Albuquerque hot air balloons

Like I remember from other years, it was fun driving around Albuquerque when the weather was good and the hot air balloons went up. One time Pearl and I were close enough to a balloon that we waved to the folks in the basket, and they waved back. Often, the balloons were off to the east from us, and so my camera was looking into the sun, but I'll post a couple photos that came out pretty good.

ELVIS lives

I prepared for this photo, even wore the shirt purchased in Memphis, Aug 2007, when Pearl and I stopped to celebrate with thousands the 30th anniversary of Elvis's passing. I prepared for this photo when I knew it was an Elvis memorabelia place where I'd meet my new Baha'i friend in Swansboro, NC, day before yesterday for lunch. I prepared, and she took the photo, but I had no idea it would be quite this funny! It makes me laugh, and I hope you'll enjoy it, too.

On the road again

On the road again.......or more accurately, In the skies again.....Man, is this an easier way to get to the southwest than driving.
Flights today so far from Wilmington to Charlotte and Charlotte to Phoenix. Went over Albuquerque and wished I could jump out with a parachute and my luggage....what an entry! But I chose to stay in the plane and now will backtrack to Albuquerque after a couple hours here in Phoenix. US Airways makes this wait easy. I'm near my gate. It's relatively quiet for an airport. I'm on my own laptop with it and my phone plugged in behind the trash can right near where I'm sitting.
I'm adding a photo...could be entitled Many Bags makes herself at home at Sky Harbor

Expect to start return drive 8-22-08

Wonderful gathering tonight. Baha'i Feast in West Palm Beach. If I heard right, there are now at least 30 local spiritual assemblies in this area of south Florida. When I became a Baha'i in Plantation, FL, in 1972, there were about six LSA's in the same area. This is just rough memory, but close to right, I think.
Tonight a small dinner was arranged for Gabs and me and a couple other guests. It was really good food and a wonderful thank you for us. I have one new recipe I'm eager to try at home.
We are hoping to leave at 9am in the morning, stop at Edgewater to visit Joan and Ed Mazur and then on to St Augustine. I keep checking weather online (no tv here) and am hoping to mostly be after all the rain from Fay that is still hitting northern FL. Today finally, there was no rain here....very little yesterday.
The next day will be a longer drive from St Augustine to Louis Gregory Baha'i Institute in Hemingway, SC, and then Sunday I hope to leave in enough time to stop in Hampstead at a devotional on my way back to Sneads Ferry.

Haitian memories of the Blackwells

Erick Louis came again on Sunday to MCBI, and he spoke to me and my casette recorder to tell his rememberances of Mrs. Ruth Blackwell after she returned to Haiti in the last years of her life. This is another wonderful interview of preciouos stories for that book about Ellsworth and Ruth Blackwell that will get written, God willing, sooner rather than later at this point!
It was fun for Gabs to visit in Creole with this old friend.

Dinner at Institute for Haitians

The gathering at Magdelene Carney Baha'i Institute held August 16, 2008, will be remembered as one of the highlights of our trip. The evening included dinner, songs and prayers by the children's classes, presentation in Creole by Gabrielle Griggs, and much visiting between the local Baha'is and the guests. Most of the people in attendance were Haitians, and most of the communication was in French or Creole. Erick Louis from Fort Lauderdale came here to MCBI after work and visited with guests Saturday night. He and Gabrielle Griggs were teenage Baha'is together in Haiti many years ago.

one of Pauly's funnier moments coming here

The drive here to West Palm Beach, two days from Louis Gregory Baha'i Institute in Hemingway, SC, was long enough for the three of us that it included boring times and good times and difficult times for each of us. Pauly can be one of the most charming, cutest little kids imaginable. He regularly says thank you and please and you're welcome at appropriate times in the sweetest voice possible. But at 27 months, he is a challenge to his mom in surprising, creative, stubborn ways! Most of the time in the car, he was interested in seeing new things. "Look at the birds, Pauly." And Pauly would excitedly say, "See. Birds." "Trees, Pauly. See the big trees, Pauly." And then he would comment about the trees.....the planes....the trucks....and so on. This might go on entertaining him for miles. One time, however, he was mad about something else, and we attempted to change the subject trying to get him to look at all the things around us. And his responses were in a loud, near screaming voice, "NO TREES! NO BIRDS! NO CARS!" And in one bad moment today, after Gabs corrected him and asked him to speak to me, Pauly announced loudly, ...."NO SORRY, GRANNY MIKE!"
This might be just the testing current method in his development. I just heard him in the next room, "NO BATH!"