Picture Gallery – White Sands, NM
Author: Easin' Along
It Was Time to Sound Retreat
Even Sherman deserves a break. Don’t fret—we’ll return to Sherman’s march to the sea on Friday, but for now, I want to take Easin’ Along readers to Black Mountain, NC where Helen (adorable wife) and I spent a delightful early spring weekend at a church retreat with other members of our congregation.
One of the most gratifying aspects of retirement for me has been the opportunity to spend time involved in some of the many activities of our church. This past year I was called to serve as an elder, and this has been a very rewarding and uplifting experience that has brought me great joy. I participate as an usher for our early Sunday morning service when in town which gives me a chance to meet and greet many of our members. This is a lot of fun and I look forward to every Sunday. I also attend two meetings a month involving the business of the church and enjoy the sessions greatly.
Service as an officer allows for participation in an outward way, whereas a retreat allows for a personal and inward reflection on our journey of faith. I always come away grateful for the opportunity as well as a renewed sense of spirit. The opportunity for fellowship in such a beautiful setting is always a delightful experience.
This is the third retreat I’ve attended at the Montreat Conference Center. In the past, we’ve had tremendous leadership for the gatherings and this year was no exception. This year our leader was Dr. Kathy Dawson, a professor at Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, who has a long list of published works and noteworthy accomplishments. Recently she was honored as Educator of the Year by the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators. With her soft, southern drawl and warm smile, I liked her immediately.
The theme for the weekend was to be built around what happens when God breaks into the normal course of our development and into our lives. Our challenge was to explore those interruptions and how they function as a means of grace. If that sounds a bit heavy to you, don’t feel alone…it did to me too. Nevertheless, Kathy presented great examples to illustrate the breaks and transitions we all face in life and how we use them to benefit from both our joys and our challenges. This topic made for lively discussions in the breakout sessions.
In our Saturday morning session, we examined seven daily faith practices and were challenged to look at how several of those practices, woven together, could show God’s intervention in our lives. We were to illustrate that intervention by creating a poster. Our group of six chose the three practices of playing, eating, and consuming. Again, we had a fascinating discussion among ourselves before we finally let our creative juices take over and turn that discussion into art. Using newsprint, catalog pictures, glue, tape, and scissors, we created a poster about family vacations that (with all the modesty I can muster) was the best of the lot. This exercise really was fun and very insightful.
We were free on Saturday afternoon and with the sky a deep Carolina blue, Helen and I chose to use that time to explore the City of Black Mountain, a charming village that is tucked into the mountains about twenty miles east of Asheville, NC. On this particular Saturday, the merchants and shopkeepers were holding sidewalk sales in front of their shops, and things were hopping. As I have told Easin’ Along readers before, I love to browse through antique and consignment stores and took this opportunity to head straight for Key City Antiques, a shop filled with interesting stuff.
My interests are usually narrowed to old watches, model cars, and ceramic souvenirs, but, after spending considerable time debating whether I needed a well-worn pocket watch, I passed. Helen, however, did find some colorful necklaces that she couldn’t do without and left with four strings of Carolina collectibles.
They are pictured here. We probably walked for about a mile shopping and browsing and, while we didn’t find anything else to buy, we did get some great exercise on a splendid day.
That evening the retreat committee served us an outstanding barbecue spread and followed it up with entertainment from a local bluegrass quartet and square dancing for all. I’m told that the children had an evening filled with enough movement to prepare them for an early bedtime. Not being much of a dancer, I retreated to the lobby of the conference center to watch South Carolina take on Gonzaga in the NCAA tournament. We were joined by a group of ladies from Charlotte, many of whom were Gamecock fans, who paused during their retreat to cheer on the team in a losing effort. They were very spirited right up to the last buzzer.
On Sunday morning, Dr. Dawson led us in our final session and someone from each breakout group gave a detailed explanation of the posters created on the previous day. Each of them was done in ways that were both thoughtfully detailed and expressed very well the ways that the seven faith practices allowed us to see our Creator presence in our daily lives. The words inspired or enlightened do not describe completely the thoughts and feelings I took away from those presentations. Let’s just say I looked at my walk of faith a bit differently after that session…it was a learning experience.
After the final session. we held a worship service of hymns, a children’s sermon, and a brief message from our leader before we took to the road and ventured home.
All of us are challenged, and in many ways fortunate, to lead busy lives. There are times, however, when that can get to be quite the battle—even in retirement. On this weekend I reinforced the notion that those are the times to interrupt things a bit…and to call retreat. Thanks to Montreat for blessing me with of the opportunity to do that. So, on a beautiful Sunday morning, we were able to depart refreshed and renewed and grateful that our journey of faith continues, and one in which, joyfully, we’re still… Easin’ Along.
