HOPE and 2015 Mt. Marathon

Hope shaved 13 minutes off her time this year in the Mt. Marathon Race, Seward Alaska.

http://trailrunnermag.com/races/15-featured-races/1252-alaskas-mount-marathon

Man disappears on race -

http://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/michael-lemaitre-and-the-mount-marathon-race

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/activityandadventure/11711391/Alaskas-Mount-Marathon-Race-The-most-extreme-July-4-event-in-America.h

June 2015

I barely moved from my leather loveseat today. . .

   But a few major things were accomplished.

1.    I completed the Clymer Reunion 2014/15 Historian's Report

2.    I completed the 2015 Clymer Reunion Invite

3.    I successfully emailed it to hundreds.

4.  We decided to Visit Charles with Hope after the reunions.

5.  I went shopping at Costco.

6.  I ate SANELY

7.  I edited my SEVEN GENERATIONS OF CLYMERS IN BUCKS COUNTY

    http://happyhikersanchorage.com/CLYMER/Stories.html

Jim has entered the world of Mac. He ordered and picked up a new laptop.

And Peter actually read the Clymer Reunion invitation 😀 and  actually clicked the link.

On Jun 3, 2015, at 11:47 PM, peter basinger <pbasinger@gmail.com> wrote:

Not bad

I like your video with the photo identification.  Bet that took some work!

It was very hot this weekend but the rain cooled things off. I am ready to hike tomorrow...

South Carolina Reunion

SESSION #1 | 01/22/15 THE RT. REV. PROFESSOR N.T. WRIGHT

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03/16/2015|

01:01:56

“How Scripture Outflanks Secularism: The Biblical Challenge to the World and the Church”

SESSION #2 | 01/23/15 THE RT. REV. MICHAEL NAZIR-ALI

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03/16/2015|

00:54:34

“Withdrawing Roar or Sudden Death: Christianity, Secularism, and Society”

SESSION #3 I 1/23/15 ROSS DOUTHAT

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03/16/2015|

00:55:48

“The Return of the 1970s: The New Christian Civil War”

SESSION #4 | 01/23/15 MARY EBERSTADT

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03/16/2015|

00:46:38

“Christians in the Hands of an Angry New Intolerance”

SESSION #5 | 01/23/15 DR. OS GUINNESS

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03/16/2015|

00:52:29

“Life with No Amen: Why We Have Nothing to Fear and Everything to Fear from the New Atheism”

SESSION #6 | 01/24/15 THE REV. PROFESSOR ALISTER MCGRATH

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03/16/2015|

00:43:22

“Capturing the Cultural Imagination: How C.S. Lewis Can Help Us Engage Secularism”

PANEL DISCUSSION WITH SPEAKERS I 1/24/15

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03/16/2015|

01:22:23

Moderated by the Rt. Rev. Mark J. Lawrence

FESTIVAL EUCHARIST RITE I | 01/23/15

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03/13/2015|

00:35:18

Sermon by the Rev. Dr. John Guest

CHORAL EVENSONG | 01/22/15

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03/13/2015|

00:25:09

Sermon by the Rev. Dr. John Guest

Nursing in Moab, Utah

If this were a normal winter, Peter would be heading to Anchorage to race in the IDITAROD TRAIL INVITATIONAL  for the 15th year. His goal was to be competitive this year, no house to build or Masters to complete. But then his back flared up and he scheduled spinal fusion surgery. Would I come to Moab and help for 2 weeks in February?

Surgery was scheduled for 9:30 am in Grand Junction, CO on Monday, Feb. 9.  Grand Junction not quite 2 hours north east of Moab. Peter said to get a ticket to Moab or Grand Junction before the 9th. I ended up flying into Salt Lake City on Saturday with a connector flight to Moab. The flight to MSP was an ice cube. The flight to SLC was a pizza oven and was delayed leaving MSP.  I missed the last flight to Moab and had to get a hotel for Saturday night in Salt Lake City. The good thing - I was flying in on Saturday and not Sunday (with no room for error because of Monday's surgery). The bad thing - I was lugging two huge suitcases because I filled them with Grandma's kitchen pots and pans and a hand mixer to give to Peter.

                  

Plus a backpack full of overripe pears. . .   Don't ask.              

                  

In the hotel room I put them in the complimentary ice bag. By the way the room was between 75 and 85 degrees and I only had winter clothing and pajamas. Not a comfortable night.

Only one other person was on the small plane to Moab. Nanci was a retired music teacher and started a strings program in the public schools - a non-profit organization. She has one of Peter's 5 th grade students in her program. Thursday was a winter concert and she invited me. As I listened to her stories I clicked photos of the Green River below from the plane window. 

                              

Because Peter had to fast before the survey he suggested we go to the Moab Brewery for lunch.

Then we headed for Slick Rock for a hike. Peter brought his quad copter and made a silly video.

           

Early Monday morning we left for Grand Junction. The sun on the Book Cliffs created an amazing sight the whole way.

I  vacuumed his classroom at Moab Charter School as he got everything set up for the sub's 2 weeks.

This is Peter's refurbished house. Not quite what I am looking at on Houzz but minimalist and neat with a Bike Shop in the full basement. The house is bigger than our cottage.

Peter's room is on the far left and my room is to the right of the front door. Erik's room is behind my room. I share Peter's master bath and Erik has his own bath.

The view from my bedroom window.

The drive to the hospital in Gand Junction, Colorado was stunning with the sunrise on the Book Cliffs.

The hospital in Grand Junction was in the midst of a huge shift to a new campus. The waiting room was of Jiffy Lube quality and comfort. Mike Curiak generously offered me a room in his house for two nights while Peter recovered in the hospital.

