Lesly

Where did I leave you - oh yeah,....to be continued...

Two weekends later, Lesly came back to Becky's and this time Becky's boyfriend, John was down from Birmingham for the weekend. He's a pilot, fixed wing, land and sea, and helicopter. Retired but still very active in the Civil Air Patrol. Although she's not a pilot, Becky has been in the CAP her whole life and is a Colonel.

Poor Lesly. I don't think she had bargained for a weekend of aviation bull...., but that's what she got to listen to for two days. She is such a delightful lady. She even acted interested, convincingly some of the time.

Lesly and I did have a quiet Saturday, touring the coast, lunch at Lil Ray's Seafood and PoBoys, ranked as the "Best Seafood Dive on the Coast". Appetizers of fried dill pickles and fried artichoke hearts. Followed by an Fried Oyster PoBoy and an ice cold beer. Not exactly Emeril's, but sure was good !

We barely recovered in time to go back to Becky's townhouse for an incredible shrimp boil. FRESH shrimp - no, you don't understand - I mean FRESH shrimp, as in "were swimming in the Gulf 4 or 5 hours before we ate them" - corn on the cob, new red potatoes, all boiled together in Cajun seasoning. I MUST be working hard here at St Ann's, because I haven't gained any weight. And based on intake, I should weigh 400 pounds by now.

I met them again on Sunday for a Casino brunch. And again, I ate enough for three. Then I had to go to a Camp Noah class, so we said, "Until next time".

To be continued .....

Camp Noah

I am spending this week at St Ann's working with Karen and Glenn feeding 160 teenagers from Boston. Again, I'm amazed at the dedication, patience and willingness to serve that these young people have. It is really hot here, with unbelievable humidity, and these kids have been working outdoors. They, and their adult leaders, start with Mass at 7:00am. After breakfast they make sandwiches for lunch, pack their ice chests and water jugs and head out. They show up back here late in the afternoon and head straight for the showers. Then it's a little quiet time before dinner. After dinner they have a prayer group and are in bed (although I hear some grumbling this morning that they are not ASLEEP) at 11:00.

And it all starts over again the next morning. I try to speak to each one when I see them. My "Hi" NEVER fails to produce a BIG smile. And I'm fighting a summer cold, so in a few cases yesterday and today their smile was NOT a return of mine.

Some people have asked what's keeping me in this heat. Mainly, it's the stories. A 9 yr old girl, now 11, whose Dad left with her two younger siblings while he made a quick trip to get his mother. The water came up so fast he couldn't get back. This little girl floated her brother and sister on pool floaties through the flood waters to higher ground.

One mother told us that when she saw the Camp Noah announcement in her church bulletin in the spring she decided that her 9 yr old son didn't need to go because he was doing so well. Then, last month when the radio and TV started talking about the coming hurricane season, he started taking things from the house and hiding them - toilet paper, toothpaste, bottled water. And she knew he really did need to talk with someone about his anxiety.

A story one of the volunteers heard this week - an elderly couple were on the roof of their house as the water continued to rise. A small boat with a little girl floated past and they tried to get her to come to them for safety. She was too scared to respond so the husband said, "Well, we can't let her float away to heaven knows what fate. If she won't come here, we'll have to swim to her." They did, got in the boat, and turned around to see their house being swept away.

I thought I had one more Camp Noah and then a week of rest before I headed north. I just went to the Camp Noah website to get the link for this Blog and found another Camp that I might be able to do.

And that's the way things continue to happen.

Lesly

A few weeks ago my Airstream friend Ann (of cheese garlic grits fame) sent my blog address to several of her friends with this comment:

"This is another of our new Airstream friend's (Tom Cook) Blog --- You cannot imagine how many wonderful people you meet towing "silver!" We met him in Mystic Springs, FL (see comment on my garlic cheese grits in blog !) and he met us Morton at Roosevelt State Park for a few days after the Canton Rally. Hopefully, we'll see him on the Coast in a few weeks -- IF he has time to spare ! "

The next day I received an email from one of Ann's friends, Lesly, in Jackson telling me that she really enjoyed the blog and wanted to know more about "Tinkerbell Jerusalem" and "Inbetweens."

The first thing I did was email Ann and ask if this was the widowed friend she had mentioned to me when we were at Roosevelt Park.

She said, "No, this is someone else and I AM SHOCKED that she e-mailed you. She has been divorced for years I think and her only daughter got married this year. Leslie is actually very very good looking -- exceptionally really if you are into petite, great style, most gorgeous blue eyes you'll probably ever see, shoulder length hair -- sort blondish champagne colored, and sophisticated with a great sense of humor and loves to ride motor cycles. She is Assistant Personnel Director for the State of Mississippi in charge of all executive staff training. She is funny, soft spoken and her writing you is TOTALLY out of character !!! "

So I emailed my Tinkerbell story to her. She also had checked with Ann and gotten some background on me. We emailed back and forth for a couple of days and then talked on the phone. For an hour the first time. After the phone call I emailed her and said that I found it strange - good, but strange - to be talking to someone like I'd known them for years yet asking really basic questions like we did. It feels like I'm just learning about someone I already know. Cool.

My Buddhist friend says we knew each other in a previous life.

We continued to email and talk on the phone for a couple of days.

She has a friend, Becky, living here on the coast who works for the State and she asked if Becky might be able to do anything to help me with the kids camps. On June 5th I told her the only thing Becky could do to help me would be to invite her down sometime for a weekend so we could go for a motorcycle ride.

A major "inbetween"

She had planned to visit Becky over Memorial Day but something came up and she didn't make it. So they had decided she'd come down the weekend of the 8th. Those plans had been made the week before her first email to me.

We met early Sat morning, to avoid some of the MS HEAT and took a nice ride in the country. We stopped at a McDonald's - hey, she might as well learn early on what a big spender I am - for a cup of coffee and we talked for a couple of hours.

An aside - you know I'm kinda proud of myself for so successfully downsizing from a 6000 sq ft house to a 240 sq ft trailer. While at McD's we met a 40-something guy on a Harley with a big backpack on the luggage rack. He was on his way from Orlando to Scottsdale, AZ. His 2004 Harley had 84,000+ miles on it and all his belongings were in the backpack. That's a whole new level of "downsizing". But it's a goal to which I don't think I'll aspire. He wasn't with a gorgeous blue eyed biker chick!

Oops, I mean a "gorgeous blue eyed lady"

Yes, there is a difference.

No tattoos.

Yet.

We rode some more and then went to one of the casinos for lunch. The food at the casinos here on the coast isn't as cheap as Vegas but it's every bit as good. We stayed and talked. Then a thunderstorm popped up so we stayed longer. The waitress kept asking if we were ready to pay and we kept saying, "No, we're in no hurry." Finally her supervisor came over and asked if we would please close out the tab because the waitress' shift was over. She had been too nice to tell us that. Since it was still raining really hard, we called Becky to come pick us up. After a drink, or maybe two at her place, the three of us went out to dinner.

An incredible Italian restaurant, again in a casino. We each ordered an appetizer and either a soup or salad. And couldn't finish all the food they brought. Which made us unhappy because it was all delicious. The waiter didn't seem surprised that we didn't order any entrees, so I guess that happens a lot. I can't imagine eating a 3 or 4 course meal there.

They dropped me off at my bike and I had a cool, slightly damp ride back to Lizana.

Life REALLY IS Good !


To be continued ........