Star Trek Voyage Home Museum - Riverside, Iowa

We stopped at the Riverside, Iowa, that has a claim-to-fame for the Star Trek fans. As we drove into the town, there are banners on the poles with the original cast members photos with slogans: "Birthplace of Capt. Kirk," "Where the Trek Begins," and "Beam Me Up Scotty."

The Riverside is the official Future Birthplace of James T. Kirk, captain of the Starship Enterprise - a native son born in the 23rd century. With such a long lead time before Kirk arrives, the town has been under no deadline pressure.

It first claimed the captain in 1985, when Steve Miller, A Riverside councilman and a Trekkie, read the Gene Roddenberry's book, "Making of Star Trek (1968) that Kirk would be born in a small town in Iowa. The book didn't name the town, so Miller thought, "Why not Riverside?" He received permission from Roddenberry and at the next council meeting (March 25, 1985) Miller proposed that Riverside declare itself the Future Birthplace of James T. Kirk. The motion passed unanimously. Riverside quickly altered its town slogan from "Where the West Begins" to "Where the Trek begins," and changed its annual summer festival from River Fest to Trek Fest.

The Star Trek Voyage Home Museum didn't open until 2008. The museum is low-tech and home-built, reminding us of how props and sets on the original TV series probably looked up closely. Riverside received no help from Star Trek's corporate owners and must be careful not to infringe on any copyrights. Most of the items are donated by Star Trek fans throughout the years. One person who heard about the Museum came one day and visited the town. Ever since then, he would come for every annual town's Trek Fest and when he passed away, he donated all his lifetime memorabilia to add to the museum collection. 

When you walk into the museum's bathroom, you can imagine that you are in Kirk's captain's chair by sitting on the toilet. Unique, indeed for trekkies, I suppose.

Captain's Chair in the Museum bathroom

We thought this was a jet engine, but it is a titanium time capsule created by Sean Christopher Paris, a self-described "galactic artist," in 1990. The person who was showing us around said that it is so pretty, they didn't have the heart to bury it. That's why it's in the museum and not beneath the Kirk birthplace monument, which is where the artist had wanted it. It's supposed to be opened on the day Kirk is born in March 22, 2228.

Time capsule

The museum has cardboard stand-ups of Kirk, Spock, and Dr. McCoy for photo ops, uniforms from various Star Trek series, starship models to ponder, VHS series, plates and Star Trek items to look at.

One showcase in the museum is devoted to the memorable month of Sept. 2004, when William Shatner (the Original Captain Kirk) finally came to town. He said he was starring in a movie, "Invasion Iowa," but in fact he was filming a prank reality series for a cable channel. The people of Riverside (who were the ones being pranked) took it in stride. Artifacts on display include an uncashed $4.00 Shatner check for coffee and doughnuts, several of his partly-smoked cigars, and a pair of flesh-colored briefs, autographed by Shatner, that were worn by a guy who ran around on camera pretending to be naked.

Uncashed $4.00 Shatner check

Invasion Iowa

Out in the parking lot sits the star of the Trek Fest parade, a trailer-mounted "USS Riverside," which bears a remarkable (but not legally liable) resemblance to the USS Enterprise.

Across the street on S. Hickory St., there is the statues of James T. Kirk, not William Shatner. The statue was sculpted by Jurek Jakowicz of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At its unveiling in July 2018, former Riverside councilman Steve Miller, said that one of his initial goals was to erect a bronze statue of the Starship captain.

Growing up reading and watching the original Star Trek, it was a fun and memorable experience for me to visit the actual town where they have Trek Fest. 

"Live long and prosper!" Thanks for reading. Safe Travels!

Today's Thought - Relationship

Galatians 5:6 – “For in Christ Jesus … only faith working through love [counts].”

Leonard Syme, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California at Berkeley, indicates the importance of social ties and social support systems in relationship to mortality and disease rates. He points to Japan as being number one in the world with respect to health and then discusses the close social, cultural, and traditional ties in that country as the reason. He believes that the more social ties, the better the health and the lower the death rate. Conversely, he indicates that the more isolated the person, the poorer the health and the higher the death rate. Social ties are good preventative medicine for physical problems and for mental-emotional-behavior problems. (Source: Martin & Diedre Bobgan, How To Counsel From Scripture. Moody Press, 1985, p. 18). 

If you don’t live a life of love, then nothing you say will matter, nothing you know will matter, nothing you believe will matter, and nothing you give will matter. The Bible also says in 1 Corinthians 13:3, “No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love” (The Message). You can rack up an incredible list of personal achievements. You can get your picture on the cover of Time’s magazine. You can win the Gold metal. You can have enormous accomplishments, be entrepreneur of the year, build a billion-dollar company, and have incredibly great successes in your field of endeavor. But it isn’t worth much if you don’t love. If you don’t have relationship built on love. 

