The Road Hosea 6:5: "Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth."
This is an exchange of comments between Pauli of The Mad Jewess blog and myself. These comments were published on this post: A Trip Through Gilded Age Mansions. Looks like Pauli and myself almost crossed paths forty years ago.
Tim:
Pauli: You said you lived in Carmel, California when you were 17. I think you are a little younger than I am (I was born in 1960). I once hitchhiked from western Nebraska to Santa Cruz, CA back in April of 1983. Then I took a bus from Santa Cruz to Monterey. Then me and this other guy shared a cab from Monterey to Carmel.
He thought it was so cool that I hitchhiked all the way from Nebraska to see my friend in Big Sur, so he took me out to eat at Captain Jack’s Tavern in Carmel (or maybe it was called Jack London’s Restaurant. It was a long time ago).
Were you living in Carmel back in 1983? I remember that winter there were horrible rainstorms all along the coast of California. Carolyn (my friend in Big Sur) phoned me while I was living in Ames, Iowa and she said that Highway 1 north of Big Sur was closed because of mud slides and also that Highway 1 south of Big Sur was closed because of mud slides.
I may have told this before, but when I hitchhiked to California I still didn’t know if the highway from Carmel to Big Sur was open. Me and that other guy made it to Carmel at around 5 or 6 PM. I phoned Carolyn and she said this was a miracle: for the first time in two months, the highway between Carmel and Big Sur was open–it opened at around 4 PM that day. TALK ABOUT PERFECT TIMING!
Carolyn said that she and her boyfriend would pick me up in an hour. Me and the other guy went to Jack’s Tavern for Wayward Hitchhikers and had a great meal. The other guy worked at some fancy schmancy hotel around San Fran.
Just curious if you were living in Carmel in 1983.
Pauli:
Tim: I graduated from Carmel HS in 1983. In fact, we moved from Carmel to Pacific Grove because of the mud slides. I was scared that the mud slides were going to slide the house down the hill in Carmel Highlands, lol.
The place you ate at was called Jack London’s. Carmel was a charming town. The last time I was there, half the stores were closed.
Tim:
Wow. Brings back memories. It would have been funny if you were driving around town with your friends back in 1983 and saw this young man with a backpack near Jack London’s.
I found it. Here is a short story of me hitchhiking from Nebraska to California in the spring of 1983:
Last Monday, Oct. 5, 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown signed ABX2-15, the End of Life Option Act, thereby making lawful “physician-assisted suicide” — the politically-palatable name for euthanasia. (See “California legalizes euthanasia“)
A day after euthanasia became legal, KPBS reports that a group called Seniors Against Suicide (SAS) filed papers to place a referendum to repeal the law on next year’s ballot. SAS has only 90 days to collect the signatures of 365,880 registered voters.
The referendum effort faces steep obstacles, if we go by the results of the latest Field Poll.
Released a day after Brown signed ABX2-15 into law, the statewide poll of 1,002 registered voters found broad voter support for the End of Life Option Act:
2 in 3 voters in the poll (65%) favor the new law; only 27% are opposed.
Support is broad-based, spanning nearly all major subgroups of the state’s voting population:
Groups giving the law the strongest support – 70% or more in favor – are liberals, Democrats, non-partisan Independents, white non-Hispanics, those with no religious preference, and non-Christian religions.
Majorities of Protestants, Catholics, and registered Republicans also support the new euthanasia law.
Political conservatives and born-again Christians are least likely to support the bill.
71% of those polled favor a more generic question about euthanasia — allowing terminally ill patients the right to ask for and
get life-ending medication.
The Netherlands and Belgium show how physician-assisted suicide can be and is being abused, resulting in doctors killing people who are not terminally-ill, including the elderly, the young, the mentally ill, and babies. See:
Recently I read in a news article that the State of California is going to force Christian churches to pay for abortions. Because of the sins of abortion, homosexuality and earth worship, the Lord is turning California into a wasteland: look at the severe drought in California.
Psalm 106: 37-42: “Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood. Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions. Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand.”
