March 31 – “Hiking the rim”

I had a great start to my day yesterday.  As I started to get up and start the day in my usual ninja-quiet manner … I fell out of bed.  Chris had gotten cold during the night and was as close to me as she could possibly be, leaving me about six inches or so of bed space.  Add to that we were in a regular full-size bed.  So, when I pulled off the covers and went to ease out … bam!  No permanent injuries, though.  Good thing, with the day we had before us.

 

Driving toward our next destinations, my job was to locate wildlife.  And right off I found a deer and a skunk.  OK, they were roadkill, but in my defense, there just weren’t very many critters roaming around in the bitter cold.  I finally located a few domesticated dogs and cows.  Oh, and we saw a few black hawks (the bird, not the helicopter).  But the winner of best wildlife of the day?  A pen we saw with a horse, a donkey, and four llamas. 

 

Finally, we arrived at Canyon of the Ancients.  The visitor’s center was really nice.  The museum was impressive with displays of all kinds of artifacts found at the different archaeological sites in the area.  We had to drive up the road a bit further to find one these sites.  Pretty easy task.  The dig included a home of the early occupants as well as a large round community gathering place.  We were the only human beings anywhere around.  We did see a marmot, a squirrel, and the largest horney toad I have ever seen.  Oh, and we were joined by another critter.  CC is this one’s name.  That’s all.  Just CC.  He’s a mountain goat, and rumor has it that his actual name is kind of a sissy one, and he is embarrassed by it.  We decided to be kind and stick with CC.

 

Next we traveled to Hovenweep Canyon.  That journey was interesting in itself.  We missed the turn and ended up somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Utah.  When we finally came to a cross road, we were able to locate us on the paper map we got from AAA.  Time to back track.  This time we took the correct turn and found the visitor center.  The center itself was closed, but they had placed some stamped pieces of paper in an envelope on the door, so Chris got her book stamp.  Hurray! 

 

Since we were there, we decided to see what all the fuss was about this particular landmark.  It was indeed a canyon, but the draw for most people were the ruins of another ancient Indian civilization.  We were duly amazed at the ingenuity of these folks.  The homes were different from the ones the Cave Ant people had built at Mesa Verde.  Here, instead of carving the homes out of the side of the canyon, these people made bricks and mortar and built homes right on the edge of the canyon.  I can hear the realtors now, “Great views …” 

 

So, how did we get to experience this canyon?  Was it a simple matter of driving to a spot and taking pictures, like at Mesa Verde?  Oh, no.  This was a hike.  A real one.  Mile and a half around the entire rim of the canyon.  How hard could it be, right?  We didn’t even put on our hiking boots.  Just took off in our good ol’ tennies.   Now … let me say right up front that it was a spectacular experience.  Great views of the canyon and close-ups of the structures that we just did not expect.  But that hike.  It took us over an hour to complete.  The brochure didn’t tell us we would have to descend all the way into the canyon and climb up to the other side.  It was really hard in places, but fun.  Chris did a great job of managing her heart rate and breathing, which at times was challenged.  The hike reminded us of some of the ones we took at Big Bend. 

 

After the hike we grabbed some cheese and peanut butter crackers for lunch again and took off.  We switched drivers in the middle of a country road so I could make hotel reservations.  Chris hasn’t learned to use the app yet.  And she doesn’t want to.  Another way she has of making me feel needed, I guess.

 

We pulled over for a picture at the welcome to Utah sign.  So did the car behind us.  They appeared to be a young and in love couple, perhaps on their honeymoon.  They took selfies and lollygagged around, so we got our pictures and took off.  Well, “took off” may be a bit of an overstatement.  Getting back on the road was a roller coaster ride.  We maneuvered through numerous bumps and dips.  Makes you think we weren’t the first to think of stopping here. 

 

I thought the scenery of Utah would be reminiscent of Colorado.  It is not.  Not at all.  The rock formations are completely different.  Oh, and everything is … red.  We were successful in attaining our next stop, though.  Now we are sneaking around in the Land of the Moabites.  Maybe we’ll find Ruth …

 

Psalms 40:1-2 says, “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.”

 

Father, thank you for helping us on that hike yesterday.  We really sensed your presence.  Amen.

March 30 – “Searching the cliffs”

Well, we woke up yesterday to … no snow.  Just rain.  Cold rain.  We were still a bit hesitant to go to the national park in that weather, so instead we headed into downtown historic Durango.  They have a railroad museum that is supposed to be worth the look, even if you don't ride the train to Silverton and back.  We had already decided against the train ride, so train museum it was. 

