Highlands Hammock State Park, Sebring, Florida
When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. ~ Matthew 2:4 Why is this worded like this? King Herod was a Gentile (Not the same Herod who beheaded John the Baptist, nor the one mentioned during Jesus’ execution. That was his son, Antipas.) As a Gentile, he worshiped pagan gods. Apparently, he was not well-versed in Old Testament prophecy, so he called in the Jewish religious leaders for information. Where do you turn for spiritual information? Do you look to Google? Self-help books? Friends? Or do you go to the One Who wrote The Book?
Blaine went out early this morning to bike around the Park. During his time out, he was able to witness a close-up encounter with a red-shouldered hawk and a piliated woodpecker!
Once he returned, I was ready to head out with him and visit the Park’s CCC Museum. We’ve done several posts over the years about this place, so today’s will be the bare minimum. Sorry for those of you who may be new – – or forgetful. The most memorable time for us, was the year they were doing a prescribed burn around the building while we were there. So fun and exciting!
Have you ever seen or heard of Kevin Costner’s movie “The Guardian”? It about him being a Coast Guard veteran who comes back to Alaska to train a group of new recruits. Ashton Kutcher is one of them. Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that as exciting as the movie was, according to an actual Coast Guard veteran we met today, the movie is only about 50% accurate. The main inacuracy being that Kevin was waaay too old. It’s a young man’s game. If you’re pushing 40, you’re too old to do the job. The Coast Guard only takes the top enrollees to the military. For their entrance exam, you must score at least an 85% to even be considered. Just to compare; for the Navy, it’s 50%. There are about 41,000 in the Coast Guard. The combined number of all US active-duty military is about 1.2 million. And just so’s ya know, I only Googled the total number of active military.
So, how do I know all this stuff and even more importantly, why am I telling you?
Blaine located a small, free museum close by called the “Military Sea Services Museum”, so we went to visit. The museum is dedicated to the preservation of the traditions and customs of the U.S. Naval Sea Services which includes the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard, both past and present. A Coast Guard Veteran named Eric guided us around the place and fed us more information than I could ever possibly remember. He was really good! And nearly everything in the place was donated.
Alaska and Hawaii were both admitted into the Union in 1959. Alaska (which is the 49th star on this flag) was January 3rd, Hawaii August 21st.
The three vials of sand were just above this sign on a shelf.
Everything on the restored bike is original except the seat and saddlebags.
They were dropped by the thousands and anyone bringing with them to surrender was treated humanely.
Blaine shared he knew some of them from when he was an electrician!
The black lines from ship to ship are the fuel lines.
We enjoyed our 1 ½ hours with Eric today!
Today, our youngest grandchild turned 20 months! He loves to help out both his mom and his dad with their projects!
