Inspiration Weekend Two - June 4-8, 2010

We began planning for Inspiration Weekend Two in February. Jan was the chairperson of the volunteer corp of 100+ for the 2nd year, but this year was going to be 5 days instead of the 2 days in 2009. I was also a member of our Church's 8 person planning committee or as SQuire Rushnell calls us the "Tugboat Committee".

Let me begin with a very brief background on the genesis of this very special event. Our close friends and island buddies SQuire Rushnell, http://whengodwinks.com/, and Louise DuArt, http://louiseduart.com/, were the "brain children" for I.W. when they met Dr. Charles Stanley founder of InTouch Ministries in Atlanta (www.intouch.org) after performing at the organization's Christmas Party in 2008.

Long story, short--they invited Dr. Stanley to the Vineyard for a weekend of music and inspiration to be held at the Oak Bluffs Tabernacle. This is a very famous site on the old revival campgrounds of gingerbread cottages and the grand, old Tabernacle (http://www.mvcma.org/). Following months of planning and prayer the 2 day weekend came off despite cold and rain. With great entertainment of Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis of the 5th Dimension, who I excitedly was asked to escort around, the family musical group, The Annie Moses Band, and Louise's Comedy and Impersonation performance, the event was acclaimed a 'mild' success.

We were skeptical about whether Dr. Stanley would want to return, but in January he spoke to Louise and Squire and said "you know I don't think the Lord wants me to return to the Island this year for 2 days.............I believe he'd like me to return and preach for 5 days"!!! So our hard work and planning began. The talent and entertainment this year was Star Search winner Mara Getz, American Idol finalist Mandisa, Ricky Skaggs and the Kentucky Thunder, multi-Grammy artists Avalon, and Constitutional Historian David Barton.

And of course the wonderful biblical teachings of Dr. Stanley.

I should have mentioned before if you didn't know Dr. Stanley's weekly sermons are broadcast worldwide to over 50 million viewers in over 100 countries.

We were so happy with the weekend attracting over 3,000 people from 30+ states and as far as one person from Hong Kong who flew over just for the event. The weather was near perfect every day and our Sunday Family picnic on the Green was well attended beyond our expectations. There was unanimous agreement that IW2 was a phenomenal success!! What happens next year is anybody's guess!

Costa Ballena - Osa Peninsula April 5-15, 2010

As living part time internationally has always been a part of our retirement plan, the Southern zone of Costa Rica has recently come on our radar through International Living magazine. Our most serious international property searches to date have been in Southern France, Languedoc and Provence, and this is still high on our list. We also spent several weeks in Nicaragua in 2007, but found it without enough culture and things to do, a bit too Third World.

Costa Rica had become much too expensive in last 10 years so I hadn't even thought much about it until recently. The Southern zone had been undeveloped because of mainly of poor roads and infrastructure. The coastal highway has been completed (cutting the drive time from San Jose from 5 to 3 hours)and a new international airport was approved for Palmar; so development is on the rise. A major developer Ventanas del Pacifico www.ventanadelpacific.com
in Ojochal has built almost 100 homes and sold twice as many lots to be built on.

The mountains come right down to the coast and all the lots are into the mountain sides with either ocean and mountain views or both. At elevations of up 2,000 feet the vistas were stunning and homes could be built for $100/sq. ft.

Janice and I spent 3 days at the Ventanas guest house and spent about 2 full days visiting both completed homes and available lots in their 6+ phases.

SUV's are a must as the development roads are unpaved and quite steep.

The lots range in price from $40-150K depending on both size and views. We were primarily interested in full ocean view lots and found 2 that we really liked at $90k and $130K.

They unfortunately were about 12 km. south of Ojochal which required the drive whenever you want to shop or go to restaurants. Ojochal and the Uvita area was quite unique and each day the area grew on us. The expats have blended nicely into the "Tica" culture and lifestyle and the number of outstanding international gourmet restaurants was amazing. We are still considering buying a lot, but would want to make another trip. The weather was extremely humid and hot and if this was the norm we're not sure this is for us.

What a Start!

Jan and I flew to Tampa on Saturday 21 November and stayed with our friends Bill and Janet in Clearwater for a couple days. Picked up the rig on Monday and were blown away at the practically new condition of the 2005 King Ranch truck and 2006 Host camper. The truck had 5,000 miles and not a nick or blemish inside or out. The leather seats in a King Ranch are really special and the smell of new leather permeated the truck. The owner gave us a quick run through and we took off heading North to spend Thanksgiving with our family in Philadelphia.

