August 12, 2020
On May 5, 1961, Alan Shephard sat atop a Redstone rocket in his Mercury spacecraft Freedom 7 for 8 hours before lift-off. His space suit had no capacity for bodily waste disposal. When NASA executives denied him permission to leave the capsule for a pee, Shephard did what comes naturally. Floating down the French Broad River for 3 hours in a craft not fitted with a waste disposal system, I was faced with the same dilemma as America’s first man in space, and said, “If it’s good enough for Rear Admiral Alan B. Shephard, Jr., it’s good enough for me.” Throughout the adventure, both Shephard’s craft and mine performed flawlessly.
On July 21, 1961, Virgil “Gus” Grissom was pilot of the second Project Mercury flight. After splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean, Grissom’s spacecraft, Liberty Bell 7's emergency explosive bolts unexpectedly fired, blowing off the hatch and causing water to flood into the spacecraft. While waiting for recovery helicopters to pick him up, Grissom struggled to keep from drowning after his spacesuit began losing buoyancy due to an open air inlet. Bonnie was in no danger of drowning, but the landing area for Zen Tubing made it as difficult for a river floater with two artificial knees and one artificial hip to exit the craft as the exploding bolt did for Gus Grissom.
Those two experiences aside, we are ready to go again.
We were driven by shuttle – wearing masks and practicing social distancing – to the launch point up river from our cabin where we fastened our tubes and a third float, a cooler raft, together, and set off down the river. Bonnie had made us lunch and brought cold drinks and about 2 hours into our drift we had a meal afloat – our first since breakfast on the Carnival Miracle on March 18.
Thanks to the Bro’s suggestion, I bought a waterproof pouch for my cell phone so I could take pictures. Because it was watertight and therefore airtight, the phone heated up, so I could not take a lot of pictures, but I have a few that are representative of the trip. Trying to take a selfie of two people in rafts going in different directions with a phone that was inside of a plastic bag was nearly impossible, but I got one in which you can see parts of each of us.
We floated past beautiful green trees and bushes lining the river banks, joined the company of Canada Geese (thanks to our biologist friend for the correction), under I-26, over not-too-rapid rapids, occasionally scraping on the rocks, twice getting stuck on the rocks and waiting for the other floater and the cooler float to crack the whip and pull the beached tube back into the river, sometimes in the company of others and sometimes we were the only tubers (people on tubes, not potatoes) in sight, and just before docking, floating past our home away from home, the Lazy River Cabin. As our friend Scottie says, “We had a good time!”
👉 Yesterday CBS News reported that New Zealand has not had a new case of coronavirus in 100 days. The news came the same weekend the United States surpassed 5 million confirmed cases of the disease – surpassing the total Kiwi population of 4.886 million.
“Achieving 100 days without community transmission is a significant milestone, however, as we all know, we can’t afford to be complacent,” New Zealand’s director-general of Health, Dr. Ashley Bloomfield said. “We have seen overseas how quickly the virus can re-emerge and spread in places where it was previously under control, and we need to be prepared to quickly stamp out any future cases in New Zealand.”
The country declared a state of emergency on March 25 and went into lockdown. By June 8, New Zealand appeared to have totally eradicated the disease after health officials said the last known infected person at that time had recovered.
👉 The Daily Mail published a story about a “400 foot ice ship” lying in an iceberg about 100 miles from the coast of Antarctica. It has a striking resemblance to a cruise liner with window lines and chimneys. A Google Earth user’s discovery has sparked a string of conspiracy theories from those who believe that there is something hidden in the frozen continent, possibly a lost ancient civilization.
YouTube user MrMBB333 who describes himself as an Earth Watchman, says, “It doesn’t look random but as if it had a purpose.” One commenter claims that it is something that previous explorers have left behind while others claim that it is a secret vehicle that has been hidden under ice to ferry off the rich and elite in the event of a global disaster. Another conspiracy theory put forward is that Antarctica was formerly secret Nazi base and that the ship had been left over from the Second World War. Maybe it is the Carnival Fantasy that was recently sold for scrap.
👉 With apologies to fans of professional wrestling, I correct my lapse by telling you that yesterday was the birthday of Terry Eugene Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan. The Hulkster was born in Augusta, GA on August 11, 1953. Hulkamaniacs are encouraged to say your prayers and take your vitamins.
👉 Before we close this blog, let’s look at some cartoons from our “People Have More Fun Than Anybody Department.”
👉 Today’s close is from crosswalk.com
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:1-2).
In the mid-1700s, a shipload of migrants landed on the northeast coast of America. Their first year, they established a site on which they’d build their town. The second year, they elected a town government. The third year, the town government made the decision to build a road stretching five miles westward into the wilderness.
In the fourth year, the townspeople tried to overthrow their own government because they believed building a road five miles into the wilderness was a waste of money. The very same people who saw thousands of miles across an ocean and overcame hardships to get there couldn’t see five miles down the road!
Many Christians are a lot like those townspeople. They reach a point in their walk with Christ and think they have no further to go. It’s like they’ve become close enough with God to be comfortable, so they go into “maintenance mode” and stop moving forward.
Our comfort in Christ comes from the fact that through faith, we’re firmly planted in Him. But as we grow and mature, we surrender daily as we are transformed more and more into His image. Don’t be content in yesterday’s spiritual growth. Move continually forward in your faith and surrender your life to Christ day by day!
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Good words today and some nice chuckles. Enjoy the Biltmore House today.
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