Home safe and sound.

"I'm really ready for some BBQ!" said Meat. "No more of this wimpy food. I need some MEAT!"

So we found a nice little place just outside of Coudersport, Pa., called Mosch's to satisfy his cravings. While we were waiting for dinner, some of us played some pool. Cannonball and Meat ruled the table and were unstoppable. Of course, Iron Butt and I (aka Hollywood) gave them a good run for their money. That is of course, until Iron Butt decided to change sides and help them out in a clinch shot which totally changed the balance of the game! It didn't really matter though, cause they probably would have beat us anyway. haha. The food was great and we got to laugh whole heartedly as we bantered back and forth with each other.

The bible study was rather long as we focused on 7 snapshots of the life of Saul, the first king of Israel, as recorded in 1 Samuel. Everybody was great. We didn't get started til after 9pm, but they were troopers and we found that the same demise of Saul could endanger us if we don't keep our focus on the Lord and obey the leading of the Spirit in our lives - not adding or taking away from His instructions.

This morning, Iron Butt, Cole Slaw (aka Adam) and I went out to a great little retro diner in Coudersport on Route 6 called, Fezz's Diner for breakfast. We continued some of the discussion from the study and really enjoyed the atmosphere. Then it was back to the hotel to tackle the daily cleaning of the bike (remember the man rule thing? Haha), pack and check out.

Come 9am, we were all ready to roll. Steve was a bit worried about being the last one ready so he was in line early, helmet on and engine running. No more worldwide notoriety based on his lackadaisical attitude toward departure times! (Just kiddin' with ya Iron Butt!)

On the way out of town, Meat and Bandit were really impressed that we were actually going to make it out of town without stopping! They feel that we stop a little too much - every 10 miles or so. That is their story and they are sticking to it! Well, lo and behold, Adam had forgotten to fasten the straps on his saddle bag, so we had to stop to let him strap them down! The guys couldn't believe it - not even ten miles from the hotel!

Next, we had a really good run. Bandit said it was a record, nearly 70 miles without one stop! He was excited.

Crooner was leading and that is always interesting cause he comes to the turn and says, "Hey, there it was!" or simply slams on his brakes and makes the turn while everyone else tries to avoid him! All in all, he does a good job finding some out of the way obscure roads through the countryside.

One such side destination that Crooner took us to was Rimrock near Kinzua Dam, Pa. That whole area is fantastic and the rocks that are strewn all over the hillsides are amazing! Good trails that are very accessible cap off the experience.

After hiking for a while and exploring the area, it was time for the annual nubie name dubbing ceremony when all of the first year attendees are given a nickname that will stick with them as a member of the Biker Bible Group. Due to the fact that Herman spent nearly as much time on the right side of the solid white line as he did on the roadway and so, he was dubbed "Berm." Adam was dubbed "Cole Slaw" because he had a strange aversion to ordering cole slaw at every restaurant we went to just to compare them. He hardly ever ate it before!

Our last stop of the trip was in Edinboro, Pa., at a specialty restaurant called, The Wooden Nickle that serves various forms of buffalo meat. Buffalo burgers, buffalo hot dogs, buffalo chili, etc. That was my first visit and it will not be my last! The food and service were great and the restaurant proved to be a very good way to close out this year's Linesville First Baptist Man Trip.

I guess it is time to get back to the real world. Tomorrow is marching band pre-camp and next Monday begins full time camp. That means that it is time to finish up some drill writing! GO LIONS!

Another Great Day

Wow. What a great day. I want to let you all know that we are back in the hotel, safe and secure so you ladies don't have to worry about your guys! It is, however, after midnight and I will need my beauty sleep so this is just a simple and basic entry. More to come tomorrow - pictures and all!

God bless! (He certainly has blessed us!)

PS I invited Adam to write this entry but the baby wouldn't do it! What a brat! "I'm tired!" he says.

Later.

Day 2 of the "Man Trip"

Day 2 began like any other day - cool and wet with the sun trying to burn through the low hanging clouds. The deal was that we were going to get up and eat breakfast at 7am then hit the road at 8. Well, we had Crooner and Half Tank down the road topping off with gas and IB and Meat putting the final details on their cleaning (you know that one of the man rules says that you have to clean the bike every morning!) but, come on guys, WE ARE READY TO ROLL! Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm... done yet Iron Butt? Come on already, it's nearly quarter after!

