Part Four; The Tennessee Loop

Onward to Missouri and Trouble

We returned to our Withrow Springs campsite weary but satisfied. We cancelled our stay in Eureka Springs where we’d intended to camp for 2 days while I channeled. We had checked out the RV park there while exploring the city and it was out of cell phone range, nor did it have wireless (wifi). Knowing that we were not going to live there despite its beauty and charm, we both decided to move onto the road and see more scenic beauty on our way to Tennessee.

Sunday morning we broke camp and headed east on Arkansas’ 412 and then took 65 north towards Branson. Several campers we’d met had raved about the beauty of the water and the land there. So since it was nearby, we decided to check it out. But ignorant as we tend to be about pop culture, we knew nothing at all about the little Las Vegas style strip there and all the tourists etc. It slowly dawned on us as we read sign after sign advertising shows with Andy Williams and other well known entertainers as well as offering discount tickets for the whole family.

It took us a while to get through Branson’s thick traffic moving sluggishly down billboard canyon boulevards. Although the land around Branson was pretty, there was a lot of new development, especially gated communities. In many areas there was extensive tree destruction with heavy equipment building the new roads. In other areas, we saw abandoned roadside stores with faded ads painted on them and dilapidated farms with rusting equipment, fencing and old cars dotting the roadside in high grass. Daniel was amazed. There was never junk by the road in Switzerland. Nevertheless, once on highway 160 east, we finally passed into an area of rolling hills and small mountains, turning prettier as we went. We went in and out of the Mark Twain National Forest five times and there were no farmhouses inbetween the sections connecting at various points along the road. This made it another scenic heaven. Again, we journeyed through one small beautiful or charming valley just to crest the top, spy a vista, and head back down into another lovely valley. Woods went on forever. Some valleys were fertile farmland that stretched as far as the eye could see, with rich golden hay shimmering in the wind.

The day was moody like a spring day, alternating sun and clouds. As we went along it became more overcast and we hit rainy pockets from time to time. The wetness only enhanced the land’s beauty. The wonderful smell was rich from young herbs and green wildflower meadows. We sailed along, seeing no one for many miles. The hours went by and occasionally we passed through a small town or so. Eventually, as we were about 30 miles from our destination RV park, Daniel suddenly noticed something flapping on the driver’s side of the RV. We pulled over and walked over to check. To our shock, we realized that we had lost a whole wheel! Lug nuts, hub cap and all! Just a stump was left. And the wheel had torn the wheel cover flap off on its way out.

Where had we lost it? Hopefully it didn’t roll over someone back at the last small town where we turned around. We were amazed that we had neither felt nor heard it leave. The RV’s center point suspension that we had installed was obviously compensating so well that the RV only listed to the side of the missing wheel a little bit. Of course, we were majorly nervous now! We were out here in the boonies and hadn’t seen a soul in miles. Surrounded by national forests, we were on a small road that wound up and down and around in many tight curves and grades.

So asking our guardian angels and guides for assistance, we slowly proceeded, hitting 40 mph at top speed on straighter sections. This meant that a stretch we would’ve done in a half hour took well over an hour. Finally we crawled into Doniphan, our destination town, and found the RV park – a line of sites nestled under trees and facing a big field on a street that led to the town square less than a ½ mile away. The best we could, we braced up the wheel part remaining and got the trailer level. We drove to a nearby convenience store and learned that there was a tire store on the other end of town (a mile away, at tops – Doniphan was home to only about 2000 people). We were stressed, but grateful that we had made it here. Exhausted, we plopped into bed.

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Tires

Monday morning, we drove over to D & D Tires, a huge tire store, bigger than any I’ve seen in Miami or Fort Lauderdale! Yes, our spirit helpers were looking out after us! D & D catered to tractors as well as every other kind of vehicle, so there was an impressive long stretch of maybe 300 feet of huge tires chained together along one side of this big property. There were 4 garages, with 2 vehicles in each one being repaired or having tires replaced. A jovial man greeted us. He introduced himself as Jason and was fascinated with our dilemma as we explained what had happened. Although he had hundreds of tires in his warehouse (it took a while to walk through it after him), he didn’t have any that were 14 ply (the strongest tires for such heavy weights as we were hauling). So he ordered two tires for us, as we wanted to replace the spare as well – the one that had been fixed in Georgia but was possibly not strong enough for any long stretch use (the nail had been too close to the rim for comfort). It seems that when a large truck or RV size tire is changed, one has to check the lugnuts regularly, because it’s common for them to loosen and later on to lose the tire. Now here was something else we were going to have to do – check lugnuts! Just my cup of tea. Fortunately, Daniel is willing to do such practical things!

