On-The-Road-Again

Greetings From Yuma, Arizona............

On January 1 we left Fresno with grand daughter, Wendy Buller, and 10 hours later arrived in Yuma, Arizona. We will be wintering here until the end of March.

Wendy had to return home after two weeks with us so the closest direct flight was from San Diego. So, with the Catlins (friends of ours from Indiana) we took her to San Diego and she flew home. We spent the next two days there seeing the sights.

One of the sites we visited was the famous Hotel del Coronado, a grand hotel dating back to 1888. It rests on a peninsula just across the bay from San Diego on a 31 acre seaside resort. It has access to 18 miles of Coronado;s beaches, collectively named the #2 beach in the United States.We have returned to Yuma and are enjoying seeing friends from all over who winter in Yuma. Some live here year around and then they leave in the summer. Did you know that over 70,000 "snowbirds" come to Yuma in the winter.

The small town of about 30,000 people bustles with activities when all us "snowbirds" arrive. We are about eight miles east of the downtown in an area called the "Foothills", near the base of the mountains.

We park on a lot owned by our friends the Catlin's. Property around here has been designed for folk with RV's. Each lot has space for two RV's with all hookups. Where we are located there is a little building that has a game room, bathroom and laundry facilities. It works out real nice.

On February 11 we leave for Israel with a group of friends from our church. We will be there ten days. So, after we return you can beg us to show pictures.

Well, more another time.

Don and Marilyn

Home In Fresno

The Buller's are home in Fresno, catching up on yard work, visiting friends and family and taking care of business.

On our way home from Indiana we stopped in Evansville to visit friends, took in some shows in Branson, visited the Oklahoma State Fair and the Federal Memorial in Oklahoma City, dropped our trailer off in Yuma, AZ and visited with friends there. From there we went to our grandsons Marine boot Camp graduation in San Diego. Now we are relaxing and getting ready to go to Hawaii in December and Yuma in January.

Here is a proud Marine recruit Bryant E. Krause, and the proud grandparents. There were 640 Marines grauated the day we were there. They marched and showed their stuff. It was a great experience for us.

The fall colors are changing in Fresno, the weather is perfect, we are feeling great and looking forward to the next "nudge" for minsitry service.

Proud parents, Tim and Char Krause at the graduation ceremonies in San Diego, California.

Thought for the day.................

"Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something

to do which must be done, whether you like it or not."

Amish Buggies

Family style buggy with four door openings

Local Buggy showing triangle and turn signals

5th wheel "stretch" tourist buggy. Notice 5th wheel between horses legs holding up tongue of buggy

Sporty wagon with 15 inch wheels and tires- Summer version

Tourist carrage leaving Blue Gate Resturant. Can cost upward of $15,000 depending on bells and whistles. We watched them making these at Troyer Carriage Works

Sporty model with bucket seats (modified by youth) with turn signals and rubber 15 inch wheels and tires and springs.

Open-face sport model for summer use

Single or couple "single seater"

Buggy with closed trunk on back sid

SUNDAY BLUE LAWS

The market place is empty. No more traffic in the streets. All the stores are closed and locked up tight. There is no chance to purchase anything. It’s an eerie feeling on a bright and sunny Sunday morning in Northern Indiana. The town is deserted. What has happened, you ask?

Years ago there was a body of laws created in Colonial New England that were designed to enforce moral standards and particularly to prohibit specified forms of entertainment or recreation on Sunday. It was also designed to regulate commercial business on Sunday. These laws were called the Sunday Blue Law because they were written on blue paper. They have long passed from the law books, little by little.

You know it’s Sunday in Shipshewana, Indiana, where the spirit of these laws is still practiced because the county of LaGrange is 60% Amish and Mennonite. Because of this strong religious presence every store and eating place (except one pizza place and one service station) closes all day on Sunday.

Walk down Main Street– it’s highway 5– and you will not see one car parked in front of commercial establishments. In fact, very few cars will be on the highway driving through.

The folks of this 500 person town all respect the sacredness of the Lord’s Day so all businesses are closed. They like it this way.

As you are sitting in the comfort of a park bench under the shade of the sycamore tree, you often see an Amish horse and buggy traveling late in the day returning home from an all day church service held in home of an Amish. In addition to the birds singing, the “clip-clop. clip-clop” of the horses is about all you will hear. It’s quiet. It’s nice. Come with me to the “yesteryear” and enjoy the peaceful and quiet result of the Sunday Blue law.

And, that's the way it is. So long till another time when we once again explore life in a small town where the Amish and the Mennonites live.

Don and Marilyn, writing from our second story apartment overlooking the beautiful grounds of the world famous MENNOHOF Interpretative Center. Summer is here and the crowds are coming. Yesterday we had over 200 people. People come from all over the world: Reedley, CA, Clovis, CA, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Russia, England and on and on. In June we had 3,750 people visit MennoHof

BEHIND THE HORSES TAIL

Picture yourself seated in an Amish Family buggy after an invitation from new friends to take a ride. The connection between the horse and the buggy is so close it seems that you are almost able to touch the horse. You are right “behind the horses tail”.

