Back in the day a band called, The Proclaimers, wrote a song about walking 5,000 miles (titled, "I'm Gonna Be"). Last week we drove a little over 3,500 miles and there is no way I would walk that - Forest Gump, maybe, but not me. Just to clarify, I did not add an extra zero, I meant to write THREE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED miles in one week. The journey went like this:
Friday, 2p-4p Sugar Land to College Station (2 hours)
We went to visit some old Young Life guys of mine who were graduating high school. The graduation gift consisted of a box of Ramen noodles and Oatmeal Creme Pies wrapped in duck (or duct) tape. I called it "The College Survial Kit"
Friday, 6p-10:30p College Station to Paris, TX (4 1/2 hours)
We stayed the weekend with family. Went to Chloe's gymnastic recital and took some great videos.
Monday, 9a-10p Paris, TX to Kingsport, TN (13 hours)
Our destination is Lynchburg, but we stopped and stayed with Emily's (Allison's best friend from high school) mom. This was the second time we've stayed there and both visits have been a great break from the road. We woke up to fresh ground coffee and a home-made breakfast (aka. southern hospitality)
Tuesday, 11a-3:30p, Kingsport, TN to Lynchburg, VA (4 1/2 hours)
Our first day in Lynchburg. We wanted to stop at an antique/furniture/junk store on our way in town, but for whatever reason it doesn't open on Tuesdays. Seriously, what store doesn't open on Tuesdays? We met up with a friend of mine that I worked with/for while we live in Lynchburg and had a great visit with his family. That night we drove to Amherst (about 18 miles outside lynchburg) to stay with the Pelfrey's - a family from the church I worked at that we became very fond of.
Wednesday, In Lynchburg
After spending the day with old friends we were given the opportunity to stay in a cabin settled in the mountains. It was a much needed retreat and you couldn't beat the solitude we were able to experience. For dinner that night we met up with some of the kids from the youth group at CiCis. Afterwards we went to one of their houses and played basketball (I played basketball, Allison talked with one of their moms).
Thursday, still in Lynchburg
We spent the morning cooking breakfast and hiking a little over a mile on the mountain trails. This was not a relaxing hike, it was uphill and at times Allison had to carry me on her back. Ok, she didn't have to carry me on her back, but we did sweat. We had planned on staying in the cabin another night, but a storm blew in and we didn't want to get stuck in the mountains (although, it wouldn't have been a bad place to get stuck). We ended up staying with the same people we stayed with the first night and once again it was a good visit. Our two nights staying with the Pelfrey's made our trip much better. Friends we had originally seen the first day invited us back over to their house for dinner and cooked burgers.
Friday, 9:30a - 3:30a, Lynchburg, VA to Paris, TX (18 hours)
You read it right. We drove 18 hours without stopping except for food and gas and at one point got 40 mpg. Each time I've driven that amount I've felt exhausted, but for some reason if I needed to I could've driven another 10 hours.
Saturday, In Paris
Hung out with family
Sunday, 1p-6p, Paris, TX to Sugar Land, TX (5 hours)
It was really nice to be home, unpack, and rest. We actually drove a little over 3,600 miles, but before I could get the actual number off the dash Allison reset it. There was a lot of driving done while in College Station, Paris, and Lynchburg that isn't accounted for in this blog.
Highlights of the trip:
seeing old YL kids(and their family) before they graduate high school (C.S.)
visiting with family (Paris)
time with with Chloe (niece)
talking with my grandma
great surprise moments with the camera ("everyone say..."
staying with Emily's mom (TN)
dinner with kids at CiCis (VA)
dinner with the Fosters (VA)
visiting with Ryan and Ginny (VA)
staying with the Pelfreys (VA)
chuck and his cabin (VA)
basketball at the Conrads (VA)
getting our vacuum (VA)
driving 18 hours
40 mpg
the mountains (you know this isn't in TX)
getting a free cup of pickles at Subway (TX)
hiking (VA)
staying with the Johnsons (TX)
finding three boxes in my grandma's shed I though I had lost
my wife being there beside me
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
The Snake Wrangler
Here's the story: As I was driving to Stuart and Dev's place I passed a large snake in the middle of the road. It was coiled up and looked like a rattler, so I decided to turn around and run over it - please don't call PETA. I wouldn't normally do that, but there was a path for joggers right beside the road. Can you imagine the reaction from a woman who might be pushing a stroller??? Not good. So, I ran over it. I figured I flattened it, but when me and Stu went back to look it was still alive in the road. By this time cars were stopping to look and we decided the best thing to do was get it off the road...but, we didn't know how.
