Johnathan Dickinson State Park, Hobe Sound, Florida
The LORD said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Then Abraham spoke up again, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty?… What if only forty?… thirty?… twenty?… “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?” He (the LORD) answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.” When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, He left, and Abraham returned home. ~ Genesis 18:26-33 I often wondered about this interchange – is Abraham changing God’s mind? Is he ‘wheeling and dealing’ with God? But then one Sunday our Pastor shared what’s really going on here – – It’s not a negotiation, God is teaching Abraham intercession. God already knows that he won’t find even ten righteous people in Sodom. He already knows exactly how far the people have fallen. So now the question . . . why does God want to teach this lesson? What benefit is intercession for us, when God already knows, and we can’t change His mind? (Numbers 23:19, I Samuel 15:29, Psalm 15:4, Hebrews 7:21) This is a difficult question to answer, and one I’m not willing to tackle fully here. Suffice it to say, God’s mind cannot be changed. Even Jesus dealt with this in the Garden of Gethsemane. The purpose of intercessory prayer is not to change God’s mind, but to change us. To conform us more and more to be like Jesus. To bring us into a closer, more intimate relationship with Him. God loves to give good gifts to His children. Many times our prayers are answered because of the joy it brings God to do so. Although Abraham didn’t say so directly, I’m certain Lot and his family were on Abraham’s mind when he began his intercession. And so, God responded by answering Abraham’s unspoken request, “Won’t you please save my family?” The request didn’t interfere with God’s final intent, so He chose to answer Abraham’s prayer favorably. May we all learn the lessons of intercessory prayer.
Our twelve days are up, and we now have to leave the wonderful fellowship with Sandy (Blaine’s sister), Eric and their family. ☹
We had a terrific time! For those of you who truthfully admit you only look at the pictures, this post is for you. Here are some pictures we took to memorialize our time with them, as well as a few – only a few- interjections to explain what you’re looking at.
We’ll pick up where we left off – on March 12. This was Sandy’s first day of vacation from work, and we spent it admiring Jupiter Inlet, where the waves were crashing!
On the right is the Jupiter Lighthouse.
On the left, the drawbridge (a very busy highway!) that goes up and down all day long.
They sure are tame here.
Probably used to handouts. So were the pigeons. : )
Sandy says you really have 
to know what you’re doing to 
get out. Very danderous! 
He made it!
Eating lunch at Dune Dog, where the food is most excellent!
Beginning to read through a print-out of Sandy’s Memoir, “Consider the Ravens”.
I’ll tell you more about that when it’s actually published. It’s close! Okay. Fine. I’ll give you a brief overview. It’s about her life up through her wedding to Eric. Why a book? Well, first of all, God called her to write it. It’s about how He worked and moved throughout her early years as a difficult child, her time living in the Children’s Home, and her adoption by Blaine’s family. During our time here, Blaine and I both read through it, and deemed it outstanding! (by the way . . . it has pictures too! 😊)
March 13th – Eating day. Or at least that’s the tale the pictures tell. Chris’s middle son, Cody loves to cook. Today, Chris’s wife, Elise sent us pictures of Cody making breakfast and dinner for a family of 5 (and a half – Matthew is due in June!).
French toast 
Prepping the chicken
I baked the nearly ‘everyone favorite’ Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Cake to take for dessert tomorrow. It’s a wonderfully rich layer cake, that because it’s so moist, always comes out of the pan with pieces missing. Ugly, but delicious! Icing covers a multitude of sins. Seems like it wouldn’t be all that interesting, but the funniest thing happened! My maternal grandmother spoke to me from beyond the grave! I’m getting ready to bake my layer cake, when she said, “Do you remember that cake decorating class we went to?” “Yes, Grandma.” (I think I was 13 or 14) “Do you remember that they told us to put parchment paper in the bottom of the pan to keep it from sticking, and to make the cake come out level?” “Not until this very moment!” “You need to do that.” “Okay! Thanks! Love you!” Well, that’s not exactly what happened, it’s just for dramatic effect, but my old subconscious brain pulled that factoid out of the depths at just the right time. It works!
The bags in the freezer are a picture of some of the soups I made to be shipped to my Mom for after her knee replacement surgery coming up on the 29th. I ended up with 18, quart bags of six different soups, and 3 bags of nutmeg sugar cookies. Remember that day with me cooking all day? This is what I was doing, only I didn’t want to spill the beans and ruin Mom’s surprise. 😊 There was a lot of rearranging to make room for all that. Good thing I’m an organizer. lol
We (meaning Eric, Sandy and us) decided to go out for dinner today. We didn’t realize it was going to be so difficult! Our first stop was a place recommended by a woman working in our optometrist’s office (another story, I’ll share in a minute).
