Tag Archives: Christian bloggers

2023 Road Trip-Part 14

20 Dec

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 14 – July 28:

After Breakfast this morning, I headed south on US-65 for about ½-hour to visit the Lost Valley Fish Hatchery located just north of Warsaw, MO.  This fish hatchery is part of a huge 969-acre state conservation project where a large variety of warm-water fish species are bred and raised to stock fish in the many Missouri rivers and lakes.  It was early, and no one was around to give me a tour of the facility or tell me about how it all worked, so I took this photo and was on my way to the next place of interest on my list for today. 

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

It was about an hour’s drive south on US-65 to where I found the Wommack Mill, also known as the Boegel & Hine Flower Mill, in Fair Grove, MO just north of Springfield.  This original 1883 sawmill was converted into a flower mill in 1926 with the addition of the two concrete storage silos and other structures.  The Fair Grove Historical Society is now in the process of a multi-year restoration of the mill to an operating flower mill using most of the original mill equipment, including the original buhr stones used by the Wommack family.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

Now I headed south out of Fair Grove on US-65 for about 20 miles to visit the Route 66 Car Museum located in Springfield, MO.  This museum displays an amazing collection of some 75+ beautifully restored vintage cars and trucks dating from as early as 1907 (Reo Runabout).  My favorite was their fire engine red 1936 Cord 810 Sportsman.  They also have a Batmobile used in the 1960s Batman series.  I never get tired of looking at vintage cars and trucks.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

While I was in Springfield, I wanted to visit the Pedalers Bicycle Museum just a few blocks from the car museum, but the traffic was terrible, and I couldn’t find a parking place anywhere around the square.  So, I just headed south, out of Springfield on US-65 about 45 miles toward Branson, MO.  I was not particularly interested in most of the famous attractions in Branson but did want to see what they had done for the Titanic attraction.  DiVoran and I had seen the traveling Titanic Artifact Exhibition in Orlando several years ago, and I wanted see Barnson’s version.  I was impressed with the half-ship replica of the Titanic but didn’t want to fight the crowds to see the artifacts again, so I took this photo and went on my way to the next museum.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

After I weaved my way out of the traffic jam around the Titanic attraction, I headed south out of Branson for 30 miles on US-65, across the border into Arkansas, to visit the Boone County Historical Museum in Harrison, AR but it was closed.  Continuing southeast another 40 miles on US-65 I visited the Buffalo River Historic Jail Museum located in Marshall, AR.  This museum is housed in the original old restored 1902 Searcy County Jail and invites visitors to experience the turn-of-the-century jail conditions for themselves with antique jail artifacts, photos, and memorabilia.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

Now I headed southeast again, for another 30 minutes on US-65, to Clinton, AR where US-65 turned south, and I stopped for a bathroom break.  Then it was another 40 miles south to visit the Faulkner County Courthouse in Conway, AR.  The first courthouse was  built on this site in 1870, in the railroad town, then known as Conway Station, and had the distinction of being the first courthouse in Faulkner County, AR.  The original building was replaced by the present building in 1936 and serves the city of Conway and the surrounding Faulkner County area.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

Heading south out of Conway, it was only about a 30-minute drive south on I-40 to visit the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum located in the Riverfront Park area, adjacent to the Arkansas River, in North Littlerock, AR.  I had visited this museum once on another Road Trip, and this museum is usually the home of the USS Razorback (SS-394) Submarine and the USS Hoga (YT-146) Tugboat.  Today I didn’t see either one of these boats tied up to the dock, and assumed that they had been taken somewhere for a  maritime event or for maintenance.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

It was getting late by now, so I gave Greta (My Garmin) the address for the motel there in North Little Rock, and she took me right to it with no trouble.  After I got settled into my motel room, I heated up my leftover BBQ spareribs and sweet potato fries from Bandana’s BBQ Restaurant last night and enjoyed that delicious meal again.  I found a good movie on TV that I had seen before and watched that until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer and went to bed.

Photo Credit: https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/man+sleeping+in+front+of+tv

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 65 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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Melodies of Praise

18 Dec

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Psalm 93

Melodies of praise will fill the air as every musical instrument

Joined with every heart overflows

With worship.

No wonder I’m so glad; I can’t keep it in 

Lord, Lord, I’m shouting with glee

What mighty miracles and your power at work, to name a few 

Depths of purpose and layers of meaning

Saturate everything you do.