They finally, with great sadness and after much harassment, put their rags away and we were off. As we rolled out, the cool, damp air and light fog simply added a bit of a mysterious air to the ride. Gadget was in the lead and took his share of abuse for leading us down some dirt roads and dead ends. Crooner was in heaven and felt redeemed! After all, it only took us 4 hours to go 90 miles to Benezet, Pa - not bad! The roads were great and the scenery even better!

In Benezet, Pa, we stopped at the elk viewing area. All I saw was this big, ugly group of guys pretending to fall off behind the wall. The only one you don't see here is Gadget cause he was in the bathroom again! We tease the younger guys cause they need to fill their tanks up regularly and they tease the older guys cause they need to drain their tanks regularly! A real warm and loving group, don't you think?

After spending the weekend around these crazy guys, like Cannonball and Meat, Adam is thinking about a new bike - he has already outgrown his 650. Like, this is supposed to be a great spiritual weekend, right?! How is that spiritual? Oh, I'm sure that if you ask Adam he would somehow work that into some logical connection.

On our way back toward Coudersport, Pa, we ran through an incredible rainstorm. As we approached the storm, we could see it ahead in the valley, so we stopped and most of us put on our rain gear. It paid off because we ended up driving into an incredible downpour.

It seems that every year we have to hit at least one rainstorm so this was nothing new to us. Actually, we were surprised that yesterday was relatively dry because that was when the real rain was forecast. Today on the other hand, was supposed to be nice and clear. Well, we got hit hard! Good news? It only lasted for about 15 minutes then began to clear. Total rain? Less than 30 minutes all day. We will count that a real blessing!

Then we came into the hotel to dry off and get some pizza for supper. The fellowship was great as we bantered back and forth with lots of laughter. When the pizza came, we ate and were led through a bible study by Crooner. Some of the conversation was a bit heated but we are told that iron sharpens iron so that is good. One thing is for sure - we will never be accused of having a lack of passion for God's word, that is for sure. We discussed God's desire for us to love him, our neighbors, our wives (one wife each of course) and our children.

Don't worry ladies, we are definitely behaving ourselves and not embarrassing each other - I'm sure you wouldn't be embarrassed either! Well, at least most of our actions wouldn't cause embarrassment... I don't think...

The Drive By!

Off we go once again! Only this time it is Adam and I heading out with 13 other guys from our church on our annual "Man Trip"! It is actually a four day men's retreat on motorcycle. Each year we travel to a new location where we ride during the day enjoying each others fellowship then, in the evening we open God's word and enjoy challenging bible studies.

This is Adam's first trip with us and it is truly a blessing to have him here. His quick witted (or is that dim-witted) humor is crazy but a lot of fun!

We had a near mishap when we found this poor man strapped to a railroad track, but have no fear, Mighty Mouse was there! Actually, Meat and Iron Butt were able to save him from the impending doom long before the train came along. Good thing, too, because their wives would never let them come again if they were mortally injured!

This is the gang. If you see us coming, please say a prayer for us - we kind of need it! Haha.

By the way ladies, we have arrived safe and sound and are ready to turn in early for the night because we are all really behaving well - you would be proud of us! Well, most of us that is - there are a couple of guys who... well... never mind. (grin)

30 Year Class Reunion

It is truly hard to believe that 30 years have come and gone since graduating from Harbor Creek High School! Kudos to the entire committee who put this together because it was very well done! Special thanks to Sharon and Paul.

The evening turned out to be very enjoyable and it was a treat to catch up with some old friends (even if I didn't remember all of your names!). Please forgive me for that, my mind has been is a constant state of "missing files" and "disc failure" over the past 15 years or so - perhaps you can relate to that. Of course, my family would probably say that has been a normal occurrence long before the compter age! But is was really good to see so many of my classmates again. Hey, I even found out that there were others who have forgotten things too! Go figure.

