This is a bitter sweet ending

We are finally home and i am laying in my own bed for the first time in a week... It feels great to be comfortable again and finally be able to rest. At the same time i am already thinking about how much it sucks that trip had to end. I understand that it is time that we finish out our final semesters and start to move on but, it is hard to think that this is the last time that this kind of trip could happen for all of us. We may never be able to get together again and experience what we did this week. I know that the other guys feel the same i do. I am honestly scared to think i may not be near these guys in the future and i may not have them to lean on. I know that it is time that i trust God and just let the future happen. I will be where he places me and will always know that God is good and gave me to opportunity to meet and spend time with each amazing friend on the trip. I am so thankful for each laugh, prayer, moment of silence,horrible song and each moment of incredible tension we had on the trip. I love you guys.

Captain's Log - USS Noble Gentleman - Update Six: There and Back Again - Stardate 3/20/10

Here ladies and gentlemen is the final trip update. We will no doubt continue to post pictures, videos (props to Adam for finding the stuff to get them off the camera), and wrap ups but seeing as we're almost home... This is it. We left Seattle Friday morning and have stopped only to eat, get gas and find relief. It will be close to 40 hours travel time all told when we finally get back to Bloomington and we're all quite proud of the accomplishment. Greg is driving now as we pass through Wisconsin to Illinois with Adam set to hopefully close the drive out.

It has been a great trip. Perhaps not one that I would make again given travel time but I am completely content with the memories, laughs, and experiences shared with my brothers in Christ. I'd say most of all during this trip I've learned a lot about patience and humility. I'd say we all have easy going, agreeable personalities but 8 days within arms reach of assertive, confident guys can cause disagreements and tension.

I usually internalize frustration so that I don't spur arguments and damage relationships. The problem with that is that sometimes I have trouble letting things go and it boils up to cause problems down the road. I've tried very hard to let the little stuff roll off my back and just let things go. Sometimes that means swallowing my pride and belief that I'm right but as long as things work out and don't cause problems, no big deal. As often as I think I'm right, I'm certainly not always and have to learn to concede to a better point. I have to grow to examine and accept other viewpoints.

I think we've been incredibly blessed to get through this trip without a hitch or big disagreement. Anyways, it's 7:32 CST and I'm exhausted and ready for my own bed.
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We are not Lucky... Just Blessed

My Favorite thing said so far this trip came in a conversation we had while walking along the coast. It was brought up that it is insane to think that some guy got in a wooden boat, that could not even be close to safe, and just sailed in hopes to discover new places like the area around Seattle. In response Rob said "I think the question isn't what man would think to make that trip but, what man would be able to keep himself from taking that trip". I am glad i got a taste of adventure on this trip. 5 best friends just driving over 7000 miles together was not just something we wanted to do but, something we had to do. God gave of this opportunity and byegolly we took it. God is good... enough said.

Needle in a Building Stack

Today we stumbled upon the majestic Space Needle, the same Space Needle that was discovered by the Pioneers in the late 1700s . This needle was actually created by a Indian candle maker in 1693 by the name of William Bear Claw. He and his family made candles out of hardened steel and animal remains. One day William was distracted by a phone call from his mother and did not realize that he was creating a giant candle and also just talking into a shell. Well he created history that day. It is the largest candle in America. When the first pioneers discovered the needle they thought that is was just a waste of Space and tried to light it. To there amazement the candle did not burn out. All that was ignited that night was the pioneers hearts. A burning love and passion for the needle flamed in the hearts of the pioneers. So instead they built a monument of the candle maker near the base of the the needle. Which was later used as inspiration for the Statue of Liberty.

Danger. Adventure. Dadventure?

I feel like I need to clarify something. There has been much talk of frolicking, reading, bro-ing, and other fairly docile activities, but not much about completely reckless activity. Today we set out to change that.

We wanted to fully epitomize the male stereotype. We wanted adventure. We wanted to look danger in the face and say "...you know what, never mind. You're not worth it". Look, I'll show you.

We started off the day BY WRESTLING WOLVES! Rob and Pont have chokeholds on their adversaries, hoping to hold out long enough for help to come. As you can see, Adam lost his right arm and Michael his left.

Oh no, what are they doing. No. It can't be. They look like they're driving, but no one's watching the road. Wait. They are driving. And no one's watching the road. Are they...come on...no...no one's that crazy...COME ON GUYS! SOMEONE GRAB THE WHEEL! YOU'RE HURTLING DOWN THE HIGHWAY AT 65 MPH AND YOU'RE NOT EVEN LOOKING! AHHHHHHHHHH!

