Nov

13

Weekend visit to Richmond

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We seem to be at least a week late in posting about our lives.

We went to Richmond to visit my aunt and uncle for the last weekend in October. My cousin Jessica is living with them, and we’ve been wanting to visit for awhile. Friday was her birthday, so we went down to surprise her. Tricia had her open the door thinking it was trick-or-treaters (it was Oct 31). We yelled “trick or treat” when she opened the door. It took a few seconds for her to realize just who was on the door step. It was a great surprise.

We relaxed Friday night. Saturday we went to Maymont park for half the day. It was a beautiful day in the upper 60s. The park is quite large with various paths. Throughout the park are various animals (goats, bears, elk, deer, birds), a Japanese Garden, and a mansion. Since it was so warm most of the animals were out. The mansion has several buildings around it. You can take a tour of the mansion. We visited the basement since it was free.

We celebrated Jessica’s birthday Saturday night. On Sunday we went to church and visited until it was time to head back to Radford late afternoon. We enjoyed the visit and are glad we were able to suprise Jessica for her birthday.

Aug

13

Boone Family Vacation

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We had a wonderful time with my dad’s side of the family this past week in Green Mountain, NC, which is just north of Burnsville. We have a wonderful family. There are no fights; everyone willingly pitches in; and we can have fun without alcohol.

I’ll give the highlights of each day below, but there were some regular activites each day. A different crew cooked or cleaned up for every meal. Andrew and I cooked two meals and cleaned up three. It was great to not be in the kitchen for every meal. I know everyone else felt the same way. Another regular event was family devotions in the evening, just as we have done on every family vacation. This summer we sang some songs, had testimonies, and the “young” guys (Michael, Andrew, Nathan, and Brandon) gave a challenge. Each night was such a blessing.

Saturday
Uncle Dave and family took I-81 down from New Jersey, so we invited them to our apartment for lunch. After lunch Stephanie rode with us. We ended up taking NC-197 instead of the interstate. The road still got us there, but it took MUCH longer. We went up and down a mountain and ended up in a valley with several houses and a church or two. Then went up and down another mountain past some more houses and a church or two. This continued for several hours. We finally made it to the house. The driveway was almost worse than the road we had been on. It was steep and narrow, and the last section was all gravel. Brandon got his family’s van stuck on the first attempt. They had to unload some people to shift the weight to the front wheels. We were the last ones to arrive. One of the first things said to us was, “Don’t drink the water. It smells like sulfur!” Sure enough, the water had a strong stench of sulfur.

Sunday
My dad spoke for family devotions in the morning. He spoke longer than the rest of the guys (more like a church service). There was nothing planned for the rest of the day, but in the afternoon some people were going to the town of Green Mountain. I wanted to go along. Green Mountain was not very big. It consisted of a general store (which was closed), a post office, and a Presbyterian church. A few people drove by, but no one was around. My car then went into Burnsville to get more bottled water.

We celebrated Grandpa and Grandma’s 60th wedding anniversary after supper (the reason we all got together in the first place). Grandpa and Grandma, Sharon and Nathan, and Andrew and I played the newlywed game. Uncle Dave had collected questions from everyone to ask Grandpa and Grandma about their marriage. Then we watched a picture slide show and ate pound cake with mashed strawberries.

Monday Read more

Jan

7

Christmas Vacation

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These last two weeks have been busy for me. Andrew and I were able to go to Greenville for Christmas. We drove down Friday, December 21 when Andrew was done with work. Christmas day was divided up between our two families. We had breakfast with mine, and then we went to his parents’ house to open presents. We ate lunch in the dinning common with both families, and then we went to my parents’ house in the afternoon to open presents. Andrew left the day after Christmas to go back home. Since I didn’t have work or school I went to Michigan with my family.

