Rich and Eric’s Excellent Adventure!

A couple weekends ago, I had the enjoyment of accompanying my friend and fellow pastor, Eric Ishimaru, the new senior pastor of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, on a road trip to Southern California to visit a couple museums for which he had arranged tickets. The destinations were the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, and the Mullin Auto Museum in Oxnard. The way the timing worked out, we were also able to tour the Mission San Fernando Rey de España, one of the original Spanish missions from the late 1700s. It was a great trip which deserves a few comments and thoughts which I would like to share with you. Just don’t tell Pastor Eric anything you read here . . . it’s just between you and me . . .

1. I was not Eric’s first choice to be his travel companion. He and another friend had made all the arrangements, but at the last minute his friend was unable to go due to health reasons. Since the admission tickets were already purchased, Eric decided to find a replacement. So he called his friends. Then casual acquaintances. Then residents of the nursing home he preached at the week before the trip. Then he asked people holding signs that said, “Will work for food,” but apparently they didn’t want to ride for food. With all his avenues exhausted, he finally gave in and asked me. I gladly accepted after getting permission from my wife to go.
2. Not sure how exciting ten hours in a car with Eric would be, I loaded up a few contingencies for the trip: a book, an mp3 player with a hundred songs in it (church songs, so he couldn’t fault me for listening to them), ear plugs, and a blindfold. Even if the blindfold didn’t help me sleep en-route, it might add a little excitement if a police car passed us and saw me wearing it in the passenger seat. Even more excitement if the cops saw me wearing it in the driver’s seat.
3. As it turned out, riding that far and conversing with Eric for all those hours was very enjoyable. He is so knowledgeable on so many topics in so many fields, that we never ran out of things to talk about or church members to gossip about (ha, ha – just kidding – members were NOT a topic for discussion). Eric knows so many details most people would consider to be trivia, because they are, but besides those minutiae he also knows an amazing amount of things about history, music, languages (he can tell you the members of the Finn-Ugric language family, which ones are extinct, and recite for you the world’s longest palindrome – in Finnish!), and theology. He is especially conversant in aberrant and heretical doctrines, which concerns me a little . . .
4. Eric showed how much he knows about about classic cars, especially Citroëns, when we visited the Mullin Auto Museum, which was showing an amazing, multi-million dollar exhibit of Citroëns and Bugattis, all owned by Mr. Mullin. The docent who led the tour was extremely good and knowledgeable about the Citroëns (other than mispronouncing the name as sit’-ree-own). But several times I knew what the docent was saying about a certain car model’s history or special features because Eric had already told me the same story on the way there. Why would Eric know so much about Citroëns? Because he has one of his own – one of the model you see in World War II movies being driven by the Gestapo. The fact that Eric drives what another church member referred to as a “German Luftwaffe staff car” does concern me a little . . .
5. Our time at the Mission San Fernando was enjoyable as well. The grounds were quiet and peaceful, and the church has been restored beautifully. Because it is a working church, we walked through it just before a funeral began, and I had to persuade Eric not to offer to officiate or sing at the service. The historical exhibits were quite interesting. Of course, when Eric saw some musical manuscripts in one of the cases he tried to chant the songs in Latin. The fact his eyes glowed when he gazed upon various statues of the saints does concern me a little . . .
6. We ate at a Thai restaurant near our hotel in Chatsworth. It was a very good choice for our dinner, but when we pulled into the parking lot the only space left was in front of the Purple Haze Smoke Shop. We joked about stopping there after eating, but when I got out of the car, Eric was aiming his phone camera at me. The resulting photo, suitable for framing or for blackmailing, shows me in what looks like a doped stupor walking out of the shop. Note to anyone who sees that picture: it is NOT what it looks like . . .
7. Monday evening we had some free time after dinner, so Eric took me to some of his old stomping grounds in the Hollywood and Hollywood Hills areas. We cruised Sunset Strip and crossed Hollywood and Vine. We drove past Grauman’s Chinese Theater with Eric pointing out the window as we drove past, “There’s the theater! There’s the Walk of Fame! There’s the Hollywood Bowl! There’s a new building I know nothing about!” and so on. I had hoped to see some famous actor-types, but did he introduce me to any of them? No.
8. But seriously . . . the highlight of the trip was seeing the Reagan Library. What an awesome tribute to President Reagan and to our country! Not only was it an amazing recounting of his life, it was also a walk through our own history, as we remembered many of the events and people depicted in the displays. There is too much to tell about: the replica of the Oval Office, Reagan’s actual Air Force One, the interactive displays and audio-visual presentations including parts of Reagan’s movies and speeches are just a few highlights. But I should mention a few of the more poignant and moving displays: Reagan’s speeches extolling the American spirit; the special exhibit showing when Reagan was shot – including his bullet-torn suit and x-ray showing the bullet in his chest; his dramatic call in Berlin to the Soviets, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”; his announcement to the public about being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s; and his funeral, including the written note from Margaret Thatcher: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” His failures and foibles were also shown, including his apology to the American people for allowing what is called “Iran-Contra” to happen on his watch, but after viewing the final video at the end of the tour, I doubt many people can walk away without a renewed love for our country and a tear in their eye.
9. Finally, there was the ride home. Having driven most of the trip, Eric turned the wheel over to me so he could lie back and rest a little. I took the car over the Grapevine successfully (On “the 5” as they would say in Southern California) and was approaching Bakersfield, when Eric suddenly woke up, took one look, and asked if I had really wanted to take the wrong road (which I had done). After my articulate answer, “Oops!” I turned us around and after a little backtracking, put us on the right road again. All according to my plan, so Eric will never again ask me to drive, allowing me next time to lie back with my blindfold on and listen to my music between naps.

That pretty well sums up the trip, except to thank Eric for the great time we had on our excellent adventure together!

May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Psalm 133:1

Disclaimer: Some of the above was exaggerated just a bit. Pastor Eric has read and approved this article. And by the way, he has already started circulating that picture of me.