WANDERING WITH THE WRIGHTS

October 22, 2017

Starting today's blog with grandchildren pictures:

Vincent 8 months

Bella & Lily Vincent's precious sisters

Just love this picture of Vincent!!

The last blog left us one week into our three week mission project with the SOWERS - I didn't think things there could get much better as the first week was outstanding - but Sugar Pine just continued to embrace us and we hated to leave.

The welcome sign states Impacting Lives for Christ and they sure do - including ours.  When we work with SOWERS the men work all day with two breaks and lunch.  The women only work until lunch time so I was home one afternoon when I noticed three ladies walking around looking at the campground area we were in (at this point there were only two campers there).  I stuck my head out and asked if they needed anything and turns out they were looking into using Sugar Pine for a women's retreat.  We talked for awhile and I shared that we were SOWERS and one lady whose husband is soon to retire said they wanted to go full-time and were very interested in SOWERS.  I got her a brochure and we all said good-bye.  We are standing in a beautiful setting, tall-tall pine trees, a babbling brook right behind us, the sun just shining through the tall trees, not a sound to be heard - as they walked away one of the ladies stopped and said is there anything we could pray for you for today?  Kind of took me by surprise but we had just learned the night before that our daughter-in-law had left her job and was looking for direction.  So these three women I never met and I stood in this beautiful setting, held hands and prayed for Amy!!  I also prayed for their retreat.  I can't put into words how special it was.  Definitely a reminder that there are good people in this world and how incredibly blessed I am to be living my life right now.

This is a photo of the layout of Sugar Pine.  It is very large with many cabins and wonderful activities for youth and adults.

On the weekend Jerry and I took a ride on this powerful locomotive that once hauled massive log trains through the Sierra Mountain where lumberjacks felled these mighty pines.

I am still amazed at the size of the pine cones

Jerry and I on the train

Half way through the trip we stopped to fill with water - these engines work hard going up and down the mountain.

We also attended church on Sunday's where several ladies from the retreat I mentioned in the last blog attend so was great worshipping with them.

My mom with Vincent!!

This is the maintenance crew at Sugar Pine - wonderful Christian men.  They start every morning with devotions and pray for each other's needs.  While at Sugar Pine Jerry worked with this crew.  They repaired heaters in both cabins and staff residence, started a new tiling project for the dining hall, started work on the dining hall expansion and he assisted with various other repairs.

Here we are with Debbie and Ferrin who run the camp.  When I wasn't assisting housekeeping with cabin cleaning during fast "turnaround" days, I washed, dried and folded linens for the cabins and the dining hall and also worked in the office with Debbie inputting info into the computer system and filing.  Also gave the office a good cleaning.

We enjoyed the cute decorations in the dining hall.

We left last Friday and traveled down and through mountains.   We were at roughly 4,700' and now at 279'

It rained the night before we left - the first time in the three weeks we were there - as we headed, up, down and through what they call the Grapevine it was extremely cloudy but about half-way through we switched back to the beautiful blue skies we were used to

We arrived in Santa Paula, CA Friday late afternoon.  We stayed at the park we are in 2015 when we were here visiting Jerry's family.  It is a small park but very nice and we are only a half-hour from Jerry's sister Deena and her husband Tim and Jerry's half-sister Betsy and her husband Dick.  Visiting family this week is the main reason we are here.  It worked out beautifully that Jerry and his sister's school was having a multi-class reunion the day after we arrived.

Jerry Class of '69 and his sister Deena class of '82.  Saturday morning we went on a tour of the high school.  The man who put it on did a wonderful job and it was very interesting.

There was a scrimmage football game going on while we were there and they stopped the game, the two teams lined up on the field and they played the Camarillo High School Song for all the alumni there.  Everyone was touched and stood and clapped when it was over.

After the tour we all went over to the Camarillo House(more about Camarillo House later) for lunch.  Both Jerry and Deena knew people there and they had a great time reminiscing.  Jerry's 50th is in two years and based on his delight yesterday I am guessing we will be back for that celebration.

Teddy was left alone quite awhile while we were in Camarillo so when we got home we took him for a bike ride to a nearby park.  He was a happy puppy.  He gets SO excited when he sees the bikes come out.

Today started with our surprising Jerry's step-sister and brother-in-law at church.  Dick is a pastor at the Camarillo Presbyterian church and Betsy is very involved like most pastor's wives.  It turned out she was greeting and the look on her face when we walked up was priceless.  Dick was up leading the choir.  When he turned around and saw us his face just lit up - I think our surprise worked.  Dick led a bible study after the service so we stayed and enjoyed the special time.  I know we will see more of them during our time here.

Earlier I mentioned the Camarillo House and the town Jerry attended high school in is Camarillo, CA.  So where did the name come from.  We have actually toured the Camarillo House on previous visits and it is beautiful.  It is a Queen Anne-style Victorian.  It was built in 1892 and is 6,000 square feet.  Adolfo Camarillo operated his ranch for 78 years.  He employed 700 workers.  He was greatly respected in the community and bred white stallions.  He was a good employer and his beautiful home was the center of many community functions.  Today, Oct. 22, 2017 would have been his 153rd birthday and every year the foundation puts on festivities to honor him.  So after church we went over.

The Camarillo House today (if you look up in the middle you will see cut outs of Adolfo and his wife) looking down and enjoying the celebration

There were many piñata for the children 

The beautiful white stallions

Mariachi band that was superb

All of the porches around the entire house were decorated

Fun entertainment

Beautiful dancers

We will be here in town until Friday and then move a short distance, 26 miles, to our next SOWERS project.  So we will be able to remain near Jerry's family for another month!!  And incase you are wondering that is a good thing!

