In the morning, Shannon and Erin took us to see their newly renovated Kingdom Hall. Apparently, there's an enormous ammount of history here in Oakland, Maryland. Their congregation is either the second or third EVER. The original hall was built near the front of Brother Webber's estate. All the old books and phonographs, letters, and photos were handed down in the Webber family, and eventually donated to the Oakland congregation's library. Looking though some of the letters and things, you get the feeling that it should really be better preserved, like in a museum or something. It was like going to the back room in Brooklyn Bethel, and being able to read and touch all the things they keep behind glass! Then, Shannon pulled out an original phonograph machine that the friends used to take out in the ministry. It was incredible! We opened up the case, put the pieces together, and even found a stash of unused needles in a small compartment. Matt wound up the crank, and tried to get one of the recordings to play, but the armature was a little too heavy, and the spring a little too weak. We thought you guys would get a kick out of seeing this. Then, I pulled the Proclaimers book off the shelf, and found copies of some of the original photographs that were hanging there on the wall.

Showing Pictures of Australia	Oakland KH	Old Photos on the Library Wall	Looking through their collection
An old letter to H Webber	Erin finds some old articles	The Messenger (1931)	Golden Age (1935)
Convention Reports from 1927	"Show this to Bro Zampani!"	Volume 1 WT (1879)	Erin Sports an early messenger bag
First Watch Tower	Shannon shows us an original phonograph	Matt tries to get it to play	Rutherford's sermons on vinyl
WBBR	WOPR	The Webber Estate	Really Old Books
Me Matt Shannon and Erin

Rick and his wife had some free time to spend with us in the afternoon before we headed off. Rick cooked us up some great burgers, and we talked for hours. Everyone has been so nice to us, it's hard for us to leave. I think the finality of it all is starting to sink in with Matt.

Lost Tricycle

The Lillers and Matt

Rick and Matt

Last time Matt was here, he stumbled across a great windey strip of road from Maryland into West Virginia, called Route 7. I have to admit, the rolling hills and steep twisting declines made it alot of fun to drive down.

Who knew he was so active in the community	Heading off on Rte 7	Trees flying by	Driving
Mining conveyors	Hey	Tunnel into Ohio	A Bridge
Another bridge

We had nearly 300 miles to go before we reached Sandusky, Ohio, so I made good use of the good signal, and tried to catch up on my emails to everyone reading back home, and in Australia(, and in the Netherlands too!). It was a pretty nice and sunny-hot day, so we naturally had the top of the convertible down. But, pretty soon it became apparant that it was going to rain. Matt tried hard to convince me that since the air is flowing over the car, you really won't get wet if it starts to rain - so long as we keep moving foreward. I disagreed politely, but admited that I hadn't really felt any drops yet, even though I could see them hitting the windscreen. So we laughed it off, and I went on typing, glad to finally have a signal to connect with. Heh.. as you can see from the photos, the sky only got darker, and the rain only fell harder, and pretty soon there was NOTHING we could do but get wet! Cars were passing us laughing and pointing at the idiots who left their top down in the rain! It was actually quite funny. Luckily we found an overpass we could pull over under, and put the top up before we got soaked. As we passed Akron, the lightning started coming down every few seconds all around us. Later, we heard on the radio that there was even a tornado spotted not far from where we had been.

"Uhh I think it's about to rain, Matt"	Sky is turning gray...	Windscreen is getting wet...	Yep - that's rain alright!
Under an overpass	Quick, put the top up!	It's pouring!	Trying to catch the lightning
Calling mom from the hotel