Daniel returned to the RV and took a digital picture of the wheel base and drove back to D & D to show Jason, who pointed out that he may have to do a lot of work putting it back together. “But we’ll have you on the road tomorrow afternoon,” he promised. Like every other person we had found selling anything along the road in Arkansas and Missouri, he winced for us when he mentioned the prices of the tires. I guess that lessens the impression that the salesman is gouging prices, right? And maybe that could lessen the possibility of “sticker shock” for the customer. I secretly smiled.

With that, we had no more to do for the day and so we did little odds and ends around the trailer. We shopped for some food and miscellaneous supplies, enjoying the small town atmosphere and friendliness of the people. We got more propane gas, as both canisters were low. The fellow filling up our tanks was warm and soon we got to chatting. He had been from Memphis, but when his boys were small, decided to leave and find some place where there was a simpler life with less crime and congestion. Some family members had moved to Doniphan and he joined them and stayed. Even though he said meth and other drugs had made it to Doniphan, everyone knew everyone else and knew who were the bad apples, and avoided them. In the city, there are too many unknown people, so it’s impossible to isolate the criminals and delinquents. He knew where my hometown Lebanon Tennessee was and had gone through there several times. We chatted 20 minutes. There were no other customers. Life was slow and easy in this place.

After we fixed ourselves a nice dinner in the RV, we strolled across to the field nearby where we watched in utter amusement at small fry learning to play baseball. Parents and grandparents were urging the toddlers to “run as fast as you can” between bases perhaps 12 feet from each other. Older kids had their own diamond and the parents and grandparents were more vocal, cheering them on. There were two regular sized diamonds going with games, one with boys and one with girls from 9 – 11 or so, several grades combined to make a team, typical of a small town, I imagine. I remembered the familiar intensity of youth as I watched the young girl players interact with each other in their box. Already, the taller slender blond pretty girl was treated with more deference than the shorter girls with less-than-model figures. The coaches yelled and encouraged and criticized just as coaches do in bigger leagues. I felt the sense of community as everyone seemed to know everyone else. At one point a mom all dressed up Hollywood style and extra makeup and sexy dress walked by. You could almost hear the heads turning and the tongues clucking. Even here were all the dramas humans know. Maybe a quarter or more of the town was here just on this one playing field! We went down to the boat ramp for the Current River next to the field and watched boaters return for the night. The temperature was perfect in the long summer twilight and the crickets along with the roosting mockingbirds provided a peaceful symphony to our day. It certainly was fun being in no hurry to go anywhere and just enjoying the nice spirited small town.

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Campfire Tale

Everyone else we met in Doniphan had a similar story about how they got here if they didn’t grow up in this lovely small town nestled along with banks of the beautiful Current River. The RV neighbor next door had parked here since April as his wife’s sister lived in the town and very quickly got involved in telling us a long story about the financial troubles of his sister-in-law. Like in all RV parks, everyone else waved as we walked back and forth for our after-dinner stroll. We could have joined several trailer side chats.

We got to meet other locals later in the evening. Around 10 pm, we smelled smoke in our RV. I peeked out. There was a big fire upwind of us about 300 feet. Since I didn’t want to get smoked out, I decided to walk up there in the dark and ask the one using the fire to please put it out after enjoying it so that it wouldn’t smoke all night. Daniel came with me. We came across four young men, from their early 20’s to early 30’s, although it was hard to tell in the flickering light of the fire. They were talking loudly to each other and obviously drunk. Rather than go through my usual “protection from danger” ritual I used to use, I pulled in love from the Universe into my heart and sent it to the men.

As soon as they saw us (only when I said “hello?” loudly several times), they immediately went into gallant gentleman mode “would you like a beer? Want my seat here by the fire where it’s warm? Sure you don’t want a beer?” Instead of finding hostile young people as you might in a city, these guys were a bit embarrassed at being caught drunk and were the politest drunks I’d ever met.

They offered to take us around the county to see all the interesting sites, caves, springs, and their secret favorite sections of the river. Two of them were locals, and one bragged on how the Current River is the third cleanest river in the USA. They were proud of their town and of the RV park as well. We chatted for at least half an hour and despite the drunkest one wanting to keep shaking our hands, had a pleasant and fun time. We asked them to put out the fire when they were going to sleep rather than have it burning out all night and they were very willing. Daniel and I walked back to the trailer having enjoyed ourselves, but I still closed the windows and went to bed. Around 5 am I woke up and opened a window. It was still smoky. Oh well. I know it’s hard to remember anything when you’re drunk. The four of them probably fell asleep around the fire.