We headed to Michigan on Thursday and enjoyed a week visiting all my extended family on my mom’s side except for one cousin. We had Christmas together that weekend. The rest of the week was spent eating and visiting. Sunday night (I think) we got about 4 inches of snow. Monday night (New Years Eve) we got more snow. The snow was supposed to end by midmorning Tuesday. Well, Tuesday morning the sun came out a tiny bit, and then it started snowing around lunchtime and didn’t stop until sometime in the night. We took a walk Tuesday night in the snow. We were supposed to head back to Greenville on Wednesday, but because of our snow and the snow being called for most of the way back to Greenville we decided to stay an extra day. Wednesday was beautiful. The sky was clear and the snow was so pretty. We had over 8 inches of snow. Unfortunately it was very dry and wouldn’t pack at all. When we left Thursday morning it was 4 degrees.

We went back to Greenville, but only for the night. My cousin Kyle Bowman (on my dad’s side of the family) was getting married that weekend. We did lots of laundry and repacked Thursday night so we could leave Friday. We took my grandparents with us, so we had seven packed in the van. Thankfully the wedding was only five hours away in Lynchburg, VA. Andrew drove over to Lynchburg that night, so we were able to be together again after a little more than a week apart. That night Grandpa took 17 of us out to dinner. We were quite a group.

The wedding was at 1pm Saturday. It was a nice wedding. That night for supper we were invited over to the Bowman’s house. We had thirty people there. We don’t get to see the Bowman’s much, so we enjoyed our time there. All of the extended family came to the wedding except for one cousin.

We all left Sunday. Andrew and I only had 1 ½ hours to travel, so we were in no hurry. We drove through the historic downtown and then went to a historic cemetery that had confederate graves, a pest house, and a display with a horse-drawn hearse and information on making tombstones. It was a neat place.

It has struck me lately how unusual my family is. We are close to my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins on both sides of the family. When we get together after being apart for 6 months to a year, it feels like we were never apart. Everyone professes to be a Christian, and we all get along well with each other. I don’t think many people can say that about both sides of their family. I’m very thankful that God has allowed us to be so close and spend so much time together.

Jun

17

Staff Training

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Staff Training

See the new pictures in the gallery.

Staff training began with 9 inches of snow on the ground. The melting snow made the ground soggy and hindered travel – even across the grounds. It’s very pretty, especially on Gypsum (the mountain visible from the lodge), but it forced some changes of plan.

Training includes things like camp policies and procedures, camp history, orientation with various activities, and preparation for counseling. The camp history is very interesting. I’m not sure that much of it is published anywhere. There is a lot of information, but it would be nice to see it all written down sometime. Policies and procedures are rarely interesting, but the unique location of the camp requires some different twists on typical camp practices.

Orientation included acclimatization. The camp is at 8600 feet above sea level. The cliffs for which it is named are just less than 9000 feet. Most of the staff has needed a week and a half to get used to the thin air. We played lots of outside games that helped get us used to less oxygen. When you’re not used to the air, even a walk from the pavilion (at the bottom of the hill) to the lodge (at the top of the hill – about 70 feet of change in elevation) can be a struggle.

We were scheduled to hike to the cliffs on the first day. The snow made the trail treacherous, so we played ultimate Frisbee in the meadow. We finally made the hike later during training. On Saturday (June 8th) we drove to the Green River Lakes near the headwaters of the Green River. The lakes are nestled between several mountains. The scenery is spectacular. On the second Friday of training, we hiked Little Sheep, a “hill” near the camp. The elevation at the top is about 10,000 feet. It was a brutal hike for anyone, especially those of us who were a little out of shape and not fully acclimated to the altitude. At the top there were beautiful views in every direction. The Teton Range was easily visible (about 50 miles away) and we could see nearly to Pinedale (30 miles away). It was quite windy at the top. Some of the grass and trees were growing sideways because of the constant gale. On the north slope there are snow banks. A popular activity for staff is to sled down the snow on plastic bags. Melanie did it once and sort of hurt herself. I didn’t do it at all. I didn’t want to wet and didn’t want to hike back up. A few people didn’t mind; they slid down several times.