It is interesting that so many dreams Dawn and I have shared over the years have come to to pass while others have slipped away unrealized. It is fun to reminisce about all of them and we find ourselves doing that more and more often (which is odd for us because the vast majority of our lives we have spent looking ahead and not back). That is just who we are, you know, "look aheaders."

Believe it or not, we are already beginning to plan our next Great Adventure! Locations we are considering? Smokey Mountains and east coast; New England States to Maine and Nova Scotia; or a tour around the Great Lakes. All places we have been but would like to take more time and do some deeper exploration.

As we reminisce, we can't help but realize that the Good Lord has been with us every step of the way watching over us, guiding us and even sometimes, carrying us through life's brightest and darkest times. That of course builds confidence (otherwise known as "faith") that whatever comes our way in the near and distant future will never take us down because He will continue to watch over His children as He always has!

I can hardly wait to see what tomorrow might bring!

Then Life Happens...

"You just wait," the 'old timers' would say, "before you know it, you will be an old man looking back and wondering where the time went!"

Well, this Saturday Dawn and I will be attending my 30 Year Class Reunion. Go figure - 30 years! Now, I realize that there are many people out there that have gone to reunions 40, 50 and beyond (and they are probably saying, "Oh, you just wait you young whippersnapper!"), but when we graduated, 'those people' seemed a bit like fossils! Now we are they!

You youngsters reading this - just wait and see. A couple of blinks of the eye and the whole world changes. For one thing, it all becomes a bit more blurry cause your eyes are one of the first things to go. You think that wildlife is disappearing because you don't hear the peepers or the birds chirping anymore but the reality is that the ears have gone south with the eyes.

Now don't get the wrong idea here, from the inside looking out, I still feel very young. That is of course, till I get around a bunch of young people and have to keep asking, "What's that?" I find that I do a great deal of that these days. Which of course is better than simply nodding and smiling. I tried that for a while, but found that I got into more hot water then planned for!

So the really old people (which basically is anyone older then me), seem to have some sort of system going. Somehow, they have figured out when to smile and nod and when to ask, "What's that?" and when to pretend they didn't hear anything at all! My Dad is the master of that - perhaps I can take some lessons from him on the proper techniques sometime!

Oh well, until next time, may God bless you very much with longevity of life and a capacity to age gracefully. Determine to be one of those old people who is always smiling and enjoying life, not a prude who is always grouchy and unable to be satisfied with anything. We have been given much to be grateful for, look around - you can't hardly miss the blessings! (And if you can't see them, did you remember to put your glasses on?)

Day 31 and 32 Grand Finale!

Captain's Log - Days 31 and 32

We enjoyed a fantastic visit with Uncle Dan, Aunt Linda and Mike. Steve stopped in for a while too and introduced us to his new girlfriend but couldn't stay long. (Maybe at the reunion?) You know, we did what all old people do... we sat around and talked! We caught up on all that is going on with the family members we don't get to see very often and talked about all the ailments we've been experiencing, etc. etc etc. All the important stuff you know.

Bill Cosby does a great skit on how you know when you are getting old. He says that you find yourself sitting around talking about who has died. (In an old voice) "You know who died yesterday?" He is hilarious!

Well, here is Dan and Mike after surviving the marathon session of picture and video viewing. I showed them an overview of the raw footage from the trip and tried to speed through it by skipping some of the stuff. We only looked at it for, oh... what was it? Like 7 or 8 hours? Naw, nothing like that - honest! They were totally spent by the time we were done but that did not deter me from getting all the way through it! I don't understand it. 3,498 pics and vids, that's all. Whimps.


Of course, we were just goofing around with this picture, honest. In case you don't know by now, I sometimes exaggerate a bit. (just in fun, you see) Dan said that I had three good pictures in the batch (haha) (I think he was just kidding too, but it's hard to tell sometimes)

On the way home, we decided to take our time and ride along Lake Erie on Rt. 6 between Sandusky and Cleveland, Ohio. After all, vacation isn't over yet! Right? It was well worth the time spent and shows that there is still much to see right in our own "neighborhood" that we have never explored.