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Day at D & D

Tuesday morning came and we cautiously limped our wounded Shungo over to D & D’s. Turned out the tire base didn’t need so much work as thought – hooray! While they worked on replacing the wheel and tire and the spare, Daniel and I went to a local Laundromat. It only takes about an hour and a half to do our clothes about every 10 days. But we can’t make sure that whomever uses the dryer before us uses no stinky fabric softener. So we ended up with a slightly fragrant wash, except for the drip-dry stuff. Again, we thought seriously of buying one of those 110 volt washer-dryer combos after all. At least we have the hookups with all the plumbing/piping in the RV ready.

We returned to find our RV fixed. Now Daniel wanted to change the oil in the truck and rotate and balance the tires. Oops! In looking at the tires, Jason noted that the tires on the truck were too wide. Each pair of wheels (which makes the truck a “dually”) were touching each other. With a 7000 pound load on them, they were rubbing! Who knows how long these tires would last? Daniel noticed that they were worn down near the edge where they rubbed. So we made a decision for our safety – all new tires. So in one day, we bought eight new tires from this place! Fortunately he had some good tires in stock and the spare on the truck was the right width. Who would’ve thought of this, you know? So much to think about and remember!

We spent all afternoon waiting for the tire changes to be done, wheels balanced, etc. Daniel and I watched the guys work for a long time, but finally I was so tired I went into the lobby. I planned to read a Time, but ended up looking at all the pictures on the wall of the various employees and their hunting/fishing trophies – fish, deer, boar, and turkeys. All around the lobby were stuffed heads of deer, or antlers alone, and several wingspreads of turkeys. In several pictures, the proud hunter also had a small smiling boy with him. I resisted my tendency to judge them. After all, this was the way it was in Doniphan, and undoubtedly the hunting tradition started early.

When it was done, we paid a pretty penny for a lot of tires and work, but our bill was still at least 400 dollars cheaper than if we’d had the same work done in urban South Florida. And to top it all, as we left, Jason invited us to come through town again and if we do, to let him know and he’ll take us on his boat upriver to see some special spots in the county. Wow! What an adventure THAT would be – to see the world through the eyes of a local good ‘ol boy!

When we got the RV and truck back to our parking spot, we took the RV for a drive. We need to have SOME fun in the day! Aylar was itching to go and friskier than ever. Without the extra “drag” on the back wheels, the truck road so much more smoothly and the pickup was faster and easier. Who woulda thunk?

What was the meta-lesson from all of this? To find out, I went into trance and Daniel asked Galexis. They said we had two things we were trying to teach ourselves over this tire incident. One, was to let go of the scarcity of time concept. We were pushing and not enjoying the way enough. We’d stop to stretch our legs but not dillydally at all, so we could get back on the road and arrive at our campsite maybe a ½ hour earlier. Why create time deadlines when you don’t have to? Plus, one of our major aggravations was the “loss of time” spent dealing with the tire stuff. Let it go!
 
Second, we were trying to awaken our perceptions so that we could realize that we DO trust our reality, even in the boonies with no one miles around, and a tire missing. We were not aware of how much we trusted that everything would be okay and we could handle this one way or another. We wish to learn how to trust life’s flow more and let go of the fear or the need to control that come up with challenges.

The tire issue and repair took three days overall. It’s ironic that we actually realized, shortly before the tire flew away, that we had miscounted our current leg of our journey. We thought we had four days to get to Nashville, but we actually had five! An extra day. More time. So it was a fortuitous time to explore delays. We will need to learn about time and trust more so that when the time comes (soon) to simply “follow our noses” without a time and place agenda, we won’t have to spend days or weeks engaged in disturbing non-essential “delays.”