The cliffs at Red Cliff provide more than a nice vista. During camp, we use them for rappelling. There is a 40-foot cliff and a 150-foot cliff. Melanie and I are both on the rappelling team, since Daniel York, the program team leader, wants to run as many lines as possible. Melanie will suit up rappellers with harnesses and I will supervise and man the fireman belay at the bottom of the cliff. The climbers are double-belayed, which means that there are two ropes on them for safety. My crew at the bottom can stop someone from falling simply by pulling on our rope.

One of the other events during training was the first God-Focused Whetstone conference at Red Cliff. The Whetstone conference is a two-day series of sessions and workshops for pastors and laymen. It attempts to provide them with useful ministry tools and needed spiritual refreshment. Many pastors in the inter-mountain west have small works in difficult areas. Mormonism is widespread and there are few people to begin with. The keynote speaker for the conference was Dr. Frank Hammrick, president of Positive Action for Christ ministries. Pastor Aaron Young of Elko, Nevada, and Pastor Jason Ehmann of Rexburg, Idaho, also spoke for some of the session. The guys on staff attended the evening sessions. Todd Wood, a pastor in Idaho Falls, organized and spearheaded the conference.

It looks like Melanie and I will be taking the SALT counselors to a church in Lander, WY sometime fairly soon. The church there has no pastor at the moment. Its former pastor and his family have moved to Greenville to take care of his in-laws. Mr. Dean says that we’ll probably have the whole service, so I’ll be preaching – possibly twice.

Next week is Junior Camp I. Pray that it goes well. I think the counselors are well-prepared, but I’m not sure that they think so.

Jun

10

The end of the trip

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Yellowstone

We scheduled Thursday and Friday in Yellowstone. We started early on Thursday morning. Right after going into the East Entrance, we hit road construction. The road perched on the side of the mountain was being rebuilt for about 10 miles. We had to wait 30 minutes before we could proceed into the park.

Thursday we traveled along the northern part of the park. We drove from the East Entrance to Mammoth Hot Springs and back around. We hit Yellowstone Lake, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Tower-Roosevelt, and Mammoth Hot Springs. On the way back we stopped at Norris Geyser Basin as well.

As would be expected, the scenery was beautiful. There was still a lot of snow on the higher peaks and there were almost no tourists to block the views. The only large collections of people were around rare wildlife.

We did see a lot of wildlife. My family likes to look at them, and we had plenty of opportunity. We saw dozens of buffalo, many elk and deer, two wolves, some coyotes, a bighorn sheep, a black bear, and a grizzly bear. Back near our lodge we also saw some moose.

Of course, Yellowstone is also known for its unusual geologic features. The canyon is pretty, but the springs and geysers are more interesting. The Mammoth Hot Springs were almost entirely turned off when we visited. There were a few trickles of water on a few springs, but most of the larger, more famous springs were dry.

Friday was the day to look at the geysers and hot springs on the western and southern parts of the park. The geyser basins were neat. Most of them were pretty active. We saw Old Faithful (the other place with lots of tourists), and while it was erupting, my camera battery died.

Grand Tetons

After we left Old Faithful we drove down through Grand Teton National Park. We didn’t see wildlife, but the scenery more than compensated. We basically drove straight to Jenny Lake in the southern section of the park. There was a boat to go across the lake, but we decided that we didn’t have enough time (we were driving all the way to Pinedale). They also had canoes and kayaks for rent, but wouldn’t start renting them for a couple of days until the water warmed up a little more.

Jackson is at the southern edge of the Tetons, We had supper there and drove on to Pinedale to stay with at the Loftus house for the night.

Saturday

On Saturday we went to Dan Kimball and Mary Maes’ wedding in Rock Springs. The wedding was nice, though we were trying not to laugh during it; Dan and Mary were trying not to laugh too. It was quite different from a Greenville wedding – people didn’t seem to know what to do all the time.

