, to integration and one thing is clear. Fashions in bigotry come and go. The right thing lasts.”

– Anna Quindlen

October 5, 2015 – Day 37 – Ferriday, Louisiana

I decided to surprise Lil Jan today with something that wasn’t on the original agenda. We broke camp at Natchez State Park and headed west across the Great River into Louisiana, the final state on our Great River Road adventure. Just south of Ferriday, we pulled into today’s surprise stop, the Frogmore Plantation. I couldn’t have designed a better stop to satisfy Lil Jan’s love languages. They were all spoken here. For starters, Frogmore is a working cotton plantation with modern equipment and farming practices. That alone would be enough reason to visit. But Frogmore is also a historic cotton plantation dating back to 1815, and that is what makes it special and what truly made Lil Jan smile. In fact, it is the only one of its kind in the entire South. We highly recommend this place for your bucket list.

Stepping into the Frogmore gift shop and museum was like stepping back into time. Caught up in the moment and wanting to impress my Southern wife, I immediately sat down in a rocking chair and threw down an RC cola and Moon Pie. As the Moon Pie crumbs fell down my chest and I belched RC, Lil Jan exited the store, apparently overwhelmed by my Southern swag.

Our tour began in an adjacent building and we were surprised that Lynette Tanner, the co-owner of Frogmore, would herself lead the first leg of it. She spoke passionately about the history of Frogmore, cotton farming, slavery, sharecropping, and the Civil War. She has written and edited a book called Chained to the Land which is a collection of interviews of slaves from the state of Louisiana (of course, Lil Jan purchased one from the store). The slaves’ poignant recollections of food, housing, clothing, relationships, weddings, and funerals, as well as their treatment, echo memories of a past era, and some will bring tears to your eyes.

Walkin' in High Cotton — Walkin’ in High Cotton

After answering questions, she passed us off to another tour guide who walked us around the property. We saw original slave quarters, the kitchen, farm equipment, the commissary, an original cotton gin and steam engine, the church, and much more. A few of the buildings are original to Frogmore while Mrs. Tanner brought others here from other plantations. We also got to go out into a field and pick some cotton. This time Lil Jan got caught up in the moment and ran across the field singing Walking in High Cotton. We are such nerds. Our guide had a firm grasp on the history of the place, explaining what daily life would have been like for a slave on the plantation. There was certainly a very surreal, sobering feeling when we walked into the slave quarters and tried to wrap our minds around the harsh quality of life these residents would have endured. At one point I looked over and Lil Jan was wiping away some tears.

My favorite stop was the overseer’s cabin where we learned about Willie Smith, who used to live in the cabin with his family. According to an exhibit inside the cabin, “Willie Smith became the first African American farm manager on a major cotton plantation in Louisiana at the demise of sharecropping and remained so until his death in 1995. Willie represents thousands of sharecroppers across the South whose lifestyle abruptly ended with the advent of mechanization. Willie started working the Frogmore fields at age eight and only completed 3^rd grade. After he married Janie Green, Willie and his family sharecropped Frogmore until the early 1960’s along with over fifty other sharecropping families. Willie, unlike many other sharecroppers, did not move to town when diesel equipment forced them out of work. He learned the mechanics of modern farm equipment and cotton gins and stayed abreast of a wave of new technology to become a well-respected farm manager and ginner by all landowners in the area. Members of Willie’s family still live in their family home on Frogmore.” Stories such as Willie’s are what make these tours so interesting. From humble beginnings, he worked hard, overcame obstacles, and made a name for himself. Well done, Willie.

Where Cotton Headed Ninny Muggins are Born

At the final stop on the tour, we watched a movie about cotton production and the Frogmore plantation. I learned that cotton is classified based on its quality and priced accordingly. For example, cotton of average quality might be given “Grade 31—Middling”. For many years, my now deceased grandfather, when asked how he was doing, would answer, “Fair to Middling”. I never really understood what he meant, but figured it must mean that he was doing okay. Now I finally understand that he was describing his current state of being using the quality standards of cotton. I’ve decided to continue this tradition by trying to confuse my future grandchildren. When they ask how I’m doing, and it’s been an average day, I’ll simply respond, “89 octane”.

We also learned about the many uses of cotton. For example, cottonseeds are used to feed cattle. The exterior fuzz on the seed, called linters, is used to make currency, banknotes, quality stationery, yarns, felt, sausage casings, medical supplies and duct tape. The linter cellulose becomes plastics, cosmetics, and nail polish. The outside of the seed, the hull, is used for cattle feed, chemicals, mulch, and insulation for drilling rigs. After the hulls and oils are removed, what remains is high protein cotton meal, which is compressed into cakes and fed to cattle, deer, crawfish, and catfish. There is also cottonseed oil which, after refining, is an edible oil that is 100% trans-fat, cholesterol, and gluten free. It is used as a cooking oil, flavored salad oil, solid shortening, and margarine. In 1914 Procter & Gamble packaged cottonseed oil in solid form and named it Crystallized Seed Cotton Oil, or CRISCO, which is used in cookies, crackers, and chips. Of course, cotton can also be used to clean earwax, make a fake Santa beard, or euthanize lab animals. So next time you see a cotton field, I hope you’ll appreciate that it is the source for a lot more than just cotton t-shirts and underwear.

I hope you enjoyed today’s blog and that you have a great day, or at least a middling, 89 octane one.