Now we will have to check the lug nuts at intervals to make sure they aren’t working loose. We learned we have to check our tiny gutters periodically too, the air levels on all the air-suspension systems, the plumbing, the level of propane in tank A so we can shift it over to Tank B, and always of course the air pressure in the tires etc. Are we going to go nuts over lug nuts? Haha

Wednesday we left Doniphan via the tire store. Daniel noticed that the air in the air-suspension was low and we got a hit of another 10 pounds at the place. The people who’d worked on the RV the previous day looked worried as we drove the Whale Shungo back into their parking lot. “Everything ok?” they asked nervously, then smiled when we said we just needed air. Jason came out again to say hello and goodbye and repeated in his delightful drawl “Now you remember, if you come back through here, I’ll take you upriver on my boat.” To go out of his way to repeat this meant that he was being more than polite. Who knows? Maybe we will return…

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Crossing the Great Mother River

Fortunately our ride was uneventful in the negative sense, but it was wondrous in the positive one. Nashville-bound, we aimed east. We crossed the Mississippi River going from Missouri into Illinois, and that was one impressive river. But then we crossed the Ohio River too, making our way into Kentucky. This river was just as big. We realized why. Looking south into the distance as we went over the high bridge, we could see the Ohio blending into the Mississippi, the two huge currents meeting and becoming a river twice the size of either individual river. Unfortunately, it didn’t make a good picture. All you see is water water water.

Past the bridges some distance were high levees. It was really a major stretch to imagine how the great Mississippi flood of several years ago came up to and past the levees. Must’ve been some huge flood. I shuddered. I’ve had big flood dreams since I was a child and huge bodies of water still can make me feel slightly uneasy. What must’ve happened in a past life? Oh well, knowing that information is pretty low on my list right now.

Across the river, we arrived in Kentucky to find that there were Indian Mounds right at the river mergings. Of course. Certainly something that amazing would’ve been a big power point. Kentucky’s backroads were poorly marked, but beautiful like Missouri’s and Arkansas’. We have seen millions of trees since we started our journey and I’m still not saturated with the view. We crossed two more large bodies of water in western Kentucky. If you look at a map of the state, you’ll notice two large slender lakes going north and north. In between these lakes is a national recreation area known as the “Land Between the Lakes.” We found an exquisitely beautiful campsite high above a finger of the eastern Lake known as Lake Barkley.

Camping during the week is certainly easy. Most campers come on weekends and that’s when available sites can be limited. Especially here. The camp manager, nicknamed “Easy,” to describe his laid-back manner, said that some sites in this campground are reserved a year in advance. And I can understand why. The view of the great lake behind the trees with the delicious fresh air rising from the lake is simply invigorating and rejuvenating. Here’s a snapshot of the lake through the trees. Although it’s hard to see between the trees at the campsite, you can just make out a line of green on the opposite shore about midway up through the picture.

We took a walk down to a beach and were the only ones there, enjoying the play of the great blue herons and many smaller birds. The swallows did amazing stunts in the air and skimmed closely over the surface of the water. Bliss. Even back up at our trailer we heard continuous birdsong. There was the same relentlessly cheerful bird here as was in the previous RV park! Did it follow us? Haha

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More Campfire Tales

Late in the evening, we smelled a wood fire and smoke came into the trailer, spoiling the delicious fragrance of the woodsy air. This was the third time during our travels that we had been downwind of a smoky fire.

The first time was at the Withrow Springs campsite where two sites over, some tent campers had made a fire. It was late at night and there was no one around the fire, but the tent was there and so was a car. I called out “hello?” loudly outside their tent, risking waking them up or interrupting a private moment.  But there was no answer. I then went over to the next campsite and asked if they knew anything about the fire. The dad volunteered his two young boys, age 8 and 11ish, to go and see about it with me. I mentioned that I didn’t think it was good to leave a fire unattended and that I also didn’t appreciate a fire being unused and uselessly smoking me out. The kids didn’t understand, so I realized that I was just justifying my actions to the air.

The kids thought I was a ranger. It was dark and they couldn’t see me well enough to realize I didn’t have on any uniform. But they had a wonderful time helping me put out the fire. They brought water over to it, they gleefully peed on it, they dumped sand on it, and I enjoyed the whole scene. I arrived back at the RV with the fire out, and Daniel wondering what all the noise had been. That night I could leave the windows open.

In Doniphan, I had to keep my windows closed all night. At Lake Barkley, I took a walk down the lane to see if I could locate a fire. No luck. Later I realized that there were sites on the other side of the mountain top and the wind was blowing it over to us. I had to sleep with my windows closed, but during the night the wind direction had shifted and I could open up to the fresh air of the morning. The first thing Daniel and I did was take a walk around the campground. On the opposite side of the loop was the fire, still smouldering. In the next campsite were two small tents, one large tent with a full size refrigerator next to the entrance, grinding away. Christmas lights hung over the awning. A group of people sat around in folding chairs doing nothing.