After the wedding we drove back up to Jackson to meet my family. We had supper at the Bar J Chuckwagon. The Bar J serves a western meal and performs a live western music show after supper. The meal was incredible and the show was hilarious and a lot of fun.

After church on Sunday we drove up to camp with my family. The road was pretty good by all accounts. We hiked to the cliffs and then settled into one of the cabins.

In the morning my family headed back down the mountain to drive toward Chicago. Our vacation was essentially over and we were starting camp.

Jun

6

Trip update

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We are currently at a public library in Denver, so we thought we’d try to give an update.

The computer is still down. We looked a little bit today for a new hard drive but the picking was slim. Mel’s brother Matt is flying to Denver today, and he’s bringing his laptop, so we’ll be able to post throughout the summer at camp.

Here’s what happened on our trip.

Monday, May 28

This was another traveling day for us. We drove across South Dakota. It was beautiful out, but kind of windy. We decided to go through the Badlands on the way to Rapid City to help save time on Tuesday. We got to the Badlands around supper time. It is such weird country. You kind of have to be there to understand what it’s like. As we got to the end of the Badlands loop, there was a thunderstorm brewing in the distance. This happened to be the direction of Rapid City, which is where we were going to stay for the night. We ended up staying in Wall, SD because the thunderstorm looked really bad.

Tuesday, May 29
We drove through Custer State Park to view the animals. We were able to see buffalo and other such animals. The funniest stop was the burros. As you came around the corner there were several vehicles stopped and over a dozen burros in the road. When a vehicle would stop, several burros would step up to the car. Andrew’s family had the forsight to close their windows, so the burro only steamed up the glass. But we had our window down to take pictures. We ended up with a burro sticking his head in the car. He sniffed around and wouldn’t get his head out. I was laughing very hard, and Andrew was taking pictures. In order to get him to pull his head out we had to start driving off.

We went to Mount Rushmore toward evening. It was raining, so we staying inside most of the time. The monument was a lot smaller and farther away than I thought it would be.

Wednesday, May 30
We decided to take a detour in Wyoming to go to Devil’s Tower, another national monument. After entering the area we were looking at a prairie dog colony when some people Anthony knew from BJ showed up! What a small world.

Devil’s Tower was pretty neat. We walked up to the base of it (which is still quite a ways below it) and watched kids climbing on the rocks. We saw two people headed to climb up the tower, but we didn’t see anyone actually on the way up.

From Devil’s Tower we headed to Elephant’s Head Lodge between Cody and Yellowstone. In order to get there, we had to drive over a mountain range. At the bottom was a really cool canyon with some nice scenery and a waterfall. At the top we ran into snow. It started as rain, but in the higher elevations was fairly heavy snow. We got to Cody around dark. The cabin at the lodge was really tiny, but we never spent much time there so it wasn’t too bad.

Sadly, our pictures from Monday and Tuesday are on the laptop that isn’t working. We are hoping to be able to recover them when we get back to Greenville. We’ll post more pictures once we get a computer to download them off the camera. If you want to see pictures check out Abby’s posts.

May

30

Technical difficulties

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Well, we might be silent for a little while. Last night, Mel’s computer developed a hard drive problem and won’t boot up.

Pray we get it fixed somehow, because otherwise we’re going to have a rough summer. A lot of stuff we need to be able to use is on that computer — basically we were planning to use it to keep our life back East still running while we’re in the West.

Also, the hard drive has our pictures — several hundred of them — on it. For some of the files, we have no other copy.

If there are any computer gurus out there with suggestions, the error message appears before Windows finishes booting up, even in Safe Mode. Error Code 0F00:0244 Msg: Block 656414: Uncorrectable data error or media is write protected. I’m reading that it’s a bad hard drive sector, but if someone has another idea or a suggestion about how to get our data off the drive, I would be very interested.

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