Since returning home, life has been crazy! Catching up with family and friends, etc. Trying to sift through all of the pictures has been a bit daunting as well, but I'll manage. I need to trim the 3 hour presentation down to a manageable 30-45 minutes. Ohhh... what to cut?

We had the opportunity to spend the day at Will's family farm yesterday for his brother, Grant's, graduation party and met many of his family members which turned out to be a great time for us! I love to watch the Lord's work unfold in our lives and meet the people that come in and out of our "pathway". Whether they are simply passing through (like many who we met on the Great Adventure), or end up journeying along side us for a while, they enrich our life experiences and become blessings beyond measure. (Let's not talk about the great challenge people right now, we can save that for another day because I haven't met any of those over the past 5 weeks -grin-).

May the Lord richly bless your day. In case you are wondering, I will continue to write in this "vlog" because the Great Adventure continues. Really, my Great Adventure began the moment I was born and will never really end! Hope you have a great day!

Day 30 - I think...

"Hot dogs?!  Are you kidding me?  I have been dying for hot dogs!" Dawn said.

So, that is what we had to eat for supper after we finally made it to Uncle Dan and Aunt Linda's house.  The traffic around Chicago was CRAZY especially considering EVERY road we took was under construction!  Had I known that, we would have taken an extra day with a wider loop south of Chicago.  We ran into heavy traffic Sunday evening in The Dells and that continued through the day yesterday.  Everything was toll as well.  Of course, we knew that when we left, but did not plan on the construction or the crazy drivers.  On top of that, we paid almost $9.00 in tolls!  WOW!  Won't go that way again, but we made it.  Which way did we go?  I-39 south, I-88 east, I-355 south, I-80 east.  The funny thing about the roads was the signs that said, "Thank you for traveling on Illinois toll roads".  Yeah, right!  Haha.  Funny!  ... oh well, we made it.

No pics today.  They have dial up internet and Mike set up a super-crazy password on the router that no one knows (way to go Mike!  haha) so I am using Linda's computer - that all adds up to no pics.

Speaking of Mike, it was great to see him last night, too.  In fact, when he walked into the house, he popped a salute and said, "Hello there, Captain!"  Then he gave Dawn a big hug and said, "Hey there Co-Pilot."  Way to go Mike, you really know how to boost those egos!

After all the intensity of the traveling, it is really nice to kick back with family, relax and fellowship.  We are so grateful for all the Lord has given us - family, friends and a wonderful creation to enjoy!  Life always has its ups and downs, but he is faithful to show us the best way through the "maze" if we truly look for his guidance.  This Great Adventure has been an incredible journey that we will never forget.  We have learned a great deal about traveling by motorcycle and we would do it again without question!  (We would however, like a bit of time to let our butts recover!  Haha!)  

More of that in future blogs... Stay tuned!  (Time to fellowship  :-)

Day 29 - Oh MY!

Well... we did it. We stopped at the Spam Museum in Austin, Mn. Ellen, I must say that it was very enlightening! There are more products manufactured by Hornell Foods than I ever imagined, they are not just about making Spam. Their samples were tasty (but not enough of them... I was hoping for a Spam burger with the Hot and Spicy Spam - guess I will have to try that one on my own!) There were a couple of kids there while we were looking through the museum and they were having a really good time with some of the hands on stuff. Nice stop for a couple hours if it is on your way.

Our day actually started before that when we were trying to get to a church for morning worship. What an ordeal! Let me just say, that nothing seemed to work out from the church we had picked from the listing in the hotel room (it had combined with another church several blocks away which took us too long to find) to the extra 45 minutes or so that we spent driving around searching for a church (we only found one which started at 10:30 - it was 10:50). Finally we gave up and hit the highway, only to find a church was five minutes further than the point we had turned off to go searching! Crazy!

So after leaving the museum, we hit the highway once more. As we approached The Dells, traffic began to pick up. When we got to The Dells traffic was bumper to bumper and creeping! Can you imagine? This was all traffic heading toward Chicago and we were 150+ miles from Chicago! Every time I thought about getting off and following an alternative route, the speed would pick up. Unfortunately, there was not a good "other route" so we stayed in the giant slinky for the rest of the afternoon, evening and night!

