McCain/Palin Visit Cedar Rapids

Today the GOP nominees for president and vice president of the United States of America visited Cedar Rapids.

Their speeches were carried on CNN. If you were watching, you didn't see me there. I would have liked to have been there and I even had a ticket. But I was simply unwilling to put up with the hassle of going.

The event was held in a hangar around which there is very little parking area. Attendees were being shuttle-bussed there from somewhere, probably the main parking area for the terminal. And then there's the security issue, which I won't even get into.

Furthermore, I was told that I could not take my gun, umbrella, or flag pole.

So I stayed home and mowed the lawn. I did watch some of McCain's speech on CNN but did not think to do so early enough to catch Sarah Palin's talk.

From a presentation on her which Allison sent me, I learned that she flies her own plane—probably that neat little sea plane parked in her back yard. If you saw the Charlie Gibson interview, you could see it.

In Alaska, planes are used pretty much like we use pickups here, due to the vast distances and lack of other transportation. Small planes are all over the state, and many of them are sea planes.

Assuming Sarah Palin flies her own seaplane, she can do something I'm not allowed do; I'm only licensed to fly land-based planes.

Which leads me to a little tidbit in my life for this week. Just yesterday, I was in the very hangar where the rally was held today. I met with my student and the examiner prior to the student pilot taking his practical test to become a licensed pilot.

By noon, Jeff held a Private Pilot certificate. (You can check out a web page I made for him here if you wish: http://syntheticsaves.com/jdw/.) Actually, this is the second student to "graduate" in less than a month. http://syntheticsaves.com/bb/

I've done a lot of flying this summer. Having these two graduate with the minimum number of hours required were great accomplishments.

Pat keeps asking, "When are you going to fix "this" or clean up "that"?"

Post-Hurricane Report

Sit back, relax. "Our" park is fine. That's the good news.

This morning, I called and talked with Lena and Allison. Their comments follow.

Hurricane-related news from Rockport 35 RV Park:

• Not a drop of water.
  
• Only modest wind; no damage.
  
• Everyone evacuated.
  
• Tony and Alison returned and held church services yesterday.
  
• Tony and crew will be de-shuttering the office and clubhouse today.
  
• In spite of the inconveniences cause by the evacuation, everyone is in good spirits.

Now some bad news. Tony and Allison have two sons living in the Houston/Galveston area.

One son, who lives very near Galveston, lost his house. It is too early to tell for certain, but Allison believes it is probably damaged beyond repair. The family and pets are OK.

At the other son's home, some trees were lost and a fence damage.

Lucille is getting along quite well. She still is not permitted to walk without her fancy boots but it shouldn't be too long before she is. She was evacuated, along with all the other residents of the care center. They, too, are now back at the center.

Thursday Morning Update

This from Allison this morning:

"Ike is turning more north--they are speculating Port Lavaca (not far) and Houston will get it--our kids are there. Ike has a wide swath so we are going. PLUS, hurricanes are tricksters.

It is so beautiful here...sunny, warm--just lovely. Tomorrow that will change.

We'll leave within the hour. We're taking the opportunity to go see my sister (convalescing from triple bypass) in Mineral Wells TX."

Hurricane Ike Headed Our Way

This morning, Allison had this to say:

"We are preparing to evacuate Rockport 35...and trusting God with everything.

Thank you for your prayers.

Allison"

And later today, Julee sent me this from one of her bridge buddies who lives in Rockport:

"Just wanted to let everyone know we're planning to evacuate unless Ike really changes course soon. .... Ron will start boarding up the house today. .....We really need some rain, our wetlands are about dried up except for 3 deep ponds, but don't need that wind. According to the NOAA storm surge maps, it will take a category 4 for a storm surge strong enough to reach our house. So hope that doesn't happen. The house construction including the roof was built under the state wind code so hopefully we won't have too much damage with a cat 2 or 3 anyway. Still hope it goes south and comes ashore on one of those big ranches like the King or Kennedy that don't have many buildings or people, but right now it's headed straight for us."

It sounds as if the palm trees at Rockport 35 RV Park and Resort might get ruffled. Let's hope that is all that happens.

I'm sure Tony and his able crew will have everything done which can be done to protect the property. Of course we hope that all their preparation will turn out to be unnecessary.

I asked Allison to make sure Space 80 didn't blow away. Her response:

"We're trusting God with EVERYTHING--including Space 80!"

Thanks, Allison. You can't get much better prepared than that!