Tuesday, July 31, 2007

The Day Chris (Kevin's Wife) Fractured her Finger and smashed up her face...real bad

It was the day after Kevin fell on his wrist, and we were supposed to go kayaking. However, huge storms had brought the winds up, and we were not going to be able to do it. So instead we decided to take a hike up to Montreal Falls. We decided that everyone in our group was going to go, despite the lack of energy and overall low morale, and we set out in 3 vehicles, led by Army Ranger Dave, who was showing us the way.

The problem was that about 4 of the guys (including Ranger Dave) had been to this falls, but it had been about 4-6 years. So when we came to a fork in the road, the question was--which way? The road on the left was very steep and covered in rocks. The road to the right was also steep, but instead of rocks, it was just plain dirt. Dirt with very large ruts in it.

We chose the latter road and began the perilous trek up the hill with a truck, a minivan, and a 12 passenger van. I was riding shotgun in the 12 passenger, and I was very thankful to be doing so, as the girls in the back were becoming quite ill. The road was so bad, we had to stop numerous times to pull fallen trees out of our path, drive through large mudholes, or navigate over huge rocks jutting out of the steep hills. One of the girls in the back wasn't wearing her seatbelt and we heard a loud "thud" followed by "Oowww!"

"Eliza, are you okay?"

Eliza, rubbing the top of her head "Nothing, I just hit my head on the roof."

After about ten minutes, Ranger Dave stopped and ran back to our van. He suggested we try the other road. So we drove all the way back the the "y" and drove up the rocky road. This road was even steeper and more impassable, and after two more wrong turns, many groans and threats to pull the van over to be sick, and comments from the peanut gallery of "DOES THE WORD WHIPLASH MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU?!" to our driver, Ranger Dave again ran to our very weary, muddy, and scratched up van to tell us the awful truth...It was the original road or no road. Did we have the strength to face it? We had now been on this perilous journey for an hour, and our stomachs were not happy with us.

But our girls were strong and stated that they had come this far--they weren't going to turn back now! We were told that it was only a couple miles into the forest before we could get out and start hiking. An hour and ten miles later we finally made it to our trail. We spilled out of the vans and breathed deeply of the fresh air.

We had wasted so much time on the roads that we now had very little time to actually get to the waterfall and back before dinner. So with Ranger Dave in the lead, we took off down the trail at a very rapid pace. I was thoroughly enjoying practically running through the underbrush, over logs and fallen trees, around stumps, and avoiding the sheer cliffs leading down to Lake Superior on our right sides.

We made it to the Falls in record time, splashed around in the water, caught a frog, and took some pictures. Then, within minutes, we turned around to head back. I had heard that Kevin and Chris, his wife, had had to turn back and wait for us because she had fallen. I hopped she was alright and that she didn't need medical attention as we were quite far from civilization.

When we emerged from the woods, we saw the sad couple sitting on the grass looking out at the lake, Kevin with his right arm swollen from yesterday, and Chris with a grossly swollen and bruised eye, various cuts on her face, and worst of all, her ring finger swollen to nearly double its size. She had tripped over a root and landed her full weight on her finger and then her face. Ouch. She was quite brave though and insisted she was fine. I was worried about her finger, and the wedding band quite stuck there.

We made it back just in time for dinner, a little banged, bruised, very tired, and ready to have an uneventful ride home the next day. But that was not about to happen.

The Day Kevin Sprained his Wrist

This begins a succession of eventful Days in my last couple of weeks:

We were in the Upper Peninsula doing a missions trip at a Bible camp on Lake Superior. We led a VBS for the kids in the morning and the evening. Our afternoons were free, and one particular day we decided to go “cliff jumping”. I put that in quotations because these weren’t actual cliffs. The were more like 10-20 feet rocks that bordered a waterfall. But we called it cliff jumping. Made us all feel adventurous I think.

Anyway, We loaded in to our vans, drove about two miles from the camp, and parked on the side of the road. We then traipsed through the woods until we reached the waterfall. At this point, we reached the water fall. The trail led almost straight down from there. We hung on to tree roots and made our way down. Once down there, two of the other girls and I hiked up the waterfall a ways to see what we could see. I jumped over rocks, trees, and bushes and felt very wild and daring. Stephen was always worried about me, but I was in my element and was willing to risk injury to enjoy the great outdoors.

After we walked a ways, we headed back to watch the cliff jumping. I chose not to jump as the water was like -30 or something like that. At least, when I put my feet in, they went numb….so…It was cold. I hate cold. I watched from a rock and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Kevin, one of the leaders, nabbed Stephen and took him down another set of falls. They found that if you sat under the falls, it felt like you were getting a massage. After their backs were thoroughly pummeled, they decided to explore down the falls a bit more. There were a lot of large rocks in the water, and they were jumping from one rock to another, when Kevin jumped to a rock that was unstable. It tottered beneath him and he started to fall backwards. He threw out his hand to catch himself but ended up landing his whole body weight on his wrist. Whether it was broken or not, we weren’t sure, but it swelled up and hurt quite badly. With his wrist in such a condition he had to climb back out of the waterfall. Brutal. But he made it. And we were proud of him.

