August 25, 2013

We arrived at the Wisconsin Fairgrounds mid-morning on August 21^st, got set up and went to Brookfield, WI, to the McKinley Masonic Lodge where Shelomoth Temple No. 106 holds their Sessions.  After the Ceremonial of Initiation, Queen Sue maneuvered through rush hour traffic to deliver us to the Tripoli Shrine Center in downtown Milwaukee, for the banquet. Holy Moly…..another city I wouldn’t want to live near due to the traffic. I’m beginning to think I must be a true country girl!! Anyway, the Tripoli Shrine Center is absolutely beautiful and is on the National Historic Registry. Within the past few years the building went through an extensive multi-million dollar restoration project and as a result things were discovered which they didn’t know existed, especially behind the stain glass windows in the dome.

 

Originally, each of the tiles in the tile and mosaic floor were laid down one piece at a time by an Italian family who resided in the building during this three year process. Much of the furniture and lighting in the building is original as well as the tile floors which were laid down one piece at a time.

Early (again early) the next morning, we left the fairgrounds for Madison Wisconsin and the official Visit of Antioch Temple No. 113 and the scheduled overnight stay at Zor Shrine Center. Enroute, Harold got us through a horrific thunder storm…the winds began to switch, the trees began to twitch. This Shrine Center is another of the fairly new and modern Shrine Centers which we have visited. We were met by a noble who assisted Harold in getting us hooked up to power. The ladies of Antioch did a wonderful job with the Ceremonial and provided everyone with a delicious banquet and wonderful hospitality!

 

Friday the 23^rd, off to Rockford, Illinois! We arrived in Rockford early and drove straight to Tebala Shrine Center where Denise, from the office, made sure we had what we needed to get hooked up to water and electric. Thank you Denise, who is also a member of Daughters of the Nile. I have to say that this Temple put their Official Visit over the top with their ritual work, banquet, displays and special guest performance by Shrine Hospital Ambassador and recording artist, Jeremy Gabriel!

 

Amazing! Because we had to be in Montreal by 10 a.m. on MonAs part of the tour  ay the 26^th, we decided to get on the road directly after the conclusion of the banquet. To avoid another episode of traffic delays around Chicago, we took I-39 south to I-80 east and stopped in Portage, IN for a few hours rest and parked at one of our most frequently visited sites, Walmart! Saturday, August 24, 2013 – Harold is like a mad man when he has a long trip and definite destination in store, so we traveled all the way from Portage IN to Rochester, NY where we stayed at the home of very dear friends, Karen and Al; a 15 hr. day! The next day we drove to our camp in Point Peninsula and stayed the night there; getting a very early start Monday morning to finish the trip to Montreal.

Monday August 26, 2013 – We got a very early start (5 am) and headed up the road to Montreal. Heading northeast toward the US/Canadian border at Thousand Islands, we were blessed with a beautiful sunrise! As many times as I’ve crossed the 2 bridges which connect the two countries, I’ve never sat up high enough to have such a magnificent view of the St Lawrence River and the many summer homes which are built on the privately owned islands, which make up the Thousand Islands. Wow! During our stay in Montreal we had permission to park at the Karnak Shriners Center. The ladies of Oasis No. 46, Daughters of the Nile greeted us with open arms and executed a wonderful ceremonial with the banquet following at Karnak Shrine. Another first – while singing the Canadian National Anthem, O’Canada, it was like listening to a “round”, remember when we used to sing those in school? Some of us were singing in English and some in French, it was really nice to hear the song being sung in the native language of many of these ladies from Quebec!

