End of Roadtrip

As the first interstate exit sign for Madison hove into view it was good to know our long, grueling road trip was over and home was just around the corner. At the same time it was an incredibly memorable trip which will live on in our memories and our photo albums for many, many years.

Traveling to other parts of the U.S. is always a cultural experience, and the best way to learn more about this great country of ours. We experienced the Georgia culture, the Carolinas, and both Virginias. And that was probably the second best thing about the whole vacation.

The best thing, of course, was being with family. It's a little harder to be with family when they're spread farther apart but the distance traveled makes the reunion even sweeter.

It was great to be able to share photos with folks along the way through online resources, although there were challenges with that. Only one of my two cameras has an SD card that fits into my travel computer. And I mistakenly left the charger for that camera at home, so I had to be judicious in my photo taking with that camera.

But now that the rest of the photos have been loaded into the computer, more are posted to the travel gallery for those who are curious. Of particular interest will be the photos in the garden at Biltmore, where there were incredible colors and arrangements.

And then it's move on to new things, such as a gallery for Grant and Courtney's wedding for instance. Plus Sam has started a new weblog. And Drew has closed out his old weblog. And summer will soon be winding down (sigh). But it's not over yet.

Chillin w/grandchildren

This is what vacation is all about, spending relaxing time with family, particularly grandchildren. We now have one of those in our family and today we're getting to know little Lana Marie for the first time. The day started slowly and in a relaxed manner. Anne gave Lana her first bottle and talked with Sara about all kinds of mommy stuff. I suspect that after lunch we'll be going shopping.

Yesterday was a travel day, starting at a Motel 6 in Spartanburg SC early enough to make it to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville NC in time for the 8:30 opening. We visited the gardens first, before it got too warm, and then took the basic house tour. It was an enjoyable glimpse into the lives of the American elite a century ago. I suspect Anne may have picked up a decorating idea somewhere along the line. We enjoyed some ice cream in the stable shops and then were back on the road, headed north to Virginia. Along the way we stopped at Chick fil A for the first time, and noticed a convoy of NASCAR crew trucks passing us. Storms were scattered across the mountains and we enjoyed a few light shows beyond distant peaks. We arrived in Stephens City about 10pm.

Two Surprises

On Sunday morning we attended Late Service at the historic Lucas Theater in downtown Savanna, an ultra-contemporary worship service in a very historic theater. They do a good job in the old-wine-new-wineskins department, we liked the service a lot.

Then we tried out the Oglethorpe Tours, getting a 90-minute on-the-scene briefing on the history of downtown Savanna from a local native. That went really well and we enjoyed it very much. But when we got back to our car, it wouldn't start. Some friendly fellow-travelers gave us a jump, but the van still wasn't running right. So we called AAA and grabbed a pizza while we waited. The tow-truck driver, Lee, was very helpful and gave us some good suggestions on repair options. Then we took a cab to the airport to rent a car from Hertz (with AAA discount) to get us back to Fort Stewart.

Anne and Candess were up for much of the night, excited about Drew's return and getting preparations finalalized (baking cakes, making posters). We got to the athletic field about 8:30am and the buses with the soldiers arrived about 9:45. Everyone was anxious for their arrival. Fortunately the welcoming ceremony was very short, with a two-minute speech and a couple of songs.

Then families were reunited and happiness reigned. Drew said he spotted us right away. He also said that he wasn't surprised that we were there, he strongly suspected that we would make it, since we were traveling this week anyway. So much for the element of surprise.

Our Southern Sojourn Begins

It's been 20 years since our last family road-trip (a one-day road trip to Chicago, that included the Field Museum and the Sears Tower). Now we're off to Fort Stewart, Georgia, to welcome Drew and his unit back from Iraq. Then it's on to Virginia to see our new grand-daughter.

We left after work on Friday. Sam drove for about 90 minutes in southern IL to the Indiana border. We arrived at Uncle Bob's house in Indianapolis about midnight. After a short night we were back on the road at 7:30am. We arrived at Fort Stewart GA 16 hours later. Whew!