Come on now. After the last one, you thought there'd be no way we would have time to change our pants AND attempt something equally dangerous. Wrong on both counts. The water is right there and they. don't care. What if they get wet? don't care. What if their shoes get soggy? don't care. Our thirst for adventure knows know limits.

There's more, seriously. Just ask when we get back. I'm seriously serious. Please believe me.

Nature Day in Oregon!!

Yesterday was Nature Day in Oregon and as the resident naturalist I will be giving you the run down!

We began the day with a rousing game of disc golf on a local course. We managed to miss the 9th (and last) hole because it was hidden all the way on the other side of the park from the 8th hole, which is a hilarious way to make a golf course. The game is still ongoing...Adam is ahead by two strokes...
The drive up to Astoria was beautiful. We wanted to get to the coast to see the Pacific, but we missed all the beaches until the way back. Astoria is a city on a hill, located at the mouth of the Columbia River. It is also where the movie "the Goonies" was filmed, so we found the house from the movie!













We took a jog over to Washington state because we can. There we found a delightful place called Cape Disappointment. It was, in fact, disappointing. We wanted to find a place to sit, look at the waves of the ocean, and smoke our respective cigars and tobacco pipes whilst the sun set. Iconic. Cape Disappointment was not the place.

We had seen a potential location (conveniently called Sunset Beach) back near Seaside a few miles back down the coast from Astoria, so we loaded up and headed back. When we reached the beach we quickly realized this was not going to be the idyllic, brotastic scene we had pictured in our minds. The wind was blowing at 40 mph and the sand was painful as it nailed our legs, but Ponto persevered and dove in the pacific like a man. It was something to remember for sure.

Our final nature day nature break came on the way back. Adam saw something pretty and pulled the van off to take a picture. We found trails back into the woods and it gave us a real experience in the Northwestern wilderness. It was exactly what I wanted when I envisioned this trip. It was all I wanted and it was gorgeous. I will end this post with a sample of Oregon's best.

Joy

I originally wasn't too sure about this trip. I'm a big guy and big guys don't do well in the car for long periods of time. I'm sure watching me crawl out of the car from the backseat is a comedic moment for the men I'm with. I also kind of like the beach and the ocean. So driving for 30+ hrs each way isn't exactly my idea of rest and vacation...

But man was I wrong.

In the past six days I have: laughed harder than I've laughed in a very long time, heard more puns than I care to think about, driven more miles than I have in my life, eaten at 3 restaurants from Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, walked through 3 major US cities, driven through 9 states, spoken with 5 perfect strangers about their walks with God, seen mountains, rivers, forests, the pacific ocean and wrestled around with 2 huskies and a mut. The list goes on and on.

I'm out here with 4 of my best friends, enjoying an experience I'll treasure for the rest of my life. We were ridiculously taken care of by some family friends of Michael's and they showed us the definition of hospitality. They even took us out to dinner at an elementary school that was converted into a bar/restaurant.

And man is nature side of things breath-taking.

I think I'm feeling.....joy.

Joy is one of those tricky things that is really hard to define. Its more than emotional, its spiritual. Its contentment of the soul. Its every time that I take an experience/sight in and have to immediately thank God for the moment. The combination of the wonder of nature and the love of brothers is enough to throw me into a constant state of joy.

This reminds me of something I read during the car ride here. Its from a book called "The Divine Conspiracy" by Dallas Willard.

It was something I've never really thought about before. The idea that God is "simply one great inexhaustable experience of all that is good and true and beautiful and right." I mean we get excited about clear night skies, good conversations and sandy beaches but God is surrounded by "Towering clouds of gases trillions of miles high, backlit by nuclear fires in newly forming stars, galaxies cartwheeling into collision and sending explosive shock waves boiling through millions of lightyears of time and space."

We get excited about a few tropical fish in a tank, and God has the ocean!

I don't have any idea what thats like. But going westward with 4 of my friends has given me just a glimpse.

This must be what joy feels like.

