2008 Vacation Journal

Friday, October 3: 425 miles; cloudy in Chatham, cleared up as went west through the afternoon and evening; temps in lower 50’s.

Finished loading the car, and doing other stuff, and got out of town about 1 or so, after dropping off the dvd and the jacket money and lists to Monica -‘Why aren’t you gone!?’ - ‘The next thing you see will be my taillights heading west!’

Went down 88 and 86, couple of stops, for lunch at rest area by Worcester, to get gas, to call Stephen to tell him I am on the way, grabbed supper at a Wendy’s and made it to the TA in Harborcreek, PA for the night.  A little chilly and a lot of stuff to move in my ‘personal size RV’, but comfy enough for the price.

To continue reading the 2008 vacation journal, click on the above image for the .pdf version.

Photo Galleries:

#1, #2, #3, #4, #5

 

The Humane Society of Louisiana had only recently purchased the property of several acres with a small brick house on Obed Magee Road in Tylertown, Mississippi, because it was expanding and had to leave the city of New Orleans, when Hurricane Katrina hit.  When the floods that devastated the city subsided and people could get in to the stricken areas, the rescued animals started pouring in to this new space that was not ready for anything, much less anything of this magnitude.

People from all over the country came to help save the animals.  They also helped this Humane Society of Louisiana facility recover from Hurricane Katrina.  In a little over a month hundreds of dogs and cats, fish and parakeets, a goose, chickens, turtles, hamsters, gerbils, and rabbits were brought here.  There is a story of these animals and what horrors they went through before they came to Camp Katrina. But there is just as much a story of the phenomenal people who made a Camp Katrina for them to come to.

To continue reading the story of Camp Katrina, click on the above image for the .pdf version.

 

 

September 21-23, 2001

The NYPD officer's name was Chris, I don't remember his last name. I had just gotten back to the staging area at Battery Park from walking around gawking and gasping at what was visible from the police lines four or five blocks from the World Trade Center Plaza; he was with a group from the Tioga County squads who he had just taken into the 'hot zone' – right in to the building rubble. He was thanking them, and excitedly getting someone to take a picture of himself with them.  I stood near him; he kept saying 'Thank you, Thank you all so much for coming down here….",  and he turned and hugged me, clenched me while I kept hearing his muffled, choked "Thank you" I just hugged back, and when he finally pulled away, I started to say "But I didn't do anything" looked at his face and stopped. We had done something. We had come here.

Then we laughed and got into a group and had the pictures taken; he put his hand on my shoulder and I reached and squeezed it because I couldn't think of anything else to do. I hope he knew what I was saying.

To continue reading the journal, click on the above image for the .pdf version.

WTC photos