Along the way, we decided to stop and get some directions for the hotel we had reservations with (one of only two reservations we made on the entire trip - if we didn't have these reservations we would have stayed the night somewhere else and let the traffic move on its way!) We needed directions because my Tom Tom couldn't find the hotel. Long story short, the Tom Tom went on the blink and wouldn't find any satellites, we couldn't get in touch with the hotel and we didn't know where it was located (except of course, what city it was in). Grrr!

Around 7pm and rather frustrated, we decided to stop for a bite before getting to the hotel. As we did, we ran into a woman who had been there since 3pm with a broken down van and 6 children. Her spirits were very good and she was taking care of business, but her van needed to be towed, she needed to get to her hotel with 6 kids, and she needed to be at work in Cincinnati in the morning! And her spirits were high! Wow, did that ever put our rough day into perspective!

It seems that the Lord has a way of doing just that - you know, putting things in perspective for us. Pray that she will get to Cincinnati with her children today and all will be well with her. As for us, we are on our way to Michigan to visit Uncle Dan and Aunt Linda. They don't have high speed internet, so if you don't hear from me for a couple days, you will know why.

Lesson for the day... God is good all the time! Be patient, He has a plan.

Day 28 - Minneapolis, Mn

Captain's Log - Day 28

Bummer. The rain kept us in all morning... we had to spend the morning watching movies and napping... bummer, huh?! Haha.

Once the weather cleared we got to go out and enjoy the city. We had a great time! Minneapolis was very clean and easy to get around in. Their firworks display was very good with a grand finale that was awesome! It set all kinds of car alarms off, that is for sure!

Dawn made me walk and walk and walk. Some rest day, huh?

It was good to hear from our parents and kids!

Day 26 - Part 2

The Captain's Log wouldn't load again... sorry.

We saw a whole lot of this yesterday. You can see the towns for miles before getting to them.

One place we stopped to see was the geographical center of North America. What do you think, Ellen? Pretty cool, eh?! This marker is located in Rugby, North Dakota. The pie and coffee at the little restaurant next to the marker was really good too! Dawn was really into it, can you tell?

Day 27 - We're Tired!

Ok. I'm not gonna lie. We're tired. 1150 miles in the last three days without any sightseeing or "stuff" is far enough. The total tally for the trip is currently at 7,155 miles! So, we have decided to spend an extra day here in Minneapolis, Mn. It sounds like they have a lot of stuff going on for the 4th of July so it should be a great day tomorrow.

Coming across North Dakota yesterday and this morning, there were tons of grain silos. Dawn was trying to convince me that they are missile silos that have been built above ground so they could be hidden in plain sight! She can be really weird sometimes.

In Fargo, we saw some signs to an air museum so we decided to check it out. It cost $7 each and was very small, but it did have two of my favorite WWII aircraft very well restored - the F4U Corsair and the P51 Mustang. I learned some new information on them as well. Did you know that the F4U had a kill ratio in the Pacific of 11:1? That is phenomenal!!!

They also had a bunch of other WWII stuff, including this vintage Harley Davidson with a three speed and suicide clutch. There happened to be a gentleman in the museum that owned one just like it. Said he bought it from a college kid who didn't need it anymore for next to nothing! Oh how nice it would be to have that bike today, eh?

Today while I was riding along, Dawn started tapping the back of my helmet hard enough to push my head forward. "What's up?" I asked.

"Nothing, why?" She asked.

"Cause you were hitting me in the back of the head."

"Sorry." She said.

A bit later, her helmet started clunking against mine, so I asked again, "Are you okay back there?"

"Yeh, why?"

"Cause you're hitting me in the back of the head"

"Sorry. I just closed my eyes and didn't realize my head was drooping."

So, I think you get the idea. The poor girl was exhausted and dozed off twice! I pulled into the next rest stop for a break, got rested up, then made the last leg of the journey to our hotel. While at the rest stop, we made the decision to spend an extra night to recuperate and enjoy the city. So tomorrow, we will see what there is to see!