 

Tuesday August 17, 2013 – Nila and its inhabitants were guided to the Shriners Hospital Montreal by Queen Christine’s husband, Richard, which was much appreciated! There is soooo much construction in and around the city that I’m not sure if we would have gotten there without his guidance. Our tour guide for the hospital was Celine Dorey the hospital administrator who was so gracious and informative. In 2015 this hospital will be closed as a new state of the art facility is being built as part of a medical complex which includes the Montreal Children’s Hospital and McGill University Medical Research Center. As part of the tour, Celine explained and described to us the details of the new hospital. Every geographic region of Canada will be represented throughout the new hospital, in design and color. The hospital staff provided us with a nice lunch during which we were privileged to listen to a guest speaker who was a Shriner child and is now a staff member at the hospital. She told of her story, how she came to be a patient at Shriner’s and her desire to give back to the medical community which gave her so much; very inspiring. After lunch we boarded vans and were taken to the construction site of the new hospital where we stood on an observation platform and were given information from the site engineer, regarding the complex. Hard hats and vests were required! This hospital will be situated next to the Children’s Hospital, at one end of the complex and is now being prepared for the pouring of the cement for the foundations. Completion is scheduled for 2015. Surprisingly enough there is no helipad on the complex site.

 

Saturday August 31, 2013 – After the visit to the Montreal Hospital, we drove back to camp for some R&R, while Supreme Queen Margaret Ann made visitations to St. John, NB and Halifax, NS. Here we are, back on the road again, on our way to Ottawa. In going through Canadian customs we were detained and instructed that we had to go through immigrations. What? And Why? An customs agent instructed us to leave the coach and go inside the customs building so he could board the coach and go through everything. Harold was grilled by another agent as I sat outside with Mollie. We concluded that the reason for this detainment was to determine if we were participating in a money laundering scheme. After about an hour we were cleared for entry into Canada. The remainder of the ride to Ottawa was uneventful as we arrived on time despite the delay at the border. Sakina Temple No 145, Daughters of the Nile extended their Ontario hospitality to us by treating us to lunch, holding a wonderful Ceremonial and a lovely banquet meal of roast pork, my personal favorite. Montreal Shrine Hospital Administrator, Celine Doray attended this banquet and spoke again, singing the praises of the Daughters of the Nile and the organizations’ dedication to the hospital system! What an absolutely delightful lady, who speaks with so much love and enthusiasm for the Shriners Hospitals.

September 1, 2013 – 8:00 am – On the road to Toronto, Ontario, Canada for a day of R&R.

August Continued

First Of all, I apologize that there are no pictures as yet with this post. Blogger is not playing nice with me right now and is giving me problems with uploading, so stay tuned as I plan to add some at a later date. Thank you!

August 19, 2013

Yes, we ARE alive and well! Since my last posting we have traveled from Point Peninsula, NY to Minneapolis, MN and on to Duluth, MN. We left Point Peninsula on Friday August 9^th and arrived in St Paul, MN in only 3 short days, which would have been shorter had we not been held up in the Chicago, even on a Sunday. At least we saw the Sears Tower (not named that anymore), and we saw it and saw it and saw it! Note to self – next time we travel through Chicago…..don’t; instead, take the extra time and travel around it. Arrangements had been made for us to stay at the St. Paul East RV Park in Woodbury, MN, which was located out in the country, near to the highway and only 20 minutes from the Mall of America! Since my Verizon smart phone was not performing properly, I absolutely had to visit the Verizon store at the mall. Did I check to see if there were any other stores closer? Heck no, why would I do that?! In a word….incredible! For those of you who have never visited the mall, there is a small amusement park located in the center of this 4 wall, 4 story complex.

Tuesday, August 13^th we visited the Shriners Hospital for Children® - Twin Cities in Minneapolis at 2 pm followed by refreshments and an opportunity to meet the staff. The layout of this 1991 rebuilt hospital mimics that of the Springfield Hospital as the same architect was used. The original hospital was opened in 1924 and situated near the river in a beautiful country setting; the wards for the girls and boys were separated by the nurses’ station. (Almost sounds like a dorm or Catholic school from back in the day, doesn’t it?) Hospital Administrator Charles Lobeck, was our tour guide of this beautiful facility.

The next day, Mat-Sha Temple No. 62 had their Official Visit, honoring the Supreme Queen and initiating 6 new members. Congratulations Queen Sara and the members – great job!! We couldn’t have been treated any nicer by these wonderful ladies beginning with a cookout after the hospital visit at PQ Heather Lambert’s home, and the banquet following the Ceremonial. Oh! And a special treat was that Past Supreme Queen Suzie Schumacher and Bill Risk, husband of the Supreme Queen both flew in to spend a few days traveling with us!