This is where my incredible van comes into play. About a week ago I picked up some lumber out of a dumpster and thankfully it was still in my van (I was going to try to use a tennis racket, but Stu talked me out of it). As you can see in the video I wasn't man enough to pick the snake up by the head, instead, I opted to throw it with the piece of wood. After getting the snake out of the road it made its way back to the brush. Problem solved.
I put the video on here because there aren't many times a person gets to play with a snake like that. I must admit that I felt a little less manly for not picking it up with my hands. The guy from 'Man vs. Wild' would probably laugh at this...in disgust, not because it's funny.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Bogey and Me
Allison and I watched the movie, "Marley and Me" not too long ago and it was lame..err I mean, really good. Ok, ok, it was sad, but seriously, who in their right mind treats an animal like a human being??? Billions of dollars are spent on vet care, purchasing an animal, and animal accessories every year while millions of people go hungry at night. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I confess, I spend money on my dog. A brotha has to eat, right? We buy him dog food. We bought a collar. We bought a leash. We bought pee-pads (occasionally, he will still poop by the backdoor). This isn't supposed to be a 'bash on people for spending too much money on their pets while the world goes hungry' post, so I'll move on. This is about my dog.
We finally got a dog and I think he's the best dog in the world. I'm a proud dad. If not the best dog, then definitely in the top 10. His name is Bogey and we got him from my grandma when he was a little over a year old. He knows how to sit and how to go to bed when you tell him to. He can also sing a mean karaoke version of 'Single Ladies'. Just kidding, everyone knows dogs can't sing karaoke - but only because they have a difficult time reading the words. Maybe if the words were written in 'dog' then they could. That was a joke too. (insert laugh here)
Allison and I enjoy bike riding. Allison had the idea of bringing Bogey on our bike ride the other day. I thought we would just hold a leash while he ran, but no, Allison had a brilliant idea. Instead of Bogey having to do all that running she wanted to strap a blue crate to the back of my bike and let him ride in it. See the pictures below.
Cute, right? We rode around for about twenty minutes and he did great. We had the bottom of the crate padded with a blanket and he sat and enjoyed the ride probably more than we did. However, on our way back home, as we passed two kids and their dog, Bogey decides that it would be a good idea to jump out of the crate after the dog. It wasn't the worst idea, but we had a leash tied very short (I thought too short for him to jump out) to the inside of the crate. When he jumped out he didn't go far, because the leash stopped him. I don't have a picture of Bogey being hung by the leash but it wasn't a good sight. I saw the shadow of his little body dangling beside the bike, then I heard Allison behind my telling me to stop, so I reached back and threw him back in the crate. The funniest thing was the faces of the kids! I can only imagine the story they went home with.
After having a dog that I really enjoy I can understand why a person would pay a lot of money to keep a pet around. That doesn't mean that I will, I'm just a little more understanding.
We finally got a dog and I think he's the best dog in the world. I'm a proud dad. If not the best dog, then definitely in the top 10. His name is Bogey and we got him from my grandma when he was a little over a year old. He knows how to sit and how to go to bed when you tell him to. He can also sing a mean karaoke version of 'Single Ladies'. Just kidding, everyone knows dogs can't sing karaoke - but only because they have a difficult time reading the words. Maybe if the words were written in 'dog' then they could. That was a joke too. (insert laugh here)
Allison and I enjoy bike riding. Allison had the idea of bringing Bogey on our bike ride the other day. I thought we would just hold a leash while he ran, but no, Allison had a brilliant idea. Instead of Bogey having to do all that running she wanted to strap a blue crate to the back of my bike and let him ride in it. See the pictures below.
