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 ........

Still in Lizana

I'm way through my second week of "Camp Noah". This one is in Long Beach, which Katrina hit a lot harder than where I was last week at Ocean Springs. We have 43 kids instead of the 32 last week. And the stories are more difficult, too.

There are probably many other stories that we haven't heard yet, but at least 3 kids here swam from their homes.

The counselors are college students based out of Asheville, NC. They travel around the country working camps like this one and they are terrific. The looks on the kids faces tells how quickly these people develop rapport and trust. Almost as good as me .

When the kids are ready to work through some of their problems, a professional social worker takes over. She is wonderful and it's a pleasure to see her with the kids. I would love to be able to do her work but I'd get way too involved. I don't think "ability to cry on a moment's notice while holding a kid" is part of the job description. The best part is that she will be available to the kids and families after camp ends. I know that she will make a big difference in these kid's - and their caregivers - lives.

It's a wonderful program and I'm so fortunate to be able to participate. The only real frustration is that I'm not able to post pictures of the kids so you can see how cute they are. So I'll do this instead.





That's a stock photo of child models. ALL my kids are cuter than that.

I'm much more involved in the basic workings this week. Getting food ready, serving it, setting up crafts and getting lots of wonderful hugs and high fives.

And Long Beach is much closer, too. I'm traveling about 30 minutes each way. Every day so far on the Honda. I finally got caught in a MAJOR thunderstorm yesterday and had to sit under an overpass for 20 minutes until it subsided. But once you get drenched to the skin, you don't get any wetter so I rode on home comfortably cool.

Their scheduling wasn't the best so we had the third day of camp today, the 4th of July. Only 35 kids showed up and several left at 12:00. I came back to camp and rested for a while. Then dinner and I leave in a few minutes to see some fireworks.

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th.

Life is Good here in the USA.