These were obviously full-timers. Lounging in the folding chairs all day and evening, they didn’t go somewhere to do anything. Plus, they had those lights on the awning. This is the give-away for full-timer retired people. (Incidentally, our insurance agent considers us full-timers once we are in the RV for more than three months.) I considered for a moment going up to the people and pointing out how inconsiderate it is to leave a fire smouldering and smoking all night long when they are not getting any more pleasure out of it. But I nixed it. It was just my judgment talking, they probably wouldn’t ever naturally think that way in the future, and we could possibly have an unpleasant interchange that I would have to think about later.  Moreover, we were leaving and so it would not affect us this evening anyway. I released my judgments on them the best I could and walked on. I choose to stay in my power and end judgments. I must’ve created this fire to remind me of that!

Back at our RV, the air was the cleanest and freshest ever. If only I could sell this, I’d make a fortune! Check-out time was 2 pm, the latest one we’d ever had, so we took it easy and did a few little jobs around the RV. There are still plenty of projects to go! And it doesn’t take that much time to travel from here to I-24, and then travel down into Tennessee and our destination Nashville.

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Nashville

We arrived in Nashville and easily found the RV park near Opryland. A big statue of Yogi Bear greeted everyone at the entrance, and the place was filled with Yogi statues. Even the names of the streets obviously came from the cartoon series. RV’s were lined up to sign in. Since the weekend we were arriving was a major Country Music Event called “Fanfest,” the park was booked solid.

I’d never seen so many different types of RV’s in my life all in one place.  There were the Class A’s, which look like a truck with the trailer overlaid. A bed is usually over the truck cab so it can look like a 5th Wheel imbedded into the truck. Then there were the buses, Class B‘s and C’s. The buses were driven mostly by retirees because they automatically leveled themselves in the parking spot. No sweat like a 5th Wheel! We have to crank various supports and play with our level and pieces of wood under the tires (backing up and going forward until we get it right) to get our RV level. They push a button and voila! These buses are huge and cost a fortune. We saw new ones for sale in many of the RV parking spaces on display. Some of them cost over $200G. A car or additional trailer with a car inside is generally towed behind the bus, and the owners will tool around in it while the ponderous bus is parked at the site and connected to the water, sewer and electric lines.

Other 5th Wheels were there of every make, model and size. Some were very old, and one was very small, such as the “burro”.

One fellow (although there were others) towed a “toy” trailer with two levels. On the upper level he stashes his Corvette. On the lower level, he carries his two Harleys and a golf cart. This man is prepared for any kind of speedy adventure!

Daniel took some pictures of the largest buses that were there – vehicles that dwarfed the humans driving them. These are the big rigs. I can even sense the obeisance being paid to the huge vehicles by the man(servant) who takes care of them! haha

Because it was “Fanfest” week, some country singers held an open-air concert not far from our trailer. The featured country singer was a 10 year old boy who did classic country and bluegrass tunes amazingly well. Few 10 year olds can hold a tune, much less banter with the audience (an assemblage of older retirees) and get so many laughs out of them.

Once again, smoke assailed me. Many people were cooking out in a festive July 4th kind of mood. Children ran about squealing and trekking to the pool and back with huge beach towels hanging over them. The feeling was that of a huge community get-together. I could imagine a village of nomads feeling and sounding like this. But then we were all nomads to one extent or another. Young families with children were on a vacation or weekend away. Retirees lounged about with each other and came and went in their Mercedes or other cute little foreign car.

The average age of retiree I saw here was from the middle to late sixties. Few people there were our age (late fifties). Maybe we are just ahead of our baby boomer wave. You know that in another 5 – 10 years, the boomers will be ensconced in RV’s and it’ll be a big business. Even though there was a parts and dealer store next to the park, it’s as if no one has really grasped how many RVer’s live. We will have to invent a number of items for our trailer. I just know that in a few years, there will be more competition in this industry and more creativity. Invest now! Haha

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Visit with Mom

We had a pleasant visit with my mother Virginia, still vain at 95, so no picture is included here. We took her to see the movie “RV” with Robin Williams, which was a funny slapstick movie and had little to do with the reality of RV’ing. She and I had our familiar mother-daughter bonding ritual of shopping at the awesome local Goodwill stores. With so many clothes in every color imaginable, I use Goodwill stores to help me fill in the missing colors in my wardrobe. Daniel was patient with both my mother and me, although he did find a few pairs of shorts he could use.

Mom had a hurting back, but this is the only problem she seems to have physically, unlike her peers who are, unfortunately for her, mostly dead. Her friends seem to be 80-somethings, and there is no one she is close to since her husband died last year and her cousin moved to Mississippi to live with family there.