Cute, right? We rode around for about twenty minutes and he did great. We had the bottom of the crate padded with a blanket and he sat and enjoyed the ride probably more than we did. However, on our way back home, as we passed two kids and their dog, Bogey decides that it would be a good idea to jump out of the crate after the dog. It wasn't the worst idea, but we had a leash tied very short (I thought too short for him to jump out) to the inside of the crate. When he jumped out he didn't go far, because the leash stopped him. I don't have a picture of Bogey being hung by the leash but it wasn't a good sight. I saw the shadow of his little body dangling beside the bike, then I heard Allison behind my telling me to stop, so I reached back and threw him back in the crate. The funniest thing was the faces of the kids! I can only imagine the story they went home with.
After having a dog that I really enjoy I can understand why a person would pay a lot of money to keep a pet around. That doesn't mean that I will, I'm just a little more understanding.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
The gypsies never stop!
So it's been a while, and for that I apologize. I'm feeling uninspired at the moment but thought I would take advantage of this free moment to share a little of our life right now.
We had an amazing holiday season full of traveling, family, friends, new experiences, and lots of goodies of course!
As many of you know we just hit the 1 year mark! Whoop for marriage! We decided since life has been mostly insane the past year we needed to get away, so we took advantage of our good buddy Bryan and stayed at his families ranch house in Hearne, TX. We were there just for a weekend, but it was a good time of just relaxing, 4wheeler riding, fishing, roasting smores, classic movies, and enjoying each others presence - uninterrupted.
On from there we drove to Paris for Christmas festivities. We had a blast and drove back to Sugar Land on Christmas night in order to leave the following morning for our YL ski trip. As the gypsies we are, we set off with around 50 people total, including the San Antonio YL crew, on a near 30 hour bus ride up to Crooked Creek Ranch in Winter Park, CO. We skied for 3 days, of which I only skied 2, and for my first time skiing I have to say I am proud of myself for only falling once - thank you very much!
When we got back home, we spent most of the week cleaning house, visiting people, and packing again to leave for yet another trip to CO where we currently are residing for the next 2 weeks. Gary is attending YL's 1st year staff training, and I am just soakin up the sun on the glorious snow-laden mountains at Frontier Ranch in Buena Vista, CO.
Needless to say its been a pretty eventful, fun, and somewhat tiring holiday season. I'll leave you with some pictures of all of these events...
These are our beautiful nieces Cydnie, and her new baby sister, Criss
This is my mom's side of the family... there's never a crowd when its the one's you love
And the rest are from Winter Park, CO... Young Life Ski Trip 2008!
We had an amazing holiday season full of traveling, family, friends, new experiences, and lots of goodies of course!
As many of you know we just hit the 1 year mark! Whoop for marriage! We decided since life has been mostly insane the past year we needed to get away, so we took advantage of our good buddy Bryan and stayed at his families ranch house in Hearne, TX. We were there just for a weekend, but it was a good time of just relaxing, 4wheeler riding, fishing, roasting smores, classic movies, and enjoying each others presence - uninterrupted.
On from there we drove to Paris for Christmas festivities. We had a blast and drove back to Sugar Land on Christmas night in order to leave the following morning for our YL ski trip. As the gypsies we are, we set off with around 50 people total, including the San Antonio YL crew, on a near 30 hour bus ride up to Crooked Creek Ranch in Winter Park, CO. We skied for 3 days, of which I only skied 2, and for my first time skiing I have to say I am proud of myself for only falling once - thank you very much!
When we got back home, we spent most of the week cleaning house, visiting people, and packing again to leave for yet another trip to CO where we currently are residing for the next 2 weeks. Gary is attending YL's 1st year staff training, and I am just soakin up the sun on the glorious snow-laden mountains at Frontier Ranch in Buena Vista, CO.
Needless to say its been a pretty eventful, fun, and somewhat tiring holiday season. I'll leave you with some pictures of all of these events...
These are our beautiful nieces Cydnie, and her new baby sister, Criss
This is my mom's side of the family... there's never a crowd when its the one's you love
And the rest are from Winter Park, CO... Young Life Ski Trip 2008!
