# 42: I’m on the road again!  Currently I am parked in a rather dumpy campground just outside of Montgomery, Alabama.  If you are ever looking for a place to park your camper near Montgomery, do not choose one named after this city, oh well live and learn.  I left Dade City, Florida a couple of weeks or so ago; my first stop was in the Florida Panhandle where I attended a couple of study groups.  The next stop was in Livingston, Louisiana, just a bit east of Baton Rouge.  While there Peter drove me to Vicksburg, Mississippi where we toured the Civil War battlefield.  Well, I had better get this posting started because Wednesday I plan to explore downtown Montgomery and Sunday I head for Atlanta!

But even in passing, war should be honored as the school of experience which compelled a race of arrogant individualists to submit themselves to highly concentrated authority — a chief executive. Old-fashioned war did select the innately great men for leadership, but modern war no longer does this. To discover leaders society must now turn to the conquests of peace: industry, science, and social achievement.  The Urantia Book (786.12) (70:2.21)

                                        Vicksburg, Monument to Black Regiments

This posting will be a bit different, even though I attended study group meetings, most of them have been photographed before; therefore the photographs in this posting will all be from the visit to the Vicksburg National Military Park.

Before leaving Dade City I had attended a meeting at Share and Bill’s in Brandon.  One portion of this meeting was topical in nature, combining elements of Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Each of us was asked to select a small gift bag that had candy and a quotation from the Urantia Book describing one of the Father’s gifts to us.  Each of us then discussed this gift as it applied to us.  The bag I selected at random contained a quotation about the gift of revelation (coincidence?), giving me an opportunity to share my spiritual experience with the group.  This experience is briefly described in Wandering Urantian #39, as well as my YouTube posting “The Urantia Book and Perfection Hunger,” there is a link to this on the blog page.

Speaking of YouTube postings, I will have another ready soon.  It is titled “Hymn to the Father” and is a celebration with joy and feeling.  By coincidence (again?) it was written on the 108^th anniversary of my mother’s birth.

                                Battery DeGolyer, looking toward Grant’s Headquarters

As soon as I was parked in the Florida panhandle I went to Meda’s study group at the Capstone House in Panama City.  The group may not have been as large as other times when I have visited, but there was a new reader who asked good questions and that always makes the meeting much more enjoyable.  I gave the presentation to the group and they seemed to appreciate it.

The meeting in Gulf Breeze was about as far west of my parking place as the Panama City was east; each was about an hour and a half drive one way.  Perhaps next year I can make better plans.  I gave the presentation to this group, but had not been able to inform them ahead of time of my plans.  Still they appeared to appreciate it.  This group read from Paper 159, The Decapolis Tour, which includes the sermon on forgiveness.

Next stop was in Livingston, Louisiana; there always seems to be something interesting to do here or interesting people to meet.  I gave the presentation to Virginia and Charles; she suggested I make it into a workshop.  I have had thoughts along that line, we’ll see.

                                          Interior of the ironclad USS Cairo Gunboat

Peter offered to take me on a tour of plantation houses or the Vicksburg battlefield.  To me the choice was a no brainer, I can visit historic plantation houses in Charleston any time, but to visit the actual location of one of the most important battles of the Civil War is something special.  I had no idea how far it would be, over three hours each way, but the trip was certainly worth it.  The weather was somewhat cooler than I expected and the promised sunshine did not appear until late afternoon; fortunately Peter had an extra jacket I could wear under my light one.

The visitor’s center has an excellent presentation of the battle as well as a movie describing the events.  After the movie we drove along the road through the battlefield.  This road, which is several miles long, winds through the battlefield and is lined with 1330 monuments dedicated to various units and officers.  All these monuments were paid for by private donations.  The vast majority, if not all, of these monuments are dedicated to Union forces, since these are just outside of the city of Vicksburg.  We saw some of the Confederate monuments when we left the park and entered the city where the defending soldiers had been during the siege. 

I wondered about the soldiers fighting through the heavy woods, but the park website says at the time of the war the area had been cleared for farming and to supply the armies with needed wood.  The current woods were planted as a conservation project.  It also says that the battle lines were marked in the early 1900’s by actual survivors of the battle, giving these positions authenticity. 

The ironclad battleship Cairo was named after the Ohio town on the Mississippi River and had been sunk during the Civil War; over a hundred years later it was found, brought to the surface and restored.  The above photograph was taken in the interior looking toward the stern, with the paddlewheel visible in the center.  There is also a museum containing interesting artifacts that had been recovered along with the ship.

The sun did come out before we left, allowing me to photograph the cemetery in sunshine.  A cemetery on a cloudy day is doubly sad.