 

Actually, I think we made a really good choice.  The museum was way more than we expected.  For one thing, the building was huge, some kind of railroad warehouse, I think.  It was more of a random history museum, almost like somebody set up an antique shop and decided to change its name and add some exhibits, and the whole thing got away from him, so he gave it to the railroad depot to manage.  I said, “almost like.”  As far as I know, that’s not what happened.  The exhibits were intentional, and there were a lot of them.  We were only there for twenty minutes or so, but we could have stayed much longer.  There was a full-size replica of the Wright brothers’ airplane hanging from the ceiling, just like at the Smithsonian.  Three or four antique cars - fully restored - (way more antique than my truck, by the way) were in there, as was an old fire engine from days gone by.  Two entire walls were lined with display cases.  And inside were tiny little army men.  You know, like the kind you played with when you were a kid.  Except these represented each of the armies of the world from the United States Revolutionary War down to the present.  I mean, detachments from each Civil War general and the World War II German army.  And when they reached World War I, they included model airplanes from each period as well.  Caleb, you would have loved it.  But that was not all.  One room was set up as an old office.  Even had an antique typewriter on a table.  And of course, there were two or three train cars.  You could even walk inside the caboose.  They were next to a massive display as big as my living room of the terrain followed by the train on its usual run.  And there were two of those model trains chugging around the track!  On the other side of the room, the displays included a full-sized stuffed elk and a few bears.  They also had a head on the wall that they were passing off as a moose.  Didn’t fool me.  Everybody knows there is no such thing as a moose. 

 

We made our way through the gift shop where Chris found a thimble for her collection.  I also discovered why trains kind of died out.  A tiny little hedgehog caught my attention.  How?  Well, he was wearing a train engineer’s hat, for one.  He said the reason trains were dying out is because they can’t find any engineer hedgehogs willing to work the hours that he did “back in the day.”  Sounded like a kindred spirit to me, so I invited him to join us.  He said his name was Harvey, but he was such a kidder, I’m not sure that was right. 

 

On the way back to the car, Chris discovered and found her way inside a Christmas store.  Yep.  Just Christmas stuff.  And lo and behold, what should she find in there?  A Christmas ornament!  Actually, it was perfect, because we try to get one from every key place we go to on our vacations.  This one was a metal train with “Durango 2022” on it.  All in all, it was one great way to spend a few rainy hours.

 

But we came up with another.  We decided to drive on up to Mesa Verde National Park.  It was only twenty or thirty miles away, and the weather forecast was looking better.  I took my turn driving, as I usually do when we are running around locally.  As it turned out, there was nothing “local” about this trip.  It involved a tough drive through several mountain passes over wet roads and some rain, but we made it to the park in time to … drive another 45 minutes up further into the mountains to check out the cliff dweller dwellings.  That would be 45 minutes to drive about 15 miles.  Switchbacks and wet roads and – finally – snow.  Oh, and sleet and rain, too.  Sometimes pretty heavy.  But it was very much worth it, especially to see Chris’ face light up when she took pictures.  And anybody who knows Chris knows … she takes lots of pictures.  Lit up the car like a bolt of lightning once she got rolling up there.  The cliff dweller ruins were amazing to behold.  One set of apartments held as many as 125 rooms, all carved into the side of a cliff.  It was the fascinating stuff you usually just see in a dusty old history textbook.

 

On the way out of the park, a Cacomistle jumped into the car with us.  What’s that, you say?  Another name for it is Bassarisk.  Still not helpful?  How about Ring Tail Cat?  Best I can do.  She said her name, but I couldn’t really pronounce it.  Sounded like Cacobassy, or something like that.  She said to just call her RTC for short.  All her friends do.

 

Back in Durango for the night, we went across the street from the hotel to Zia Taqueria, a Mexican food place – on the recommendation of the assistant general manager.  Zach said it was like Chipotle’s, except it was better than Chipotle’s because, well, it wasn’t Chipotle’s.  Interesting.  We’ve never been to Chipotle’s, so we tried it.  Very bland quesadillas.  I had beef.  Chris had chicken.  No grilled veggies within.  No special sauce.  Just meat and grated cheddar cheese.  And no queso to be found in the entire place. We aren’t in Texas any more, Toto.  Back at the hotel we found that they had set up a popcorn machine and a table of cookies for an afternoon/early evening snack.  Great perk for travelers.

 

Last night we watched the Texas Aggies win their NIT semi-final game easily.  They play in the championship on Thursday night.  Well, at 5 p.m.  I have to remember we are now on mountain time. 

 

Psalms 68:5 says, “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.”

 

Father, thank you for your protection up in the mountains through all that snow and sleet.  And thank you for the people with the foresight to preserve the dwellings we saw up there.  Truly amazing.  Amen.

March 29 – “Through the mountains …”

We both started the day determined to drink a lot of water.  We remembered what altitude sickness feels like back in the mountains.  No thank you.

 

Our next stop involved kind of a convoluted route of due north, then due west then back due north again.  This strange course of action was leading us ultimately to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  I know.  I know.  In fact I said it several times.  Why would I want to go see sand dunes when I literally live on one?  But the prospect of sand dunes in the middle of the mountains did intrigue me.  Perhaps we would see water as well.

 

On the way we saw several random sights through these Sangre de Christo Mountains.  One of the highlights was a sign for a local establishment – often the best place to look for entertainment on the back roads.  In one little town there was a place called GubGub’s Pizza and Ice Cream.  GubGub … may your business always be as awesome as your name.  Once we got further into the wilderness, we saw a few deer here and there.  But the back country highlight for sure came when we glanced to our right.  There, staring right back at us with piercing eyes, were two young coyotes.  Beautiful-looking critters. 

