Hold On To Your Wallet and Your Freedom

.
The election coming up is critical for our country.  If the vote is to reelect the president and Senate, then the country is doomed to socialism -- a method of governing that has failed every time it has been tried.  

Here is what it means to you:

Taxes.  This is what it will cost you next year if the present tax plans are not rescinded.  Find your category and see the reality. 

From The Heritage Foundation. 

What could you do with that amount of money instead of giving it to the government?  Maybe make a down payment on that new bike you have been eying? 

Health Care.  You will soon be covered by Obamacare (there will be no alternatives that can compete with it), but be sure you don't get seriously ill.  You will wait a very long time for routine procedures.  You might die before you are treated...but that way there would be more money to treat someone else who is more favored by the IRS, the administrators of the system.  Same as in Great Britain and Canada.  Read about it here.  By the way, how comfortable do you feel having the Internal Revenue Service in charge of your health?  For me, not so comfortable.  Maybe the DMV people would be better. What do you think? 

Also, if you don't want to pay for Obamacare, you are free not to do so, but then you have to pay a penalty of $2000+ every year.  In a few years, if you are fond of, say, eating cheeseburgers, you may be denied treatment because you didn't take good enough care of yourself.  Or, say, if you ride a motorcycle, you will not be treated because you took part in risky behavior. 

Morality.  If you are religious, or even if you are not but are interested in truth, here is some of what the Democrat Party platform stands for.  They stand for gay marriage, and abortion at will paid for by our tax dollars -- both intrinsically evil.  The Republican Party platform, on the other hand, encourages self-reliance, less interference of government in our lives, freedom from dependency on government, and contains nothing in support of anything intrinsically evil.

Right to Bear Arms.  The second amendment to the United States Constitution reads, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."  The reason for this amendment is not to facilitate hunting and target shooting; it is to facilitate self-defense, against both government oppression and private aggression.  The right to bear arms is in the Bill of Rights because that's the last form of defense against such tyranny.  Hilary Clinton and the Obama State Department have been working long and hard to make us beholden to the United Nations whose despot members want to disarm Americans. 

Regulations.  Government is stifling us individually, as well as our places of work, with regulation.  What they cannot tax, they regulate.  Whenever there is a regulation written, we all have to figure out how it applies to us, then comply with it.  That takes money -- money that could otherwise be spent for new equipment, or raises for employees, or more employees (or motorbikes). 

Chart from The Heritage Foundation
Read the details here. 

Tiny example: Do we really need the government to tell us we must wear a helmet when we ride a motorcycle?  It is not such a great idea to ride without a lid, but should the government decide for you?  Maybe your insurance company should charge more if you don't want to wear one, but the government should not regulate it. 

The Bottom Line.

Add Senate Democrats to that. 

Cast your vote carefully, friends.  

There may never be another chance to save America. 

Other resources: 

• Pre-Election Reading List
• Hold on! 
• Sound Familiar?

Wandering Some More

.
Have you been out wandering lately?

Last post, I told you about some places I have discovered while following where my nose pointed.  Even within the meager 100-mile radius from home I usually ride, there is an abundance of things to see.  A few of these things merit greater coverage, but sometimes it is nice to be surprised by something unusual but not write a War and Peace-like documentary about its every detail.  [No snide comments, please.]

Come again with me to see some more of these sights.  

I found these markers along Bass Road down near Hartwell Georgia.

This one is inscribed:

Jesus Said
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Deuteronomy 6:5

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Mark 12:31

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Matthew 22:40

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Matthew 6:33

This one says:

King of Kings
Lord of Lords
Jesus is Lord
I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 

John 14:6

These are neither in front of a church nor cemetery.  Some great inspiration way out in the country. I stopped for a few minutes of quiet time there. 

Map.

Remember that I told you about my love of player pianos?  Well, this guy puts me to shame.  He has a whole house and two story building full of them, with a couple of pipe organs thrown in for good measure.
This is a Steinway OR grand with a built in Duo-Art reproducing player action.   It plays beautifully, and looks like it was just built, though it is somewhere around 88 years old.  You can hear it here playing Flight of the Bumblebee (with a Boogie Woogie encore).  Here is another song.  Delightful music, this. 

