Thursday, November 29, 2018

Uncle Paul Late Harvest Time Folkestone Nov 2018 -Restored Chair

 
Here is the restored chair that Paul Coombs mom had, and Sandy supported getting updated and repaired. This is the owner of Da Vinci Restorations, Daren Steneman, who restored the chair in his shop in Edina where I picked it up on Tuesday Nov 29th. 
  
Da Vinci Logo on the truck in the parking lot where I picked up the chair in Edina. 
 
Uncle Paul Tuesday evening dinner after the chair was returned to his room. 
 Bonnie the activities coordinator, working with a pumpkin pie baking team on Tuesday Nov 27 at the Gables Activity room.  Ready to eat in 2 days according to Bonnie.
 Thursday Harvest tea, Thursday Nov 29, with pumpkin pie organized by Bonnie Davis in red, with Uncle Paul Coombs at the end of the table with other residents.  Photo by tom weaver



 Thursday harvest tea with pumpkin pie Thursday Nov 29,  Bonnie with Paul at the end of the table



Paul with his dental bridge out (I usually wear it for a couple of hours - or more each day)
Note the back of Esther's chair that returned to his room on Tuesday.

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Driving to the East --Land of my ancestors and an NWTA



Sunday Sept 23, 2018  Start of my trip east....meeting for an 8:30 Breakfast in New Hope MN

 
Sunday Sept 23, Steve Borden from my I group took me out for breakfast at Fat Nat's Eggs in New Hope MN.  Nice solid protein to start my way east.  Thanks Misun Steve!

 
Picked up my mail at the Main Post Office by the Mississippi in down town Minneapolis and then ran into this crowd on my way through to get onto I 94 east. Dressed in Purple and US Bank Stadium the 1 Billion Dollar Colosseum , a lot of collision sports here...sigh.....
 Driving east out of the Twin Cities. Noticed 3M's new slogan "Curiosity is just the beginning" ---more to my likely as I hit the open road to the east.

 
A blue sky clear day on my way through Wisconsin.  Some of the back roads leading to Deerfield, found me at Darien WI.  Thinking of my friend Harry and some cousins who live in Darien, CT
Arrived in Deerfield and the Chestnut Lodge after dark...
Monday  Morning Sept 24  2018
 
Garry and Terrie of the Chestnut Lodge fame Monday morning after breakfast  ---Such great hospitality on my way east.  Truly blessed with friends along with way. 
Another great breakfast shared with Terrie and Garry at the Chestnut lodge.  Some of the golden cherry tomatoes from my garden along with croissants and farm fresh eggs, mmmmm
Monday morning clouds began in Chicago and as I moved east rains began south of Lake Erie around Toledo, where I stopped for Costco Gas
Here is a road around Cleveland where the rains are obvious.  Cleansing water and easy does it driving.  Did not arrive in Somerset and my Airbnb until after 9:30 PM
Tuesday  Sept 25, 2018


When arrived late after a long day driving in the rain on the Ohio and PA turnpikes, Cynthia greeted me at the front door of her restored home from the 1800's.   Dane, her hiking husband whom I hope to meet is an early riser - and had retired by the time I got there.  Here are the steps, and I think I count 12, so I am grateful am have been able to climb all the 12 steps here!  
I am now in a Motel 6, in Carlisle PA and the wifi is quite slow to upload many photos that I have, including the Glessner Bridge.  So I moved into a coffee shop in downtown Carlisle PA.  Nice to have robust Wifi and French Roast Coffee :-)
 
 Wet Tuesday AM view of downtown Somerset, with the bike on back of my pony!   Cynthia is a great host and gave me some tips on what to see in town.  She and Dane have restored a 1800's home near the city center here. 



Wet view from the back window of the second floor of my Airbnb, cemetery and landscaped back yard. 

 Eagles wings, poster with Bible Quote from Isaiah, remembering the Reformed Lutheran Heritage of my Glessner ancestors who arrived in the Stoney Creek, Bruderthal, Brothers Valley area of Bedford County, later Somerset Co, in the time of the late 1700's when Heinrich Glessner lived in Brother's Valley born in Germany in1728.   Easy Does it..

 
Side view of Airbnb with water running down the street as I moved my van from the meters in front before I might get a ticket.    


 Morning heavy Break fast at the Summit Diner in Somerset, suggested by Cynthia "Where the locals hang out"
Indeed a woman sitting at the next table is a Glessner, married to a gas and oil miner who lives in the Berlin Area...We
ttalked all about the Glessners in the area and encouraged me to find the Glessner Covered Bridge! First I visited the Somerset History Center where I copied some of the Glessner Genealogy files and met Don from FL whose French and German ancestors have a similar path. 


