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The Rehms -- Jeff, with Bode on his shoulders, and Angela / From Bodeswell.org

Meet the Rehms -- Jeff, Angela and 4-year-old Bode. The photogenic California family has been source of major envy for me this weekend. They're on the trip of a lifetime.

North and South America, via a restored, 1971 VW Westfalia camper.

They stopped in Roanoke this week, and headed south Friday, headed for Houston, Tex., where they'll spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with family before crossing the border into Mexico.

My colleague here at the newspaper, Jeff Burks, put them up for a night. He's a fellow VW camper fanatic.

Jeff Rehm is a rocket scientist and Angela is a food-label inspector. They decided they needed a big adventure before Bode started school. So they bought a broken down hulk of a VW bus, stripped it and rebuilt it, sold their  San Francisco house, left their jobs and hit the road.

They say their adventure will continue until the money runs out. Btw, they're accepting donations, selling T-shirts, and for $10 they'll send a friend of yours a handwritten, envy-producing postcard  -- from you! -- from one of the picturesque spots along their journey.

So far, they've been some really interesting places. Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Glacier National Park in Montana and Yellowstone in Wyoming. They've run that camper along the shores of lakes Michigan and Erie, dropped into Niagra Falls, and even passed through Binghamton, N.Y., my birthplace. (It ain't picturesque, though).

Here's their Web site, Bodeswell.org. It's worth checking out if you've been feeling a bit of wanderlust lately.

But be careful of that envy.

It'll grab you!

STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS | The Roanoke Times Photo taken October 21, 2009 Mendy Songer, 45, of Bedford County, has set-up her hot dog stand at the corner of 3rd Street and Norfolk Avenues across from the Virginia Museum of Transporation. On Wednesday a car load of visitors traveling down from Keswick, (near Charlottesville/Gordonsville).

Mendy Songer sold all 100 of her $2 hot dogs on Thursday, and found herself turning away some hungry customers by the time she packed up her pushcart at 2 p.m. She sold out of chips, too.

"Now I can pay my phone bill!" she said.

The customers came despite the fact that city utility crews literally blocked 3rd Street southwest at Salem Avenue for the morning and early afternoon. They were working on underground water pipes, or the sewers, or something.

At one point, Roanoke sheriff's deputies lined up seven deep to buy Mendy's franks. At another, a worker from Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital drove over and bought a bagful to take back.

On Friday, Mendy will be heading out to an industrial park she usually sets up in on that day (and most Wednesdays, too). She'll be next to Happy's Flea Market on Williamson Road on Saturday and Sunday, and back downtown near the Virginia Transportation Museum on Monday.

Here's the column I wrote that helped bring Mendy those customers.

Check out the comments on this blog post.

I've also heard from other street vendors who've been stymied by the city from doing business downtown.

STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS | The Roanoke Times Photo taken October 21, 2009 Santana Sromo, 27, of Roanoke, who works for Pronko, stopped to buy hot dogs from Mendy Songer, for himself and some co-workers on Wednesday at the corner of 3rd Street and Norfolk Avenues, SW.. Songer has started her own business as a street vendor selling hot dogs with an aresenal of toppings: cole slaw, sauerkraut, onions, chili, cheese, relish, hot sauce, mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise, chips and drinks.

Mendy Songer is chasing a piece of the American dream, one mouth-watering hot dog at a time.

What’s going to get her there, the ex-waitress hopes, is mirror bright and brimming with franks, steaming sauerkraut, melted cheese and home-made chili.

Her leased, $300-a-month pushcart positions her as one of the free-enterprise system’s tiniest cogs. It also makes her the only street-food vendor in all of downtown Roanoke.

“It’s crazy, I know,” the 45-year-old Bedford County grandmother says with a chuckle. “But I love being in business for myself.”

I ran into Songer and her friend, Tom Forbes, Monday when they set up in the Brandon Parking lot along 3rd Street southwest, across from the Virginia Museum of Transportation.