Unfortunately, the wait was 1 ½ – 2 hours! I’m sorry, but no food or atmosphere is worth that. Especially when you’re hungry. Blaine and Eric walked down the street to check on another restaurant – same thing. Good thing we had the locals with us! We drove over to a place called, Food Shack. Excellent food! And we only waited about 20 minutes. We were hungry and the company was superb, so there are no pictures.
Are you waiting in suspense to find out the rest of the story? Probably not, but here it is anyway. Blaine’s glasses broke. Not like in half or anything, he was still able to wear them, even without medical tape around them (remember those days?? Haha!). But they needed replaced asap. Well asap turned out to be about 2 ½ – 3 weeks for the office to order replacement frames and lenses, put them together and ship them to Sandy’s place. Several phone calls were exchanged, and when the woman found out where we were shipping to, she told me about this great place to eat. It pays to talk to people! Too bad we couldn’t actually eat there. Blaine and I even tried one day on our own for lunch – after 1:30. It was still an hour wait! Crazy!
March 14th – It’s Sunday! We visited Sandy and Eric’s church and enjoyed it immensely! How wonderful to worship with fellow believers in a strong church and sing worship songs we know! Afterwards, it was back to their house to prepare a bbq and wait for the rest of the family to arrive. It was a great day!
Front: Eliana, Chloe, Savannah
Nice they wore matching outfits, don’t you think? : )
Chloe, Elianna, Jessica, Savannah
March 15th – Eric went back to work today, and Blaine and I spent the day kayaking. We would’ve taken Sandy along, but our boat’s not big enough, and they only have two-person ones. ☹ Still, it was a good day. And it gave Sandy her only vacation day home alone. We ate dinner at their place, but I don’t remember what. I’m certain whatever it was, was very good!
March 16th – I don’t have a single, solitary picture from today. Us girls spent the day shopping! Sandy picked me up at the campground, drove me around to all the best places to buy clothes, took me to a mall where we ate Chinese food, then went to her place, and called Blaine to join us. Then, I did a little fashion show, because the store where I bought the most stuff still had their dressing rooms closed. That meant there were several things that either didn’t fit, or looked terrible on, so they had to be returned. Crazy system! I know it’s because of Covid, but still . . . Dinner was at their place again. I think.
March 17th – St. Patrick’s Day! Eric says they don’t really celebrate around the area – at least not like they do in NE Ohio, or Chicago, etc. Fine with us! We’re not party people anyway. Early this morning, Blaine and I stopped and picked up four Jupiter Donuts. Every neighborhood should have one of these! They’re soooo good! And humongous! We took three of them and Sandy, and drove over to the beach, where we sat on the sand, watched the waves, and savored every single bite. We left one behind for Eric. We were a bit reluctant, but it’s only fair. We found some great stuff on the beach, too.
a guy in hiking boots and shorts that are 4 sizes too small . . .
a mom doing yoga . . .
Actually, shortly after this picture was taken, a wave came up and washed over them. tee hee!
We hung out around Sandy’s pool for a while, went inside when the sun got too hot, and waited for dinnertime. Dinner tonight was courtesy of Adam and Jessica. This is Sandy and Eric’s younger son, who has a place nearby in Stuart. Jessica made delicious stuffed shells for us, salad, and ciabatta garlic bread! Soooo good! Again, you’ll just have to take my word for it. No pictures. We had a nice evening playing with their two young’uns Elianna (3) and Tobias (nearly 2), talking, laughing and looking at some old family pictures on their big-screen TV.
March 18th – Today’s excursion took us to the Loggerhead Marine Life Center. They rescue and release turtles here. It’s quite the operation! There wasn’t as much to see today, because they’re in the midst of a new expansion project. The plastic tubs they’re housing some in for the public to see, don’t make for easy viewing, so there really aren’t any pictures, except for one. It looks albino, but the staff person/volunteer? told us that it’s not really albino, because the shell has color. I forget what she called it.
Dinner tonight was at Hog Snappers. Very excellent, no wait, but oh my was it noisy! Didn’t make for easy table conversation. We all got the special – pompano fish, stuffed with an abundance of crab meat, asparagus and lying on a bed of lobster mashed potatoes. Yummy-licious!