Bright and early on Thursday, the 15^th we set off for the 3 hr drive to Duluth with Queen Sara as our traveling guest. At a stop in Hinckley, MN I noticed and mentioned to Sara that the color of the dirt was much redder than in the Minneapolis area. Sara explained to me that the northern portion of Minnesota is a huge iron ore mining region and that after mined, the iron pellets called taconite are sent by rail to Duluth, loaded on freighters and shipped to steel mills to be processed into steel. The native Americans named this area “Mesabi” due to the color of the earth when discovered.

Past Queen Darlene Carlson, graciously, invited us to park Nila in her driveway during our stay in the Duluth area. I can’t tell you how absolutely wonderful this was! We all so enjoyed spending time with her, she transported us where we needed to be, opened her home to the five of us and Mollie got to play with her two four footed pals, Windsor the border collie and Bentley the collie. Mollie was somewhat confused with the border collie as Windsor kept trying to herd Mollie in; it was really quite comical to watch. August 15^th – August 17^th the Midwest Shrine Association held its annual field days in Duluth. When we arrived in town, we went directly to a ladies brunch followed by a train ride up the North Shore of Lake Superior. The Shrine parade was held that evening in Superior, WI, located just over the Blatnik Bridge which connects the two cities and states. Nila made her second parade appearance just behind the “Hiking Vikings”, a unit from Lotus Temple No. 7, Daughters of the Nile,  two convertibles transporting the Supreme Queen, Past Supreme Queen, Queen Sara and Queen Linda and just ahead of the color guard. It was fantastic! The “Hiking Vikings” unit is very active within the local communities and based on the cheers from the crowd along the parade route are very well received. The city of Duluth is a major shipping port on Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes. On Friday, we attended an MSA ladies luncheon on the Duluth waterfront. The fantastic meal was followed with the comedy singing act of “Tina and Lena”, Minnesota best friends since high school duo, who had us in stitches the entire time that they performed. OMG, they were hilarious! Tina and Lena started their act 30 years ago and take it on the road for more than 100 days per year. Friday evening found us at a Shrine-A-Rama Pardi Gras where many of the patrons were dressed in Mardi Gras attire. There, we were entertained with a swim suit fashion show. Guys, this was not a fashion show in the normal sense, no indeed. The show was organized by the Hiking Vikings and the models were members of AAD Shrine, including the current Potentate who dressed up for the occasion in a wedding style swimsuit. These guys really knew how to ham it up and raised in excess of $1800.00 for the hospitals. You go guys!! Saturday morning we set off for Proctor, MN a short 8 mile journey to star in another parade. The city of Proctor was celebrating their annual Hog Head Days so the parade was a joint effort of the Shriners and the local groups and clubs. Again, Nila fell in behind the Hiking Vikings followed by the Queens and the color guard. The streets were lined with spectators for the 1.5 mile long parade. The weather couldn’t have been better for a parade; mid-seventies with a beautiful breeze, awesome! Saturday evening we went to this really neat pizza place in Superior which our host Darlene has been going to for better than 40 years. It’s great to spend time with the locals; they know all the best places to patronize! Thank you Dar. Sunday, it was back to work. We attended the Official Visit of Lotus Temple No. 7 where one new member was initiated. The ceremonial and banquet was held at the historic Scottish Rite building in downtown Duluth. This building is beautiful as are many of the old Masonic buildings. It’s rich in history, architecture and design. The ladies and officers of Lotus performed their ritual work like a well-oiled machine….no glitches, no break in the action…beautiful!

