South Dakota

It all began with an e-mail, a dream, a vision. 4900 miles later, it was going to be the greatest roadtrip of all time. Although the mileage was slashed down to just 3200, it has still stood as a great achievement worthy of inclusion on this blog. Of course, I could speak of the many years (over 50) my family has been returning to the Black Hills for our summers and several Christmas holidays or even of the two years my wife and I spent stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base, helping support the B-1B Lancer mission. Instead, though, I think it would be much more fitting to reflect on this great event, truly a collegesque affair that occured in the fall of 2000.

As the e-mail states, the original trip was to be a pretty daunting trip to cover in four days, with only 200 miles overlapped. After votes were taken and motions put up on the floor, the final trip ended up being a mad dash to the Black Hills, a couple nights spent at my family’s cabin, and a mad dash return home. The driving was 24-hours straight both ways and we spent a lot of time in the Black Hills looking at the sites and taking in the glory of God. It ended up being a truly awesome trip with some great friends from church and school. To make the trip happen, we rented a “Rent-a-Wreck” minivan that turned out to be the perfect fit for our trip.

We also brought loads of DOCTOR THUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNDEERRRRRRRRRR and a “Yard-o-Beef”. Our route took us through GA, TN, KY, IL, MO, IA, SD, and back. One of the more noteworthy stops was at Metropolis, IL, where we got our picture taken with Superman sometime in the middle of the night. In the end, though, the goal was the great state of South Dakota. It is the home of the Corn Palace, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, the Badlands, and let’s not forget - Taco John’s, the greatest mexican fast food joint in the whole country! The attendees of this great trip were so impressed with this eaterie, that we still use the expression, “Thank you, Taco John’s” as a sign of approval for certain heinous acts. The trip overall, was awesome and I always look back at that time with a smile. It is just one of many reasons why South Dakota is one of my favorite places in the “Lower 48″.

New York

Some of my most memorable vacations took place in New York, rather New York City. My first trip was in the early nineties with my parents. We stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria, visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, saw Broadway show (CATS), and visited the Statue of Liberty. I have always felt that I left a part of me in NYC. I’ve gone back several times since, mostly with school trips and once on my own as a last-minute hop on ValueJet (remember them?). None was more memorable, however than when I surprised my bride in Times Square, Valentine’s Day weekend of 2005. She had gone to NYC to be in a wedding part for a long-time friend. I stayed at home, in Alaska, and watched our son through the weekend. Or so she thought. . . What had actually happened was that a good friend of our graciously offered to watch our son through the weekend to make my ploy work. About a week out, I checked airfares to Newark and found that I could get a free round-trip ticket for just 25,000 miles (which I had). I booked the flight and started working the rest. Tickets to a couple shows, dinner reservations, plans for the Empire State Building, and a night at the Plaza hotel. The trip would be extremely short and there was no room for error. My flights were on time (Praise the Lord!) and I didn’t check any luggage, so I jetted to the train station. After spending way too long interpreting the rail maps, I ran to the boarding platform and barely made it on board! They had already closed the doors and were about to pull away! But, they could see I was on a mission, and let me on. Now that I’d made this train, everything else should work out OK. Unfortunately, I was not completely aware of the stops between the airport and my destination, so I almost missed it! Thankfully, I got off, just in time and took a hike up to Times Square.

On the other end of the story, her host for the weekend (another wedding part member) had been in contact with me since I dreamed up the plan. She fed Rachel a story that a friend of hers had a couple pairs of Broadway tickets and she could join her for either of the shows. Rachel chose to go to “Chicago”, which was fine; my accomplice was gifted with the other pair I had bought in exchange for her assistance. Additionally, they had sadly told Rachel that she would not be able to stay with them that last night for whatever good reason they came up. Instead, they delivered her luggage to the concierge at the Plaza - also unbeknownst to her. It was a ton of fun to organize and even more fun to watch Rachel’s face when I jumped out of the wall underneath the marquee of the Broadway Theater at Times Square. She screamed! My accomplice was smiling and I was thankful. The rest of our trip was, of course, history!

Someday, I will visit the rest of the great state of New York - Buffalo, the Adirondacks, Long Island, and many more places I’ve heard so much about. Until then, I’ve already built up some great memories for me to always have a smile on my heart when I think of New York.

