Our time at Camp Jo-Ota has come to a close.  We actually left the camp Thursday morning heading for Dubach, Louisiana and the Outdoor Wilderness Learning Center (OWL Center).  I will tell you more about the OWL Center in my next posting.

We had a wonderful time while at Camp Jo-Ota.  We worked hard and completed a lot of projects that the camp had for us to accomplish while there.  We did all the work that they had planned for us, plus some more.  But as the saying goes, all work and no play makes an old NOMAD tired, so we did a little playing.

The team made a trip to a community called Heartland on our first Friday off.  Heartland is a Christian rehab facility unlike any I have ever seen.  It is actually a complete little town with it's own school, church, store, restaurant, vegetable and fruit farm, and a complete dairy with cows and goats.  The dairy has over 9000 milk cows and about 2000 goats.  All produce milk that is sold to many processing facilities.  They make cheese from both the cow and goat milk, both very good.  Part of the rehab program is to train those going through the rehab program in different job fields so they can reenter society with a good skill.  Many of the people work on the farm, most learning the dairy business, from feeding the animals, cleaning the barns, to running the milking machines.

Below is a group picture of the team getting ready to start our tour of Heartland.

Here is Sharon trying decide how she can take one of the baby goats home with her.  These are only two weeks old.

Back at Camp Jo-Ota we were greeted by a wonderful sunset.  This is the view from where we had our RV's parked.

A last look at our team.  Front row from left to right is Marylin, Terry, and Sharon.  Back row from left to right is Dave, Scott, George, and me.  This picture was taken inside the Clarence United Methodist Church.

Sharon and I made a trip to Hannibal to visit the home of Mark Twain.  Hannibal was Twain's home for most of his youth.  I know all of you know the books that Twain wrote, with the most famous being The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.  All of the characters in that book were fashioned after people Twain knew as a boy.  The home that he lived in is pictured below, along with the fence that he was able to get painted by his friends.

One of the rooms in Twain's childhood home.

A wonderful saying for those of us that are living our second childhood.

Sharon paid Tom Sawyer a piece of chewing gum to have the opportunity to white wash the fence.

This is Becky Thatcher's house.  Becky was Tom's girl friend.  She was based on a true friend of Twain's and really lived in this house.

We decided to try and win the Tom and Becky look alike contest.  I think we will win by a land slide.

A statue of Tom and Huck.

When we left Hannibal we headed for the town where Mark Twain was born.  Twain was born in Florida, Missouri.  We drove into Historic Downtown Florida, all two churches and a couple of other buildings.  We thought we had missed it, so we went back to where we started, drove back into Historic Downtown Florida, tried another turn, ran into a dead end street.  I guess we had seen all of Downtown Historic Florida.  There was a historical marker stating that Florida was the birth place of Samuel Clements, or Mark Twain.

We did go to the Mark Twain State Park and Historic Site where the actual house that Twain was born in has been moved to inside a museum to preserve it.  The house had been moved from Historic Downtown Florida.

We had a great time at Camp Jo-Ota.  As I said earlier, we are now at our next, and last project of this year.  We have been to the OWL Center several times before.  The Center is part of the Louisiana Methodist Children's Home.  I will tell you more about both in my next posting.

Thanks for staying around for the trip, just three weeks more and we will be home.  Take care and remember

God Loves You

Gary