The lone Shriner

Casper Star Tribune ^ | 18 June 2003 | BRENDAN BURKE

[SLB]

A 2,300-mile trip on an airplane is a one-day foray, in a car it's a long trip that will take a few days, but on horseback, it is an epic journey that can last months.

It is with the locomotive means of the epic journeyer that Bob Gacke of Port La Vaca, Texas, has chosen to undertake a 2,300-mile odyssey across the American interior to bring attention to, and raise money for, Shriner Hospitals.

"I've been a Shriner for 25 years and I just have a real passion for the care of these kids in these hospitals," Gacke said Tuesday as he made a stop in Casper. "So to ride from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada is one thing, but to do it and raise a substantial amount of money for the hospital is another. So it is kind of a win-win for everybody."

Gacke left the Gulf Coast of Texas on March 1 and plans to finish his journey around Aug. 1 in Sweetgrass, Mont., on the Canadian border, he said.

Accompanying Gacke are his horse, Fancy, and two mules, Bud and Miss Maddie.

For the most part, the 49-year-old cowboy rides Fancy and uses the two mules to carry supplies, but he has ridden Bud at points along the way, he said.

Among the supplies Gacke carries with him are a lap-top computer -- which he uses to make diary entries on his Web site (www.whereisbob.com) -- food for himself, feed for his horses, and a tent, which he said he has only had to pitch about six or seven times during the trip.

The tent has mostly gone unused, he said, because people along the way have allowed him to stay at hotels free of charge.

Gacke, who is vice president of a publishing house in Texas, has tried to stay on roads that run through large population centers, like Denver, in order to bring more attention to himself, thereby bringing more attention to the good work that Shriners do for sick children and in an effort to reach his fund-raising goal of $500,000.

Fellow Shriner Hal Williamson of Casper said endeavors like Gacke's are true refections of the Shriner spirit.

"That's dedication and ... what the Shriners believe in," said Williamson, past potentate of the Korein Temple.

The Shriners have 22 hospitals located around the nation, none of which charge the families of children treated at them for the care they receive, Williamson said. The Shriner hospital nearest to Casper is located in Salt Lake City and specializes in orthopedic care, he added.

Gacke said he has confronted all kinds of weather along the long road he, Fancy, Bud and Miss Maddie have walked.

"I haven't ridden through a hurricane, but I think I've been through everything else," he said.

He added that perhaps the most frightening weather he has confronted so far came his way a few days ago as he rode between Bosler and Rock River in Albany County.

"I was riding along and I saw these blue clouds building and coming my way and I was just thinking, 'There is no way that I am going to get out of this one,'" Gacke said. "And there is no place to hide, no place to go, there is no place, I mean you are out there in the middle of nowhere. And so I got off and I tied my mules head-to-tail and so all they could do is go around in circles."

After he tied his mules he noticed that the clouds above him were going in a circular motion, and Gacke was sure a tornado was heading his way.

"I thought, 'This ain't good, this is not going to be good.' And I started thinking, 'You know this could be it. This old boy from Texas is going to end up dying right here in Wyoming,'" he said.

"I have always heard that a tornado sounds like a train, like a freight train," Gacke continued.

"And man I could hear that freight train noise and I thought 'Man this is it,' And boy that sound got louder and louder, that freight train. And all of the sudden I looked up and there was a freight train going by! I forgot that I was riding along side a railroad track!"

The realization brought a moment of jubilation.

"I got so happy, I just started dancing around in the hail," he said.

Gacke can joke about the story now, but at the time, things got so tense, he confessed his sins to the only thing that would listen, Miss Maddie the mule.

"I confessed all my sins to Miss Maddie. And when I realized it was just a freight train going by it dawned on me that she know all my sins," Gacke said with a laugh. "So if that mule ever goes to talking, I am just going to have to shoot her."

From Casper, Gacke said he plans on heading toward Cody and then up to Yellowstone where he plans on crossing over into Montana.

On his Web site, Gacke advises anyone who sees him -- he can be recognized by a yellow banner on one of his mules that reads "www.whereisbob.com" -- to honk twice after they pass him and let him know you support him on his journey.

Anyone wishing to donate to the Shriners Hospitals can either log on to Gacke's Web site or contact Casper's local Shrine Club.

[SLB]

Visit Bob's web site. Good reading and the chance to donate to a good cause. $5.00 to $5000.00 - it is money well worth it.

www.whereisbob.com

Will get you there.

[SLB]

I invite you to visit Bob's web page and then leave him with a little something at the donation button. Then bump this on to more FReepers.

[SLB]

Try this link instead:

http://www.whereisbob.com/where_is_bob_2_001.asp

It worked for me.

[curmudgeonII]

Sooner or later it will occur to some of our foggier minded Freepers that all Shriners are Masons. Then wait for the usual anti-Masonic gibberish.