March 19th – The three of us stopped by the Bush Wildlife Sanctuary for an hour or so. There was lots of excitement today, as we witnessed a Florida Panther playing (something Sandy’s family said they’ve never seen). How fun that was! What a magnificent and powerful creature God has created! She even hissed a few times – just like a house cat.
Only bigger and louder. 😊
Here’s some other pictures before we get to the main attraction:
Believe it or not, this is how it grows! It’s not in a pot!
Look how beautiful God created him!
On the way out, we passed by a pen where they were watering a not-quite-adult bald eagle and an Eurasion eagle-owl. Stunning! The eagle ended up here because it has a damaged wing. The owl, because the owner had to get rid of it for some reason I can’t remember. I do however, remember that she used to use it for hunting.
It was our turn to cook dinner tonight – ribs, roasted potatoes and Jim n’ Nicks muffins. Elianna helped with the muffins, so they (as well as everything else) were quite tasty!
Let’s end the day with something funny!
March 20th – It’s Saturday again. We discussed it and decided a nice long bike ride was in order, so we returned to the same park where Blaine and I kayaked the other day – Riverbend. Perfect day for it! Not too hot, not too cold. And mostly flat. That’s my kind of bike trail!
For dinner tonight, Sandy broiled salmon, cooked some asparagus, and roasted garlic to make garlic bread for us.
Some days I feel like my parts have expired. : )
March 21st – Sunday again! Another great time of worship! Adam and Jessica came back to the house, but not Ben and Kristin. We chit-chatted away the day, until late afternoon when Eric, Elianna, Blaine and I took a walk. It felt good to stretch our legs, although it was a faster walk than we anticipated, because Elli wanted to run a good bit of the time. 😊
God’s creativity never ceases to amaze me!
Once we returned, it was dinner, a few rounds of “Ring-around-the-Rosie”, then off to Culver’s for ice cream! Today’s flavor-of-the-day was Chocolate Covered Strawberry – vanilla ice cream, shaved pieces of dark chocolate and chunks of strawberries that actually tasted like strawberries. Lip-smacking good! They have the best burgers and ice cream! You should definitely check ‘em out if you have one near you!
March 22nd – It’s Monday and our last day and everyone had to go back to work today, so we had to entertain ourselves. ☹ Adam and Eric had told Blaine about this place you could go Jeepin’, so we headed over there.
This is wild hog skin and lots of old bones from deer etc.
There was a bit of adrenaline rush when we dove into water that ended up being deeper than we anticipated. (that’s the above picture) Not too bad the first time, although the water nearly went into our air intake and drowned the engine, but later we discovered that the only way out – – was back through it. Not good. Not good at all. Blaine spent quite a bit of time analyzing the situation and trying to find the best route. He even put on his water shoes so he could traipse around in the marshy water, searching for firm ground. Once he made his decision, he eased around, and then we were committed. It felt like we were going to be stuck, but he pulled it out and we were free! Whew! We were thinking we might have to call Adam away from work to pull us out! Except there was no cell service . . . Thank You, Lord, for making our road angels so strong!
We drove around a bit more, before heading home for showers and preparing for our last supper at Sandy and Eric’s.
Beautiful to see!
On our way over to Sandy and Eric’s, though, we wanted to check out Blowing Rock at high tide. For some strange reason, the Park is closed on Monday and Tuesday – even the roadside parking lot! We had to walk the beach about a mile to get to the area where the rocks are. Lots of much needed exercise, and sooo worth it! Unfortunately, the extra walking time cut into our viewing time.
Dinner was a mix of leftovers from the week, including dessert of key lime pie and brownies – and yes, we all had both!
So sad to say farewell, but we’ll see them again in about two years, when our travels bring us back around again. “Lord willing and the Creek don’t rise.” Or, if you prefer, “God willing and the creek don’t rise.” One is a reference to the Native American Creek Indian Wars in Alabama and Georgia in the early 1800s. The other? As you might guess, it’s related to streams of water that flood. Take your pick. Both reference unforeseen and uncontrollable events related to God’s providence. No one seems to be able to definitively narrow down the origin of the phrase we (as in us older folk) use so often.
Thus ends our time in Johnathan Dickinson State Park. Although, I must say, we didn’t spend a whole lot of waking hours here.
Tomorrow we move on in our journey towards home in Northeast Ohio.