Moments in History with Adam... Dumbo Drop

Today we are going to explore a statue seen only in Portland, Oregon. This statue is of a elephant with a second smaller elephant on top of it. This elephant was sculpted in honor of a young explorer named Kirby Sandsalot and his young small person companion Rocky Teacut. Kirby became famous in 1910 when he first discovered the animal today known as the elephant. Elephants were first found in the city of Portland and did not relocate to Africa until the release of the movie Dumbo drop in America in 1995. The sheer embarrassment of that movie caused the elephants to move southwest of Oregon to the land of Africa. Unfortunately the actors found in the movie still can be found in the U.S. This elephant now stands tall into the Portland skyline at 9 feet and six inches. On the underbelly of the elephant there can be found a passage that was written into the belly by George Washington himself describing the elephant migration in 1995. This passage is rumored to be found in the future sequel to the movie National Treasure which is going to be called National Treasure 5: Unpaid National Debt.

Portland's Powell's Books

Today we conquered Portland.

We started the day with an early reveille at 10:30am. We needed the sleep. We got in last night between 1:30am and 2am, which was 5am in Bloomington and to our bodies. We are staying with my parents friend Anne and her husband Brad in Beaverton, Oregon, just outside Portland.

Anne (who introduced my parents to eachother) had set a nice spread for us. We had a delightful breakfast of bagels and nanners (and Adam had cheesecake). We left at noon to take Anne to work in downtown Portland. On the drive we were able to see Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens.

We walked Anne to her office and met some of her co-workers before heading into the city on our own. We had been told about these carts in Portland that sell amazing ethnic food. They had food from all over the world. There was Greek, Vietnamese, Japanese, Italian, Peruvian, and Thai. It took a long time for us to choose just one. Greg, Rob, Adam and I got Thai food and Ponto got Vietnamese. We ate our treats in one of the many park areas around downtown Portland. We met a Can Lady who gave us terrible directions but was oh so polite.

After refueling, we marched over to Powell's bookstore. Along the way Greg spotted a record store so we lost him for a bit. Powell's is the largest independent bookstore in the nation. It was amazing! There were so many floors and so many books. They have to have a separate store for technical books because there just isn't any room. They have every kind of book you could want and most of them are used so they are super cheap. Rob and I were able to make a couple of sweet purchases.

Adam disappeared, but don't worry we found him. We made our way to the Willamette River, but not before going to the Union Pacific Railroad Station to check out the area. We saw Chinatown too. We soon realized that our legs were horribly tired. We had been walking all day after sitting for 36 hours. Our bodies don't know what to do. We found a pub to sit at and took a much needed break. This gave us some time to reflect on the fact that we were sitting in the Irish section of Portland. I still can't believe we're here.

Austin Bristow and Caitlin Roth came into the city and we were able to meet up with them for dinner. We were in Niketown and they were at the Nike headquarters. We got dinner at the closest place we could find because we all were losing it. It was nice to see them even though it was only for a brief dinner. We said goodbye and decided to say goodbye to Portland too. We are beat.

Captain's Log - USS Noble Gentleman - Update Five: Pototes McGotes - Stardate 3/14/10

*Note* Sorry for the avalanche of posts. I had saved my post for Salt Lake on my laptop hoping that we could figure out the video stuff and post some pictures but couldn't and didn't get to post it before we left. We're in Portland now and Michael is writing an update for it. The other two updates were written in the car on the way here.

Idaho has a little bit of everything. We got some of the plains, the hills and the mountains coming up from Utah to Boise. We had dinner at our third DDD location West Side Drive-in and like all our other DDD locations, the food was money.

Greg, Michael and I got bacon cheeseburgers, fries and shakes. Rob and Adam got half orders of the signature sandwich (very similar to cheesesteaks but bigger) with fries and shakes. We were tempted to order the ice cream potato but none of us had room to eat anymore. Here is a picture of my basket and the ad for the ice cream potato:

The weather is really nice out here. It's only mid 40s but the sun has been out and it feels much warmer. Rob is driving and I'm riding shotgun. ETA in Beaverton, Oregon is 1:08 AM.

Glory to God,
The Guys

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Captain's Log - USS Noble Gentleman - Update Four: Not the Golden Tablets, They Lost Those - Stardate 03/14/10

This morning we left Salt Lake after a good night's sleep and a little exploring. We went to church at First United Methodist in Salt Lake which had a small but very diverse congregation. The pastor was Korean and the church has many Samoan members. The service was traditional with a lot of music and we got to celebrate Communion. We felt very welcome and loved.

After church we dropped in on the Mormon compound. There we saw the headquarters of all Mormons, the temple and tabernacle. After jumping around the Book of Mormon we found in our hotel room, our visit to the Mormon compound was definitely an odd experience. The buildings were cool and set up was cool but it didn't feel right. They had a huge tabernacle which we're sure would have housed the old golden tablets if they could find them.