 

Now on to the park.  We could see the massive mounds of, well, sand from pretty far away.  They appeared to climb halfway up the mountain behind.  It was indeed a fascinating sight.  But we did get briefly distracted on the approach.  There was a sudden appearance of a sign advertising a waterfall.  Nothing else.  Just a small sign on the side of the road.  Just what most intrigues us …

 

But the National Park.  That’s why we were there.  So we sped on.  And soon we entered the Park grounds.  The ranger smiled and waved us through when we showed our lifetime pass.  Sometimes it’s great to be old.  Sometimes it’s not so much, but that’s a story for another time.  We made a brief stop at the visitor’s center to get the stamp for Chris’ book and discovered a sad little cougar cub up for adoption.  Come on, how could I resist those eyes?  Named her Carly.  Carly the Cougar Cub.  Like all new parents, we were excited and sent photos to our friends.  Imagine our “delight” when Larry sent the picture back with an “embellishment.”  He had superimposed his own face onto Carly’s body.  Very strange, that Larry.  But now we have him and Carly with us the rest of the way.  From the center we drove a little ways further and found “the place” where everyone seemed to be parking.  Sure enough, this was the access point for the incredibly exciting opportunity … walking in the sand.  OK.  I guess I’m being just a little bit sarcastic.  The dunes were just as big as they appeared, and one of the big draws was sledding down them.  Of course signs informed all that makeshift cardboard sleds weren’t allowed, and didn’t work well, anyway.  But … they had the solution to that little problem.  “Rent a sand sled from us!”  Of course.  Nope.  We walked about thirty or forty feet in and returned to the car.  Check this one off the list, but I think I’ll stick with the dunes of Galveston.  Know why?  They have water associated with them.

 

Speaking of water and of certain difficulties with aging … we couldn’t resist.  Remember that waterfall sign?  We went back.  First side trip of the journey.  Once we turned into the area where the sign was, we kind of expected a little more information.  Nope.  Just follow the gravel road.  Up.  And up.  And up.  We twisted and turned and slid and looked off the side of a mountain for three and a half miles.  We pondered turning back only briefly.  Where we turn around, anyway?  Finally, we arrived at a parking lot that actually had cars in it.  And off to the side was a path of stones leading … up.  Chris was ready to attack, but I insisted that I wanted to change into my hiking boots first.  She agreed.  One of the best decisions we have made thus far.  That rock path?  That continues the whole way.  Oh, and did I mention the whole way was … up?  It was a really difficult climb.  We did have to stop two or three times, partly to catch our breath, but mainly to let Chris get her heart rate under control.  She was pretty frustrated with her cardiac rehab.  “It was supposed to get me ready for stuff like this!”  Well, yeah, but the fine print said, “only if you do stuff at sea level.”  We finally Pulled our selves onto what was advertised as a stream that you had to wade through to get to the falls.  Except it was frozen solid.  So we very carefully picked our way along toward a huge cave from which we could hear voices.  Before we arrived, though, a young boy greeted us, head soaking wet.  He was giddy with excitement as he told us about his experience.  He said, “I stuck my head through the ice and looked up at the water and it was like it was raining on my face!”  Well, OK.  This was something I had to see.  We continued on, slowly but surely until we rounded a bend in the cave and looked up to see … a frozen waterfall.  I have seen pictures of these before, but never have I seen one in person.  It was … spectacular.  Totally unexpected.  We could see the little hole through which our new little friend had stuck his head.  And, no, I didn’t try it.  Neither of us wanted to chance what it would have taken to get that close.  A climb up two layers of ice, slick from the best way of exiting that area – sliding down.  Instead, we marveled from a scant ten or so feet away.  0n the way back we met a retired firefighter from California and his wife.  He missed the comradery but was really enjoying his retired life. 

 

Anything else would have been anticlimactic, so we hit the road and headed west over more mountains and into Durango.  One the way we passed Wolf Creek ski resort.  I’ve heard of that.  I also saw a shop called Magenta Moose.  Not sure what they were selling.  Our path took us over the Continental Divide and right along the edge of the Ute Indian reservation.  Finally, we arrived in Durango and checked in for the next two nights.  Word has it that we will be expecting snow today.  We’ll see.

 

Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”

 

Father, thank you for the wonder of that waterfall and the innocence of that coyote.  And for the safe trip over the mountains.  Amen.

March 28 – “Heart rates … elevated”

We started our morning by cruising along historic Route 66 in downtown Amarillo, Texas.  They have a stretch of Strand-like shops and antique stores there.  Unfortunately, everything was closed on Sundays.  Even the visitor’s center.  So sadly, no new critters there.