A Serendipity Christmas Gift - Lunch at Poplar Springs

Today was our last VA Happy Hikers Hike of 2014.

I found this park southeast of Warrenton, VA online. Diane had been there for a track meet with daughter Mary Jane. There were only 4 of us. The park is a gem with well marked wooded trails and a lovely lake. A clear chilly day. . . 

We warmed up quickly once we got on the trail. I told the story of my 

amazing visit 42 years ago to a 'mansion' not too far from the trail in Casanova. 

After college I taught in Warrenton, Virginia and thanks to my grandmother's network of friends, rented an apartment in an Antebellum home on Culpeper Street in Warrenton. My landlady, Mrs. Eastham Carter, felt an obligation to my grandmother to introduce me to the right people in town. She kindly included me when she visited her relatives and friends in Fauquier County, Virginia.

I lived in the apartment of Mrs. Carter's home on 115 Culpeper St. Warrenton, VA

1972 -1975

One evening we drove to Casanova and entered a long curving driveway to an impressive stone mansion. A butler ushered us in to an expansive hall that reminded me of a medieval castle. 

Our hostess was Jane Hall Cutler. 

At the time I saw her as an older woman, a friend of Mrs. Carter. I don't remember the lively conversation because I was focused on the ocelots climbing on the back of the sofa and on the balcony above us. 

On the way back to our home on Culpeper St. Mrs. Carter told me that her friend Jane had been a Hollywood screen writer and that her most famous movie was THESE GLAMOUR GIRLS, debuting Lana Turner (1939).

Back to the trail in 2014  -  Diane told us that a local resort, Poplar Springs, now had a restaurant and spa and it might be a nice place to have lunch after the hike.

How exciting to drive up the same curving driveway and see the same stone mansion that Mrs. Carter and I visited in 1972. 

Kathy, Diane, Marie

Jane Hall on the cover of Cosmopolitan Magazine in 1939

Jane Hall Cutler's aunt and guardian married Robert Randolph Hicks, son of Confederate Surgeon Maj. Robert Iverson Hicks. Robert Randolph Hicks had no children and built Poplar Springs in the 1920's. Mrs. Carter's ex husband, Randy Carter, was a nephew of Robert Randolph Hicks and grandson of the Confederate surgeon Robert Iverson Hicks.  Mrs. Carter an I lived in the home of Robert Iverson Hicks on Culpeper Street in Warrenton! His surgery was in the lower level of the house.

When I visited WARRENTON in 2012 while living in Alaska and never dreaming I would live in Virginia again, Hope and I had a tour of the Culpeper house by the current owners who who have restored the house. 

Soon after the visit in 2012 I found a blog written by the daughter of Jane Hall Cutler of Poplar Springs, Journeys through History . Robin Cutler is about to publish a book of her mother's life which includes her mother's experience as a young girl visiting Poplar Springs. I emailed Robin Cutler and recounted my strange memory of the ocelots (looking for confirmation that I wasn't making this up).

She wrote back and confirmed my memory. Her Blog filled in many blanks. 

This is a photo of Mrs. Carter's ex husband (Randy Carter) with Jane Hall in front of Poplar Springs.

On our 2014 December hike and and lunch at Poplar Springs the waiter gave us an envelope. It said RETURN TO POPLAR SPRINGS BEFORE JANUARY 31 2015 AND ASK THE WAITER TO OPEN THE ENVELOPE FOR A GIFT.

We returned and the waiter opened the envelope.

The gift was a night at the Inn. Jim and I began the celebration of our 40th year of marriage with a night at Poplar Springs on February 28th.

My mother's Christmas Letter

Janet and granddaughter Hope Basinger

November 10, 2014

Janet Null

C/O Vickie Goeking

901 Darfield Dr.

Raleigh NC 27615

Dear Friends and Family,

I  am 93 and I hope to have my front teeth back in place by Christmas! This gives new meaning to the song “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth”.  In June I fell in my apartment and cut my head, fractured my pelvis, and broke my dental bridge. Fortunately, surgery was not necessary. At that time I went into the Stewart Health Center at Springmoor to recover. After several months of physical therapy we decided it would be best to remain in the Health Center rather than return to my apartment. It was sad to give up my apartment after living there for 22 years. 

It is still so nice to have Vickie and Gordon close by. Vickie comes every day to see me and takes care of any laundry and shopping. She also coordinates all my medical appointments and mail. Gordon is the best son in law. He drops by almost every day after work and even comes by on Saturdays to watch the Lawrence Welk Show and Mike Huckabee with me. Their daughter Jennifer lives and teaches nearby and is a regular visitor with a Wendy’s Chocolate Frosty.

I am so thankful that Donna and Jim have moved from Alaska to Virginia. She drives the 5 hours from Leesburg, VA to Raleigh quite often. Hope even visited me two times this summer from Alaska. Grandsons Charles & Peter have also visited.

I am thankful to live this long and to know my two great-grandsons. They visited me once when Janet and Will visited Raleigh. Occasionally I see them on Skype.

Jacquie is in Beijing where she learned Mandarin Chinese and is now working. I will see her in February when she comes home for a visit.

Please note that ALL my mail now goes to Vickie’s address:

Janet Null

C/O Vickie Goeking

901 Darfield Dr.

Raleigh NC 27615

I welcome visitors and phone calls at the Stewart Health Center but it is best to contact Vickie if you plan to visit or phone me. (Vickie Goeking VickieLNG@aol.com or cell (919) 395-7559).

I will think of you fondly at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Love, 

Janet Null

Hiking Along the Potomac

Love this hike.