Vicksburg National Cemetery

If freewill man is endowed with the powers of creativity in the inner man, then must we recognize that freewill creativity embraces the potential of freewill destructivity. And when creativity is turned to destructivity, you are face to face with the devastation of evil and sin — oppression, war, and destruction…. All conflict is evil in that it inhibits the creative function of the inner life — it is a species of civil war in the personality.  The Urantia Book (1220.10) (111:4.11)

#41: After taking time out to finish the presentation, which has just been posted, I can get back to describing my travels.  This presentation, which is titled “The Urantia Book and Perfection Hunger,” has been posted and the link is here.  In three days there have been 12 viewings!  It is a bit long for the web, over 23 minutes, but I felt the message needed to be put out there in one piece.  Hopefully our unseen friends will direct to it those who could benefit from this message.  Anyway, it says what I want.

From South Carolina I moved to Dade City, Florida and parked my house on wheels so I could make a quick journey over to Lake Worth on the east coast for Thanksgiving.  After a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with Betty Lou and family we did a bit of exploring.  The most interesting was the A.R.M. Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, which is southwest of Lake Worth.  Another enjoyable outing was to the Morikami Gardens in Delray Beach.  After returning to Dade City there was a study group meeting and I also discovered another fine place to visit, J. B. Starkey Wilderness Park in New Port Richey.

To some individuals prayer is the calm expression of gratitude; to others, a group expression of praise, social devotions; sometimes it is the imitation of another’s religion, while in true praying it is the sincere and trusting communication of the spiritual nature of the creature with the anywhere presence of the spirit of the Creator. The Urantia Book (1001.8) (91:8.4)

                                Lumpkin at A.R.M Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge

Thanksgiving was a fun day, with turkey and fixings for six.  There is not much to say about it except that it was good to be with these people and remembering all that we have to be thankful for.

The day Betty Lou and I went to the A.R.M. Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge was great for getting outside and enjoying nature, however something Betty Lou had for lunch that day did not agree with her; nevertheless it was a good outing.  We watched the Lumpkin for some time as it went about its business.  I was not familiar with that bird, but I recently got “Sibley Birds” on my tablet and using that app it took only a minute to positively identify the bird, which is located mainly on Florida.  The next day I saw more of these birds in John Prince Park (an excellent place for a walk or bike ride) when I was on my morning power walk.

                            Young Buck at A.R.M Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge

This young buck, note the bumps on top of his head where his horns will grow out, was down a bank from where we were walking.  Isn’t he just the sweetest creature?  We also saw a sizeable alligator near the boardwalk, but I had my telephoto lens on and all I could see in the picture was his head.

One day we were on our way to someplace and saw a sign for the Hypoluxo Scrub Natural Area.  This was a 26-acre tract of Florida scrub; the most interesting thing about this place was looking at the animal tracks in the sand and trying to interpret what was going on.  Even though it is in the middle of a well-developed area, it looked as if there was a lot of things going on there at night.  There was also a statue near the entrance that commemorated the Barefoot Mailman, mail carriers that carried the mail between Palm Beach and Miami from 1885 to 1892.  They would row boats for 28 of the 68 miles, but the rest of the way they walked barefoot along the beach.  There were no roads and there was not enough water for horses.  My father was a rural mail carrier, but at least he had a Jeep and could wear shoes!

                                            Morikami Gardens

The Morikami Gardens in Delray Beach are a lovely, peaceful place to explore and meditate.  The Garden was named after George Morikami who was the only member of the Japanese colony to stay in Delray Beach during World War II.  The members of this colony were recruited from Japan in the early 1900’s to set up farms in the region.  These gardens are truly beautiful; we sat in one rock garden for some time and watched shadows of the Pine trees drift slowly over the freshly raked sand.  There is a museum and also model schoolrooms that had letters and drawings from young Japanese students; these letters were recent enough that some showed their playground and said they hoped to be able to go back and play there after the radiation went away.

Not long after returning to Dade City there was a study group meeting at Bill and Share’s house.  Since this was between Thanksgiving and Christmas the theme of the meeting included both.  Each of us received a small fancy package containing candy (chocolate!) and a sheet describing one of God’s gifts to us; these included the Thought Adjusters, the Spirit of Truth, etc.  Mine was the Gift of Revelation, which seemed appropriate given my recent experience.  We also walked into their meditation garden and read various quotations from the Urantia Book dealing with thanksgiving.                               

                                   Fungus at Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park

I think I am getting a bit long winded, so I will close here except to say that my visit to the Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park in New Port Richey was also enjoyable.  They even have separate trails for hikers, bikers and horse riders.  The texture and color of the above fungus intrigued me; it was on only a couple of trees in the area.  I also watched iridescent green Dung Beetles busily working with their choice materials.  (What a note to end on!)

(From the religion Ganid developed after studying the transcripts he and Jesus made at the library in Alexandria.) “I will every day thank God for his unspeakable gifts; I will praise him for his wonderful works to the children of men. To me he is the Almighty, the Creator, the Power, and the Mercy, but best of all, he is my spirit Father, and as his earth child I am sometime going forth to see him. And my tutor has said that by searching for him I shall become like him. By faith in God I have attained peace with him. This new religion of ours is very full of joy, and it generates an enduring happiness. I am confident that I shall be faithful even to death, and that I will surely receive the crown of eternal life.”  The Urantia Book (1454.3) (131:10.6)