Dodgin' Bison

What an incredible day that was just crowned to perfection with one of the biggest full moons I have ever witnessed coming up over the Rockies.

I left Greer at 5am but I had been laying in bed since 4am listening to the thunder, wind and rain. I made to Charlotte just in time, slept a little on the flight to Chicago and got a great view Lakeshore Drive on a sunny Chicago morning on the way into the airport. A quick latte from Starbucks and then off (early no less) to Bozeman.

A small, but beautiful airport greeted me and then I found myself in a nice, fully loaded 2009 Subaru Outback rental (thank you God and it had GPS and iPod hook-up).

I got to Yellowstone around 130pm local time and spent the 6 hours ridin' around the park. It was a squintiful (my new word) BLUE sky day that made the gorgeous landscape that much more. Lodge pole pines everywhere on the brown scrub mountains. I got to see Old Faithful do it's water version of the roman candle, I saw elk, 1 coyote (too small for a wolf), a moose and tons of bison, some up close and personal. Nothing stops the flow of vacation traffic like a 3000 lbs bull in the middle of the road. I may write about the idiots who got out of their vehicles some other day.

My steak just arrived and I am hungry after this long day in God's country. More tomorrow night! See ya!
on Blackberry
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Ok, I am back at the hotel and finished with the shower and teeth brushing (ahhhh yes). Corrected a few errors made on the blackberry, thumbs were working hard there at the steakhouse. I'm tired and have lots to do tomorrow. I will write more about my Sunday tomorrow.

The Dark Knight

Well, I went anyways. My buddy Dan and I went to the 0745pm show for The Dark Knight last night since Tricia was still working on preparations for her room at school. In fact, she got home just as we did after the movie. So, it was better than hanging out with Shadow all evening :-)

Wow! I have to hand it to the late Heath Ledger. He did an awesome job as The Joker. He was very much into the animated inner workings of his character. I also liked this Batman more than I have since maybe the first one way back in the 1980's. The plot was a little thin and I found the DA's turn to the dark side a little thin on character build. But, the action was cool and fast. Great summer movie. Not as twisted as I though it might be and not one useless dirty word just to make the rating. The violence took care of that for the PG-13 rating.

The boys should be home from their last week at Nana's very soon. I'm finishing up some work and then heading down to the Bohemian for a free Edwin McCain show. Gotta run!

See ya!

Blood Diamond

Still loving all this rain and cool weather. Reminds me of Washington State, my home away from home :-) Tricia is working hard to complete her room and get ready for the student/parent "Meet the Teacher" fun tomorrow night. The boys are down at Nana's and will be coming home tomorrow with Pete and Betty. They are also bringing up the old wooden playset from Susan's (my sister)backyard. It's the first installment of our backyard fort we are going to build, including a zip line down the hill!!! The boys are excited about that, me too.

Tricia and I have taken advantage of the boys being gone by watching movies at home this week. I have watched Braveheart, Supersize Me (watched online via Netflix, that is so cool!!!), Who Killed The Electric Car, and Blood Diamond so far this week. Needless to say, my reading of Cold Mountain has been slow this week! All of these movies have been very interesting and stirred some dark emotions, whether anger, frustration or fear within me. Occasionally, hope and dignity showed their faces too. I was going to see The Dark Knight this week too but that might have been too much considering the theme of the others.

Blood Diamond was very intersting to watch considering my upcoming trip back to Africa. Security is a big issue in Africa, regardless of where on the continent. But, I just can't imagine living in the war zones like that movie portrays. I will again be landing and refueling in Dakar, Senegal on the way to/from Botswana. That's as close as I get to Sierra Leone and Liberia but the French-speaking Africans that service the planes during those stops look a great deal like the ones in the movie. We just don't know how good we have it here Stateside until we take a step outside of our little box. Continue to pray for our trip and those on the mission. We got word this week that the church there now has a new building permit. They said, "bring your work clothes!!!". Should be fun!

See ya!

Do you feel like we do?

The Kids are at Nana's

The kids are off at Nana's place this week while Tricia digs in for the first week of school with inservices all week for teachers. I am prepping for my trip to Montana on Sunday and taking the time to watch some movies from Netflix.

Tonight, our new friend, Dan Wallace who just recently started coming to Freedom Fellowship came over for pizza and a movie. Dan and I have very similar musical taste. I did turn him on to Steve Kimock, Derek Trucks Band and The String Cheese Incident while he was here. He left with a great CD of mp3z for his drive to Atlanta tomorrow. Dan also is in the software industry, he designs websites. Check out this one: Steakhouse. Dan's got skills!

Ok, back to the movie. I put Supersize Me in the queue at Netflix not long ago and a movie caught my eye, Who Killed The Electric Car? It will make you mad and it just reinforces my crazy idea that Big Oil, Big Tobacco, Big Car and Big Beer are not good for our country or our freedoms. The fact that GM collected all of the EV1s and had them destroyed still leaves me scratching my head. But, hopefully, with the price of gas staying well over $3/gallon, we might see more of this technology like the plug-in hybrids making big inroads soon.

I also watched Braveheart last night! Wow! I can't believe I waited so long to actually sit down and watch the whole thing. Great movie! BTW, a crazy looking Mel Gibson was an EV1 owner interviewed for the Electric Car movie. Weird connection for me.

BTW, I'm posting a little more on my other blog these days and that will likely be the case until I get back from Africa. Africa Blog, we have a good discussion of encouragement going on over there. Stop by sometimes and leave a comment of encouragement for the group. Of the 11, only 2 of us have been to Africa. We all continue to seek your prayers of safety and encouragement!

See ya!

Africa Blog

Hey, I am managing a new blog for our trip to Botswana (in 17 short days). Check it out!

Africa 2008 trip blog

13 years ago

Today is August 10th. Thirteen years ago, my life was changed when I stepped up to a beautiful young lady outside a military dining facility and introduced myself. It was as if I had known her all my life. Little did she know that this was not my first time looking at her face..

I clearly recall turning to see her the day before. My vision was blurred except for her face, sounds faded other than my heart beat and I knew to my soul that I was looking at the woman with whom I would spend the rest of my life. It was and is the miracle of God's plan for bringing me closer to him. Today, I thank God for the sweet, small miracles and little victories that have built my life.

We took a walk on the beach this morning before the boys got going. I told her again how important this day remains to me.

Ain't Life Grand!!!

See ya!
on Blackberry
978-805-3137