Still in Training

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John is barely visible in a photo taken in the Milwaukee Shops. Hogging the picture is a Great Northern Steam Engine which ran out of Sioux City, Iowa. John enjoyed talking to two volunteers at the museum.

Great Northern Steam Engine

We went to church in South Dakota. It was a Lutheran Church of the Reformation, and we think it’s an association of Lutheran churches of which we know nothing. They used the hymnal we used to have, and the service was our favorite. The small church had active members, and I could also say the active church had small members – lots of children. The children were well-behaved. How I wish I could have taken a photo of one boy! He was nonchalantly barefooted. I laughed to myself when I saw that, because John was not approving the jeans I was going to wear. My black slacks were missing for several days, and I thought I might have left them in a motel. John found them yesterday, along with his missing socks and underwear, in a bag of laundry. He washed last night, so I was presentable to go to church.

At the church, there was another young boy who was chewing gum. As the teenager passed the offering plate in front of him, he pulled the gum out of his mouth and pretended to put it in the plate! I was glad he didn’t drop it.

Blogger friend Susie asked about the states we have been in. That’s John’s department, so I asked him to rattle them off, which he did – easily. We have one more to go, our 13th. John’s list is North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, and Indiana.

Somewhere in Nebraska I went to the restroom at a gas station. The stalls all had the same fixtures, but I was in a hurry and did not have time to read instructions.

I’m sure my face registered surprise when the seat was hot. Thankfully, there was a sign right in front of my nose to explain that. The day was hot, so I didn’t find a hot toilet seat to be particularly comforting.

The instructions for using the bidet were on the door. Wouldn’t you love to see the reaction of settlers going across this area in covered wagons if they saw that sign??

Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

Published

29 thoughts on “Still in Training”

    1. Visiting different churches is a delight for me. I was the organist at our church for 25 years, and I had two Sundays off a year. That was a severe limitation for church visiting.

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  2. Anne,
    What can I say? Thank you for naming the states for me- I am really happy to talk to you about your visits to the different states. I work with Americans who haven”t been out of the state of Texas for their entire lives. It is surprising to me for in our country, we have 29 states and we try to visit most of them before we reach twenty and via railroad( railway we call them). But you didn’t go to Milwaukee but saw the railroad at the Milwaukee Shops. Glad you could attend the “young” Lutheran church service. Is South Dakota mountainous? Could you post pictures of South Dakota ?
    Were the hymnals similar to the ones you were familiar with at your old church? I watched on TV recently where in a home reconstruction project, the woman in charge went to an old church which had been transformed into a carpentry shop and got her tables and chairs there- it shocked me, to tell the truth.
    Looking forward to read more of your Iowa visit.
    Susie

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    1. South Dakota has mountains in the north, but we were crossing the south part. I didn’t take any photos there. We’re in Iowa now.

      Our church got new hymnals about 15 years ago, replacing those that were like the books we used today.

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  3. It looks like you might need a Pilot’s license just to use that thing! While I love “gadgets”, society is making some of our everyday things, too complicated. Visiting other churches can be an experience.

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  4. “Hogging the picture” hahaha. Love your wit there. That church sounds so perfect. And I think I used a rest room like that in Nebraska in my travels, too. Haha. Couldn’t figure it out. I remember when I was in Italy we had a bidet in our room. I asked my colleagues if anyone knew how to use it. One colleague had very wise advice: “If you have to YouTube it, you might not want to use it.”

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  7. The children were well behaved? That gum threatening scamp reminds me of someone I used to know. My daughter. As for those toilets. I am so glad we don’t have those here. As it is, with the hoopla given Starbucks a couple of years ago about who can or cannot use the facilities, there would be no getting to use any facility here if they existed. As it is the homeless make camp in Starbucks bathrooms bathing and doing whatever. It has become a problem. If the water was warm, there’d be no getting them out of there. It’s apparent there are few homeless in Nebraska.
    Btw, I love trains.

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  9. My husband and I are going to have to check out this place in Sioux City…so close and we have never seen it! It is good you are making this journey so we know what is out there to see.

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    1. We should have checked with you to see the sites you would recommend. We liked the museum about Lewis and Clark in Sioux City. It was free, too. We thought the displays excellent for children but a little disjointed for adults.

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  10. John will be sharing all the train memorabilia photos from this trip with his fellow train enthusiasts in Tennessee – they will be so envious. Your modern-day encounter with toilet technology gave me a smile. Many years ago, in our journalism class (circa 1973 or 1974) we traveled by bus to see the new “Detroit News” printing plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan. It was made to resemble a hospital operating room suite where the interns can look from high up into the operating room to learn about surgery. So our view of the printing area was very interesting, but all us girls were fascinated with the toilets that automatically flushed when you stood up. 🙂

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          1. I wondered if you were as you said Wednesday – that was a long journey and filled with fun and memories, but it will be good to sleep in your own bed once again I bet. I have to read about you meeting Faye. I am a little behind in Reader and hoping to catch up before these storms hit tonight and tomorrow.

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