The severe drought in California is God’s wrath on sin: the sins of abortion, homosexuality, earth worship and other sins. California also has its fair share of evangellyfish Christians.
I Kings 17: 1: “And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”
Jeremiah 14: 1-7: “The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth. Judah mourneth and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowman were ashamed, they covered their heads. Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass. And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass. O, LORD, though our iniquites testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.”
For those who promote the sin of homosexuality by teaching it to children in public schools:
Luke 17: 2: “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.” Hollywood also loves to promote the sin of homosexuality through TV programs and films.
Yesterday I got a ride from Challis, Idaho to Lolo, Montana with a guy named Brian. He was a Christian and we had some really good fellowship. Brian had just left California a few days before he picked me up. He said that the drought is really bad where he was at in central California. The Lord told Brian to leave California and go to Montana. I told Brian that the drought is only going to get worse in parts of the United States because too many people have turned their backs on God.
Then Brian told me of a dream he had a while back concerning the drought:
In his dream, Brian saw this combine in a corn field where half the field was mowed down. He walked up to this corn stock and looked inside the husk and it was empty. Then he saw these two men with long black hair and beards and they were pulling at their hair and crying out, “Africa, feed us!”
In the last scene of the dream, Brian saw this combine in Africa. The combine was then converted into a war machine. Brian then saw these African troops going to Asia.
In the first part of Brian’s dream, the drought could be literal where people are starving for physical food. Or else it could be a spiritual drought: people are hungry for the Word of God—Jesus Christ, the Bread from Heaven. Maybe the Lord will send more African Christians to the United States to preach to a people that are hungry for God.
“The lion does not turn around when the small dog barks.”
–African Proverb
II Corinthians 13: 1: “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”
A few days ago, I was hitchhiking out of Mountain Home, Idaho and I got a ride with a guy all the way to the intersection just south of Bellevue. He told me that the Lord told him to move out of California ten years ago. He now lives with his family in Idaho Falls.
The next ride going north, this guy said that the Lord told him to pick me up; he gave me a ride to Hailey. He told me that he used to live and work in San Diego and had planned on retiring there with his wife. But then his wife began to have these dreams. In the dreams, she saw these Chinese soldiers attacking people in the United States (California?). So he and his wife left California a year ago and now live in Hailey. I asked him if the Chinese soldiers in his wife’s dreams were part of an invasion force. He said, no, that the Chinese soldiers were already here in the United States.
Yesterday I was walking out of Stanley, Idaho when this guy with a pickup and trailer stopped to give me a ride. His pickup and trailer were jam-packed with stuff, so it would have been hard for me to ride with him; I told him that I would get another ride. He told me that he was leaving Burney, California permanently and moving to Salmon, Idaho.
The Lord has been moving Christians out of California for a number of years now. I was hitchhiking in Idaho a few years ago and this guy from Winchester picked me up. He said that he had heard of many Christians leaving California for eastern Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana.
(I hitchhiked out of northern California on the 12th of May. I had been working for some friends for the past several months in Modoc County. Maybe that is the last time I will be in California.)
Today I did my first hitchhiking in six months. I was north of Alturas, California on U.S. 395 when this Christian truck driver named Chuck pulled over and gave me a ride to Lakeview, Oregon. We had a great talk about hitchhiking and the things of God. Chuck did a lot of hitchhiking years ago after he got out of the Army. He was originally from upstate New York and now lives in western Washington.
It was great to be off the road for six months. That is the longest time off the road since 1997-1998 when I was off the road for eleven months—I was working construction back in Ames, Iowa. For the past several months, I helped my friends work cattle, brand cattle, rake leaves, prune trees and other clean up work on their property and I did a lot of reading on the Internet. So it was time well spent.
It thunder stormed last evening with some intense rain and hail. There has been some scattered showers today. I really like the Warner Mountains and the Surprise Valley in northern California—it is also called the California Outback.
Looks like I will head north and maybe towards Montana.
[The photo above is the road to Santa Fe, New Mexico.]
Something VERY strange just happened in the past half hour. It is so strange, it had to have been the hand of God—because I don’t believe in accidents.