That was their first day there, and they intend to be there each Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

As you might imagine, the location gets little foot traffic from the midday lunch crowd.

But it’s the best Songer can do in downtown Roanoke, at least for now. Somewhat painfully, she has learned the free-enterprise system ain’t always free.

Read the rest of the column here.

Behold the woman who has captured ex-Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Vick's heart - and who has borne him two children.

No snark here. Philadelphia native Kijafa Frink comes across as a genuinely nice person, and she probably knows Micheal Vick better than we do.

In my mind, until his troubles with the dogfighting and dog-killing charges, he was always the talented athlete who led the Hokies to the national championship game.

Vick did more time for killing some vicious dogs (and lying about it) than some others do for killing people. He paid his penalty. Let's give him a break. I think he's lucky to have a woman like Kijafa behind him.

Your thoughts?

Fred Saunders of Salem

When wanderlust struck this spring, Salem resident Fred Saunders did something many others have dreamed of.

He hopped on his motorcycle and hit the road.

It took him from the warm and lush Roanoke Valley all the way to Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska. And later, down the Pacific Coast Highway through California, where he made a left turn near Los Angeles and headed east on Route 66.

By the time he arrived back home about 13 weeks later, Saunders had ridden up snow-dotted passes in the Canadian Rockies, traversed 115-degree deserts in the American Southwest and weathered sleet, rain, hail -- you name it.

He is 81 years young, and nothing will stop him from riding. The weekend of Sept. 12, he rode to Washington, D.C., and back for the Tea Party rally and march.

Read the rest here.

Stephanie Doyle, Virginia's 2009 Teacher of the Year, applauds during convocation ceremonies Monday morning. By Jared Soares/The Roanoke Times

At the Roanoke City Schools convocation and pep rally Monday, middle school history teacher Stephanie Doyle stood in front of thousands of teachers and staff and told the story of a young student who was lost.

By the time she entered fifth grade, the young girl lived in a family marred by parental alcohol abuse and all of its psyche-eroding implications.

By seventh grade, she had lost all interest in learning. She sank into a deep depression. She wanted to quit school. More than once, the girl contemplated suicide.

That student, we learned near the end of the speech, was Doyle, who is now 32 and is a married mom. In October she was named Virginia's 2009 Teacher of the Year.

Doyle told her own story as a way to sound a clarion call for teachers never to forget the important role they play as mentors.

Read the rest of the column here.

Tell us in comment your story about teachers who mentored you!

Bill White / www.splcenter.org

Note: Adolf Hitler admirer and Roanoke landlord Bill White, who was arrested last fall and locked up on (since dismissed) charges of threatening a federal juror, and (still active) charges of threatening others, responds to my July 23 column about dismissal of the former charges.

July 25, 2009

Mr. Casey,

I became aware of an article you published claiming I have "been devastated" and so on by recent events.

First, my Chapter 11 cleared this week with the release of about $1 million in debt, without any substantial loss of rental income. Two properties I would like to have retained, out of 25 I own and manage, were temporarily let go but are being recovered.

Second, the current estimate of the wrongful imprisonment settlement the federal government will end up paying me is in excess of $2.5 million dollars (sic).

Because the judge ruled that I was imprisoned based on an indictment that did not state a crime and violated my First Amendment rights, the question of wrongful imprisonment is essentially decided - all that is required, at this stage, is to file suit and prove damages.

So I am looking forward to receiving my own personal retirement package from the federal government, in the next two to three years.

In the meantime, my estate continues to generate $17,000 - $18,000 a months in income, my debt payments are down in the $7,500 range, and for the first time in nine months I am positioned to return to buying property.

;-D

Not that I expect any of this to be reported; I did, however, get a good chuckle from your rationalization of your loss, and if that is what is needed for you to sleep at night, without my existence agitating you, then so be it.