  Glessner Bridge over Stoney Creek (River) near Shanksville. Drove over this on my way to the Flight #93 Memorial from the Sept 11 2001 event that changed things here, and triggered a variety of emotions in people 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glessner_Bridge

  
Wet and rainy view of the main visitors area at the Flight 93 Memorial, near the visitors center. 
Better photos and info here  https://www.nps.gov/flni/index.htm 

 Wet view from the area where the plane crashed with the Visitors Center Above

 View of big rock placed where the plane hit, next to a hemlock grove.   Put some prayer medicine tobacco down here, praying for health and balance, wicozani wowokiya. 

Weds Sept 26 , Carlisle PA AM


High Street Carlisle, with the Cafe and Theater near where I parked. 
 
Found a Motel 6 by the interstate in Carlisle, and discovered the wifi was very slow when I awoke, and found this great Cafe' and Creperie near Dickenson College, where a student is reading on the far right and had great breakfast of a crepe and coffee here.  This is the town where the Indian Industrial School was located, in my opinion, a very sad era in American History --here is a summary from wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlisle_Indian_Industrial_School
"The United States Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, generally known as Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was the flagship Indian boarding school in the United States from 1879 through 1918. All the school's property, known as the Carlisle Barracks, is now part of the U.S. Army War College. Founded in 1879 under U. S. governmental authority by General Richard Henry Pratt (then a Captain), Carlisle was the first federally-funded off-reservation Indian boarding school. Consistent with Pratt's belief that Native Americans were 'equal' to European-Americans, the School strove to immerse its students into mainstream Euro-American culture, believing they might thus become able to advance themselves and thrive in the dominant society."
I drove to the nearby peaceful campus of Dickenson college after breakfast, and considering visiting the Indian School. The old stone building here is calming to me and I captured that in the photo below ---After visiting the campus I drove to the site, in an industrial part of town, considering to visit AND the energy there was prison like, a huge militaristic (Militar -erroristic) presence there with a gate with guards, similar to the homeland insecurity energy now playing in the theater of all American Air Ports.  the portal into our nation since 911, is now fear based...sigh......for me a big reason I now stay grounded by driving in an easy does it way.

Gate into part of the Dickenson College Campus, Carlisle PA, on a calm moist morning, Sept 26 2018 prior to driving north into now, Schuylkill County and Pottsville the current county seat...When I arrived in Pottsville, and the Schuylkill County Seat, I found out that the Weavers, Enoch and Maria were very much pioneers, and that Berks County, from revolutionary times, had been divided since then, and as the Weavers were farmers, they did not stay as the miners did (coal stayed put) and as I learned in the past " In 1805, the men of St. John's Freindenburg Reformed Church who fought in the Rev War, left Pine Grove in a large group and went to Ohio. They wanted to hand pick the land that they wanted to be given to them for the land grants connected with being in the war. Enoch and his wife did not go with them. Out of the 7 children and their families, only Anna Maria "Mary" stayed with her parents "
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Here is what the Berks County looked like in 1776, the Enoch and Marie Van Campen Weaver Family moved from Hamilton Twp, Northhampton Co, now Monroe Co in the east near Shroudsburg, after the had 7 children (1756-1780?), to Pine Grove Twp around Friedensburg -
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 This is a colorful map on the wall in Pottsville, that shows the west ward migration from the 1600's near Philadelphia in pre colonial times to the northwest in 1784 in post revolution times.   Johann Enoch Weaver and Maria Van Campen married in 1755 in the east near the Delaware River  Tohickon (To-hick-han) Lenape word meaning "Deer Bone Creek" Reformed Church, Bedminster, Bucks Co., PA
--> , and raised their children nearby in Hamilton Twp, Northampton Co (now Monroe CO) , then moving west to Pine Grove......and in 1805, 6 of their kids left for Ohio, where they settled near the town of Miamisburg.
 Thursday Sept 27 2018  Arrived in New Hope, Deer Park Camp, PA  by Aqautong Spring late afternoon yesterday.  I then drove to the Philadelphia Airport to pick up 2 staff men, one from Mexico and one from LA....Then back after dark to the camp where we staffed a Gateway for GBTQA and Deaf Men, which is like 11 and 12 step work for me ---grateful for the day. ----and my balance
 
Pond at Aquatong Spring, where 2000 gallons of water emerges each hour.   Thursday, I met with Colin the camp caretaker and Matt a local LKS man by this spring, got centered and grounded to this beautiful place and the water of life!

