This is California?

What more can I say? It started snowing on Thursday and just didn't quit until we had 3 feet of snow. Needless to say, nothing moved over the weekend. The man in the picture was our hero when the electricity went out Friday morning. He had a big generator on the back of his pickup and he let us plug into his generator so we could at least have lights and keep the furnace running. That was a blessing!!!!! It still meant we didn't have telephone access at the office either and no cell phone which we normally don't have at this camp anyway.

As late as Sunday the roads up to the camp were still closed. The authorities were afraid of mud slides first because we had 5 inches of rain before the snow and then afraid of poor road conditions because the road is so steep and curvy. The electricity came on Sunday morning and today, Monday, they say the roads are open so we will try to take a town run later this afternoon.

All Sunday after the sun came up we heard these loud bangs on the top of the RV as clumps of snow, and it was very wet snow, would break from the trees and land on the RV roof. Those roofs are not so sound proof so it sounded like a war zone at times in the RV. (not that I know what a war zone sounds like) Good thing no chunks broke the rubber roof.

Today is the most beautiful day with the sun shining and camp blacktop roads cleared of snow. The locals say they haven't seen anything close to this since the 60's.

What a lot of work for staff here to try to get enough cleared so a group of people can come in tonight and then more over the weekend. Conditions are really perfect for sledding and other snow activities so the campers should have a great time here for some time. We are wondering if the roads out of here will be dry enough when we are suppose to leave on the 2nd. The road down is such a steep grade and the trees so near the road on the curves that it will have to dry out a lot in the next 10 days in order for all these RV's to navigate down the mountain.

This month has provided us with more experiences than we deemed necessary but we are all safe, warm and well fed - we made a quick run to town on Thursday afternoon after we heard the forecast -so we are all thankful for that.

This morning it was back to the restrooms for the men and women. We painted and the men put up tile. We can see improvement in the rooms we work in so they should be more appealing to the campers who want to come here. Interesting how we are looking at conference centers and camps from a different perspective and that raises our awareness again at how we usually focus only on one aspect and don't give people who are on the other side much thought. We are never too old to learn.

I know some of you have experienced bitter winter conditions as well with low temps and icy conditions. We pray you will all be kept safe. After one fall already this morning I am walking with a little more caution.

Love to all, Mom and Dad Marilyn/Wilmer

Pictures to the left taken from inside our RV. Interesting how good pictures can be even when taken through glass.

Another week of restrooms!

Really, restrooms again? No, that is not what we both were saying on Monday morning when we went back to work. The men are still tiling, cleaning tile, getting ready to grout and installing some shower facilities. The women are now painting the bathrooms we cleaned last week. The order of doing things seems a little backward but we do what we are told. I guess we had washed those white walls so sparkling white that the staff decided they needed to tone the walls and woodwork down with a more subdued color. It really does look good in a light tan color and it certainly looks clean and fresh. It is amazing what a good time we can have doing what we consider a "bottom of the desirable tasks" list.

The big thing around here this week is the weather as you must have heard over the news by now. Yesterday it rained most of the day. We are at a pretty good level, too high for mud slides as we are above the burn line and too low for the snow - that is suppose to come down to 600o feet and we are at 5000. Hope the snow storm knows it is suppose to stay above that line. Tomorrow a bigger storm is due with more cold air, some rain and a chance of wild wind. It doesn't feel like California but after this week we should be in warmer weather again. The mud slides are more prevalent after the burns of last summer.

Another big event this past week was our 56th wedding anniversary on Friday. We led a tour of our group to Palm Springs on Friday and toured the Air Museum. The volunteers who were available were all veterans and had seen combat at some time in the past. Their expertise of the planes displayed made the tour very informational and interesting. The whole group really were into such stuff so it was a success. Then we ate at a California Pizza Kitchen which was good also and different. Not Pizza Ranch pizza but good anyway.

We went pack to Palm Springs on Saturday for a day to celebrate by ourselves. It is hard to tell in Palm Springs that this country is in recession. It is known for its luxurious houses and style of living. Anyway, spent some time at a shopping area called "The River". The picture is the entrance to the Mall. It is faintly like San Antonio with a river winding its way through the shopping but it does not have the atmosphere because it is ground level while San Antonio's is down a story to get to the river.The next picture is part of the river with it's attractive flowers. How peaceful.