 

We then headed north to try to find the Lake Meredith National Recreation Area and the Alibates National Park.  On the way we listened to the worship service of Seaside on FaceBook Live.  Well, that is until we completely lost cell service.  Sorry, Jordan.  Didn’t get to hear the bulk of your message.  But it was good while it lasted. 

 

Our first shot at finding Lake Meredith ended in abject failure.  We ended up on a gravel road that led into the Twilight Zone.  Fortunately, Chris was able to turn around and head us onward toward Alibates Park.  I hated to miss seeing water, but when we did get cell service, we found out the visitor’s center would have been closed anyway.  So, we moved on over to the next stop.  The two areas are right next to each other, so we got to Alibates with ease.  And the visitor’s center?  Closed.  Be back at 12:10 (in an hour or so).  How are you liking our lucky streak with visitor’s centers?  We sat in the parking lot and had a picnic lunch of cheese or peanut butter crackers and Pringles.  We drove around the park on our own made-up tour.  We did a little mini-hike they had set up around the center.  That one was really easy, but it made me feel like a goat.  Very narrow dirt trail along the side of a hill.  Baaa.  We did find out from some of the free map stuff that the park was named for an original owner of what used to be a ranch there, Allie Bates.  Now it is Alibates Park.  Cute, huh?  The center finally did open at exactly 12:10.  Chris got stamps for both parks.  That was a bonus.  And we adopted a very cute, blue-eyed gray wolf named Willie.

 

Once out of the park we were looking to begin our westward journey.  And that meant a real-live shortcut.  We were rewarded with more than just saving time.  Come to find out we were on the actual dam road.  Yep.  We got to drive over the dam that was creating the lake.  Finally … water.  I have been missing it.

 

We stopped briefly in Dalhart for a Blizzard and an ice cream cone at … where else?  Dairy Queen.  Due to staffing shortages in the area, their dining room was closed, though, so we had to do the drive-through.  It’s been a long time since our days of youth groups and Dairy Queens.  Thanks, by the way, to those of you who gave us DQ gift certificates.  We broke those out for the trip.  Without them we may have missed out on all this smaltzy nostalgia. 

 

As we crossed into New Mexico we began to see remnants of … snow.  It was piled on the side of the road all the way across New Mexico to our next destination.  I wanted to stop and build a snowman, but Chris thought it prudent that we continue.  We did see one very large herd of deer and or antelope playing in a field.  Hmm.  That would make a good line to a song, wouldn’t it?  Somebody ought to do that.

 

For our next stop, we decided to climb down into a volcano.  Mount Capulin is another national park there in northern New Mexico.  It is all plugged up right now, but still considered an active volcano.  Way back when we lived in Colorado we took the boys there and hiked around the rim.  This time we decided to descend into the depths of the core.  The hike down was really easy.  Oh, and I was able to fashion a tiny snowman from residual snow left aside the trail.  He must have been at least six inches tall.  Left him there on the wall to help warn hikers if a rattlesnake was approaching.  Wouldn’t that be a treat?  Tiny Frosty Snowman yelling out in his Tiny Frosty voice, “Run away!”  The hike back up was … tough.  Even Chris complained that her months of cardiac rehab didn’t prepare her for hiking straight uphill in the mountains.  We only had to stop and rest once.  Suffice it to say that our heart rates were … elevated.  Chris checked her exercise stats, and we were given credit for climbing nine flights of stairs.  Hmm.  At least.  I guess now I can take volcano off of my Hawaii bucket list and replace it with luau.

 

We finally made it to our stopping place for the night in Trinidad, Colorado.  Just in time for supper.  Guess where we ended up?  WalMart!  Yup.  Chicken salad sandwiches from their deli.  They were really good, too.  That might just remain an option for future stops. 

 

Well, today we head further west … into the real mountains.  42 degrees this morning.  Weather forecast says we might run into some snow …

 

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

 

Father, thank you for walking with us into that volcano.  We sure did need your encouragement on the return trip to the top.  Thank you for always being with us.  Amen.

March 27 – “‘Merca Bird Wars”

We had a leisurely breakfast with Cary and KayLynn to start the day.  Once again Cary fixed us bacon and eggs and biscuits.  He’s got that one down to a science, and it is really good.  We sat around the table and chatted about our time there and a little about past (They went with us to Alaska) and upcoming trips (They are going with us to Hawaii).  Finally we washed up some clothes and got all packed up to head out on our actual road trip toward our first stop – Amarillo – ish.