Here we are, Monday morning, August 19, 2013, on our way to Marquette, MI to visit Nefretete Temple No. 110, Daughters of the Nile. We were on the road at 3 am for the 5-6 hour drive and 1 hour time zone change. More to come later, stay tuned……

July 23 - July 31, 2013

July 31, 2013

Much has happened since my last posting; to begin, while Supreme Queen and I were at the Ceremonial and Banquet for Samla in Washington, DC (as noted above), Harold was at an RV dealer in Manassas, VA having the Transfer Switch replaced. Before he even left their parking lot, the generator quit again. Since the dealer basically dismissed him by refusing to look into the problem, he headed back to Kena Shrine Center to wait for our arrival from DC. The next morning, Margaret Ann and I gathered what stuff which we needed for the day and carried it into the Kena Shrine Center, found an air conditioned room and made ourselves comfy so Harold could go to a Cummins Power Systems dealer in Manassas to have the generator looked at again. The conclusion; the technician felt that the circuit board needed replacing of which they had none in stock, however, their Harrisburg, PA facility did. El Manrah Temple, Daughters of the Nile put on a beautiful Ceremonial and Banquet that evening. These ladies worked their hearts out provide us with everything we needed to be comfortable during the day and assist their Temple in showing their dedication to the order, in the evening. They did all the decorations, transforming a very large ballroom into an intimate setting, did all the cooking, cleaning and performed a well-executed Ceremonial. Kudos to all of you wonderful ladies!!

Thank you for your generosity and courtesies! The next morning, Queen Joyce delivered SQ Margaret Ann to Dulles Airport, so she could catch a flight to Omaha, NE and we headed north to Point Peninsula, NY with a scheduled stop in Harrisburg, PA.

On the road again!! We arrived in Harrisburg, PA late morning at the Cummins Power System dealer. After running some diagnostics, the technician and service writer made the decision to change the generator circuit board, however neither was convinced that this would solve the problem. However hopeful!! The generator was started and ran just fine for about an hour, then, you guessed it, shut down! This was a good thing. The code number which showed when the generator quit was Code 18, of which was not listed in their trouble shooting guide; are you kidding me! Chris, the service writer and the technician stayed on this and determined that the issue was a defective heat sensor in the exhaust of the generator, yay, we had a diagnosis! Booo, the part wasn’t in stock but could be delivered by 10 am the next morning which it was. By noon we were on the road heading north to Point Peninsula, NY with a scheduled stop at Camping World in Syracuse, NY for more warranty work to be done to this brand new 2013 motor coach. You’re probably thinking, what else could go wrong with this, right? At Camping World we spoke with Shannon, who was so helpful and on top of this. Not only did she listen to what the issues were, she teared up when she learned what this project was all about and promised to take care of everything as soon as she could. This woman made good on that promise! We left Nila with Shannon for 4 business days and the warranty work was complete. Thank you Shannon, you’re the best!! Nila is now back with us waiting patiently to get back on the tour when we reconnect with the SQ in Minneapolis, MN on August 12, 2013.

I want to remind everyone that to support this tour and the Foundation, go to www.donfdn.org make a donation in the name of the “Love for the Children Tour”. All donations to the Daughters of the Nile Foundation are tax deductible and how better to support the Shriner’s Hospitals for Children®, than to make a contribution to the endowment fund. Last year the Daughters of the Nile Foundation wrote a check for $1,700,000.00 that’s 1.7 million to the hospitals!

Thank you all for taking the time to read this blog and follow us on this extensive tour! Even through the mechanical issues which we have experienced, every day is an adventure, every day we see all the goodness in the world and every day we are blessed that we can be part of this very important project! As in the words of Supreme Queen Margaret Ann Risk, “if one child receives the help that he/she needs, then this tour will be successful. You can’t put a price on that!”

