Rocky Mountain National Park

One of our greatest thrills, any time and any where is to see animals in thier native habitat. That was our favorite thing in Africa, and also on this trip.

3 BIG bull Elk were right by the road coming out of Rocky MTN NP.

 These little marmots were looking for a handout. I enjoy all wildlife, regardless of it's fame.

More of the big bull elk.

A deer, not sure which species, but we ended up seeing several.

Of course one of the things that made seeing these animals special, was having Andrew with us. He is skilled at spotting game, and enjoys it as much as we do. It was a great way to start our time together.

CRU 19

 Josh McDowell- New Evidence talk

Every second year, Cru holds a worldwide staff training meeting in Ft. Collins, CO at CO State Uni. For at least the 2^nd year in a row, our part of Cru ministry, Faculty Commons, held a conference for local Christian profs, and a second meeting the next day for all our ministry staff.

      After 2 days of intense meetings, we started Cru 19.  Every day the meetings started at 0930, which allowed for a pretty relaxed morning. The Morning meeting was done by noon or a bit later, and then we had lunch break. At 1:30 PM we had smaller seminars and workshops until about 5 PM. Then from 7 PM until almost 10 PM we had another large group session. Cru 19 lasted 7 days and between us we missed a total of one-half of one session. Which is to say, we wore ourselves out!

We heard a lot of great speakers, sang some great worship songs, and learned some new stuff. But our greatest joy was in seeing so many good friends. As well as US friends, we saw friends from Africa, friends from Europe, friends from Central America, friends from South America. We made a new friend from South Asia and saw friends HEADED to Eastern Asia. Some friends we hadn’t seen in 6 years.
     My favorite part was feeling like we were ONE BIG FAMILY.  As an extrovert, it was great to greet and meet people working in different ministries. In the workshops and seminars, my mind was stimulated as to HOW we could use that info in our ministry to Profs and staff.
     Thanks for making Cru 19 possible by your prayers and financial support.  We worked very hard, did it very cheaply, and benefited greatly.

      

Here are some Faculty Colleagues we invited to Cru 19 in hopes they would consider joining our staff as Fellows (shile still teaching) or as Affiliates (after retirement).  It was GREAT to meet these fine folks.

Visiting the “Springs”

After leaving Creede we planned to stop by Colorado Springs. I noticed that by going a bit out of our way, we could visit our good Cru Staff friends, the Lorenzens. We did that and had a great time.

            A short drive from the Tarryall River Valley and we were in Colorado Springs, home to our friends the Larimores. We remembered visiting the Garden of the G^ds, from our trip 24 years earlier. So after dinner with the Larimores and the McGees who were also visiting, we got a good night’s sleep and headed out.

            We took a tour and got to see some great sights.

            After our time in the Garden, we visited the Focus on the Family studio where we ran into a young family that had just left the dairy business to join Cru Staff in AR. They were headed to Cru 19 and we ran into them twice in Ft. Collins.

          Walt wanted to take us to the grill with the "best burgers" he's ever tasted. We drove to a little hole-in-the-wall type place right next to a bar that sold marijuana. Good placement for bar patrons with the "munchies".  I must admit, Dr. Walt nailed it. It was the BEST burger I have eaten...to date.

Visiting hometown Friends a long way from home

Our KEY purpose in going to beautiful Creede, CO was to visit with our friends, the Fitts. They had already planned to go there fishing, and by going a few days early, we were able to meet them there.

            Creede is basically a small western mining town. It has one main street, a very small suburb, and some old mines. Doesn’t sound that exciting, but we loved it. As I said in the last blog the folks running the Snowshoe Lodge were new to the business, and extremely friendly and accommodating. The husband is a Texan and deer hunter, and expert at safety, so he knew about suspension trauma. The wife shared some recipes with Brenda.

            Creede’s main tourist attraction seemed to be fishing. The Rio Grande, yes that one, runs right through town. Many ponds and creeks nearby offer plenty of fishing opportunities. From the signs and ads, this place also houses a LOT of elk hunters in the fall of the year.

            We visited with Ouida and Stephen at their cabin on a ranch. This was one of the most unusual “resorts” we have ever seen. Their cabin was small, but nice, and there were several very nice cabins scattered across the prarie and among the ponds and creeks. But the “owner’s” place right in the middle was pretty junky looking. I wish I had taken a picture.

            For us, the old mines were impressive. We traveled into the slot canyon just on the north side of town. Here is what we saw:

            As we were leaving the mine area, we stumbled across a crafts fair. We couldn’t resist, and spent a happy hour or two looking and chatting.

            If you are ever near Southern CO, give Creede a look. I think you’ll be glad you did.

Heading out—for Adventure

We headed out from our home at 0831 on 12 July on a great adventure. We were ultimately headed for Cru 19, the biennial gathering of Cru staff from around the world and representing manifold ministries. But, having done this before, and with the threat that this could be the LAST gathering in Fort Collins, CO, we planned a few adventures both going and coming and these next blog posts will recount those.