Such amazing mysteries are found within every miracle.

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

 

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Christmas is Coming-Part 3

17 Dec

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wil

While we were at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Fred had received orders to be assigned to Heidelberg, West Germany.  We were so very excited by this assignment – getting to live in Germany again, and getting our girls to know Europe.  An amazing prospect!  So when the time came, Fred graduated from the school there in Kansas, and we made our way to Germany via Albuquerque, New Mexico (visiting my family), and King of Prussia, Pennsylvania (visiting Fred’s family).  

I don’t have any pictures of any decorations in our apartment in Heidelberg for the first Christmas we were there.  However, here are a few from 1981 and 1982.

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Unfortunately, our three-year tour was up, and we returned Stateside, to begin a new portion of our life in Virginia.

We purchased a house in a small community, Seaford, Virginia, just eight miles south of Yorktown, which is part of the Colonial Historic Triangle of Yorktown, Jamestown, and Williamsburg.  Here’s a picture of our house:

And since we’re talking Christmas and winter and SNOW…

Oh yeah…we had SNOW!

Here are a few of the decorations that I did in that house for Christmas:

After both our girls married, Fred and I decided it was time to look for our “forever” place, and we weren’t sure it was Virginia.  While Fred’s parents were in San Antonio, Texas (and we LOVED that city), they would soon be moving to Washington state, and we knew we didn’t want to live in the northwest.  My parents were both gone, so Albuquerque was not really in the running.

All of Fred’s siblings were “scattered” so to speak, but my brother, Bill and his wonderful wife, DiVoran, were in Florida – a state where both Fred and I had enjoyed living so many years ago.  So we began looking to find a house in the Orlando area – which we did….kinda.  We found a house in Kissimmee (kah-SIM-ee) that we thought would be our “forever” house, and moved there just before Thanksgiving of 1995.

Well, you know, there just is NOT snow in Florida – not very often anyway.  And thank goodness for that!

This is the only picture I have of Christmas decorations in that house:   I know we had a tree up and all, but not much else.

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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The Slowest Fastest Christmas

15 Dec

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Christmas is in ten days. Nine days if you count Christmas eve. It’s is coming on fast and I am moving slow.

Some years will celebrate Christmas in Florida and other years at our home in the North Carolina mountains. This year we will have a mountain Christmas. To jump start the season, our daughter who was visiting over Thanksgiving, prodded us to set up the Christmas tree and decorate it.

We have boxes of ornaments including the special ones from our children’s growing up years. As our daughter rummaged through the decorations I hesitated. While I would love a tree filled with memories, I didn’t think my energy level would be up to the effort required to later take down the tree. We settled on a one color tree.

Our daughter returned to Florida, and the tree stood lonely in the undecorated house.

When our daughter who decorates for every holiday and season told us she wasn’t going to put up any Christmas decorations this year since she was going to be with us, I knew I needed to get moving on the holiday cheer.

My moving started slow. I like to decorate our guest bathroom with the seasons.. I store seasonal flowers and small ornaments under the sink and a change of seasons is a five minute operation.

Photo Credit: Hobby Lobby

Next, I ventured to the attic and brought down a small,handmade, net Christmas tree and a matching indoor wreath made by the same crafter.They are a fairly recent addition to our Christmas decorations and they make me smile.

More time passed and I I began to feel twitching of Christmas past. I remembered I had tucked some Christmasy items into the drawer of an antique sideboard. It didn’t take much effort to take them out and place them along the sideboard.

The Christmas spirit in me was moving and it began to spread to my husband. We aren’t able to put up Christmas lights these days, but we do put out Christmas lasers. My husband surprised me by setting them up in the yard. Then I put a big red bow on the artificial topiary on the porch.

The stair bannisters leading to the attic began nagging me to dress them for Christmas as well, followed by the front step bannister. Greenery was abounding.

And finally, I dug into the closet where seasonal tablecloths, chargers and place mats are stored. I chose a cloth with a poinsettia pattern. It looks very nice and Christmasy. I think I am finished decorating. It was a slow process, but I think we enjoyed it more that way than rushing through it.

Now it’s on to baking and making Christmas treats. This year I am corralling my husband to help with the candy making. Christmas is coming fast and we are moving slow-but we are still moving!

I'm a winner

After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I’m a general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  

My 2023 goal is continue to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media.