July 20 - July 22, 2013

July 21, 2013

 

 

The saga continues….yesterday we arrived at the meeting place for Ozemb Temple No. 27 Daughters of the Nile. Harold replaced the generator fuel pump and all was well with the world…or so we thought! Don’t get the wrong impression; the generator was working as it should, however when Harold drove to the RV park which we were staying at for the night, he hooked up to the electric at the site and no power. Apparently another issue, was that the power transfer switch was defective. The good news was, with the help of a neighbor, Harold located a service technician who came to the coach and verified Harold’s findings. The bad news was that he didn’t have the part and at 4:30 on Friday afternoon, replacing the switch wasn’t going to happen. But….. the generator was operating!! Anyway, Margaret Ann and I were not privy to any of this until after the banquet and we arrived at the RV Park around 9:30 pm. In we drive, there’s Harold outside the coach, picnic table surrounded by neighbors. Not only did he receive assistance with the problem, he had shrimp and steamed clams with them. Guess I don’t need to worry about him getting a meal, do I? Ozemb Nile Temple put on a beautiful ceremonial and wonderful banquet complete with entertainment. This morning, we made an early escape and drove to Boumi Shrine Temple outside of Baltimore, MD.

 

Wow!!!

What a wonderful day we had yesterday, Sunday, July 21^st at Zitta Temple in Baltimore, MD! These ladies meet at Boumi Shrine Center which is located outside the city on a large parcel of land. The building is beautiful!

 

 

 

The Potentate and his lady joined us for the banquet as well as many of the Boumi Past Potes and Divan members. The Zitta Patrol unit performed their drill routine to the beat of the Boumi band. It was amazing!

 

 

 

 Since our next stop was Fairfax, Virginia and the Boumi Shrine Center is northeast of Baltimore, due to the morning commuting traffic being horrendous, we felt it wise to make the 1.5 hour drive directly after the Zitta banquet. Monday morning, July 21^st we headed into our nation’s capital, Washington, DC for the Official Visit and Banquet of Samla Temple No. 51, Daughters of the Nile. This Nile Temple meets at the home of Almas Shrine right on K Street in the heart of DC. This is another beautiful Shrine Center and how fortunate the ladies are to have the facilities at their disposal! The newest member, who they initiated, is the wife of the Grand Master of the District of Columbia. Because the Grand Master’s schedule was already filled he had only a few minutes to bring greetings to our order. This may be a first for us; to have the Grand Master address a Daughters of the Nile Temple during the social time, in a bar. What an absolutely delightful man he was, very supportive of our order and his wife’s desire to join. After the banquet, we were driven back to Fairfax by making a few side trips along the way. Our driver, Joyce, took us by the scaffolded Washington Monument, the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial and the Pentagon. How beautiful these buildings are when lit up in the night sky! She then took us by the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia before delivering us to Nila at the Kena Shrine Center. Touring the George Washington Masonic Memorial has just been added to my bucket list.

 

 

 

July 16, 2013 - July 19, 2013

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 18^th 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 9^th 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!!

 

 

July 16, 2013

July 16, 2013

Sunday, July 14^th we were “On the Road Again”; destination - Newington, CT for the Official Visit at Aisha Temple No. 83, Daughters of the Nile. The ladies of Aisha showed their stuff and made us all feel very welcome both at the Ceremonial and the banquet which followed at the Sphinx Shrine Center.

 

 

 

We’re again experiencing difficulties with necessary electrical hookups for the coach but are working through it. In order to run the roof air and electrical appliances, the coach needs to be plugged into a 220 line. To all the Queens/Recorders where we are scheduled to stay at a Shrine Center, Masonic Center, etc. if the building is NOT equipped as above; please provide us with a portable generator which produces a minimum of 30 amps and the fuel to keep the generator running. Thank you for your assistance with this!

Monday, July 15^th we headed to West Haven, CT and were welcomed by Queen Suzie and Recorder Ruth. I wish I’d taken pictures of the inside of the Masonic Hall where they met. It was like walking into the courtyard of a castle. The walls were built with cement blocks, all the interior doors were made of beautiful oak and the ceiling was painted sky-blue with floating clouds. Absolutely beautiful!!

 

 

 

The banquet following the Ceremonial and hosted by the ladies of Pyremus Temple No. 82 was held at a country setting restaurant and the dining room looked out onto rock gardens.

 

 

 

 Thank you Pyremus for your hospitality! Nila and her occupants spent the night in Milford, CT before heading out today for Newark, NJ.