July 20, 2013
Much has happened since my last posting; are you ready?! To
begin the story, I have to say that I will never understand why anyone would choose
to reside in southwestern Connecticut and northeastern New Jersey! Traffic,
traffic, traffic!! Horns blarring, hand gestures and obvious road rage, holy
moly! I love you State of Maine!! When we arrived at Salaam Shriners, the
gentlemen were wonderful. Gordon and Jerry helped to wire us into the building
so we would have the correct power connection; thank you guys. The ladies of
Maalas Temple No. 20 Daughters of the Nile greeted us warmly and put on a
beautiful Ceremony of Initiation, bringing in one new member, a beautiful 18
year old young woman who has been waiting 12 years to become a Daughter of the
Nile, how lucky for the Temple! At the banquet, following the Ceremonial, we
met Potentate Will Navallo and several more of the Divan members; thanks again
for all the cortesies and assistance.
The next morning we left Livingson for,what should have been
a fairly short jaunt to Trenton. Not so! Our GPS, which we have named Randi
(Rand McNally), directed us to get on the NJ turnpike heading south. Big
mistake! This may come as surprise to many of you (lol), during rush hour
traffic, no one and I mean NO ONE will let you get in or out of your lane.
Needless to say, we ended up being pushed out onto the wrong exit and headed
north. Now remember, Trenton is toward the south. After getting turned around,
Randi directed us to get back on the NJ turnpike and now we are north of where
we started. Time for additional action; the atlas came out of storage, I
directed Harold to make an exit, and head to the Garden State Parkway, which proved
to be a wise decision. We arrived at the Crescent Shrine Center in Burlington,
NJ only 1 hour and 45 minutes late. Because our generator quit working, Harold
dropped us off at the Shrine Center and he drove to Croydon, PA to have the
generator looked at. Of course, when he arrived at Industrial Diesel Power
Systems, the generator decided to run. It’s hard to determine if something is
wrong mechanically when it’s running, however, the company donated 2 hours of
their time in trying to determine the problem and ran some diagnostics. Thank
you so much for your efforts. After Harold returned to the Shrine Center, Potentate
Henry and his staff were wonderful and assisted Harold in getting us hooked up
to power and water. Mollie became their office mascot for the day and has taken
on the title of Supreme Dog. Boy did the air conditioning feel good that night!
Items sewn and donated by Al Haram No. 130
Thursday, July 18th we visited the Philadelphia
Shriners Hospital for Children®. The ride into Philly went smoothly and without
any hitches. The hospital arranged for us to park Nila directly in front of the
building on Broad Street for all to see. What a fabulous hospital this is! We
were greeted by a very friendly staff who directed us to the 9th
floor where we had an unbelievable view of this historic city, Philadelphia, the
city of “Brotherly Love”. Our tour guides were Sara and Stephanie, who led us
through this magnificent hospital which specializes in the treatment of spinal
cord abnormalities and injuries. They have this “play” area which is utilized
to assist the patients with adaptive living skills. They hava a therapeutic pool
with an underwater treadmill. They are the second Shrine Hospital to implement
a full body xray (the EOS) which takes only a few seconds to complete the scan;
AMAZING! This particular day at the hospital was a meeting day of the Board of
Governors, who presented a certificate to Supreme Queen Margaret Ann Risk and
after, joined us for a wonderful lunch.
Supreme Queen Margaret Ann's first parade!!
The therapeutic pool.
We then worked our way out of
Philadelphia and to Warminster and the next Official Visit of the Daughters of
the Nile. I need to back track a bit. While parked at the Philadelphia Hospital,
the coach generator quit. No roof air, again, 95+ degrees outside. The Recorder
of Allah Temple No. 28 had a portable generator delivered to the ceremonial
site, which unfortunately was not equipped with the correct plug configuration.
No fault of the recorder. After hours of trying to wire, rewire, etc we found a
Lowe’s and purchased the plug needed to make the connection or so we thought!
The plug WAS correct, however, the generator refused to switch over to shore
power so……at 10 pm we decided to check into a Day’s Inn for the night.
Hallelujah! Fast forward….. 8 am July 19, 2013. Harold and I drove Nila to a
Cummins Service Center in Bristol, PA and were told by the service writer Mark
and the technician that the extreme heat may be partly due to the failure of
the generator to start. They also determined that the generator to the fuel
pump is probably defective. Since this service center did not have the needed
part in stock, they called ahead to their Harrisburg facility, ordered the part
and I arranged for someone in Harrisburg to pick it for Harold to install
himself when we arrived in Harrisburg. The ladies of Allah temple put on a
beautiful and well executed Ceremonial with two new members followed by a
wonderful banquet. We have been so fortunate to have assistance offered to us
everywhere we’ve stopped. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
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