Before closing I want to wish my brother Brian a Happy Birthday tomorrow - Love you - your much older sister - Carol :-)

Wandering With The Wrights

October 7, 2017

Going to start today's blog wishing our Teddy a very happy 9th birthday today.  He is such a sweet boy and puts up with all of our moving around.  He brings us so much joy.

If you remember from the last blog we were in Coarsegold, CA at an Escapees Park - the most exciting part was that we met up with our dear friends Gary & Steph Vogel and would spend the next week together before going our own ways again until December.

The main reason Jerry and I were in this area is we had signed up with a group called SOWERS(Servant On Wheels Ever Ready) to do a 3 week mission project at Sugar Pine Christian Camp just south of the south entrance to Yosemite Park

On Monday the Vogel's and the Wrights's decided to go check out the camp we would be serving.  The man next to Jerry is Paul and he will be our "boss" while we are at Sugar Pine.  The camp itself is at 4,500 feet and absolutely beautiful.  There will be more pictures later in this blog.

We were all a little disappointed to learn that the park right near with a grove of Sequoia was closed until November.  Sugar Pines has one Sequoia so we all had to have our picture taken.  This is a very small one but it is a Sequoia!

We learned that even though the entrance to the south entrance was an hour away from our park it was another hour into the Valley where some of the most beautiful rock formations and waterfalls are.
We went to Yosemite 2 days in a row.  We left at 7:00am!!  

We saw some smoldering that remained after the fires of just a few weeks earlier.  

Also so some snow - elevation at Yosemite is over 7,200 feet.

Because of the elevation it can get pretty cool in the morning but the sun comes out and warms it to 70 in no time.

The famous El Capitan - the first day we were there there was a huge rocks slide and someone was killed and another injured.  We had no idea, although we had heard a helicopter, what had happened until we returned home and saw the news.

This was taken at The Majestic Hotel(formerly the Ahwahnee) in Yosemite.  The fireplaces were huge.

In an attempt to be frugal we had decided to pack lunches and picnic at Yosemite.  Great idea except I left ours sitting on the kitchen table - see me getting up and going to early isn't a good thing.  So we were "forced" to eat in this beautiful restaurant in The Majestic Yosemite Hotel.  The next day we ate our lunches we had packed.

My photographer!

We are way up there

Jerry and Gary

Normally this time of year the waterfalls are dried up but we were blessed to get to see many of them

The dear were so tame - much more gray color than the ones at home.

We took a tour on this open air tram.  It was led by a park ranger and very interesting and informative

Another shot of El Capitan

Beautiful stream we crossed

They have this sign showing how high the water level was in 1997 - put the man in the picture, no idea who he was, so you would get some perspective on the height of it.  (Thanks for the idea Steph)

In the evening Gary and Steph taught us how to play Hand & Foot - as you can see Teddy & Ellie were also included.

You knew you weren't getting through a blog without pictures of Vincent and his sisters didn't you :-)

 So after a week in Coarsegold with the Vogel's we sad our goodbyes as they headed to Southern Calif. to visit family and then onto Mesa, AZ for a few months.
We headed North to Sugar Pines Christian Camp

Our motorhome nestled in the pine trees at Sugar Pine

To get over to the main camp area we walk through this metal tunnel about 10' in diameter

The Monday that we went over to visit and meet everyone they told me there was a women's retreat starting the day we arrived for the week-end and I was invited as their guest.  I was a little hesitant as I knew I wouldn't know anyone and many of them would know each other but figured God led us to this beautiful location so I should give it a try.  The retreat was wonderful and 5 ladies who have been coming to this retreat every year for over 20 years "adopted" me.  They were such a blessing and made me feel part of the group.  I came here to serve but was so filled.
To think I hesitated going - I would have missed so much!!

My 5 new friends!!

 The speaker and music leader were both awesome.  The amazing thing about the speaker was that she is also a musician, lives in Nashville, and after each of her talks she sang us a song she had written to go with the message - she was amazing.

The food at the retreat was all prepared here at the camp and Saturday night they treated us to an unbelievable dessert buffet.

Brook that runs behind our motorhome

Huge pine cones

Last week Jerry worked with the maintenance men and worked on getting all of the heaters working in the cabins as there were two school groups at the camp.  I washed a lot of towels and sheets from the women's retreat.  This is the brook that ran right outside the washhouse.  Spent time enjoying it while things dried.

The pine trees are SO tall and the sky so beautiful here.

To give you an idea of the size of the pines look in the lower left corner - those are men walking and Katie up in the tree removing rigging - sure glad it was her and not me.

Thursday they had to cut down a tree that was dead so it didn't fall on anyone

They laid it down in-between two stakes they had put down to see how close they got - they were dead on.

When the campers are here, children and adults, they can do archery, zip lines, there is a pool, canoes, paintball area, horseshoes, ping pong, and on and on.  No one gets bored.  This weekend they have a group of girls, next weekend will be boys, from a teen correctional center. The children have to work very hard and be on good behavior all year to earn the opportunity to come to Sugar Pine.  It gives them an opportunity to leave the center and be out in God's creation.  The people that work here have told us they have seemed lives changed.

Yesterday, Friday, we drove into Fresno.  It is only 48 miles but it took us a good hour and 20 minutes because of the twisty turn roads coming down off the mountain.

This morning we were so surprised when one of friend from Kenya, Margaret-Pastor Simon's wife, called just to say hi.  Was great to hear from her and to learn how good Abba's house is doing - the orphanage they run in Kenya.

So we are having a wonderful time serving here and look forward to see what the next two weeks bring.  Tomorrow morning we will be attending church where several of the retreat ladies attend - will be awesome to see them again.

God Bless you all - may your troubles be small and your blessings large,
Carol & Jerry and the birthday dog Teddy!!