It was interesting to just look and walk and enjoy the weather which was about 75 degrees. We ate supper/dinner mid afternoon (SSP/senior citizens style right?) sitting at the water's edge in a fancy restaurant. Don't remember the Spanish name for the place. What a great time we had. So appreciate all the anniversary thoughts sent to us on that day AND the day before. Great to hear from you! I know it is different now that we don't really have a home address to mail things to but we do appreciate the internet which takes it's place. Sunday we went to the same Free Methodist Church as last week. Once we visit a church we feel somewhat akin to the people and find it more enjoyable to go back than start somewhere new again. The rest of the day was very quiet, we had to rest up from all our gallivanting around and also prepare for work the next day. Such a great time and we thank God for giving us so many years together and that we are able to celebrate it in good health.

I am trying to catch up with my scrapbook of our Canada trip. I am so slow at it but I only have a couple states left to do. Hope to finish that while we are here. Then back to the family book. I am only 55 years behind on that one but I am 20 years farther than when I started it about 7 years or so ago. So the moral of the story is, it is never too late to start a project because anything you do will be more than if you didn't start. Now that is provocative I am sure.

Thoughts and prayers go out to you all, for Midwesterners - I hope you have had the brunt of the 2009-2010 winter and can enjoy more moderate temperatures from now on.

Love and best wishes,

Mom and Dad Marilyn and Wilmer

Oak Glen, CA

This is interesting, I am in the Lodge because that is where the internet is available AND I turned the heat on in this room because it is so cold here today. No, I can't complain because it is far from - 10 or -20 but for southern California it is chilly and damp. We are just spoiled I know, don't feel sorry for us.

We arrived at Oak Glen Christian Conference Center on Friday last week after seeing Gary safely at home on Thursday from his hernia surgery. Looks like he has made a very fast recovery for which we praise God. The 1st Sunday on a project we try to attend (it is strongly recommended) a church of the Conference Director and staff. The Conference Center is of the Free Methodist Church so we went there. Dutch people aren't the only ones who like to have food at every function. This church had snacks before the service (fresh fruit, cheese, bars, cookies, smokies wrapped in cresent rolls and more) and then a potluck after the service. Needless to say we were well fed and went back to the RV to spend the rest of the day resting and digesting.

We all got our "assignments" on Monday morning. One of the bathroom facilities on the grounds is in a remodeling phase so the men will spend most of their time putting tile on the walls and floors. Don't know why they picked such a detailed tile pattern but it will look nice when they are finished. One man on the project said the saying in RVICS circle is "we don't do expert work but we are slow". ??? All men, whether experienced or not, get to lay tile and learn as they go. It is amazing how well that works. Another thing about RVICS, because we are not usually experts at the jobs we are not to criticize but work as equals at all things. Usually works well!

The women started out packing up the Christmas and fall items in the gift shop. I have never seen a gift shop be that full and still look organized. Then on to more physical work on Tues. and Wed. Several of the bathroom facilities (3 toilet stalls, 3 shower stalls and sink area) needed a detailed cleaning. It was obvious that the previous cleaner had not tended to details. We scrubbed everything in sight until each area looked sparkling. We work hard but we take a break, because I insisted on it, and have fun while we are at it. But I must say after we are finished with the bathrooms I hope we get jobs that are a little easier. Now I know you know what it is like to do a good cleaning in a bathroom so I didn't need a picture to show but I do it for two reasons. When have you ever had a picture taken of you cleaning a restoom? Secondly I haven't taken a lot of pictures here but still wanted to show pictures so I show you this one of our area of expertise for this week. No it isn't a picture of me, it is Alice from PA. One couple is from British Columbia and the other from Michigan.

Occasionally a camp ground will supply us with food but not nearly always. This one does on weekends when they have campers here. Just so happens the next two weeks they don't have any people coming. But they still provide a good noon lunch on days when we work so we aren't complaining. It is a good time for us RVICSers to interact with the staff who do eat in the cafeteria whenever we do. It is so helpful to us in understanding the camp if we have a social time with staff and they do provide a good lunch which we enjoy as the picture shows.

One morning it rained and all the trees and bushes glistened. The picture doesn't really show the glistening but it does show the vegatation of the area. However, the picture makes it look like the camp is on level ground. I think that is the only part of the camp where the ground is level. Everything we walk to is on a slope so if you go down you have to go up, obviously. It is good excersize but care must be taken not to walk too fast or too long.