About an hour or so ago, I did an Internet search for William Mulholland. I began reading the article about Mulholland on Wikipedia. He was the head of a predecessor department to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Mulholland was the chief engineer for the Los Angeles Aqueduct that brought water from the Owens River Valley to Los Angeles. The aqueduct was completed in 1913. I have hitchhiked through the Owens River Valley in California on U.S. 395 many times over the years; it is one of my favorite routes in the nation.
I left my friends’ office for maybe half an hour. I walked back into the office, sat down and continued to read the article on Mulholland. The phone rang. It was a lady with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. She wanted to talk with my friends about something, but they are gone for a couple more days.
What are the odds of me reading about the L.A. Department of Water and Power and then the phone rings and I speak with someone from the L.A. Department of Water and Power? Very interesting. Perfect timing. God is in the details. I don’t know what it all means at this time.
I remember hitchhiking in Montana a few years ago and this guy picked me up. He had a Ph.D and taught at Idaho State University in Pocatello. He was originally from California. He told me about the building of the Los Angeles Aqueduct and the California Water Wars. So I have always been curious about some of the history of Los Angeles and the Owens River Valley from that time period.
Former Army Staff Sergeant Clint Romesha, a native of Lake City, California, earns the Medal of Honor for service in Afghanistan.
The film The Outpost (2020), stars Scott Eastwood as Sergeant Clint Romesha. The film is about Romesha’s experience at Combat Outpost Keating in northern Afghanistan in 2009.
Today I was hitchhiking north on U.S. 395 and was dropped off at Davis Creek, California. I got a hamburger and something to drink at the country store in Davis Creek. From Davis Creek I continued walking north.
It seemed like it was a slow day for getting rides. I walked a few miles and began to run out of water. It was very warm (around 86 degrees F) and the air was smoky from all of the wildfires in the northern California-eastern Oregon neighborhood. Last night, as I slept in my sheepherder’s camper at my friends’ place, the air seemed smokier than usual (the air has been smoky for most of the past month).
I stopped walking and began to wonder why it was taking me so long to get to Lakeview, Oregon. Then I realized that the Lord was delaying me for a reason (Jesus Christ is Lord over my hitchhiking).
I stood there on the side of the road for quite some time. Then this older lady in an old pickup pulled over to give me a ride.
She told me, as the conversation progressed, that she was born in England during the war (World War II); her dad was in the Air Force. They moved to California when she was one year old. She did most of the talking. It was difficult to understand her at times; she seemed slightly eccentric.
She was talking and then she started complaining about all of the smoke in the air and all of the wildfires. Then she exclaimed, “This is Sodom! This is Sodom!”
I replied, “Yeah, there is a lot of sin in this country.” (I mentioned the sins of abortion and homosexuality)
She told me that she was a believer. She also said that there were too many churches that didn’t believe there was a devil. She had a Bible on the dashboard of her pickup. She mentioned Proverbs 20:18, so I took her Bible and read that verse out loud (“Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.”)
She talked some more and then exclaimed again, “This is Sodom! This is Sodom!”
I again nodded in agreement. I don’t know how many times she said “This is Sodom!”, but I knew that she was repeating it for a reason. “In the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established.” I knew that the Lord had her pick me up so that I could hear what she had to say.
Three or four times she reminded me to pass her message on to others. I told her that I would do that. She dropped me off near the county courthouse in Lakeview.
Out of the mouths of babes, sucklings and eccentric people, Thou has perfected praise. “The Lord uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.”
The Lord had that lady pick me up. She kept repeating, “This is Sodom!” What does this mean? Maybe the drought and wildfires are just the beginning of sorrows for the United States. Maybe more judgment is coming. This is a perverse generation.
Genesis 19: 24-28:
“Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.”
Ezekiel 14: 13: “Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it.”
Ezekiel 15: 7-8: “And I will set my face against them; they shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them; and ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I set my face against them. And I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord GOD.”
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Ezekiel 16: 20-21: “Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?”
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Jeremiah 3: 3: “Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.”
The Road 