 

Of course, on the road we were entertained probably more than we should have been by the random sights.  There was the “Merca” bird.  A taller than a house specimen of the massive eagle-ish birds that once invaded that part of Texas from outer space.  This one was captured, stuffed and painted red, white and blue as a warning against future attacks.  In one small town I saw a giant tennis shoe.  Yep.  Chuck Taylor-type tennis shoe.  Just one, though.  And we didn’t get a picture of it.  Couldn’t get Chris to turn around.  I suspect it belonged to one of the aliens who set the ‘Merca birds loose.  There was also that wind farm.  You know, those massively gigantic poles with the pinwheels that are supposed to spin and generate power?  Come on.  I know you have heard about their effectiveness in the ‘Merca Bird Wars.  The pinwheels kept the creatures so fascinated that we were able to orchestrate and carry out a massive counterattack and win the war.  One thing, though.  When we came through, it must have been somebody’s break time.  Just two of the pinwheels were spinning.  Kind of sad.  Speaking of the counterattack, you probably remember that it was our own population of rattlesnakes that proved the crushing blow to the aliens.  One tiny bite on those huge, Chuck Taylor clad toes, and all was finished.  Now all that remains are the warning signs originally placed to caution locals.  We actually stumbled upon a home for those wayward rattlesnakes when we stopped at a rest area.  At least that’s what I assumed.  The sign did say, “Watch for rattlesnakes.”  Sigh.  Battlefield heroes have become a simple nuisance to watch out for.  Sad.  Oh … I think there may be some small remnant groups of the enemy still alive somewhere out there.  As we drove through, I received word that suddenly my FaceBook account had been attacked and my identity co-opted.  Fortunately, some friends reported the action, and I took the steps needed to take care of things on my end.  Thank you, my fellow-freedom fighters.  It’s people like you (and the rattlesnakes, of course) that changed the course of human history.

 

But back to our journey.  Once we left that historical area, we moved on.  We had one traffic slow-down in Wichita Falls.  Construction on a portion of the road we needed to be on.  It didn’t last long, though.  We also saw a lot of burned-out fields and trees and brush from the recent fires.  We did finally arrive at our hotel in Amarillo.  We even received a free night’s stay from previous loyalty points.  Good way to start the trip. 

 

We had supper with a college softball team from El Paso at a local McAlister’s Deli.  They “didn’t do as well as we had hoped” in their tournament.  There was also some kind of youth basketball or soccer team there as well.  In spite of the influx of customers, the short-handed staff did a great job.  The food wasn’t all that great, but the service was good.  Of course, there was one distraction.  The two girls taking orders had eyelashes at least four inches long.  Never seen anything like it.  And one of them had fingernails the size of railroad spikes.  How she managed to punch the right buttons on the computer, I will never know.  Her teeth had jewelry stuck to them, and she had piercings on her face as well.  Oh, and a pretty hefty tattoo on her arm.  I was beginning to wonder if a second wave of invasion had begun. 

 

After the meal, we headed out to our first tourist leg – The Cadillac Ranch.  It was less than ten minutes away.  This was one of my two designated bucket list items for this trip.  The other is to touch the waters of the Great Salt Lake.  But back to the cadillacs.  It was kind of disappointing, actually.  Guess I expected a whole field of vehicles, but there were only ten.  And they were all stuck in standing water, so it was difficult to get close enough to do the whole point of the excursion – sign in on one of them with your own personal tag.  We had a problem, though.  No spray paint.  All we had was a sharpie.  I did manage to carve out our names, though.  And we got a picture or two.  Even a selfie, as I recall.  Bucket list one … Check.

 

We still had some time before sunset (thanks to Daylight Savings Time), so we headed south of the big city about thirty minutes to take a drive through Palo Duro Canyon.  There were some cool striations and mesas.  And we saw a really beautiful sunset.  The whole place seemed to be highly touristified, though.  Definitely a camping mecca.  Too much human wildlife.  The only animals we saw were the deer and Texas longhorns they kept fed at the park entrance.  The gift shop was already closed, so we weren’t able to garner any new friends to join us on the trip … yet. 

 

Back at the hotel we met some folks in the elevator who were in town for a kids’ basketball tournament.  The dad found out I had been a basketball coach for years and said he could sure use my help.  It was tempting to follow up and see where their games were so we could go watch a few.  Instead, we wished them well and retired to the room to watch the last half of the NCAA tournament game.  Good day.

 

1 Corinthians 13:13 says, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love.”

 

Father, thank you for your beautiful world and beautiful people.  Amen.

 

March 26 – “Connecting”

Any comments on the font change here?  Diane told me she was having trouble seeing the other one.  “Too light.”  How’s this, Diane?

 

I had quite the fun encounter with Chris yesterday morning.  I woke up at my usual time, 6:15 or so.  As I was getting dressed, she roused up and asked, “Who won the game?”  I was kind of taken aback at that as her first words of the day, but there were a few really exciting basketball games the night before that we had been watching (Texas Tech and then University of Houston).  I obliged her with a quick report, and she eased back under the covers. But suddenly she sat up again and asked, “What time is it?”  It was becoming rapidly apparent that she thought I was getting ready to come to bed instead of getting up out of bed.  I told her it was 6:30.  She looked at me, quite confused, so I assured her that I was getting up and not just now coming to bed.  She replied with a remarkable, although somewhat gruff, “Oh,” as she plopped back down and snuggled under the covers once again.  I can see now that we will have some fun this vacation …

 

Cary and KayLynn had a breakfast casserole all fixed and ready to go.  Eggs and potatoes and cheese for sure.  Maybe more good stuff in there, too.  It was a great way to start the day.  Thank you in a big way to our hosts. 