Day 26 - Hwy 2 across North Dakota

Another very pleasant day as we cruised across the rolling fields of North Dakota. The scenery changed from agricultural farms to livestock and back but to our surprise, the whole state was very green. The misconception that there is nothing in North Dakota is a bit off. The small towns are very quaint and clean, the farms are generally well kept and there were even lakes and trees in the eastern part of the state!

A few days ago, we were talking to a couple from Minnesota and asked them what there was to do in North Dakota. She said, "Make up songs."

Well, that is one thing I can do! One song kept coming back though, "Land spreadin' out so far and wide - keep Manhattan just give me that country side!"

It seems that our daughter has fallen off the face of the earth - she never answers her phone anymore! "Hello?! Jackie?! Are you out there anywhere?" If you get this message, call your mother, she is worried about you. (Haha)

Next we will be heading southeast toward Minneapolis. It is going to be very strange getting into the larger populations again after being very spoiled by all these areas that were wide open and very few people, which of course equals free sailing! On the one hand, we are not looking forward to the end of the trip, but on the other, we are definitely looking forward to seeing our family and friends.

Ellen, don't get your hopes up too high, but a stop at the Spam Museum might actually happen. Depends on several elements, but maybe...

Sorry there are no pics or videos but seems to be a problem uploading again.

God bless and will be seeing you all very soon. Adam, you might want to start tidying up now - don't know how long it will actually take. (grin)

Captain's Log - Day 25

Riding across the wind swept plains on his trusty steed, the cowboy lifts his hat just enough to wipe the sweat from his brow. The sun blazes down on him and his young bride and the flies and bugs swirl around his head but he is used to them and hardly notices. They have been on this trail for weeks and will reach the ranch in just two more days, that is, if they press on. Tired and thirsty, he pulls the cork from the tin canteen, offers it to his bride, then takes a deep draw of the warm water saving the rest for later. The grass is well blown to the south as the wind relentlessly pounds on everything in its path, but the cowboy is undaunted and remains determined to reach the ranch.

A coyote watches from the railroad tracks and the cowboy wonders for a moment why he doesn't take the train. Laughing to himself, he knows why - it would be a tremendous loss to be trapped inside the cage of the rail car instead of enjoying the fresh air of the plains and feeling the muscles of his stallion ripple under the saddle, and so he presses on.

The pronghorn doe and her fawn scamper across the trail, sensing the danger and knowing that if they don't hurry on their way, they could be in mortal danger so they run. The cowboy takes a breath and simply enjoys the moment with his young bride.

Those were some of my thoughts as I rode Black Beauty across central and eastern Montana. The bugs were there - the proof is all over the front of my bike! The coyote was there on the train track. The stallion was there standing on a ridge watching over all the other horses on the plains. The pronghorn antelope doe and fawn crossed right in front of us as if they wanted to be our hood ornament. The trains passed by all day long. What a day!

We truly thought we would need all of our warm, cold weather stuff for our time in Glacier National Park and that Nevada would be the real warm riding. Ironically, we were in light shirts yesterday in Glacier and Nevada kept us in all of our warm stuff. So when we took off this morning, we were just wearing our denim shirts cause the weather forecast was for sunny skies and 80 degrees. Haha. A few miles out of town we stop to put on our coats. A few more miles and we stop to put on our chaps. It was chilly.

This is a pretty common sight across the state. There are abandoned houses and barns all over along with some really nice ranches. Flatlands of huge agricultural farms led to rolling hills best suited for ranches.


We went from crystal clear mountain streams and rivers to far fewer muddy, slower moving streams. I thought this abandoned bridge looked pretty cool.


The wind was really bad today. One blast caught Dawn by surprise and almost blew her off the bike! If not for her cat like reflexes she would have been picking herself up from the ditch! Once, when a semi passed us, the wind blast about brought us to a stop. Now, from 70 mph to an instant stop almost puts you over the handlebars! But not us, we held tight and pressed on!

This sprinkler seemed like a bit of overkill. It is one of the giant sprinklers they use on their crops, only this guy set it up to water the park. This thing sprayed water all over the sliding board and merry go round - I mean it covered them with water! We thought it was going to knock this tree over!

These grain elevators/storage are all along the rairoad tracks at every town. Some are bigger and more modern, but they all have them. They were really neat - kind of like the old west.