One observation that continuously troubled me throughout our visit was that conditions were deteriorating, the residents of her adult community in “The Towers” were being ignored, and the cost of living was rising while the quality of services provided was decreasing. We urged my mother to move from her large apartment into a smaller one that had good air conditioning and heat. Last winter, the heat didn’t work and she caught pneumonia and nearly died. Numerous trips to her apartment still haven’t corrected the problem. It seems that someone will come up to the apartment if she complains enough but can never seem to do anything. To top it off, she is very unwilling to make any fuss and is afraid of irritating authority. Her windows don’t open and the air conditioning system recycles air through the building which hasn’t been refreshed for who knows how many years. (Ick! I smelled several bad smells in this place and to imagine that they add indefinitely to the air everyone breathes! Think of all that bad breath under many dentures and the “accidents” some old people have…) I managed to open a window in her bedroom and that’s the only room where she doesn’t sniff and sneeze. In her living room window, I noticed rat (or bat?) feces thickly packed between the screen and the glass. Could she be reacting to that? And then there are all the artificial fragrances – smelly soaps, fabric softeners, potpourris, etc. that crept up my nostrils and tickled me to some sniffing myself.

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Back Towards Hot Springs

We left Nashville and headed back towards Hot Springs. Stopping north of Memphis at an RV parts dealer, we found that there was little chance we could get the missing wheel cover stuff unless we had a longer-term stationary address. Seems the RV manufacturers are very lazy about responding to their customers and don’t even supply their dealers with parts on time. Again, I hope this will change in a few years as the competition will grow.

Most RV parks are marvelously secluded and quiet during the week, with their customers coming in mainly for the weekends, holiday and vacation times. My nerves relaxed listening to the wind sighing high up in the trees and the sounds of nature through the night. We felt restored from our stressful times on the road. (You might wonder, dear reader, what stressful times on the road? Driving with a big whale in tow is easy on the interstates, turnpikes and divided highways, unless the roads are rough. It’s driving through the towns and cities to find the RV park, stop for fuel, turn around or shop for supplies that can be tricky or difficult on narrower city roads. Many corners require sharp turns, which then demands much concentration and precision. We don’t want to bring a light pole along with us, or go up and down over a high curb in the middle of traffic.)

We returned to Cloud Nine RV Park and said hello to Anna. She was enthusiastic to see us but she looked tired. We got a very nice spot with a wonderful view for me and Galexis to look at while channeling. Anna told us how her husband Curt was not doing so well and she was tired of doing all the huge amount of work the park required. They had mortgaged themselves to the hilt to make the steep road up to the camp and build their fine house on the peak. Then there was more money needed to create the RV Park. She complained about it and said she wanted to sell it. She had listed it and that someone had looked at it but hadn’t decided to buy it. Both Daniel and I decided to do a visualization for her. Daniel imagined that there was a huge banner of light draped between the three cell phone towers on top of the hill that announced “RV Park for sale.” I imagined that the message went out and attracted or pulled the right people to it.

Two days later, we went by the office for some quarters to use in the laundry. Anna was in a definitely great mood. She joyfully announced that the RV Park was under contract to be sold and that she hoped the closing would be next week as it appeared that it could be. Of course we were delighted at the results of our energy work, so we decided to tell her what we had done. Anna got misty eyed and so excited. Immediately, out came a tale of the supernatural in her life (of course the supernatural to us is well, normal!) where she went to a spiritualist meeting decades ago. The medium told her that a woman was there with a coin in her hand. Anna knew who that was – her grandmother who died when Anna was a young girl. At ten, Anna brought her grandmother a coin so that she could go to the village and buy some sweets. Her grandmother was dead, lying in her bedroom, but Anna thought she was just sleeping. So the little girl placed the coin in the older woman’s hand and quietly left. Her mother caught her and scolded her for “disturbing the dead.” Now that grandmother was relaying to her through a trance medium that she should leave her (then) husband because he was no good for her and her life wouldn’t work until she got out of the marriage. At the time, Anna was insecure, a recent refugee from Greece and dependent on her abusive husband. It took her 6 more years to leave that husband and when she did, her life did turn around. So she believes in life on the other side.

We volunteered to help her manifest the closing, and did a further visualization for her, but perhaps the closing a week away was too soon for her to allow. Too much success, too easily? Later, before we left Hot Springs, Anna told us that since the buyer was buying several properties/businesses, he wanted to close them all together a month later. Eventually I guess we’ll find out what happened…

Next; the Intensive with Starr