See you soon - I am being released next week and the Roanoke indictment will be dismissed around October-ish.

Sincerely,

Bill White

P.S. The open, naked malice of your newspaper hurts you and does me nothing but good - not that you can understand. ;-D

Cuc Cao and the car she paid $1,600 to get back from a repo towing company/Photo by John W. Adkisson

Every now and then you hear a story about somebody who's been taken advantage of, and they don't deserve it at all. It almost makes your blood boil, you know?

That is the situation with a case we'll call "Cuc Cao, the Hyundai and the $1,600 repo job."

But before we get into that, let me tell you a little bit about Cuc Cao.

She's a tiny, soft-spoken, modest woman of 59 with graying hair and fair skin. She was born and raised in a large family in Vietnam.

She and her husband fled their homeland in 1981.

After more than two years in concentration and refugee camps in Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines, they emigrated to the United States and to Roanoke, where Cao's brother already lived.

That was in 1983. By then the couple had a young daughter. Within a year, Cao had a second daughter, and she was pregnant with her son when her husband died of cancer in 1984.

The young widow was nearly alone in a strange country, where she couldn't speak the language, raising three young children.

Somehow, she did it.

Read the rest of the column here.

Doug Thompson chimes in on Blue Ridge Muse.

Post your comment below!

Caleb Amstutz, 12, sits in his chicken coop surrounded by hens. Caleb's 23 hens produce eggs he sells to 10 or so Eagle Rock- and Roanoke-area families each week.

EAGLE ROCK -- Do you remember when the kid down the street used to knock on your door and ask if you'd like your lawn cut for a few bucks?

Or when teenage (or younger) newspaper carriers dropped the daily paper on your front porch? And collected for your weekly bill? Sometime you even tipped that boy or girl.

These days, adults usually perform both of those services, and many others that enterprising kids used to.

As a parent of four, that worries me.

Are we spoiling our children too much? Are their lives so filled with dance lessons and soccer practices and video games that we're stifling good-old American hustle?

If you have the same concerns, I'd like to introduce you to Caleb Amstutz, 12, who lives in northern Botetourt County outside Eagle Rock.

Though child entrepreneurship may be on the wane, he's proof that it's not entirely dead.

Read the rest of the column here.

David Miscavige/Nightline, ABC

The photo on the left is of David Miscavige, the leader of the Church of Scientology. He is the subject of a fascinating 3-part series that began Sunday in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. The writers are Joe Childs and Thomas C. Tobin.

Among other things, the series alleges that on dozens of occasions over many years, Miscavige physically assaulted and humiliated other top leaders of the church, in full view of witnesses.

The stories claim he:

Slapped them in the face or head

Grabbed them around the neck and threw them to the ground

Choked them

And engaged in other forms of abuse, both physical and psychological.

Among others, the sources quoted are four high-ranking former Scientology officials, each with 25 years or more in the controversial church, who have left the organization in recent years. Two of them, Mike Rinder and Marty Rathbun, served in some of Scientology's highest positions.

The Church of Scientology responds in the story that all the allegations are lies trumped up by bitter ex-members who are now striking out at the organization they once served. The story also quotes current Scientologists who pin all the abuse on the former officials who are now making the allegations.

It is quite a catfight.

The online package includes video interviews of two of the ex-officials and a series of audio files in which Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis vehemently disputes their allegations.

Between May 13 and this past Saturday, the newspaper repeatedly requested interviews with Miscavige. He said he was too busy for an interview until July; the newspaper decided not to wait until then. Miscavige sent them a letter decrying this decision Saturday evening, just before deadline. That is displayed in full as well.

It takes a while to read through all the material. But it's gripping stuff and marvelous journalism. Definitely worth your time.

Also check out the lengthy, multi-part interview of Miscavige by Ted Koppel on ABC's Nightline back in 1992.

There's a lot more about Scientology and its unusual founder, L. Ron Hubbard, here and here.