 

Baseball yesterday took place at the Polo Grounds.  We had to walk past Yankee Stadium and the Green Monster to get there.  I could get used to watching baseball at a Big League Dreams complex.  Our boys won their first game 2-0.  Jachin was at first base again, his old position, and the one where he does the team the most good.  They won the second game 3-1 on a hit by Jachin that resulted in both runs.  That gave them a total record of 2-1-1.  Sadly, that still wasn’t enough to get them into the finals.  They were using a complex system of figuring points based on how many runs were given up in each game.  Our guys missed playing in the final game by just one run.  We were definitely proud fans in general – and proud grandparents in particular. 

 

As a little bonus, Josh and his family drove up from Waco to watch the game.  Always great to see them, of course.  And as a bonus for them, the varsity homeschool team from Waco (The same one Zakary plays basketball on) was playing on the next field over (Old Arlington Stadium).  Josh and Zak knew several of the boys on that team, so they connected with them.  Sadly, they lost in the bottom half of the last inning, in spite of hitting five home runs.

 

After the games we were all invited to supper at the Huntley House, where Kel’s family is staying.  The Winkle’s were invited as well.  Salad, chicken spaghetti, regular spaghetti, and two different desserts were on tap.  The kids had a ball playing football and chasing rabbits in their huge back yard.  The Huntley’s oldest son Justin even stopped by with his family.  He and Josh are the same age, so they were able to reconnect a little bit.  And speaking of connections … Caleb may or may not have noticed Justin’s very cute oldest daughter, who just happened to be just his age …

 

Habakkuk 3:17-18 says, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

 

Father, thank you for the chance to spend time with old friends and to see our kids and grandkids enjoying the time together as well.  Amen. 

 

March 25 – “The B&B Tournaments”

Well, OK then.  Once again we wake up to 39 degree weather.  But word has it that we will hit at or near 80 this afternoon.  Pass the layers of clothes, please. 

 

We had a great start to the day yesterday, thanks to our hosts.  Cary cooked up a great breakfast of bacon and eggs and biscuits.  Hard to beat that good ol’ down home favorite.  Then it was on to the first “B” Tournament of the day … Baseball.  The baseball field for the day was quite a ways from the Winkle house, up in North Arlington.  Sounds far, doesn’t it?  Well, it just took us about 15 minutes to get there, so not really.  The park where the fields were was really nice.  The field was in really good condition, too.  Best part of the games, though, was the home plate umpire.  Very entertaining dude.  Kel started right off with his usual fan banter, questioning calls.  But this guy took it better than most.  In fact, he found funny ways to reply.  After one ball call that Kel questioned, the umpire turned to the stands and held up his hands with his pointer finger and thumb held just a few centimeters apart, as if to say, “Missed it by this much.” 

 

The games themselves were really exciting as well.  The first one ended in a tie, 3-3 after the goody guys made a last-inning comeback that fell just short of victory.  Jachin played right field in that one. 

 

After that game we took Micah and Josiah with us and headed out in search of some lunch.  We were going to a WalMart, but Google George was taking up toward a major freeway, so instead we popped into a Tom Thumb store right down the street.  Tom Thumb, in spite of its name, is not a mini-mart, or even a gathering place for short people.  It is actually a code name for a Randall’s imposter.  The logos are suspiciously similar, and their computer even accepted my Randall’s card.  Good to know for future reference. 

 

Back to the field to enjoy our baked potato soup and chicken salad sandwich.  Guess who had what option.  We arrived back just as Jachin was getting ready to throw in his first pitch.  He did really well for the three innings he pitched, working his way out of several jams, and giving up just one run.  Sadly, his offense wasn’t able to muster up any runs at all, so the bad guys won this one, 1-0. 

 

Afterwards we went with the team to downtown Arlington, where they joined up with the varsity team to inundate a local burger joint called Twisted Root Burger Company.  Interesting place.  It has been featured on the Food Network show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.  Not sure which category this one fit in, but it was certainly … unique.  Had to walk past a buffalo head to make our order.  Over in one section of the very large room was … not kidding here … a motor home.  Inside the building, mind you.  Apparently it didn’t operate, but there it was, taking up space anyway.  It provided the separation between the diners and the bathroom area.  The bathrooms were resplendent with quotes exalting Chuck Norris.  One wall of the restaurant was covered with old tailgates from various trucks.  Under those was a small array of arcade games.  Seating ranged from bar stools and high tables to long banquet-style tables with wooded benches to an outdoor area with covered picnic table options.  Definitely unique.  Chris ordered a burger.  I wasn’t hungry, so I settled for one of their signature drinks – root beer float.  Good stuff.  We were most impressed with Jachin’s JV team.  They all squeezed into one of the banquet tables so they could be together.  Nice display of team unity.  They play two games again today, and then they will find out if they are among the finalists for one of the two games on Saturday. 

