Upstate New York

After a few days in New York City, we were ready for some quiet! We went upstate to see some friends.

First, after renting a car at LaGuardia, we drove up to Sleepy Hollow, New York (yes, that Sleepy Hollow!)  Jane and George Winne had arranged a reunion of a bunch of old friends there, at Philipsburg Manor, a historic location that gives tours of life there as it would have been in the 1750s.

Flax, halfway through the process to make linen. I recall my
great-great grandfather was in a factory making flax into linen,
and it was so hard on his lungs that he moved his family out to
Iowa, then to Kansas, for some fresh air and a new start!

Jane and George are old friends whom we met probably 20 years ago in New York. They also included Rick and Jerry Hutson (at Patterson) and Jim and Kathleen Apltauer (whom we met years ago in Brooklyn) and Alaina and Andrew Marquis (whom we just met that day). We toured the manor, saw how they ground wheat, made flax for linen, grew herbs, used plants for medicine and other uses. Then we gathered for a picnic lunch, which was delicious, but even better was the conversation and catching up. Though we really needed DAYS to truly catch up, this was a lovely taste of how we are all doing. We loved it!

Jane and George Winne

Hutsons

Apltauers

Marquis

We then went to find our home for the next few days. A friend (Eileen Sheets and her husband Bob), whom I'd met through Margie online and whom I'd come to love through online, offered their home. So off we were to Hudson, New York, just a bit off the Hudson River. We arrived at dusk and loved them in-person immediately! They are so calm and unpretentious. They have a reputation for hospitality, and they did not disappoint. But it's not a fussy hospitality, but completely relaxed and welcomed. We felt so 'at home' there.

Bill in the Sheets' living room

Their back yard

"Buddy" - so sweet!

We stayed in 'the cabin' (a camper out back) with a view of the Catskill mountains beyond the field behind their house.  Even when it rained at night, we enjoyed the sound on the canvas above us as we were warm and comfy.

Our 'cabin'

One day we went out and spent the afternoon with old friends (35 years ago?), Kathy Wolff and Lisa and Ivan Dixon. They stayed with me when Sharon was a toddler and they had just come back from a time pioneering in Mississippi.  We had a meal at Four Brothers, then walked around cute Rhinebeck, tasted honeys at a honey store, then tasted vinegars at a oil/vinegar tasting store, then went to Rhinecliff on the Hudson River to watch the sun go down. What a wonderful day, and so good to see them again!

Lisa and Ivan Dixon, Bill and Nancy, Kathy Wolff

At the China Rose in Rhinecliff

Kathy Wolff

Ivan and Lisa Dixon

On Sunday, we went to the meeting with Eileen and Bob. When meeting some of the friends there, a sister introduced herself as Tammy (?) Dular. "Dular?" I said "... who is your husband?" She pointed to a man and said, Mark.  I knew him when he was 13 years old, in 1972, in Ames Iowa!  Here he was, all grown up! (joke ... don't I sound like an old lady there?).  I was so happy to see him!  We went to lunch with them - and Bob and Eileen - and enjoyed catching up.

Mark and Tammy Dular

Bill and Nancy

Bill in the kitchen

Sunday evening, Eileen and Bob hosted a gathering at their house, with other family members and friends whom I'd also met online. We had such a riot, laughs. And we even met a brother, David Toutain, who knew Mona Tellessen when she was Mona Lee in Manchester NH!  He credits the Lee family with saving his life - he lived across from them and they hosted a kind of open house on Thursdays for those who wanted to stop in. He tells the story that there were houses in Manchester with signs, "No Jehovah's Witnesses" but one sign added, "Especially not Mona Lee"!  I have no idea why, because she is the sweetest thing, but there's a story there!

Bill and Bob

Ron and Mona Lee Tellessen's friend David

Finally, on Monday morning, we first went to Patterson's Bethel facilities and took a bit of a tour of the art department. It was so thrilling to see the beautiful art.  Rick Hutson explained how the art process works for the Watchtowers and Awakes. First, the article is written and shared with the art department, sometimes with suggestions for art. Then the folks in the art department talk through ideas of how the ideas could be illustrated. When they have some concepts, an artist sketches out some thoughts. As the ideas are developed, they have a photo shoot and the artist creates some draft illustration based on the photo.  It develops, over a lot of work, to what we see now.

Sometimes the artist needs research, and both Rick and Jerry contribute to that. For instance, how did Roman centurions dress? How would they have held their sword? Can you imagine how cool a job that would be, to research interesting questions like that!!!

An initial illustration, and developed into the other (the
face was softened, etc.)

The recent study Watchtower had a picture of an older woman
who and fallen (left). The actual photo shoot had her on a cot, and
another with a 'stunt double' on the ground, with 'rain' from a hose. 

Bill and me with Caleb and Olivia, cartoon 'heroes' of many
videos! 

Eileen and Bob Sheets, who joined us for lunch with Hutsons.

Jerry Hutson with Bill and me

Eileen and Bob Sheets

Model of Solomon's Temple in Jesus' day

Model of temple, closer up

We then had lunch with the Hutsons there at Patterson. It was burgers and milkshakes!

... then drove back from upstate NY to Islip Long Island, where our flight back to KC would leave. It was a nice drive (until we hit city traffic, that is!) but we were ready to get back to Kansas City where our family and friends awaited.