Sweet Home Alabama!

Even though I’ve lived out in the desert southwest for many years, I originally grew up in Mobile, Alabama, down on the Gulf Coast. I like to get back from time to time to visit my mother, brother, sister, and many of my spiritual brothers & sisters that I’ve known since I was in elementary school.
After visiting friends and family, the number #1 priority is food.

A visit to the Waffle House is a must

Fresh raw oysters at Winchell's Oyster House

Being on the coast, the seafood in the markets and restaurants was swimming in the Gulf just a few hours before it hits your plate. I’m always game for some raw oysters on the half shell, a fried oyster & shrimp po’ boy sandwich, some gumbo and probably some red snapper and grouper. Top it off with mullet & grits for breakfast.

Shrimp Boil at my brother's house

Besides seafood, there is the cuisine that the rest of the country so quaintly likes to call “soul food”, but in the South, we just call “food”.

Collards, fried chicken, okra, pecan pie- throw in breakfast at the Waffle House, and maybe some beignets from a local café- it’s culinary overload.  Somehow it just doesn’t taste the same in Las Vegas.

Essential tableware

Beignet's with my mother & sister

My mother lives across Mobile in a small artsy-crafty town called Fairhope. Her house is only a couple of blocks from the bay, and it’s great to walk down in the evening and catch the sunset over the water.

Fresh beignet's at Panini Pete's

Funny how remnants of the war (the Civil War) are scattered about. At the mouth of Mobile Bay still sit the two forts (Gaines & Morgan) that guarded the entrance, but succumbed to the Yankee hordes at the battle of Mobile Bay.

Windy day at Fort Morgan

A few miles north of where my mother lives is the site of old Blakely, where the last skirmish of the war was said to be fought, and the Confederate earthworks still stand. Scattered about are gravestones from the 1840’s and 1850’s when yellow fever ravaged this region. There are still plenty of mosquitos around, along with multitudes of other insect life, but at least a bite won’t kill a person.

We were there during Thanksgiving week in November, a particularly good time when daytime temps are usually in the 60’s to 80’s, with very little humidity. After all these years in the desert, I know better than to go back in the summer when 90% humidity means you walk around soaking wet even when the sun is out.

Kingdom Hall in Foley, Alabama

3 congregations meet here

We made the usual rounds to see all the old friends. Funny how my teenage companions are all grandparents now. People from that region don’t tend to move much (I was one of the exceptions), so whenever I go back, it’s like a big reunion. Sadly the Mobile Convention Center where I got baptized when it was new in 1966 is scheduled to be torn down. We had assemblies there for a lot of years, but better facilities are used now.

The can of cane syrup went to Vegas in checked luggage, but the collards were

 fixed for that night's dinner.

The only drawback is that November is a little chilly for swimming in the Gulf, although usually the water is fairly warm up into October. So I’m thinking about a 2016 visit a little earlier in the year so I can really enjoy those white sand beaches and turquoise Gulf waters. (Yes the Alabama beaches are one of the best kept secrets in the country. We try not to spread it around too much to keep the crowds down.)

And as always....

ROLL TIDE!

Photos of Ft. Blakely, site of last battle of the Civil War:

  

Confederate fortifications still stand

Hiking trail along Mobile river

Boardwalk keeps hikers above the swamp

Facilities are top-notch

Historical graves are plentiful

Weird trees are everywhere

Mark & I have only known each other for more than 50 years

A Wedding in HAWAII (no, not mine!)

What is it about swaying palm trees, soft ocean breezes, turquoise water, and soft sandy beaches that just screams out “Paradise!”

That feeling is never more pronounced than when you get on a plane leaving one of the most desolate places on earth (the Mojave Desert) and exit six hours later into unimaginable beauty and richness- Hawaii.

For us desert dwellers, the experience is essentially sensory overload. All this greenery, all this color. Air that is soft, warm, and moist. To go from 7% humidity to 90% in just a few hours is almost more than the human body can handle.

Another happy couple!

So what brought us to Hawaii in July you ask?

It was all due to the largess of my nephew Jamison, oldest son of my only brother (Joe Bill). He and his fiancée live in Vegas, but wanted a low-key wedding on a Hawaiian beach, after which they would continue on to Japan for their honeymoon. Of course he wanted his favorite uncle (me) to give the wedding talk, so he flew Shirley and me out to Oahu, as well as his parents. Joe & Rhonda.

Expensive? Maybe. But still less than hosting the 150 or so attendees at the usual Vegas Witness wedding. Attendance at the beach wedding? 14. 

The beach/jungle setting looked oddly familiar, and no wonder. “Jurassic Park” and the TV series “Lost” were both filmed in the vicinity, as well as a number of other shows.