It was tempting to post updates on Facebook & Blogger, etc., but our arrival at Fort Stewart was supposed to be a surprise for Drew. So we were on silent running. Everything went smoothly until we neared Chattanooga. When it was time to stop for lunch, we were in the middle of a line of storms. But we found a dry spot, sharing a small shelter with another family. Then as we rolled through the mountain valleys just north of the Alabama border, we ran into a
traffic jam, with everyone creeping along at five mph. We were finally able to find an exit, get some gas and get some directions. We drove past Lookout Mountain on our short-cut, but didn't have time to stop this trip.

We made it past Atlanta without any further delays, which was a concern. Our final rest stop of the day was at Forsyth GA. After circling the court house square with its statue of a confederate soldier, we pulled into Wendy's for a quick bite. Then Anne took over driving for the home stretch.

We arrived at Fort Stewarts's north gate and had to circle around to the front gate, which took us a while longer, noticing a few deer keeping an eye on the gate. We made it.

Southern Sojourn - roadtrip prep

From Old Family Photos

Planning to blog our family vacation, I'm checking out my tools with my netbook to see if I have everything I need. I'll be posting photos to a Picasaweb album and adding comments here. Let's see, it looks like I can import photos from that album into this blog. OK, I can hardly wait to start. (Test photo is the $12.50 bike I bought last week from the UW SWAP shop. I doubled the value last night by adding $15 handle bar extenders.)

Wisconsin's "Hoosier" team

Conversation around the dinner table was about March Madness, and the current NCAA tournament. We observed that Butler, an Indiana team, made the Final Four in Indianapolis and the conversation drifted to one of the best sports movies ever, Hoosiers. That brought back memories of Wisconsin's own Hoosier story, the Dodgeville team that beat Milwaukee North for the state basketball title in 1964, before the class system separated small schools from bigger schools.

I remember the coach of that team, John "Weenie" Wilson, because my high school English teacher admired him even though he coached for a competing team. We were in the same conference and Weenie Wilson was not a coach who just sat on the bench with his team.

It turns out that there's a lot more to the story of Weenie Wilson. Online research turned up a Wikipedia entry that tells of his own illustrious career as an athlete (starring for the Badger football team and also playing with the Green Bay Packers), and his WWII service. He is the only coach who is in the Wisconsin High School football, baseball and basketball halls of fame.

Weenie Wilson died of a heart attack, during gym class at Dodgeville High School, in 1968.

Biker Blog?

Been thinking about converting this blog to a bikers blog, to write about the places I go and the things that I see. Of course, that would mean I need to do more biking (instead of just back and forth to work a few times a week). But the fact that Google has added bike trails to Google Maps may inspire me to do just that. How far can I go?

New Paradigms

Along about the time November arrives I start thinking about new paradigms. Soon the first big snowfall of the season will be arriving and we'll have to change our worldview from earthtones to one that is covered in white. The arrival of snow (along with colder temperatures) changes everythinng,

Driving, commuting, shopping--all kinds of activities are impacted by colder, snowier conditions. There are somethings we just don't think about until spring is in full bloom. It's a total paradigm shift.

Today's sermon by Mad City Church pastor Tom Flaherty described another type of perspective shift. It was titled "Seeing People as God Does," and it was based on the story of the Samaritan woman in the Gospel of John, chapter 4. h

If we had been along on that day we would have seen a social outcast, a woman who we probably would have avoided. But Jesus saw a heart hungry for change. His compassion and a few well spoken words changed her life forever.

Pastor Flaherty's suggestion: "We should always ask God, 'what do you see in this person?'" Even discounting the work of the Holy Spirit, just that thought alone might change our paradigms in a major way.

He added some wise words from General George Washington, quoted from the book 1776. Counseling his generals about less than professional military behavior among the rank and file of the Revolutionary War Army, Washington said, "We need to see the best in people as they are, not as we wish them to be."