Life is about relationships, not accomplishments. It’s as simple as this: You can have the eloquence of an orator, the knowledge of a genius, the faith of a miracle worker, the generosity of a philanthropist, or the achievements of an Olympian, but if you don’t have love in your heart, it is worth zero. It doesn’t count. The only thing that matters to God is this: Do you love him, and do you love other people?

That’s why Paul teaches us that what matters most is our faith being expressed through love (see Galatians 5:6).

Have a blessed day!

Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indiana

Driving back from visiting with our three C's in Virginia, we stopped at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum (IMSM). We've always wanted to visit the museum due to being one of the most revered motorsport facilities in the world.

The museum was established in 1956, it offers 37,500 square feet of exhibit space featuring cars, trophies, photographs, racing records, memorabilia, and find are to show the national and international significance of motorsports.

It was nice seeing race cars from many series: IndyCar, NASCAR, Formula One, USAC Sprints and Midgets, motorcycle racing, and drag racing. A fun place to visit and take photos. The day we've visited there wasn't a race so we were able to park in the parking lot for free.

Thanks for reading.

Today's Thought - Pain

Daniel 3:28 - "Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, 'Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king's command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God."

The Story is told about the baptism of King Aengus by St. Patrick in the middle of the fifth century. Sometime during the rite, St. Patrick leaned on his sharp-pointed staff and inadvertently stabbed the kings foot. After the baptism was over St. Patrick looked down at all the blood, realized what he had done, and begged the king's forgiveness. Why did you suffer this pain in silence, the St. Patrick wanted to know? The king replied, "I thought it was part of the ritual." (Source: "Pain," Sermon Illustrations).

The most powerful emperor of that age in Daniel's passage was impressed with Daniel and his friends' faith. King Nebuchadnezzar recognized that these guys were willing to defy his order and risk death because they trusted God.

Did you know that some trees only sprout after a forest fire? The Lodgepole pine tree is like that. The seeds are in the cones so tightly that they won't come out unless intense heat comes along. It will melt the resin, then the seed drops, and then it germinates. Without heat, it would not happen. The same is true with us. Sometimes God brings new life to others because we trusted him through our fire. 

Have a blessed day!

Peggy Sue's 50's Diner - Yermo, CA

One of our favorite place to stop is located 10 miles north of Barstow on the I-15 Interstate.  It is at the Ghost Town Road exit, Peggy Sue's original roadside diner. 

The diner was built in 1954 with 9 counter stools and 3 booths. The owners moved to Southern California in 1981 working for Knott's Berry farm and the movies. In 1987 they reopened the diner to restore and preserve it in its original state. With their background working in the movies, it's the place to display their extensive collection of movie and TV memorabilia.

Inside is cozy atmosphere with great 50's music playing, servers in 50's attire and good homemade food. We only stopped for breakfast due to timing of our travel.

The support from locals, truck drivers, military, and tourists (like us), the diner prospered and became popular so they expanded the diner into a real Old-Fashioned Tourist stop. The diner has 50's style restaurant, store with curious and memorabilia, Soda Fountain, Ice Cream Parlor, and Pizza Parlor.

In the back, we took a stroll in their own Dinosaur Park with larger-than-life Dinosaur Sculptures, Waterfalls, Fountains, Ponds, Grass and Trees. It brought some old memories and we made some new ones. Good food and nice place to stop.

Thanks for traveling with us.

Blessings!

The Carpenters Apartment Complex - Downey, CA

While visiting Nan's family in Downey, CA, we visited 1970 hit music due Karen and Richard Carpenter's apartment buildings.

The Carpenters are a brother/sister powerhouse pop act, the angelic clean duo was responsible for some of the most wonderful ballad music of the 70s. However, at the hight of their fame in 1983, tragedy stuck when lead singer Karen Carpenter succumbed to heart failure brought on by a years-long battle with anorexia, a disease that wasn't widely reported on at that time.

Apartments? After breaking into the music business in the early 70s, Karen and Richard purchased apartment buildings as an investment in the booming Las Angeles, CA housing market. They purchased these two adjacent buildings in their hometown of Downey, CA - formerly known as The Geneva - in 1971, and splashed the names of their biggest hits across the sides. 

While the buildings are no longer owned by the Carpenters, they're still functioning and have (obviously) kept their spirits alive by honoring the original names. As we were taking photos of these two buildings, we wonder whether the people living here are aware that their building is stamped with the lyrics from one of music's greatest singer.

The apartments are actually well groomed, pretty retro looking and as a Carpenters fan, nice experience. Thanks for traveling with us. Blessings!