So I hustled up and got legal to perform weddings in Hawaii. (Note to readers: If anyone out there is planning on getting married in Hawaii and you need someone to give the wedding talk, my schedule is open.)

Shirley at Diamond Head

Jamison & Jesse- Pre-Wedding

We arrived Saturday, July 25 after a 6 hour direct flight from Vegas on Hawaiian Air. 

(Hawaiians refer to Las Vegas as the “9th Island” because almost everyone has a relative who lives there, and it’s their favorite vacation destination.) 

Two hours later we were on Waikiki Beach and swimming in the warm Pacific. The 115 degree heat we left behind in Vegas was only a distant memory.

Sunday Shirley and I got up early and rode the bus out to Diamond Head where we climbed to the top and survey the magnificent views. Then we rested up for the 4 PM wedding which was taking place over on the windward side of Oahu, more rural and far less populated than Honolulu.

Everything went smooth with the wedding and the meal at Jill’s (Jamison’s wife) uncle’s house, which sat on a hill overlooking the ocean. No heat or air necessary- the ocean breezes blow all the time. I particularly admired the neighbor’s mango tree which was loaded with (sadly still green) mangos.

Rob, Joe, Jamison & Jesse

After that it was time to check into our beach bungalow in the small town of Waimanalo. The following week would prove to be incredibly fun, and was over all too soon.

I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

High Fivin' the Sumo Guy

                                                 Joe almost gets knocked over by the win at Pali lookout

La'ie Point

                                                    Waikiki & Diamond Head

Turtle at Turtle Beach, & snorkeling at Hanauma Bay

Kingdom Hall at Ka'a'awa

Kingdom Hall at Waimanalo

At the Shore Bird in Waikiki, you cook your own

Roll Tide!

Flowers, Flowers, everywhere....

Sunset on Waikiki

Over 105 Degrees for 23 Days Straight (That's what I'm talking about!)

Of course, it's not always 105 (40 C). Sometimes it's 110 (43 C) or 115 (46 C). Ah, but like they say, it's a "dry heat"- much like the heat you feel if you turn your blow dryer on high and shoot it straight into your face for a few minutes.
So yeah- the humidity is only 5%, but it's so dry you're afraid that any moment some spark from static electricity might catch you on fire.
That was June here in the Mojave Desert- 23 straight days of temperatures of at least 105 degrees (it was much hotter for many of the days).
Of course, most people work indoors where there's air-conditioning. In fact, in the data center where I work, it's a constant 68 all year long.
So the only time you really feel the heat is when you walk out to your car after work. Now if you have the misfortune of not having covered parking, you learn quickly to use your shirttail or some other insulating material to grab the door handle, because touching any metal surface will give you instant  third degree burns.
Then when you get home, you park in your 200 degree garage and sprint for the cool interior of your abode and perhaps pop open a cool one as you gaze out your window and admire your rock yard and the few plants tough enough to take the heat.
If you're like many Las Vegans and have a pool, then this is the perfect time.
Here's the anomaly:
Because it's so dry, when you get out of the pool it's actually sort of cold initially, because the water is evaporating off your body so fast. But once it's evaporated (fairly quickly), reality sets in and it's time to get back in the water.
But what about Field Service?

Me & my Vietnamese buddy Kevin inviting folks to the Regional

When it's time to pass out invitations to the regional convention, there's no other way than to get out and pound the pavement.
Wear a hat, use an umbrella, dress in light clothing, and carry water. And brothers- don't forget the tie. Seriously.
I guess I don't have to tell you that afternoon service is limited- at least for going door-to-door.
Hey- but at least we don't have to go out in the snow!

After Service, a nice reward at Super Burrito

Spring in the Desert means it's Memorial Season

Evan & I just before a well-deserved bagel break.

Springtime in the desert is the best time, and of course it’s Memorial Season as well.

Temperatures are in the 80’s and humidity is single digits.

Here in the Silverado Congregation, we have more than 100 territories, but a lot of our 120 publishers auxiliary pioneered (alongside our 14 regular pioneers) and we got all of the territories covered.

We enjoyed a special guest speaker, our former circuit overseer, Aurelius Ransom, who is now assigned to the US Branch with new responsibilities.

Unfortunately, we don’t enjoy the massive Memorial attendance that congregations in the “needgreater” countries experience, but we still had an attendance of 200 which is good for us.

It shows there’s still plenty of work to do in our territory.

Every Memorial, the Yellow Banks Rose in front of the house is in bloom.


 

Shirley & the sistahs doin' it for themselves.

It was great to have Br. Ransom as Memorial speaker.