Big Steve

Great River Road

The Great River Road, Part 19: Natchez, MS

November 7, 2015 thebigsteve66@gmail.com Leave a comment

“Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes, work never begun.”
– Christina Rossetti

October 4, 2015 – Day 36 – Natchez, Mississippi

We awoke this Lord’s Day morning and headed to the 4^th Street Church of Christ, a black church in downtown Natchez, the oldest settlement on the Mississippi River. I’m not crazy about the term “black church”. To my knowledge, Christ never used an adjective like that to describe the church, his body. In fact, he called for unity and oneness, a cause not necessarily furthered by labels such as “black church”, “white church”, “Republican church”, etc. At the same time, I realize there is a proud history of black churches in America. The label is descriptive and perhaps helpful to some, just like the label letting us know the church meets on 4^th Street.

During the decades of slavery in America, African slaves formed and relied heavily on their churches. They were places where oppressed people could find refuge, feel God’s presence, and have a voice. In fact, slave owners often viewed black churches and other slave associations as a threat, and kept a close eye on their activities. Blacks were unwelcomed in most white churches. Even after slavery ended and their attendance was allowed, they were often relegated to the rear of the church and considered spectators rather than full members of the congregation. So the black church remained a place of refuge and often served as the center of black social and cultural life. During the Civil Rights era, black churches often served as power bases and centers for mobilization. As a result, they were sometimes bombed or burned by those wishing to discourage or halt their call for freedom and activism. Today, black churches remain, but they vary based on denomination, area of the country, and other factors. It’s really inaccurate and unfair to stereotype black churches as being all the same. What’s important about a black church, or any other church, is that they have Christ at their core and that they love and serve their fellow man.

As we entered the building at the 4^th Street Church of Christ, person after person came up, welcomed us, and made us feel at home. I’d say 30 or so of the approximately 200 people there made it a point to stop by and shake our hands. They asked what brought us to town, and seemed very interested and intrigued by our full-time RV lifestyle and journey down the Great River Road. The worship service was, in a word, awesome! The singing was phenomenal, the sermon was hard hitting, and we left feeling inspired and a little closer to God. It didn’t matter to us, or them, or God, that we happened to be the only two white people in attendance that morning. It was just good to be with the body of Christ in Natchez. I didn’t ask whether they considered themselves a “black church” or just a church, but we felt very welcome there. In fact, if we lived in Natchez, I suspect they would become a “black plus two white gypsies who live in a van down by the river” church. And I suspect that designation would be okay to a loving God who has enough room in the tent for all types and colors of people.

After services, we headed to the Pig Out Inn Barbeque in order to pig out on some barbeque. The place was a dive, but the pulled pork sandwiches were excellent. We then walked down along the river and along Main Street to work off some of those calories. Next, we drove by Stanton Hall and other historic southern plantations in Natchez. Lil Jan loves the Civil War era, and especially stories centered on southern plantations. So we decided to pay the fee and do a tour of historic Longwood.

Longwood is a historic antebellum mansion and the largest octagonal house in the United States. It was used in the HBO series True Blood for the external shots of the mansion owned by the Vampire King of Mississippi and Louisiana in fictional Jackson, Mississippi. It was also featured in the Guide to Historic Homes in America by Bob Vila for the A&E Network. It is known not for being a finished masterpiece, but rather an unfinished one. The story begins in 1859 with Dr. Haller Nutt, a very wealthy Mississippi cotton planter. Prior to the Civil War, over half of the millionaires in the entire United States lived in Natchez, and many of them built elegant mansions. Nutt married Julia Augusta Williams, who was eighteen at the time, and the two of them had eleven children. With a fortune estimated at $3 million, he owned several plantations on 43,000 acres of land and had 800 slaves. With money to spare, he hired Samuel Sloan, a Philadelphia architect, to design a mansion home in Natchez. He then brought in a team of northern construction workers to begin work on the home. Mr. Sloan and his crew finished a portion of the ground floor of the home and then halted work and returned home in 1861 at the start of the American Civil War. Slave labor was used to complete the basement level, making it available for occupancy in 1862.

In 1864 Dr. Nutt died of pneumonia and work never resumed on the home. His family’s real estate and cotton production were decimated by the war. Thus, with little money, his wife Julia was left to raise several Nutts in the finished nine-room basement in the otherwise empty shell of a 32-room mansion. She was able to ornately finish the basement with furniture she already owned or received from family and friends. Longwood would eventually be abandoned and suffered from decades of neglect. Later the Pilgrimage Garden Club purchased and renovated the mansion, and today it is open for tours and available to rent for special occasions. One of the conditions of its sale was that the upper floors never be finished, perhaps as a visual reminder of the fascinating history of the place. Also known as Nutt’s Folly, the mansion is a National Historic Landmark and on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. We were so impressed with the mansion and tour that we decided to do a couple more during our remaining Great River Road journey.

Before exiting the Longwood plantation, we walked down a path through the woods to the Nutt family cemetery. Several Nutts are buried there. I blame the squirrels.

Big Steve

Big Steve & Lil Jan's XL Adventure

Gypsies of the Caribbean

A Leg Up in Big D

Mission Possible: The Sojourners

Steel Magnolias

The Great River Road, Part 23: Venice, LA – The End

The Great River Road, Part 22: New Orleans, LA

Campground Review: Aviation Arbor RV Park, Belle Chase, LA

The Great River Road, Part 21: Darrow to Vacherie, LA

The Great River Road, Part 20: Ferriday, LA

The Great River Road, Part 19: Natchez, MS

Not All Who Wander Are Lost