Thankfully, we found later that it was only sprained:-)

The World Traveler

We are on our way to Niagra Falls. Three days ago we set out early in the morning for the 16 hour drive to update New York to help celebrate in Daniel and DeAnna’s wedding. I think I’ve been running on pure adrenaline for the last three weeks. This ends week 4 of living out of a suitcase, and I only have one left, but at least it’s in the Quad Cities. We are staying at the youth pastor’s home while they are away. It will be relaxing!

The last four weeks have been an absolute whirlwind of activity for me. The longest time I have had between trips has been about 36 hours. The shortest has been 12—over night. Just long enough to unpack, do laundry, and repack before I had to climb in another car. Within an hour of leaving for New York on Thursday morning, I was already going stir crazy.

The other night I was calculating all the places I’ve been to recently. I thought back since last summer, and here’s what I came up with. By the end of this summer, I will have traveled to or through all the following places:

Utah (Zion)
Nevada (Hoover Dam, Vegas)
Georgia
Florida
Iowa, Illinois (dozens of times)
Indiana (4 times to Gramps’ and Grams’? And thru it 4 times)
Wisconsin (through it 4 times)
U.P of Michigan (for two weeks on Lake Superior!)
Ohio (through it twice, then there to take Alex to College)
Pennsylvania
New York

Stephen will be heading to Wyoming here in two weeks, as well. Our hours in the car this summer have accumulated to somewhere near 130-140.

I feel like a World Traveler. Or at least a States Traveler.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Not My Morning

It has been one of those mornings.

I woke up early this morning to go jogging before I went to work. But it was raining. So jogging was out. I showered, dressed, threw a load of laundry in the washer and headed out the door with plenty of time to spare before work.

Unfortunately, I left the windows open in our truck all night, so the seats were all wet. I went back inside, grabbed a towel to sit on, and returned to the car. I slid into the driver's seat and looked down at my pants. There was some type of black residue all over my pants. My khaki pants. I sighed. No time to change, and nothing to change into anyways as I had thrown my jeans into the washer.

I grabbed the steering wheel, then pulled my hand back and looked at my fingers: covered in the same black residue. The steering wheel must have gotten wet and whatever was on it was rubbing off all over me. I would just have to wash my hands (and my pants off) when I got to work. It was getting late.

I started off to work in the rain with no windshield wipers, black khaki pants, wet seats, and sticky hands. I was halfway there when I saw it-- "road contstruction ahead." Uh oh. I was nearing the bridge over the Mississippi River that gets me to work. It is the only bridge for miles, and when there's construction, it's not pretty. And it's not like you can just take a back road across the river. I then remembered the construction I had seen on the bridge on my way home from work the night before--3 miles of cars backed up on the other side of the road. I figured I was doomed.

About a half a mile into the traffic I looked at my dash. The Low Fuel light just came on. Great. Our fuel guage is busted and bounces madly between below empty and 1/4 tank, so you never really know how much you have. The guy who loaned it to us for the summer said "you know it needs gas when it starts shaking." I grew a little nervous.

We weren't backed up for long, though, so I made it to work only ten minutes late, without running out of gas, and was able to get the stuff off my hands and pants. Yay! It was definitely one of those mornings where you look around and go "this is not my morning!" But days like that are good though, because I once heard someone say "whenever you have a day that's "not your day," turn it over to God and make it His day!" So at times like that, I can remember that it wasn't supposed to be "my day" to begin with, and I can put it back in its rightful hands and trust God with whatever He chooses to do with it:-)

So it hasn't been my day--but I guess that's a good thing!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Tag--I'm finally not it any more!

I have much to update you all on.

But I will begin with finally untagging myself. You see, I have been blogger tagged...about a month or two ago, and so I suppose it's time to make someone else "it"

Here are the rules, which I have also plagiarized from Greg:
1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.
4. You may need to leave them a comment and tell them they're tagged and to read your blog.

Here are my 8 facts:

1. I didn't know how to put air in my car's tires. Until today.
2. I, too, am a Lost fan but am a late bloomer and did not yet know that Ecko died until I read it on Greg's blog. Thanks a lot.
3. Yes, I believe in Climate Change (aka global warming). FYI, Al Gore did NOT invent it like he invented the internet.
4. I love the smell of cows, pigs, and freshly cut grass, as well as loving frogs, toads, geckos, turtles, and small snakes.
5. I have been living out of a suitcase for 3 full weeks now and will continue as such for another two weeks.
6. I've picked up jogging now that my back can handle it. I just hope my lungs can.
7. I love classical music.
8. By the end of the week, I will have spend over 80 hours in a car in the last 3 weeks. Over 100 since June.

And now I am no longer "it"!

Now I tag: Erica Johnson, Adam Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, Christie Noll, Melodie Sheppard, Alex? and Mattric...that's all I got.