 

Back “home” at the Winkles, we joined them for a small bowl of beef stew and ultimately watched some college basketball.  That’s the second “B.”  Of course I didn’t forget March Madness just because we weren’t at home.  Arkansas knocked off number one seed Gonzaga in a huge upset.  Texas Tech lost a tough one to Duke, ending my dreams of an all-Texas finale.  But University of Houston knocked off the other number one seed, Arizona.  These games have been amazing.  Keep them coming.

 

Proverbs 16:24 says, “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”

 

Father, thank you for the impressive display of team unity we saw in the JV guys yesterday.  Help them remember this experience going forward and allow it to influence other relationships in their lives.  Amen.

March 24 - “To Haulmark and beyond …”

We are back on the road again, heading for parts unknown.  Well, unknown to us.  Hmm.  That last part sounds kind of familiar. I’ve probably said that once or twice before.  I’ll have to ask Dianne next time I see her.

 

It still didn’t feel like a real “trip” trip, though until we passed good ol’ Sam Houston statue in Huntsville.  That’s when I knew that we were really going … somewhere.  And not long after the adventure portion of this tale really began.

 

For starters, we got behind a truck pulling a trailer with some interesting markings on it.  “Haulmark.”  I snapped a picture of it and included it on FaceBook as part of the unsolved mystery section.  But my followers had some ready explanations.  My brother said, “It’s headed for a happy ending.”  Aww.  An Arlington friend queried, “Maybe it’s the movie set.”  But the answer of the day, to be sure, came from a long-time friend who lives in Santa Fe now.  Jim answered, “It’s the country widowed guy that went to the big city to pick up the new workaholic city girl’s stuff now that they’ve fallen in love.”  Jim, I hear the Hallmark Channel is hiring writers who truly understand their market share …

 

We stopped at Buc-ees in Madisonville.  As crowded as that place always is, we haven’t had good luck with our experiences there.  This stop was, sadly, no different.  Now, the bathrooms were clean, to be sure.  But the food?  Chris chicken tortilla wrap was cold.  My BLT had non-crispy bacon.  Disappointing. 

 

But back to the the adventure side of the excursion …

When we approached the booming metropolis of Fairfield, George, our new Google Siri GPS guy (we changed to his voice after years of animosity between Chris and the girl Siri voice) warned us to take a different route.  Seems there was something happening up ahead that caused our travel time to add fifteen minutes.  Wait.  Make that 45 minutes.  Wait.  Now it’s two hours and 45 minutes.  I have never seen that happen so quickly.  I jumped into action and took over control of the Google maps app.  I quickly found the apparent detour to which our headless friend had been referring.  Chris made the exit seamlessly and we were off on the scenic route through – no idea where.  Fortunately, we were behind a very large 18-wheeler that was doing the same thing.  I offered the sage advice to … “Follow that truck.”   Sur enough, he led us seamlessly through the wandering countryside, until suddenly, Google George calmly announced, “Turn right and merge onto I45.  Boom.  And just like that we were back on track.  Very little time lost (Although we weren’t on any kind of schedule, so that wasn’t a concern).  Before long we were arriving in Arlington.

 

We did have plenty of time before actually making our appearance at the Winkle’s house.  So we stopped at the AAA office nearby.  I had actually googled for one back in Galveston, and other than one over near Katy and another somewhere in the Woodlands, this one popped up as close to our house.  Close, indeed.  But they did have the paper maps we wanted.  Yep.  Maps made from paper.  The truly old school kind that unfold in such a manner that you can never get them refolded in exactly the right way.  Love ‘em.  Nothing quite like ‘em.  Kind of like reading an actual book instead of watching the movie version.  Can’t wait to play with them on the road …

 

Speaking of on the road, my two great desires for this trip?  I always try to boil things down to just a few so I can be guaranteed success at having a joyful trip.  This time the desires are:

1) See the cadillacs buried halfway in the dirt near Amarillo

2) Touch the Great Salt Lake with my actual fingers

Anything else will be gravy.

 

Matthew 6:34 says, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

 

Father, thank you for our safe trip.  Thank you for our awesome hosts, the Winkles.  Thank you that Kel and his family made it to their stopping point as well.  Please be with Jachin and his team as they play in the tournament.  Keep them (and us!) warm.  39 degrees is NOT baseball weather.  Amen.

 

March 23 – “She did it”

She did it.  Chris finished her last day of cardiac rehab yesterday.  Woohoo.  Thirty-six grueling sessions of hooking up to monitors and following the exercise instructions of exercise physiologists and cardiac nurses.  Three long months of putting our life on hold while she gets herself up to par and beyond again.  And now … now she gets to keep doing that stuff, as good as she can, while we finally get to hit the road, Jack. 