Tomorrow? We plan to run Highway 2 across North Dakota and end up on the other end of the state. God has been good to us, very good! So hopefully, our string of good weather will continue tomorrow.

By the way, thanks Adam for helping Granpa out with his computer! You 'da man!

Day 24 - Going-to-the-sun Road

Captain's Log - Day 24

A glimpse of the Going-to-the-sun Road, Glacier National Park, Montana

You might want to turn you sound down...

Just for the record (and so Dawn won't beat me anymore) there were no weapons used yesterday to keep me from stopping for pictures. Today she actually encouraged me to stop - OFTEN! Even when I didn't want to she made me. I didn't want to drag the camera out anymore, but she kept forcing me to get the thing out and take more and more pictures! Please don't call the authorities on her or my life may become miserable! [Haha... Just kidding!... kind of]

We got out a bit late today since the two previous days were rather long, but that did not spoil the day at all. We stopped in the small village as we entered the park and were blown away by all the great inns, hotels and cabins. One was right on the lake and looked like something very much worth the investment... maybe another day. The lake was crystal clear and a beautiful color of aqua. Check out the little pebbles through the water. You could see down through two feet of water like looking through glass. [Of course, I didn't want to take this picture, but Dawn made me]

The rivers throughout the park were the same way with lots of waterfalls. As we approached the summit, we decided [Dawn forced me] to take a hike to this hidden lake that was like, 450 miles from the visitor center. We walked through the snow pack in our light shirts cause it was in the upper 70's and a great day! I couldn't even take the time to get my hat - you know, we had to go! In the 5 hours it took to find this hidden lake [it was hidden you know!] my balding head was burned to a crisp. Now tomorrow I will have to suffer through a day of wearing a helmet on top of crispy scalp skin. Sound like fun? Actually, it was well worth the effort.

While we were up there, and actually everywhere in the park, the flowers were blooming with tons of color. Not only color, but a wide variety of different flowers that we had never seen before. [Another picture Dawn made me take... or else!]

The big surprise of the afternoon was while we were on that crazy long hike, Dawn said, "Greg! Look! A mountain goat! A MOUNTAIN GOAT!"

I began looking in the mountains, right? I couldn't see anything. "Where?" I asked.

"Right there in front of us!"

And it was. It was right on the path about 20 yards in front of us with a group of people getting pictures of it. So we slowly crept up and took some pictures with it. Crazy! Right? I'm not gonna lie, I never expected to see a mountain goat that close. I mean close! Within 10 feet!


Like I said, the rivers and falls were spectacular. This doesn't even come close to capturing the power of this falls. It was called the St. Mary's Falls and also involved a bit of a hike, but if you are ever in Glacier National Park, it is definitely worth the mile hike in to see it. Wow! [oh, I mean, Dawn made me hike in there and take some more pictures - ouch! Stop hitting me!]

Under all that snow lies one of the largest glaciers in the park. Sadly, it is only about a quarter of its size in the 40's and each year shrinks a bit more.

We felt as though we got to experience a little bit of heaven today as we walked among this small portion of God's creation. Through the day, we were within 20 feet of all kinds of little critters along with the mountain goat and a deer. But the mountains, the rivers, the flowers and even this shot of the moon all combined to be a truly inspiring day. All kidding aside, we couldn't take enough pictures to capture all we had seen and all that we did take (only 156 pictures today!) fall short of conveying the splendor and majesty of the park. We just had to praise him for all he has done for us!

Strangely, we left the park and 40 miles later - only 40 miles! - this is the way the land looked as we faced west toward the mountains we had just left. This photo was taken as we traveled between Browning and Cut Bank, Montana. It was a bit incredulous, the thought that we were just in those spectacular mountains and now found ourselves on these gently rolling hills with hardly a tree to be seen. The mountains simply stopped and the grass plains began. Odd. By the way, that is Highway 2 you can see running along the left side of the picture - speed limit, 70 mph! The upside? One can really make some time traveling!

Tomorrow? Highway 2 across Montana. Who knows how far we will get. One thing is for sure, we won't be taking 156 pictures!