We have some tours in the planning phase, we are on the committee - we are the committee as we only have 4 couples this project - and are going down to Palm Springs on Friday. Will report on that next blog.

We keep each one of you in our prayers and thoughts. Pray you will keep us in your prayers as well. We continue to feel the blessing of helping bring the gospel to people tho it is only with a small donation of our time. Our cell phone service is sporatic at best but we do check e mail and facebook at least twice a day so that is an option. Love to you all, Dad and Mom Marilyn/Wilmer
P.S. Spell check not working so excuse any spelling errors.

From Old to New

Not a very impressive title but that is what we all did during the past week. And what a way we made that transition. We are just totally amazed that we can visit family, volunteer, travel, go sightseeing and keep in touch with many of you in this way. We are so very Blessed. During Christmas week we spent many hours with Chris, Linda and their family. We ate, visited, ate, laughed, opened presents and ate. I am sure that Linda is glad we do not eat at her house all the time. She used many different recipes and even one that had a surprise ingredient, right Chris? Jason, Shasta and Eli joined us for Christmas day dinner. Eli and Kenley were good play partners. Then we moved to a campground in Golden, CO. to visit Jason and family. We went up the mountain to their home and also visited them in our RV. What fun. Then the wedding of Erin and David on New Years Eve. What a a beautiful wedding and reception. The wedding took place in the Reformed Church in Denver. Interesting that in 1962 we vacationed in the Denver area and worshipped in that church. And not only did we worship on Sunday morning but went back to hear Rev. Vermeer in the evening. For some reason some people thought that was "different" to go to church twice a Sunday while on vacation. Guess times change through the years. We were back to the church more recently to speak for RCA Missions.

New Years Day we started our trek west. We ridden through this area many times but when snow is on the ground it gives the landscape a totally new perspective. We had prayed for a good day and the Lord blessed us with a sunny day, dry roads and no wind, at least for the most part. It still was a challenge to go through the mountains with an RV in the winter but we made it. The night in Green River, Utah we wondered if we could keep from freezing because that night it got down to 0. With the help of the furnace that did not run out of propane and 2 space heaters we did fine. Some pipes still managed to freeze a little but no broken ones. Wilmer has, since that time, engineered some fancy ways to keep the pipes from freezing. Hope we don't have to use his invention very often.

One morning we observed the "Blue Moon" from our RV. To have two full moons in one month is unusual and to have one on New Years Eve. won't happen again for 19 years so it was interesting to see. May be our last chance, right? Seems like in campgrounds we get to see more sky scenes then we even do in Sioux Center. The big trees shield us from most of that.

When we started out on Friday is was overcast but the sun was trying to peek through. I like sky pictures and I like picture taking but to stop as often as I want when we are pulling the RV is just not possible. So I filled a lot of time with taking pictures from inside the pickup on the go. Now my hands are not that steady anyway but on the road with its jiggling around it took a very good camera that eliminated "blur" to get some good pictures. I think I accomplished that with most trys. Occasionally I would try to focus but because we were moving a mountain or a truck would get in the way just when I decided to click it. Good thing digital makes it easy to delete! It does make for some interesting pictures tho.

I-70 west of Green River is always a pretty drive. The rock formations are amazing and with snow on them it made the shapes of the rocks even more pronounced. It made me wonder again about the creation of the earth. Did the earth take it's present shape at creation, did some drastic change occur on the earth since that time or is there an intelligent and Christian explanation for the layers of various colors, the slant of the layers, the change over a few miles of the height and shape of the formations, etc.? What a miraculous God we have, what majestic power he displays in the universe. I don't need to know the answers, I just enjoy it.

Saturday we traveled to Las Vegas, NV. It doesn't seem to be a place to spend Sunday but we wanted to see what this city is like other than the strip. This morning we attended a Baptist Church just 10 miles from the Circus Circus campground we are parked at. The church is huge, has one Saturday night service and three Sunday morning services. The auditorium seats over 2000 and services fairly well fill the place. The message was very Bible based and we thoroughly loved it. Las Vagas has good qualities as has every place if you want to look for them. And the temp was 60 today. Can't beat that after coming from the ice box.

This week we move on to Gary and then a project in Yuciapa. I will try to be more regular with blogs once we get on project. Hope you all are anticipating a great year ahead and pray God will shower you with blessings and strength for the challenges.

Love to all,

Dad and Mom Wilmer and Marilyn