This is the console of one of the pipe organs, made by Link Company.  It is a theatre type organ, originally meant to accompany silent films. 

This one is also fixed up top play MIDI files, if you like. Hear it here.
You find the darnedest things when you are out riding!  Link also made flight trainers during the 1930s through the early 1950s, also pneumatically operated.  They were used to teach pilots how to fly by instrument. 


Over in Central South Carolina is the Central Railway Model and Historical Association. 

They have several model railroad layouts in this building and in the basement of another nearby.  Here is a quick view of one tiny section. 

An important note to the modelers:

The S-gage layout.  

This is a 1941 poster of the Southern Railroad.  Note the first vehicle in the line waiting for the train. 

The museum is open 9AM to noon on the second Saturday of each month.
The actual Southern Railroad line runs just north of the museum.  If you are a model railroader or are interested in full-size railroads, don't miss their newsletter page. 

Map. 

In nearby downtown Greenville, is the Reedy River.  This man and his dog were having fun on a cool day in December three years ago.  The dog had an insatiable appetite for retrieving the stick in the frigid water. 

This is what is just upriver from the dog bath, taken by another photographer during warmer weather.

That is an unusual site to see in a metro area. A great place to walk, lay in the sun, or people watch. 

Map.  

For all you baseball fans, the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum is also in Greenville near the baseball stadium, which, by the way, is modeled after Boston's Fenway Park.  Jackson was a great baseball player, but was one of the White Sox accused of being influenced by sports bookies to throw the 1919 World Series. 

The museum, his parents' former home, is filled with memorabilia of his career. 

Map. 

There is a special place just off SC-11, the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway, called the Tamassee DAR School.  The school was established in 1919 by the Daughters of the American Revolution, and serves our area children by providing education in a residential care and day care setting.
I rode through their campus recently and found this engaging bronze.

The plaque reads, "In honor of Buddy and Bobbie Hagins, dedicated October 10, 2006." 
They were a couple active in supporting the DAR School: Angus Benjamin "Buddy" Hagins, Sr. and Barbara Mealing "'Bobbie" Hagins.

Map.

Looking Glass Falls can't be missed if you are riding in North Carolina just north (west on the road signs) of Brevard North Carolina on US-276.  It is within a few yards of the road.

Watch for traffic and slow-moving vehicles along this section of road.  The falls is on the right side of the road heading north (west on road signs). 

Map. 

You will note that the Blue Ridge Parkway is just a little over nine miles north of the falls. 

Also not far from the falls is the Cradle of Forestry, the birthplace of forest conservation in America.  George W. Vanderbilt was interested in reforestation of abused and farmed over land that once ailed the landscape surrounding his Biltmore Estate. Vanderbilt hired Frederick Law Olmsted to oversee the design and construction of the gardens and grounds on the magnificent estate.  Olmsted also helped design New York's Central Park. 
Every year they hold the Forest Festival Day and John G. Palmer Intercollegiate Woodsmen’s Meet, a lumberjack competition that includes a Log Roll, Axe Throw, Pole Fell, Pole Climb, Cross Cut Saw, Single Buck, and other events. 
This is a picture of the pole climb. 

There are also many other displays and scenery to see there. It is located about five and a half miles north (west) of Looking Glass Falls, and about four miles south (east) of the Blue Ridge Parkway on US-276. 

Map. 

Just above Wildcat Branch Falls on SC-11 is this cross commemorating one David Paul Hrab, 42, of Greenville, who died February 16, 2007.  He apparently had a checkered past that ended here. 

Map. 

Nearby US-276 north (actually west on the road signs) is a good twisty road to ride.

And a perfect ending for our little tour, the end of a rainbow, leading right to my scooter's seat. 

In the Book of Genesis, the rainbow came in the wake of the great worldwide flood brought by God in order to remove sinful and evil-minded man from the earth.  The rainbow symbolized the covenant God made with Noah (representing mankind) not to destroy the world in such a way again:

"I do set my [rain]bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which [is] between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that [is] upon the earth. " (Genesis 9:13-16, KJV)

From BibleStudy.org.

Well, we have covered a lot more territory today during our wanderings.  If you find other interesting little points of interest along your ride paths, let me know, so I might enjoy them too. 

. .
 .