Falls from the pond into emerging meadow to restore the ecology where I lake had been  ---

Sign at Aquatong Spring with sycamore tree at the right.  
Fruit of a shrub by the pond --From Wiki "The Lenape called the spring "Achewetong" or "Achewetank" meaning "at the spring among the bushes". A Lenape village was located at the spring up until about 1690."
Monday Oct 1, after the 3 day training......Photo of me as the LKS Lead Man after the training, by Bob Shiel from Chicago who joined me for a chan nupa ceremony by the pond as we headed northeast to Stepping Stones in Westchester Co, NY

 
Stepping stones Katonah NY by Bedford Hills, Westchester Co  - Tom W in the garden outside of Bill and Lois Wilson's home, founders of AA (1935) and Al Anon (1951) respectively. Bob had arranged a tour of the site, that began at 1 PM

 
Grounds of Stepping Stones, with a group walking up to the writing studio where Bill W did a lot of writing for AA.    
Tom W sitting at Bill's Desk and noticing the ash tray that Bill used (I was not supposed to touch the ash tray)

 
Tour Guide Chris F, with his Car, license DD GTM P, and Bob S from Chicago  "Don't Drink, Go To Meetings, Pray"

Oct 1, 2018 Monday 
 Heart with Flowers on my window under the wiper blade, in the plaza Parking lot in New Paltz where I got a head light bulb to install, and then 5 gals of Castrol and a oil filter for my green pony an oil change the next day, Sunoco Beacon Auto on Main St. This occurred about 4 PM in New Paltz, and then I went to a place called the Bakery locally, and got some desserts to share at my Airbnb, I have the Sassafras Room where there are 5 bed rooms with names of trees.  Met a guy from India here who let me in (smokes cigarettes  ---America ---the purveyor of all things addictive for the 2 leggeds :-) 
Stayed here Oct 1 - 3rd Monday through Wednesday evening  -----  
 Here is the 19th Century building Airbnb that Hana takes care of where I stayed for 3 nights  --Oct 1 --3 ......Near the town of Rosendale NY north of New Paltz, I took 2 bike rided in the area, between rain showers,  One over the Rosendale Trestle on the Wallkill Valley Trail and the other on the Walkway Over the Hudson at Poughkeepsie (word in the Wappinger language, roughly U-puku-ipi-sing,[6] meaning "the reed-covered lodge by the little-water place," referring to a spring or stream feeding into the Hudson River south of the present downtown area)
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poughkeepsie,_New_York
https://walkway.org/


View of Rosendale Village from the bike trail trestle with a beginning of autumn color change. 

Wallkill Bike Trail Map showing the connection to New Paltz


Huguenot Street in New Paltz, from wiki "New Paltz was founded in 1678 by French Huguenots settlers, including Louis DuBois, who had taken refuge in Mannheim, Germany, for a brief period of time, being married there in 1655, before emigrating to the Dutch colony of New Netherland in 1660 with his family. Mannheim was a major town of the Palatinate (in German, the Pfalz), at the time a center of Protestantism. The settlers lived in Wiltwyck (present day Kingston, NY) and in 1677 purchased a patent for the land surrounding present day New Paltz from a Lenape tribe known as the Esopus."

 
 View of New Paltz on a rainy day, while my green pony, was being serviced with an oil change at the Beacon Car Service Place by the Sunoco on Main Street. 
Downtown Kingston  -in the Stockade Area.  I knew that my Van Campen ancestors came to New Nederlands in 1658, Garret Jansen Van Campen and Machtelt Stoffels were married in New Amsterdam in 1659, now New YorkCity.  Interesting I found documentation at the Old Dutch Church that was rebuilt in the 1800's they they moved up the Hudson River to be in Wiltwyck the Dutch Settlement that Peter Stuyvesant, helped organize.  See Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston,_New_York

"In the spring of 1658, Peter Stuyvesant, Director-General of New Amsterdam, arrived and advised the residents that if they wished to remain they must re-locate to high ground and build a stockade. Tensions continued between the Esopus and the settlers, eventually leading to the Esopus Wars. In 1661 the settlement was granted a charter as a separate municipality; Stuyvesant named it Wiltwijck (Wiltwyck)"  In 1661, when the first Dutch Reformed Church was built on this site, my ancestors, Garret + Machtelt Van Campen were one of the first couples (on first page of the Baptismal Register) to have a child baptized here --Son Jan Van Campen baptized 18 April 1661.  Garret also gave tax money to build the church, 2 guilders and 10 florins Nov 21 1662 and received lot #12 inside the Stockade in 1662. p63 Kingston's Burgher's and Hausvrouws 1652-1777 Ted Deitz 2013



Record of first Baptisms at the Wiltwyck Church with the Van Campens, photo of
book at the Old Church.
Drove to Phillipsburg NJ on Oct 4, on the back roads from Hudson Valley to the Delaware Gap area of New Jersey. I had information that some of the Van Campens moved to New Jersey from the Hudson Valley