Of course a couple hours up the road we stopped at a Wal-Mart to stock up on plates, silverware, sheets, pillows and all the other necessities. Our intention was to camp out 2 nights on the way up. As the rain began and darkness set in about 5:30, we were into southern Georgia when the truck lights started dimming and engine dying. Couldn't have been a worse spot to break down on I95 as there was significant construction and the shoulder was almost non-existent. After a couple of hours with countless tractor trailers whizzing by, a tow truck showed up. Turns out they needed a larger tow truck to haul our rig. That took another hour or so and then they needed to disconnect the differential to safely tow with out the engine running!! That old Southern boy was great! Had it disconnected and hooked up in about 45 minutes. Fortunately there was a Ford dealership at the exit we just passed a few miles back so we had to go up 7-8 miles to next exit and come back.

Jan and I were stuffed into the front seat with Billy Joe and he was a character and made the experience tolerable. We dropped the rig off at the dealership (it was about 10:30 by now) and checked into a motel near by. The whole ordeal took about 4 1/2 hours and boy did that bed feel great. It was a new motel and I think cost about $49.95 which was a deal. Probably cheaper than a camp site.

First thing in the morning I spoke to the service manager and he got the truck right in. Long story, short, the alternator went bad. You're probably thinking how could a truck with only 5,000 miles have the alternator go bad......... Well not using a vehicle is not always good and having it sit around, rather than using it, can believe or not, cause premature "death". This unexpected delay was even further costly as just across the street was a large Outlet Store shopping center which brought smiles to Janice!! Living on an island causes a form of shopping depravity the women have trouble dealing with. Now she was able to get her "fix".

While she was shopping I wandered into the dealership showroom and in no time was in the business manager's office buying an extended warrantly for the truck. It covered just about everything for 48 months/48,000 miles and cost about $2,200. Figured this would get us through our Celebration Retirement Tour beginning next year. We were back on the road by about 2:30 and had hoped to get to Northern Va. in 6-7 hours.

Smooth sailing for about 3 hours when traffic came to a stand still somewhere in North Carolina. We inched along for about 2 hours and finally came to the next exit where it seemed everyone was getting off. It was about 8:30 and we discovered that an overpass bridge had collapsed on 95. Quickly got a room for overnight.

On the road by 9:30 and proceeded smoothly until about 15 miles south of D.C. when I smelled something burning! Of course your defence system kicks in along with a bit of adrenaline. Yes it's got to be someone in front that causing the oder(we were now in bumper to bumper traffic as it the day before Thansgiving!) and within minutes I see the smoke coming from our left front wheel well!! Again the emergency lane was about 9 feet wide and I need about 8 feet. I was cruising fearlessly for about a mile when I finally exited looking for a place to pull over. The Lord was surely with us as within a 1/2 mile there was a great turnoff with plenty of room to park. Sure enough somthing in the wheel/brake system was smoking!! In the interim time since our last break down we learned that our AAA membership didn't cover our truck camper rig setup so we signed up along the road with the Good Sam Club which had roadside RV service. Our new Ford extended warranty also had roadside coverage. We were having trouble getting a tow service; Jan and I were working both our cell phones which were BOTH running out of power and we couldn't find our chargers. Before we knew it two tow trucks showed up almost at the same time. The first one hooked us up and towed to a closeby large Ford dealership. Again we were treated so great and they immediately got us in, within an hour diagnosed the brake calipher had frozen and burned lines out with some computer sensors and who knows what else. They couldn't fix for 2 days because of holiday. Again the Lord blessed us; there was an Enterprise Car rental in the dealership. We got a nice Ford SUV and headed out to Philly at about 5:30. Guess what--our warranty covered everything including the car rental.

I won't bore you with the trip to Philly since compared to everything else it was a cake walk. Had to drive back to pick up the rig on Monday and drive up to New England. It was fun taking it over on the ferry over to the Vineyard and finally getting it home.

Probably the only humorous thing about this debacle was we so so excited to use the camper overnight and we ended having to spend both nights in motels!!

If anyone can beat this "tale of woe", please let me know.

John Steinbach's Rocinante in "Travels with Charlie". Probably one of the very first truck campers ever!