Leaving Winter Behind in Central Michigan

At no time did I ever foresee spending winter in a northern state. We are heading south on or about Saturday March 4th. That is if we can dodge the next snowstorm that is sneaking into the area, promising to upset interstate traffic.

Family and friends will want to know we are scheduled to arrive back in Joplin Missouri to pick up the RV. Camping first, for a longer period, east of town at Beagle Bay RV Haven and Campground. Karen and I agree the condo stay in Michigan has 100% re-enforced our desire to be on the road in our RV. Myself, I can’t get over how eager Karen is to return to our mobile lifestyle given during the first couple years she was not as excited as I was. As you may recall we shifted directions back in November of 2022 as Karen’s mom was ill. This caused us to miss out on a portion of our last trip out east. We don’t plan to head back east for some time but are looking forward to a trip in the southwest. Probably after next winter which will most likely be spent in south Texas. So far, we have made no plans beyond two months in the future.

Karen’s mom, Mary, has passed away. Family came to town for a graveside service. Mary did not want a formal funeral but agreed to the graveside service with family only. I’ll miss her but know we will soon meet again in Heaven. She lived 89 years. And I mean lived… She was tooling around the assisted care living facility with friends right up to the final few weeks. You know, anytime one sees family or friends could be the last time! I’m glad our final conversation had to do with comparing each other’s understanding of what it meant when Christ asked why he had been forsaken just before death on the cross.

One of the greatest honors of my lifetime was being asked to conduct Mary’s graveside service. I’ve never done that before and understood the responsibility involved. It was cold outside, and I was asked to keep it short. I passed along the words I thought Mary would appreciate which totaled 174 seconds of speech.

Religion and politics are to be avoided when RVing, or at least to be careful not to upset anyone. There will be more later in this post so be warned.

We learned a lot while here. The Hospice nurse commented folks “die the same way they live”. If someone is always upset, moody, complaining, they will go out the same way. If they are happy, concerned about others, at peace, they will go out the same way.

We got the condo fixed up and prepared for sale. The first day on the market there were seven showings and three offers. Sold fast. I mentioned the last post I’d talk about methods used to downsize the belongings. Out of abundant respect for Karens’ family, I’ll not go into much detail. The condo rules do not allow for garage or typical estate sales. Facebook Market Place worked great, the other two common online services, Craigslist and OfferUp did not. We were close to a major metropolitan area full of buyers which helped. The folks we met during the process were amazing. I wish the family could have meet a few of them, like the recently married young couple who bought a small sofa that was stored upstairs. We told them about Mary. They insisted on holding hands while praying for her and the family while standing streetside in front of the condo. In a strange way, dozens of people got to know Mary when they otherwise would have never met her.

A friend back in Kansas City Missouri finished the same process and passed along another method. In his case, the real estate agent’s wife has a company that downsizes homes for a percentage of what is sold. She told the family to take what is important to them and never look back. She has lists of buyers and schedules appointments at the house rather than having dozens attend an estate sale. Once the furnishings are gone, she cleans the place up and her husband sells the house.

Spending all this wintertime indoors has been good in one sense, even if watching too much TV exposed me to more news of the world’s crap. I’ve had more time to study. I got it figured out why folks hate each other so much and there is so much division in our country. Finally, I’m finding peace with it. NO GOD NO RULES. Some feel they are free to do whatever as there is no penalty and all that matters is the present. Why am I finding peace with it? Because it’s supposed to happen this way for the bible tells me so. Glad I’ll not be around for the final seven years when it really gets bad.

Reflecting on Mary’s passing, and the current world views have renewed an urgency to study the bible. I also had a chance to finally read 12 Years a Slave and am half finished with Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Finished off a few lesser-known books as well.

For years I’ve told people and they me, you know there is a God just by looking at nature. I am interested in the topic of Intelligent Design. The specifics of the term were new to me and might be interesting to you if you have never heard it. More specifically the science behind molecular biology. Inside all of us is a permanent and original chain of DNA that sends, for lack of better words, computer code instructing amino acids how to build proteins that come together, building a person. The process involves billions of tiny machines with mechanics like a Swiss watch and having the ability to move and join to others in very specific order. I’ve oversimplified it for sure.

An example of this is flagellum. Here is a drawing of one of the flagella machines inside our bodies.

Influential scientist, even those believing in a natural process where they think we have evolved into humans agree with the process cells are made and joined. They also admit not knowing where the first came from. This includes the process they insist make up our solar system in that there was a beginning or first particle/cell of “unknown” origin. News Flash – it was God!

Good that science has figured out the mechanics of how all this work. They used the process to create many of the vaccines for Covid. mRNA vaccines are said not to alter DNA but use the same process of sending code to the body to artificially build foreign protein molecules to stimulate an adaptive immune response or in other words to teach the body to identify and destroy a pathogen such as Covid virus or cancer cells.

On another note, wish we had time to stop at a few places before leaving Michigan and on the way to Missouri. Missed the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation outside Detroit. And because we are in a hurry to get back to our life, we will pass up the Creation Museum and Ark Experience in northern Kentucky but have them on the list to visit from the RV. Time permitting, Karen wants to swing by to see Jim the Wonder Dog exhibits in Marshall Missouri located between Kansas City and Columbia.

Thanks for reading and be safe out there.

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