We couldn't stay long in Salt Lake because we've got a good bit of traveling left to get to Portland and we're planning on stopping briefly in Boise to eat.

Dreams count: 12
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Captain's Log - USS Noble Gentleman - Update Three - Stardate 3\13\10 8:30 PM MST

After a long 24+ hour drive we arrived at our first real destination, Salt Lake City. Last night's drive gave us some interesting stories and taught us some valuable lessons.

Lesson/story 1: Nebraska stinks literally and figuratively. There is nothing to see really because it's all farmland. Next, we stopped in the middle of the night to get gas and could smell nothing but manure. Finally they tried to sell us gas with corn in it (ethanol) for a discounted price but we weren't having that garbage.

Lesson/story 2: Horse statues that appear to be holding guns at a distance may in fact be a horse with an eagle when viewed at close range. People in Wyoming also have an intimate knowledge of horse anatomy (use your imagination at your own risk).

Story 3: We hit up our second DDD location in Salt Lake. We were going to go to Moochie's Meatballs which had "Italian food" but really was just Philly cheesesteaks and meatball sandwiches etc. The place was undergoing renovations though and just had an outdoor grill thing working but it was snowing. We decided to go somewhere else.

The place we ended up going to is called the Blue Plate Diner. They were a lot like a more adventurous, less greasy Wee Willies. I had the Spanish which was an omelet with cheese, salsa, guacamole, and sour cream and came with home fries and toast. Michael went with the country fried chicken (breakfast variety), Greg got the Utah which was another kind of omelet, Adam got country fried chicken too (but dinner version). It was a good time all around but was made by Adam's antics with their soda fountain. He kept the waitress entertained by getting coke with coconut, mint, hazelnut and amaretto flavoring.

The wrap up: We kept the night pretty chill. We're pretty tired from driving straight through the night, Salt Lake doesn't have a lot of interesting stuff to do and it we got a decent amount of snow. After dinner we watched some TV in the room and Greg, Michael and Adam played some N64 until they could go to bed at a decent hour. Rob fell asleep at like 6.

Tomorrow morning we'll get up early to take advantage of our free breakfast at the hotel and go to church before we pack it on up and make the 12ish hour trek through the mountains to Portland. Should be a good day but another long one.

Unfortunately we probably won't be posting any videos until after we get back to Bloomington and even that is a maybe. The camera we brought won't let you transfer the videos onto your computer unless you have the software provided by the camera and that is something that we don't have but we're working on.

Exploring History with Adam : The Horse with a Gun

So i have decided to contribute something to this blog by taking some of the historical moments in our trip and giving our followers an explanation of our rich history as Americans.

First we stumbled upon a monument that helped change the course of history. The Horse with a Gun statue stands tall in the city of Sinclare, Wyoming. The city was named after the donut when it was first discovered in 1832. Here was where the gold rush first started gaining steam. Gold was being found all over the country side, which brought many outsiders to the land. Many of the outsiders, known as people, were destroying the land with their industrial revolution in 1911. The last defense came from one horse.... with a gun. He died fighting to save Sinclare but he did not go with out a fight. He fired that gun for hours fighting those bad people.

He then encountered a problem. He was out of ammo and had no allies. Luckily, a friend from above was their to help him defend his territory. The Eagle gave a new hope to a grim situation. The Eagle of course the symbol of our national pride, was given this honor after the discovery of the events that happened near the Flaming Gorge, also known as the original Grand Canyon. Here we have a simple reenactment of the valiant efforts of the eagle and the horse with a gun that day.

Captain's Log - USS Noble Gentleman - Update Two: What Dreams May Come - Stardate 3\12\10

We're just now leaving Kansas City, MO after having some grindage at our first DDD location, Grinders. Adam and Greg-O split the Bengal Tiger which was pesto, curry, chicken, and crab meat pizza; they said it was delightful. RTG, Michael and I hit up the Le Hog (another pizza) which had a lot of ham, some bacon, and meatballs with a white sauce; it too was delicious.


Kansas City's roads are a mess but it had a neat look. I finished my first driving leg heading into the city and Greg will be going for the next couple hours. Our route is going to take us north just short of Omaha and then west to Salt Lake where we'll dodge the LDBs (latter day bros).


Can't guarantee when the next update will be but we'll have some pictures to post of dinner when we get legit internet access in Salt Lake. Dreams count: 9.
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Captain's Log - USS Noble Gentleman - Stardate 3/12/10 12:19 PM

The 5 of us (or 6 counting God; 8 depending on your views of the Trinity; 9 if you count the spider on the windshield) left HCH after some good prayer, payed Michael's water bill and are in the process of getting engine coolant at Wal Mart. Adam and Greg both left their keys in their house thinking that the other was going to bring them... No where to go but west.