[Eastbound]

Bump for Shriner's Hospitals, the kids that need them, and the folks that support them.

[SLB]

Maybe I am more than a little daft, I support the Shriner's, but want little to do with a run of the mill mason.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Maybe I am more than a little daft, I support the Shriner's, but want little to do with a run of the mill mason.

We probably don't want much to do with you either.

[jimt]

Donated and bumped. Shriners are a great organization.

[SLB]

We probably don't want much to do with you either.

As long as I can continue to donate to the Shriner's that is all I ask.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

As long as I can continue to donate to the Shriner's that is all I ask.

And your gifts are greatly appreciated, if not your opinions.

[curmudgeonII]

Maybe I am more than a little daft, I support the Shriner's, but want little to do with a run of the mill mason.

If you've looked into masonry in a dispassionate manner and can make this assessment then I would have to agree with your premise....you're more than a little daft. {Excellent word, by the way. Not used often enough today.]

[Notwithstanding]

Who are the Shriners? The Shriners are an organization of 32nd degree or York Rite Masons who are best known for their red fezzes, little motor cars and circus parades. The Shrine is also known for its hospitals and other philanthropic activities. Masons call the Shrine the "playground of Freemasonry." Most of the public is unaware of the fact that all Shriners are Master Masons (but not all Masons are Shriners). Like the previous Masonic degrees, candidates for the Shrine are initiated with a solemn religious ceremony at the local Mosque (the Islamic gathering place of the Shrine). All candidates, including Christians, must swear an oath to Allah on the Koran declaring that they would be worthy of having their eyeballs pierced to the center with a three-inch blade, their feet flayed, and forced to walk the hot sands of the sterile shores of the Red Sea, where the flaming sun shall strike them with a livid plague, rather than to violate their Shriner Masonic oath.

[SLB]

if not your opinions.

I try to not discuss too much religion here and that is what any discussion on masons involves. Better to remain friends. Like I said, I donate to the Shriner's as they do wonderful things for kids. I took my family to the Shriner Circus in Louisville this winter. Great performance and the money went to the right place.

[SLB]

If you've looked into masonry in a dispassionate manner

See my other comments on discussing religion. I know where I stand with our Lord and that is good enough for me.

[Notwithstanding]

Shriners Oath

The Oath of a Shriner!

Candidates for induction into the Shriners are greeted by a High Priest, who says:

 “By the existence of Allah and the creed of Mohammed; by the legendary sanctity of our Tabernacle at Mecca, we greet you.”

The inductees then swear on the Bible and the Koran, in the name of Mohammed, and invoke Masonry's usual gruesome penalties upon themselves:

 “I do hereby, upon this Bible, and on the mysterious legend of the Koran, and its dedication to the Mohammedan faith, promise and swear and vow … that I will never reveal any secret part or portion whatsoever of the ceremonies … and now upon this sacred book, by the sincerity of a Moslem's oath I here register this irrevocable vow … in willful violation whereof may I incur the fearful penalty of having my eyeballs pierced to the center with a three-edged blade, my feet flayed and I be forced to walk the hot sands upon the sterile shores of the Red Sea until the flaming sun shall strike me with livid plague, and may Allah, the god of Arab, Moslem and Mohammedan, the god of our fathers, support me to the entire fulfillment of the same. Amen. Amen. Amen."

With this oath, Christians swear on the Koran, and declare Allah to be “the god of our fathers.” From the perspective of Christianity and Islam alike, Shriners take the name of God in vain, and mock both faiths.

Excerpt from The Origins and Influence of Masonry

by Lee Penn, SCP Journal Vol. 25:2-25:3 2001

P0 Box 4308, Berkeley, CA 94704

Jesus People  www.mission.org/jesuspeople

[Eric in the Ozarks]

My dad's Shrine Club in 1950s Tokyo adopted an unusual orphanage located out in the countryside in southwestern Japan. It was made up of the mothers and fathers of war dead--many in their 60s and 70s, who had lost the extended family connection that is common in Japanese families. They all wore closed cropped hair and black or grey kimonos and I recall the place was usually freezing cold. The only time I ever saw any of them smile was when one of the chubbier Shrine Club members showed up in a Santa suit with gifts.
That a group of mostly American WW II vets could have sympathy for these cast-offs from Japanese society speaks well for the Masonic movement.

[Notwithstanding]

Did your dad swear an oath to the god Allah?

[Notwithstanding]

Is allah the god of your fathers?

[AxelPaulsenJr]

I try to not discuss too much religion here and that is what any discussion on masons involves.

Your comments are appreciated. However for the oncest and last time, Masonry is not a religion. Nor does it pretend to be.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

He died in 1966. I'll ask him when I see him.