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2023 Road Trip-Part 13 A

13 Dec

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 13 – July 27:  Continued:  

Not to be discouraged there in Kansas City, I tried the National WWII Museum, but it was also closed.  Not having the best day finding museums to visit today, am I?  So, I gave up on the Kansas City museums and headed south for about 30-minutes on I-35 to visit the Belton-Grandview Railroad Museum located in Belton, MO.  This small museum displays antique railroad artifacts and rolling stock dating from the early 1920s, and gives 5-mile (45-minute) weekend excursion rides in their restored 1923 Pullman car thru Old Towne Belton, MO and the surrounding area for passenger enjoyment.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

Now it was another 20-minutes south on I-35 to Harrisonville, MO where I picked up SR-7 for another 40 minutes southeast to visit the Henry County Museum in Clinton, MO.  This museum is situated in the old restored 1886 Anheuser-Busch building and displays antique artifacts, an original preserved 1856 Dog Trot Log House, a one-room schoolhouse, along with memorabilia related to the history of the city of Clinton and the surrounding Henry County area dating from the early 1800s.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

Before leaving Clinton, I drove by the Clinton Railroad Depot and only was able to get a photo, as they were closed.  So, I gave up on museums for the day.  From Clinton I continued east on SR-7 for another 30-minutes to visit my friends Hank and Lois in Lincoln, MO.  Lois is DiVoran’s cousin, and they have kept in touch with each other over the years.  Hank is a big game hunter, and misses the Colorado mountains where they lived for years.  We had a very pleasant visit reminiscing about our many visits to see them and DiVoran’s grandparents in Canon City, CO over the years.  They showed me their garden where I ate a hand-full of some of the most delicious, falling-off-the-vine-ripe blackberries I have ever eaten.  They live not far from nearby Timber Line Lake where Hank spends a lot of his time fishing for Sunfish, Catfish, and Largemouth Bass.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

After that great visit, I said my goodbyes, and gave Greta (My Garmin) the address for my hotel for tonight in Sedalia, MO and we were on our way.  Greta took me to the hotel in Sedalia without any problem, and I got my things into my room.  I was impressed with the beautifully carpeted grand stairway in the lobby of the hotel that reminded me of the foyer of a turn-of-the-century Victorian mansion.   It was called the Truman Inn, and I never did find out why it had that name.  There were pictures of President Harry S. Truman in some of the downstairs rooms (and one on each side of the stairway).  It is my guess that President Truman stayed in this hotel at some point in time, and that the owner of the hotel (at that time) was so impressed with Truman that he named the hotel in honor of the President.  That’s a pretty wild guess on my part.  What do you think?

I asked the desk clerk about good restaurants in town.  He said, “If you like Bar-B-Q, you will like Bandana’s BBQ Restaurant over on Broadway Boulevard.”  So, I gave it a try.  I had their BBQ Spareribs plate with coleslaw and sweet potato fries.  It was a wonderful meal.  Yummmm!  There was enough left over for another meal tomorrow.  So, with a full tummy I went back to the hotel and looked for something to watch on TV.  Of course, I couldn’t find anything I liked, so I recorded the day’s activities, and went to bed.

Photo Credit: https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/spareribs+sweet+potatoe+fries+coleslaw+Bandana’s+BBQ+Restaurant+sedalia+mo/

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 65 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

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His Faithful Heart

11 Dec

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Psalm:71 22-24

Turn and comfort us once again.

My loving God, the harp in my heart will praise you.

Your faithful heart toward us will be the theme of my song.

Melodies and music will rise to you,

The Holy One of Israel.

I will shout and sing our praises for all you are to me-

Savior, love of my soul!

I’ll never stop telling others how perfect you are

While all those who seek my harm 

Slink away, ashamed and defeated!

Photo Credit: Pixabay

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

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Christmas is Coming-Part 2

10 Dec

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

I mentioned last time that I would like to describe Christmas decorations – both around the neighborhood, in our house (and others houses we’ve visited), and some of the decorations from years past at our growing-up house and our Aunt Jessie’s house in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the decorations that our church does each year.

I started last week with the decorations my Mother did around our house, and then what our Aunt Jessie did at her house.

This week I would like to share some of the decorating I did for our house(s) that we’ve lived in.