Georgia

“Other arms reach out to me. Other eyes smile tenderly. Still in peaceful dreams I see, the road leads back to you.” - Ray Charles
A few songs do make me a little teary-eyed every now and then - It is Well With My Soul, God Bless the USA, Agnus Dei, and of course, Georgia on My Mind. I’m not sure why; maybe it is because of the memories, perhaps the reflection of the songwriter’s life or even the mood of the tune. My best guess is that I am emotionally attached to the topic and the setting that brought this song to my life more than any other. During the summers at Stone Mountain Park, just east of Atlanta, they would put on a terrific laser show with lots of music, technology, and fireworks. Occasionally the small pines at the base of the mountain would require some dousing, but nothing dampened to moods of those warm summer evenings in Georgia after seeing familiar laser renditions put to music - Dixieland, Celestial Sodapop, The Devil Went Down to Georgia, Proud to Be an American, and Georgia on My Mind. It was at Stone Mountain that I first discovered feelings for my future bride and also that we eventually went to dinner for our first Homecoming. I would ride my bike there on weekends from Georgia Tech taking the Georgia Path and I’ve spent countless nights with my family at the Stone Mountain Inn. I’ve hiked to the top with scouts year-in, year-out, and I’ve circumnavigated the granite monolith at least a dozen times on the Stone Mountain Railroad. I even assisted a friend (one of my groomsmen) with his proposal to his future bride at Stone Mountain and attended the wedding of another great friend, my best friend from high school, as well.

I would have to say that some of my best memories, collectively, outside my homes in this state, were at Stone Mountain, and Ray Charles was always there to serenade me and provide a fitting backdrop to the fun I had there. This is not to say that I didn’t experience more of Georgia than just Stone Mountain - on the contrary, after living there for 22 years, I built such a bank of memories, that it would be impossible to keep within the technological bounds of this website to convey all of them. We lived in five homes in the state, not to mention my five years at college, and attended a few different churches. I learned to sail in the estuaries of Darien, GA near Blackbeard Island and I sang three years in a row at Georgia All-State in Savannah. I watched the skyline of Atlanta transform before my very eyes during my stay at Georgia Tech and I experienced employment in the state of Georgia in at least a dozen positions. My favorite band, Third Day, is from the same county where I attended all grade school and my favorite drink, Coca-Cola, was invented over a hundred years ago at a pharmacy in downtown Atlanta. I don’t eat grits, but I love Waffle House and The Varsity. My bride and I were married in a Christian Missionary Alliance church east of Atlanta and we kicked off our honeymoon at the Ritz-Carlton downtown. I could almost drive blindfolded using Atlanta’s Interstate system to just about any exit within a 60 mile radius of the city - and many of my fellow drivers around me seem to be doing just that. I may never live in the state of Georgia again as the traffic and countless Starbucks would drive me crazy, but no matter how I shake it, Georgia will always be on my mind.

Thanks, Ray.

Alaska

My state of legal residence. Hopefully, the state of a future retirement cottage! My experiences while living in the 49th state are really the backdrop to this website. Everything in Alaska is big (but cozy)! Texas isn’t even a blip on the radar after you’ve experienced the grandeur of Alaska. Our experiences in AK include trips to Haines, Valdez, Seward, Soldotna, Cordova, Anchorage, Denali, Whittier, Fairbanks, Chena Hot Springs, and countless other little towns and settlements along the roads and waterways to those places. We sailed and fished and flew and hiked and skied and swam and camped and discovered and ate our way through 3+ years that we will not soon forget. Our second-born was welcomed into this world at Ft Wainwright’s Bassett Army Community Hospital inside Fairbanks city-proper. We found our way out of the cave of debt while taking in that extra Cost of Living Allowance (COLA). The base chapel became a second home - soon it will be destroyed after sixty years of decay to make room for a new one. Our memories and roots in AK go deep and the stories could fill volumes. My goal is to get at least some of it into a book before I get out of the military, but I’m waiting on God’s timing for that more than anything!In short, you’ve got to make it to Alaska! The sad thing is that most of you will only be able to spare a week or maybe two, to discover the Last Frontier. If that’s you, definitely make the most of your time - save up tons of money and pull out all of the stops! Also, you may want to buy Andrew Peterson’s CD Clear to Venus, it has a song called “Alaska or Bust” that will make you drop your job today and head north!