 

That’s right.  She’s done.  So, we full on celebrated.  Well, now, you have to understand something here.  “Full on celebration” might look a little different in your world than in ours.  For us, it meant going to the steak house for a nice lunch and paying with one of the gift cards we received at the retirement bash a few weeks ago.  We also kept an ear to the progress of the storms moving through.  Galveston was under a tornado watch the whole time we were out.  The news was, fortunately, boring.  No extreme weather here to speak of, although it did rain some.  The meal, on the other hand, was really good.  Chris had some kind of grilled chicken.  She wasn’t too sure she liked the glaze on top, but she said the chicken was tender and not too dry.  I find that amazing in itself.  All white meat chicken is too dry.  That’s why as a rule I don’t order it.  I got the steak and shrimp with loaded mashed potatoes.  As is my custom, I ate the shrimp and saved most of the steak for supper last night.  I really enjoyed both, by the way.  Great place for a celebration …

 

The other part of our celebration involved return trips to Randall’s and WalMart.  At Randall’s we just grabbed some more dog food to make sure Freddy was well-stocked while we were gone.  The WalMart stop was made with a certain degree of fear and trepidation.  After the previous day’s weirdness, we were wondering what strange phenomena might be making appearances.  We made it through the doors just fine.  No employee prying it open and shut.  At least not the one we entered through.  The cash registers all seemed to be working.  Well, all that had an actual employee assigned to them.  The self-serve section appeared to be unscathed, so after we gathered what we needed for our trip, we headed there. 

 

We had no problem checking out, but then we tried to leave.  Suspiciously, one of the front doors was firmly locked, and all traffic was being diverted to the same door we had entered through not long ago.  Traffic manipulation.  Isn’t that yet another ploy of evil alien beings to discombobulate our population?  What the interlopers didn’t account for, however, was the fact that this is Galveston.  We live with weirdness every day.  In fact, we thrive on it.  Bring it on, E.T.

 

1 Peter 3:12 says, “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

 

Father, thank you for walking – or rather exercising – with Chris through her cardiac rehab.  Great to have that behind her … again.  Amen.

 

March 22 – “What just happened?”

It all started when we decided to get a bit of a head start on our plans to leave town on Wednesday.  We had two days to do it.  But there were no men’s basketball tournament games on Monday, so why not get done as much as we can then?  That would leave us Tuesday to relax and pack.  Sure.  What could go wrong?

 

Our first stop was at Randall’s to top off our gas tank with gas.  It the grand scheme of things we got a pretty good deal there.  “Only” $3.77 a gallon.  Check. 

 

Next, we drove over to WalMart to pick up a few things.  We thought it would be a simple, quick, grab what we need, walk a little around the store to get in a few more steps, and check out.  Bim.  Bam.  Boom.  Back at home.  Umm.  Nope.  That’s where it happened.  Oh, the first part of our plan worked swimmingly.  Snacks in basket.  Check.  Travel size hand lotion.  Check.  Package of socks for me.  Check.  We even picked up some bottles of Gatorade for the road.  Check.  But then … we headed for the front of the store, and that’s when we realized something was horribly wrong.

 

Every single lane that was open and a line – a long line.  Now that’s not exactly unexpected, mind you.  It has been Spring Break this week and all.  But when we walked past just moments before, there were no lines.  None.  What could have happened in so short a time?

 

We ignored the situation at first.  In fact, we strolled right past and made our way to the Garden Shop.  But the register was completely shut down there.  It was eerily quiet back there, too.  Maybe too quiet.  We swung our basket around and headed back to the front.  We joined one of the self-serve lines and struck up a conversation with the person in front of us, which, by the way, I have been told is a very Texan thing to do.  Well … I like Texans.  Some of my best friends are Texans.  She hadn’t heard any reason for the delay, but all the lights over the registers in the self-serve line had suddenly begun flashing red.  Another lady told us it had been this way for about twenty minutes.  Wow.  I was majorly impressed with her patience.  Several WalMart employees walked past, but the only one who spoke told us the computers were still down in the pharmacy.  Hmm.

 

We held our ground for a long five minutes or so before Chris started making her rounds to see if things were any better further away.  Nope.  Finally we heard an employee yelling, but we couldn’t make out what she said.  Before much longer, a random guy walked past and let us in on the announcement.  “They are asking people to leave the store,” he explained.  No explanation as to why, other than “the registers are down.”  Good reason, I guess. 

 

Pretty soon we joined quite a few shoppers in a mass exodus out the door.  Good thing we left when we did, too.  They had to pry open the door to let us out.  WalMart was officially closed until further notice.  No one was being allowed in.  Those wanting out had to wait for the door to be forced open. 

 

So what just happened here?  What was the reason for the mass shut-down?  Oh, I have heard several strong possibilities since then.  Perhaps the most credible was the theory of a test attack by outer space aliens on a major earth center of commerce.  If their mini-attack worked to spread panic, then they could advance to a much higher scale of operations.  Make way more sense to me than the obvious cover story … “Computer glitch forces closure of local WalMart.”  In fact, I just read today’s newspaper.  Not even a mention of the attack.  I suppose the successful infiltration of WalMart computers, as well as the attempted mass kidnappings of unsuspecting WalMart shoppers, are just not particularly newsworthy.  Sigh.

 

Zechariah 14:9 says, “The Lord will be king over the whole earth.  On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.”

 

Father, please help them figure out the problems over there at WalMart.  A lot of Islanders depend on that place.  Amen.