The first four years of our marriage I don’t think I decorated at all – probably didn’t have either the funds for purchasing anything, or knowledge of how to apply what I saw in the stores and around the area.  Seems like I remember taking a small magazine – Readers Digest size – and folding each page a couple of times in a certain way (I’ve forgotten now how I did it) to make it stand upright, then spray painting the whole thing green. I would then add very small ornaments on it, and call it a Christmas tree!  Unfortunately, I have no pictures of that – only the memory.

So the first pictures I have of anything we did for decorations was when we were in Wiesbaden, West Germany.  The building we lived in had a “competition” with other government buildings for decorations.  This is our building in 1968 – everyone in our building had the same “form” and we added what we wanted in the middle.  I made “Silver Bells” – cardboard bell shapes wrapped in aluminum foil.  Kinda cute.  Our apartment was the top left – at the end of the building.

This second picture is also in Wiesbaden, the following year, 1969 – our last Christmas in Wiesbaden.  It’s a bit difficult to make out the window decoration, but it was a very simple design – sort of a star burst.  I think the center was a paper doily, with “spokes” emanating from the center, with another paper doily at the end of each spoke and some “diamonds” between.  Simple, but we liked it.

Here are another couple of pictures of Christmas morning in our apartment in 1969.  Karen was just three years old here.  You will see our little tree in the background on an end-table.  And then another picture of the small gingerbread house we had.  I don’t remember whether or not I made it or we bought it.  But Karen thought it was a delight!

I don’t seem to have any pictures of decorations until 10 years later – 1979 – when we were in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.  I only have a few from there, but here they are.  The six-plex we lived in was built on a hill, so we have a true “split level” house – lots of stairs, three bedrooms, two and one-half baths.  Not too bad, but they were built very cheaply and were quite noisy and cold.  In any case, here are some of the decorations we did there.

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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A Postal Surprise

7 Dec

Onisha Ellis

On the Porch

Do you still send out Christmas cards? I don’t send as many as I did in the past but I do enjoy sending them. As my mom grew older, she turned over to me the addressing of the cards. All of her family lived in another state so of course, it wasn’t just addressing, each card included a personal note. I treasure those memories.

My aunt Barbara was a faithful card sender and as she aged, her son took over writing them. Sadly her son passed way too young due to a brain tumor. I wondered if she would continue the cards. She did. She bought an ink stamp with her name on it. It made me chuckle each year when the card arrived and also touched my heart.

I enjoy receiving cards as well. It is like receiving a love hug in my mailbox. I especially treasure the photo cards. You know the ones the young families send with a picture of the family. I know these can be expensive and I feel honored. I keep them on display all year to enjo. When the newest one arrives, I look at the children and marvel at how quickly they are growing. Then the nests become empty but not for long and the photo cards have smiling babies. Memories are precious.

I’m trying to get my cards sent a little earlier this year. I don’t send a great number but I didn’t have enough stamps on hand, and since it was a cold but gorgeous day, I decided to go to the post office. Now the post office is not my favorite place but I figured they would have a self service machine and I could scoot in and out. They did have a machine, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure it out. Sigh.

I went inside the lobby and joined the line. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. When my turn came, I walked to the service window and asked to purchase one book of twenty postage stamps. I declined the Christmas one, even though the stamps are pretty, The clerk said that will be $13.20. But since I didn’t have my hearing aid in, I wasn’t sure I had heard her correctly. Bummer, stamps have gone up again, I thought. I pulled out my card and glanced down at the processing terminal to verify what I thought she said.

Shock!! The terminal flashed $1,320.00. I pulled my card back and calmly informed the clerk the computer was charging me $1,320.00. She smiled at me like I was senile then looked at her computer. Now she looked shocked. Shaking her head, she swiped the book of stamps again with the same result.

“I know I didn’t swipe it more than once, she mumbled. I would have had to swipe it 100 times.”

“That’s computers for you,” I replied.

She finally was able to convince the computer I was only buying one book of stamps. And suddenly, $13.20 cents didn’t seem as bad.

This is one time I was happy that I didn’t hear correctly. Otherwise I might have mindlessly inserted my card and paid $1,320.00 for 20 stamps with no idea until the card bill arrived. And that would be a nightmare trying to convince the postal service they made a mistake.

