pics from flagstaff to amarillo trip

sunrise over elk city, ok.
double rainbows somewhere around arizona/new mexico line.
straight and flat i-40 with a storm ahead.
flat land all around and then this. kinda like combining the hills of east tennessee and the plains of the mid-west.
flagstaff, az.

pics from mobile trip

one more view from my room at "hotel crappy" in mobile, al. uss alabama can be seen behind the silos.
this is what one of my therapy sessions looks like!!! orange beach, al. had a day off and took a few of the "guys" to the beach. baby jellyfish by the thousands were washing upon the beach. wasn't sure if they could sting as they were about fingernail size. was not going to take a chance. had one get inside my bathing suit 2 years ago and just had a big time on the inside of my right thigh!!!
photo from my hotel room in mobile. this is a wide angle shot of the "holiday" cruise ship that greeted me wednesday morning. by late this afternoon, it had reloaded and was back out going to cozumel.
one of the views looking out of my hotel room. mobile, al.

the slave trade was just wrong

i am in mobile alabama. for several days when i go to “warm-up” the coach, the temperature has been 120-127 inside. it takes a long time for a vehicle that size to cool down.

it has been a wild 6 days here. the riverfront plaza has been the most inhospitable hotel i have ever stayed in. to spend over $200 per night here i would have expected more accommodating service. buses are obviously not wanted here. only mercedes suv’s and other luxury vehicles get the “star” treatment here. however the views of mobile bay and the river are spectacular. seeing the big freighters up close is really cool.

recently I read where london has acknowledged their part in the slave trade. while a good step in the right direction it was wrong to begin with. i have been thinking about how hot it is here. it has been consistently over 100 everyday. as i watched a ship pulling out, i saw it’s registry was singapore. i don’t know how long it takes to get there from here. i could google it and find out. if i had wireless internet but i don’t. crappy hotel.

anyway with the news from london, i began to wonder how long it would take a slave ship from london to get here in the 1700’s or 1800’s. keep in mind they were not air-conditioned. some accounts i read said it often took months to make the crossing. these people were chained and stacked like cord wood. to some it was just another commodity. these were real, live human beings who felt pain and emotions just like you and i. their lives were to make the lives of the owners better and more profitable. if they “bred” and had children then it was good. if they died, too bad. Next ship was coming soon with fresh “commodities”.

so, here we are in 2007. we pushed it under the rug and have tried to make the problem go away but it won’t. i hope that one day when we enter the pearly gates we not only come face to face with our creator, but that those who participated in the slave trade will have the chance to see all the lives and families ruined by their actions and greed. i believe in the power of forgiveness. i hope to witness some of this reparation.

this black eye on civilization will never heal. however, we must move on in order to be stronger. words escape me as i try to close this and sort thru my own views. forgive me if my closing is brief but what more can i say?

until next time…

i did not want to know his name

today started off by dropping off my youngest 2 with their grandfather. their mom is in atlanta and i am going to flagstaff. as i was leaving my home airport, there was a young (3-4?) girl in front of me going thru security. she was pushing her baby doll stroller and looking very grownup and assured. she was wearing a teal blue sequined dress and was traveling with her mom and dad. her hair looked like a newborns hair-very thin and very short. as i watched her it was obvious she had been thru chemotherapy and was just starting to grow back. i flashed back to my brother going thru his chemo and heartbroken he was when he would see the kids at m.d. anderson in houston going in for their treatments. he was stage 4 (terminal) and instead of focusing on his own mortality, he was feeling the pain of someone he did not even know. now i know some of how he was feeling. after boarding in charlotte, there were about 25 servicemen on this flight. having flown alot, seeing them is not uncommon.
after a weird series of events, 2 ended up sitting beside me. one of them i had seen earlier. nice looking guy, mid 20's and had that military confident aire about him. he and the other soldier started talking and soon he spoke to me.
he was very talkative and we talked about alot of things. he had just completed basic training, was 25 and had been a bartender. he was from baltimore. he turned to the other guy and started asking him about his outfit. i had turned on my computer and my wallpaper is a copy of the "lee teter" print he did for the vietnam veterans. it is haunting. in a split second
it occured to me that i was supposed to pray for him and the others and i had images of Arlington come to me. i tried to push past all this and then he did it-he introduced himself to the other soldier. his name was robert reynolds. i did not want to know this. i have a habit of meeting people and forming a bond with them. now i knew i had to pray. i felt that if i did not, i would find his name on a stone at Arlington and i knew i would lose it right there.
so, i prayed for him. i prayed for the others. i prayed for our military leadership. i prayed for the president. there was a guy sitting in 1st class who bought sandwiches for all the guys in uniform. i wished i could have. there are times i get angry that i can't do more for other people. i would love to be so filthy rich that i could donate almost all of it to make peoples lives better. i wished i could go with them. they know that one day soon they will be in iraq and their world will be forever changed.
today has been one of those days that takes me out of my own little world. i like my own little world. it centers around God/Church, my children, and driving my coach. my own little world is comfortable and i really like it there. god takes me out of there and shows me things i otherwise would have missed. he wants me to see more than my world. these guys on my flight today stepped "out of their worlds" by choice to do an honorable thing for you, me, this country and all of mankind. when i step back and take it in, praying is not only the least thing i can do for these guys, it is the most powerful thing i can do. you can be a powerful force for these courageous men and women. this war on terrorism will probably never be "won". but i truly believe fervent prayer can change any course set out by man no matter hell bent he is to destroy. so pray. and pray hard. pray without ceasing. as the t-shirt says "pray hard". our country, our world and these guys depend on it.
until next time...

oops, God did it again

lately, some pieces of the life puzzle have surfaced. i have been observant enough to notice that when is God is working in me, i see him in some rather abstract ways. i have mentioned this in an earlier post titled "God is a goose". well, for some time i have not seen God at work and these abstracts have not been there. i know He is always there no matter where or what. sometimes obvious, sometimes in stealth mode. yesterday the engine in my van started giving me problems and i know it's life is almost over. as i was driving past a large cemetery on the way to church, a flock of geese were right on the side of the road. after seeing this, i knew God was reminding me that he is still there and whatever else i face, it will be OK. tonight, on the way to church, my kids got into a food fight in the car. i grabbed the plate of mac and cheese from my 9 year old and dumped it in my lap. as i sat there about to explode, i was driving past the same cemetery and the geese were back. it was a hard family moment and God's timing is always perfect. i did not explode but rather felt peace. i needed God right then, that split second and he knew it. i needed him and as always, he was there. if i analyze this too much, i would wonder the significance of the geese being by a cemetery and start to think somebody close to me may die soon. i don't know if this will happen. maybe it is me. i just don't know. i do know this-whatever does happen He will be there with me. i trust and believe and yes, it is that simple.
until next time...