Sunset in San Angelo
We steered Sherman out of Ft. Worth on the fourth morning of our RV road trip. Our destination was Goodfellow AFB Recreation Camp in San Angelo, TX which was about five hours away. This RV Park had no reserved spots available, so it was first come, first serve. We had called ahead and learned that there were a few spaces available at the time we called, but we moved along briskly in order to have a place for Sherman, our Cruise America RV, to spend the night.
By now we were becoming comfortable with the nuances of driving a motor home. The most difficult aspect of driving a vehicle of this type was becoming accustomed to driving with only side view mirrors to observe the traffic around you. The mirrors were large and easy to use and the wide angle mirrors were helpful as well. Nevertheless, for the first couple of days, I felt like my head was on a swivel and I was constantly casting glances from side to side.
There was one other factor that took some getting used to and that was driving in the wind. Sherman acted much like a big kite when the wind was blowing from the side…and it seemed like the wind was always blowing. This required some serious concentration at times and always required two hands on the steering wheel. At one point when crossing the open plains, a gust blew us onto the shoulder of the road. That experience was a bit unsettling. By the end of the early days of this trip, I felt the effects of holding Sherman to a straight line and was usually a bit fatigued. However, as mentioned above, I was getting used to it and just settled in on a speed of no more than 65 mph and used cruise control whenever possible.
When we arrived in San Angelo, we went first to the Air Force Base and not to the Recreation Camp a few miles away. There was no Pilot/Flying J nearby so Sherman needed fuel and we needed a few things for our kitchen. Goodfellow is a very large base and the employees and airmen were leaving for the day as we arrived, so traffic caught us at an inopportune time—remember we did not have reservations. We gassed up, (love BX gas prices) turned Sherman around and headed out.
Upon arrival at the Recreation Camp, the camp host, a very friendly gentleman named Ralph, greeted us warmly. He lived in a huge fifth wheel trailer at one end of the Camp. Ralph said he didn’t think he had any spaces left. Our hearts sank, it was getting late in the day, and we didn’t have a plan B.
Ralph went back to his trailer and grabbed a clipboard, then headed off to the camp office, telling us to wait while he checked a few things out. We endured several long minutes of sitting by Sherman immersed in hope. Ralph returned and asked us how long we would be staying and we replied that we were there for one night only. Our luck won out. Ralph had one space left. It turned out that, of the four campsites at Goodfellow that can be reserved, a camper making the reservation for one of them was delayed by a day. Sherman filled that space very quickly.
Before we connected the utilities, we got some directions from Ralph for a nearby place to grab food for take-out. We didn’t feel like cooking. Ralph suggested we give Packsaddle Barbeque a try since it was only about a mile down the road. We had been looking forward to some Texas barbeque so we were all in.
Packsaddle was a storefront operation in a strip center. When we arrived there were no customers, but two very friendly young ladies greeted us and made suggestions. Helen (adorable wife) wanted to try sliced brisket—something we don’t get in Tennessee, and I ordered a pulled pork plate. Both meals came with baked beans and cole slaw. We piled back into Sherman and returned to the campground, hooked up, and settled in for the night. Since we had a microwave oven in Sherman’s kitchen, we decided to take a walk around the campground then return to warm up dinner.
I want to give an overview of the Recreation area for our Military Living readers. The Recreation Camp is a very nice park. It only has 20 spaces, but all have electric, water, and sewer hookups. It has a great shower facility that is very clean and well maintained. (we took full advantage the next morning). There is also a nice washer/dryer facility that sits inside a reading and rec room with many books, videos, and puzzles to browse or read while you wait for your laundry to finish.
The campground sits alongside Lake Nasworthy, a pleasant lake for fishing or boating. There is a marina and a marina office for boat rentals although this was closed on the day we visited. We sat on one of the benches beside the marina to regroup from a day of driving. This was a welcome break.
After our Barbeque dinner (just ok, not great), we listened to music on the MacBook I brought along. If there is anything to criticize about this camp, it is that, while Wi-Fi is available, it is very unreliable. We finally gave up, but that was not really a big deal. We could remain disconnected for one day.
We awoke around sunrise and walked to the mini mart outside the gate for ice and coffee. Unfortunately, we did not have time to browse through the town of San Angelo. We needed to make our way to White Sands Missile Range because, like Goodfellow, there were no reservation sites available. I’m told that San Angelo is a great place to explore but we’ll have to come back on our next trip.
We did make one pit stop after we hit the road and it just happened that we stopped in front of a historical marker pointing to Castle Gap, a break in the mountains where the first cattle drives came through in the 1800’s. I did some research later and learned that the early drives through this gap opened the trail for future drives from Texas to Montana. The stories about these drives later served as the basis for one of my all-time favorite novels, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. Legend is that eight different gold shipments were lost by settlers while venturing through the Gap, and treasure hunters still work the mountains in search of lost gold.
Not even the possibility of finding gold could convince Sherman to drive through Castle Gap. He preferred instead to continue Easin’ Along.
Please come back next week–White Sands, NM.