 
Here in Millbrook, I discover the Van Campen name. Van Campen Creek and a house and barn 16 and 17, perhaps where brothers Abraham and Isaac moved, they were sons of Jan born in Wiltwyk, Kingston, 9 OCT 1698 (Abraham) and 20 JUN 1708 (Isaac) ---and likely lived and farmed in this area -Abraham's daughter  Maria Elisabetha Van Campenwas born in Kingston NY7 APR 1731  and was married to Johann Enoch Weber/Weaver  9 Oct 1755 in Tohickon (To-hick-han) Lenape word meaning "Deer Bone Creek" Reformed Church, Bedminster, Bucks Co., PA
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 Van Campen area of Millbrook
 Van Campen Brook
 Van Campen's honored in a hiking area of the Delaware Water Gap NRA

Oct 4 Thursday  Evening  Stayed with Phen King and Steve Dobberstein in Phillipsburg NJ with visit to Easton NY

Oct 5 Friday Evening with Dixie and Jayson near Berkeley Springs WV
 
  Dixie's garden near Berkeley Springs WV, edible Nasturtiums -fun to walk around and see the place Dixie and Jayson have created for themselves. 
 Lovely breakfast treat as I packed to leave WV, eggs, covered polenta, and some great fresh coffee cake.  Sweet to have both Dixie and Jayson escort me around the Fall, Apple Butter Parade in Berkeley Springs so I could get to Ohio in a good way .  https://wvtourism.com/event/45th-annual-apple-butter-festival/
 Saturday Oct 5  Drive to the National Pike Bridge site, visited by my grandfather, grandmother and father Weaver in 1928

 
 Marker at site.  More info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casselman_Bridge




Current view of the bridge looking east from the parking lot


 View of three bridges from the bridge.  Hwy 40 National Pike and then Interstate

 Image of Casselman River Bridge in 1928 by Noah Elwood Weaver


Longer range view of Casselman River Bridge, build very large in 1813 to allow barge canal traffic and did not happen as the railroads surpassed things. NEWeaver 1928 
 1928 Paul Henry River and mom, Edna Eicher Weaver camping on the National Pike in rainy weather.

 Edna Eicher Weaver at pass in Mountains on the National Pike 1928

Oct 6  Easy Does it Saturday Evening with Cousin Jeannette Allen Weaver and Fred Weaver in Troy Ohio  --we ate a local pizza for dinner, and had a local breakfast for a send off for my trip back to Minnesota   

Learning from my Oct 7 Sunday Drive from Ohio through Chicago, with my sweet 2005 Green Pony, the Magnesium pony who entered our lives in the summer of 2014, prior to my trip to BC with Patrick from Ireland for the Rosen Method International Congress.  She did well until I started smelling some plastic like smell, that first thought might be an outdoor fire.  West of  Menomonie WI
around 8:30 I decided to pull into a truckstop by Roberts Wisconsin, where when I lifted up the hood of the pony, there was a steady flow of smoke. 



 
 

I drove it around the back where the truckers hung out, and soon this Afro American Driver from Mobile AL, and a young kid with the yellow hat, who worked at the truck stop, both came with fire extinguishers.  I looked in the back of the engine, and sure enough there was a glow, where the smoke was coming from, no fire.  I lot of projection of fear, at this point, One of the truckers, fearing an explosion says  "Drive it down to the stop sign now" Not really a big support , and the black man said "I had a car that melted and burned to the ground, we need to disconnect the battery." Which we did and in the mean time, someone had called 911 -----this was about 9:05 PM and in 10 mins that local police officer arrived and took his flashlight, and said "we will wait until the firemen arrive"



Officer checking the smoldering car, until the fire squad gets clear on the best actions. 

8 Fire Fighters from the Roberts-Warren Volunteer Fire Dept, who came in 2 fire trucks. Used infra red sensors to determine no heat in the passenger area, and they sprayed the fire wall and pulled out a pile of fiberglass insulation that smoldered.  "Likely just fell on the exhaust"  Finished up before 10 PM and then the lull, "what do I do now?"  And as I have AAA towing called to have Maggie towed to St Louis Park, a mere 21 miles away ---Logistics had Steve B leave my apt keys where I could find them and Dennis from the Town of Glenwood City WI, towed us to St Louis Park around midnight and we shared stories about families of alcoholics, and he is raising 10 kids.  Got the van to Lerum where Maggie is well known, and found out still driveable. Sadly when an inventory was done, she needed a new exhaust system ---the catalytic converter likely heated up too, and was a lot of fumes in the car....too expensive and 267,000 + miles---she was a great pony!  
Off to find a new pony....more shall be revealed