The ride through the lush countryside near the little town of Emma is exhilarating. You are traveling slow enough so that you can greet people along the way. You have time to think and talk and enjoy the manicured farm lands

Bud, the 17 year old part Morgan horse keeps the buggy moving at an even clip. Occasionally, its owner softly utters a word sounding like “jeez” to encourage Bud to keep the trotting tempo at a uniform speed. We could not tell the difference but the driver could. The steady sound of “clip-clock” along the road reminds you that you are still “behind the horses tail.” The driver sits on the right side and there is no window for him, but I sat next to him and there was a glass pane in front of me so I didn’t worry too much about being right “behind the horses tail.”

As you turn a corner you don’t have to worry about slowing down as you are not going fast enough to make a difference. You soon become mesmerized by the world moving so slow by you. You wonder out loud about trading a truck for a horse and buggy and the owner says “not a fair deal– for you.” A new family size buggy could cost as much as $5000 and a young, spirited horse would sell for around $1500 at the weekly auction sale in Shipshi. That’s abbreviation for us “locals’ here in Shipshewana, Indiana.

It’s obvious that living “behind the horses tail” ones life is in the slow lane. There is more time with your family because you are not all going in different directions and you are spending more time together. There are moments when we comment about the advantages of this living style.

We met Bud’s owners, Fritz and Norma Bontrager one June day in 2007. They had met my sis and brother-in-law years before and when they found out we were in the area they contacted us. They invited us to supper and soon we were enjoying our visit out on the covered porch. They showed us their 30,000 chickens and explained how they convinced the Bishop of their District house church to allow them to obtain a diesel engine to generate power to run the cooling fans. Fritz also works in the mobile home business making base cabinets for the kitchens.

Next, we met them in a wide spot in the road, a town called Emma, for a traditional Amish supper in the town restaurant. The restaurant is in a corner of the General Store which was built in 1931. It’s typical rural, small town atmosphere. Norma and Fritz have three daughters and two sons. The sons have their own cars but the three girls still ride “behind the horses tail.”

We had a grand time visiting with them and learning more about their culture. The main meal was new to us– ham loaf. This is a common item that is like a meatloaf but includes three kinds of meat: ham, sausage and hamburger. Very tasty.

Our ride “behind the horses tail” ended a nice visit and as we sped home in our truck, we watched in the rear mirror as our Amish friends “clip-clocked” back to the farm.

THE CATHREDRAL OF LAST RESORT

In 1447 Gutenberg invented the printing press and history would never be the same. Because the Bible could now be printed in the language of the common man early day reformers studied the Bible and discovered what the State Church was teaching was not what the Bible was saying.

The 18th century reformers felt that baptism should follow an expression of faith. The law of the land required all infants to be baptized. The reformers refused to baptize their infants and re-baptized themselves as adults, following their expression of faith in Christ. They became known as the Anabaptists, or “re-baptizers”. The Mennonites, Hutterites, Amish and most other main-line protestant denominations would come out of this movement. (“Protestant” means to “protest”)

The Cathredral Of Last Resort- the Dungeon

The State Church reacted with arrests and punishments. The motivation was not meant for cruelty but the desire for conformity to the state church rules. Authorities believed that without total conformity society would crumble. Torture in the 16th century was not crude or haphazard. It was conducted with scientific precision. When torture and incarceration didn’t help, the State Church resorted to burnings at the stake, drowning in the river, etc. Men and women alike were martyred.

Anabaptist Catcher

The people in the state church worshipped in Cathedrals with beautiful stained glass windows. The reformers were tortured in the Cathedral of Last Resort- the Dungeon. It was equipped with stocks, stretching apparatus, chains and many other objects of punishment and torture. When the purpose to obtain a person to recant didn’t work through incarceration and torture the believers were burned at the stake or drowned in the rivers. Men and women alike met death in this manner.

The Dungeon (Cathedral of Last Resort) was the final stop on the way to martyrdom. But, in the end they believed they would be trading the Cathedral Of Last Resort for a beautiful Cathedral in Heaven. I often wonder if my faith would have been that strong. How say you?

FOLLOW THE EXHAUST

The Amish believe that cars cause families to be away from home and from each other too often. They feel the car also speeds up the tempo of life and make people forget what is important. They also state the power of the auto gives its owner an unnatural sense of self importance. Buggies keep people closer to nature and their community and, therefore, closer to God. They won’t own an auto but will hire drivers to take them if the distance is more than 10 miles. Charges will run around $10.00 per hour and .95 to 1.25 per mile.

In an Amish community you can always “follow the exhaust” and know which way a horse and buggy went. Most roads in the community have wide shoulders for the Amish and their buggies. Along these roads one will see much evidence that a horse pulled a buggy by “following the exhaust” or as others have said “look out for the road apples” or “be careful about the “alfalfa emissions.”

What is unusual to the uninformed is that each business in Amish country has a “hitching post”. At these locations the “exhaust” adds up so the city hires a “road apples” picker-upper.

These “items” are then deposited in a common pile with a sign "free manure”. I think the sign should read: “For Sale- Alfalfa Emissions For Your Garden”. We noticed that the deposit doesn’t last long as people come by and pick it up. Sell it and make some money.