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2023 Road Trip-Part 13

6 Dec

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Day 13 – July 27:

  After Breakfast this morning, as I was heading for the interstate, this unusual scene of an airplane caught my eye, and I had to stop to see what it was all about.  This CRAZY scene was at the Pizza Shack Restaurant there in Lamoni, and I just had to have a photo of it.  I’m not sure what this scene is supposed to reflect, as the Pizza Shack wasn’t open yet, and I couldn’t ask about it, but I would guess it has something to do with survivors of a plane crash.  What a Hoot!

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

Now I continued south about an hour on I-35, crossed the border into Missouri, to visit the Crossroads Quilting Museum in Cameron, MO.  However, I had plans to visit friends in Lincoln, MO this evening, so, I only stopped in Cameron for a bathroom break, passed up the Quilting Museum, and continued another 40 minutes south on I-35 to visit the Jesse James Birthplace & Museum located in Kearney, MO.  This museum is located on the 40-acre James farm where Jesse and his family lived in their original 1845 log cabin.  The museum chronicles the history of the James family with original family artifacts, miniature dioramas, and a 20-minute film depicting the life and times of outlaws Frank and Jesse James.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

A short walk, up the hill from the museum, I toured the original 1845 restored James home where decades of visitors have been allowed to walk thru the rooms of the house, guided by members of the James family, beginning as early as 1882, when Zerelda James (Jesse’s Mother) first opened her house to visitors for 50 cents per person.  Just a few yards from the James house is the original grave site of Jesse James (1847-1882).

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

It took me a while to get back to I-35, and then another 15-minute drive to where I had planned to visit the Historic Liberty Jail Museum located in Liberty, MO.  I was surprised to find a large modern building at the address Greta (My Garmin) took me to.  Inside, I was informed that a church organization had bought the property and built a church on top of the Liberty Jail.  That was hard for me to understand, but it seems to be another case of one generation building on top of another.  I didn’t take the tour, as I would have had to wait for a group to arrive.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

From Liberty, it was only a short 15-minute drive to visit the Arabia Steamboat Museum located on Grand Boulevard, adjacent to the Missouri River, in Kansas City, MO.  This large museum is filled with one of the largest collections of Civil War era artifacts recovered from the remains of the steamboat Aribia that sank in 1856 on its way to Kansas City with over 200 tons of cargo on board (the Arabia was one of 400 steamboats to sink on the 2500-mile-long segment of the Missouri River between the 1820s and the 1870s).   The museum was overflowing with visitors today, and because of my time crunch, I decided to see this great attraction on another road trip.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

Before leaving downtown Kansas City, I stopped at the WWI Memorial for a photo.  This is another museum I will have to visit on another road trip, as it was very busy with visitors today.  I passed up the Clendening Medicine Museum and the Boot Hill Museum (that I had visited on other road trips) so I could visit the TWA Museum and the Airline History Museum, both located adjacent to the Charles B. Willard Downtown Airport.

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

I had tried to visit these two museums on a previous road trip, but they were both closed on the day I arrived.  So, I was really looking forward to visiting them on this trip.  Today there happened to be a lot of road construction all around the Charles B. Willard Downtown Airport and neither Greta (My Garmin) nor I could ever access the TWA Museum.  So, I gave up and we tried to find the Airline History Museum there in the same general area.  After a confused back and forth around the airport construction, I finally arrived at the Airline History Museum, only to find it permanently closed.  Bummer!

Photo Credit: Bill Lites

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 65 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

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The Blessings Keep Coming

4 Dec

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Psalm 67 5-7  

No wonder these people praise you!

Let all the people praise you more!

The harvest of the earth is here!

God, the very God we worship

Keeps us satisfied at his banquet of blessings,

And the blessings keep coming!

Then all the ends of the earth will give him

The honor he deserves, and be in awe of him!

Photo Credit:Pixabay

DiVoran has been writing for most of her life. Her first attempt at a story was when she was seven years old and her mother got a new typewriter. DiVoran got to use it and when her dad saw her writing he asked what she was writing about. DiVoran answered that she was writing the story of her life. Her dad’s only comment was, “Well, it’s going to be a very short story.” After most of a lifetime of writing and helping other writers, DiVoran finally launched her own dream which was to write a novel of her own. She now has her Florida Springs trilogy and her novel, a Christian Western Romance, Go West available on Amazon. When speaking about her road to publication, she gives thanks to the Lord for all the people who helped her grow and learn.  She says, “I could never have done it by myself, but when I got going everything fell beautifully into place, and I was glad I had started on my dream.”

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