Oh and we're going to Salt Lake too, should be there around this time tomorrow. We've only got a couple of planned stops which include a little disc golf to loosen our legs and dinner in Kansas City. We're listening to the CD Adam made of songs you love to hate and already have a good video or two which we'll get up when we get internet at the hotel.

To the friends and family and strangers who may be following this blog, keep us in your prayers. May you all enjoy the updates we post and have a relaxing and refreshing break.
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Michael is excited and not as good at puns as Adam

In following Adam's theme of posting about the things we are most excited about, I would like to highlight the awesomeness that will be our drive and the natural wonderment we will find upon arrival. Virtually every natural formation used in a Adamian or Gregorian Inspirational Quote will be witnessed on this trip.


I'm going to skip the part where we drive across the wall of roadtrip death (Oklahoma, Kansas: see above, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota), and get straight to the good stuff.


After passing through the Rocky Mountians in Utah, we will be spending most of our time around the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington. According to Wikipedia these are the peaks:

From Portland we will be able to see Mt. Hood as this picture taken from Wikipedia demonstrates:


If we are lucky, we'll get to visit the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park in Washington state (but I hear you have to take a boat there which costs dinero). It's the only rain forest in the Northern Hemisphere according to Wikipedia:


Putting these pictures in is harder than I thought...so...this is what I'm excited about: NATURE!

The Signs of the End Twines

I want to make is clear now. We are NOT going to to the world's largest ball of twine. We are going to the world's largest ball of string. I am personally offended that someone could think that it is impressive to make a ball out of Twine. Anyone can make a twine ball. Example seen below! So lets not string our followers along boys... Lets get the point and tell the truth about twine.

For all you cartographers out there...

Here is our route! (google maps is the best...true dat...double true)

View Larger Map

Our Powers Combined...

This is what would happen if the five of us were one person.

Our 5th and most wise member.

The member not seen in the main photo. Look at him doesn't he remind you of someone who knows things....

The Journey

The purpose of this blog is to catalog and document our trip for ourselves and for others. We are going to have a lot of time to sit and think and kind of just enjoy what is around us. My hope is that we update this regularly but for the reasons above; I can give no guarantee. I'm also hoping to spend some good time in my Bible and to share that with whoever finds this.

Here's a little breakdown of the trip:

We'll be all packed up Thursday, March 11 in Michael's family van and ready to leave Friday morning after Rob gets out of his exam. We're packing light because we're men and we don't need ridiculous unnecessary things/stuff. We are going to bring snacks because men eat things, a video camera because there will no doubt be shenanigans which will have to be documented and lawn chairs so if we're driving through God's creation and see some beautiful country we can sit and soak it in.

The first leg of our journey will be around 24-28 hours including pit stops and meals. We will head out of Bloomington Friday morning and God willing arrive in Salt Lake City Saturday afternoon. I took the liberty and responsibility of looking up Diner's, Drive-ins and Dives locations in cities we're going to be traveling through so we can enjoy some great food. The plan is to spend all day Saturday enjoying Salt Lake City and spending the night there in a hotel to rest up for the next day. We're going to wake up early, go to church and depart for Portland, Oregon.

This trek will take us around 12 hours and will put us in Portland late at night. We are very fortunate to be allowed to stay with friends of Michael's family in Portland. Sunday night and Monday and Tuesday day and night will all be spent in Portland with us leaving in the morning on Wednesday. We don't have a lot of plans in any of the cities we're going, so honestly if you are reading this and can think of something fun for us to do (that doesn't cost money), drop us a line.

The drive from Portland to Seattle is luckily only about 3 hours. Our last couple of day will be spent in and around Seattle. We're hoping to take some time to see the Pacific Ocean and see the sites (recommendations again would be welcome). After spending the rest of Wednesday and Thursday in Seattle, the last leg of our journey is approximately 36 hours (according to Google Maps) from Seattle back to Bloomington.

I for one am probably more excited than I should be for this trip for a number of reasons:

• I'm going to spend a lot of much needed time with some really good friends.
  
• I was born in Texas but have never been farther west than that and can't wait to see some mountains.
  
• This has a lot of promise to be incredible experience.
• God is good.

Psalm 24:1
"Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me you paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long."

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