Not surprisingly, our first day had it’s own adventure. We programed the GPS to take us the shortest route from Northport to Creede, CO. This turned out to be a route through Memphis, then across Arkansas, and then Oklahoma. The interesting part came when we crossed into extreme North Texas (north of Amarillo).

We discovered an almost uninhabited region with straight two-lined roads with a speed limit of 75 mph!  And….no services. We had intended to get a hotel around 8:30, but we had hit this stretch of road a bit before 8 PM.  We drove on and filled up with gas at a station which was closed, but whose pumps took credit cards 24 hours.

We finally, around 10 PM found a very nice La Quinta in Pampa, TX. That bed sure looked good!

We crossed a corner of New Mexico, and then into southern CO. We happened across the tallest sand dunes in North America. We said, “we may never pass this way again” and turned in. It was very interesting, and we were very happy we stopped there.

On the way, we couldn't resist stopping by the "tallest sand dunes in North America" at the Great Sandunes National Park.

We arrived in Snowshoe Lodge in Creede in the late afternoon and met the nice Texas couple who had acquired he lodge a month before. The wife prepared the BEST hotel breakfast, and likely the BEST breakfast we have eaten away from home.

We’ll describe Creede adventure next.

History Repeats…

About 24-26 years back, Brenda and I loaded 5 young kids into an old van and headed west.  Well, we didn’t immediately head west, except as far as to the Mississippi River, where we turned north. We followed the Mississippi northwards stopping at the different sites of interest. It was about 13 July, because that is Daniel’s birthday and we let him open one present every 100 miles.

The first big stop I can recall is the place where Jesse James was shot and killed, St. Joseph, MO. We have friends from Africa who moved there and one of my former Ph.D. students teaches in the Uni there.

The next place I recall was the famous SD Corn Palace. In that spot, and I still remember art made of corn, we saw on the visitor’s list the name of a Tuscaloosa physician.

From the Corn Palace we traveled due west to Wall Drug, and then to Mt. Rushmore. Each place was a new and exciting discovery for Easterners who hadn’t been out west.  From Mt Rushmore, we had the MOST NOTABLE experience.

We arrived at Mt. Rushmore pretty late in the day. After getting a good look at the Sculpture, we headed west. It was getting towards bed time but I assumed we’d find lots of lodging options in Sturgis and Spearfish, SD. As we passed through Sturgis we discovered there was a HUGE motorcycle rally going on, and every room was booked.  Coincidentally, that same rally attracted a reported half-million bikers as we passed just south this trip.

No problem, I thought, 28 naive years ago.  We were only a few miles from Spearfish. Much to my recalled disappointment, in Spearfish there was a Corvette rally and every room was booked.

We had no choice but to continue westward not knowing how long it would be until we put our five tired, tired kids, and two tired, tired parents to bed. Finally, we arrived at Dean’s Pine Tree Inn. To my delight, easily recalled, they had a room open. We hurried to our “room” to discover that it was half a small house trailer. It had two beds, and a small bathroom, and a terrible velvet painting of a scary looking woman on the wall. This became the MOST MEMORABLE part of a very memorable trip.  The kids dubbed it “Dean’s Pinecone Inn”.  Daniel slept in the bathtub, David on the floor, Kelly, Brenda and Anna in the bed.  Not sure where I slept.

From there we went to Devil’s Tower, then to Cody, then to Yellowstone, then Grand Tetons, then Jackson Hole. All but the latter we covered this 2019 trip.  This is also the occasion wherein Anna G left the CSU dining hall and walked back to our dorm room—a pretty complex journey for a 2-year old, but that’s another story.

We’ll share some of the 2019 trip in the next several blogs.

Life Review: A Tribute to an Influential Man

As I think back across my life, one man, whose first name I do NOT know, and a INORDINATE impact on me, and I doubt he ever knew it.

US Navy Commander Ellis (which is why as a USNA midshipman I never knew his first name) hosted a Bible study in his USN quarters in Annapolis.  I do NOT recall his address, his wife's name, or anything we studied.

Doesn't sound like a big impact eh?

But, the mere fact he took the time and trouble to do such a thing, is why I still recall it. In fact, it impacted me to the extent that Brenda and I copied him- in part. The USNA was a very conservative, very Christian atmosphere in the late 60's early 70's, as I have blogged before. Having a Bible study was really not especially bold. BUT, it clearly communicated the importance the CDR placed on Bible study, and was a GREAT testimony to his desire to see us Mids follow the Christ.

For many of my years as a Prof, I was the faculty sponsor for Cru. For many of those years, Brenda and I invited students to our home. Now this was NOT a Bible study, but our goal was the same as CDR Ellis', to help students see the immense value of following the Christ.

So, thanks CDR Ellis for setting a great example for me and many more.

As the late Prof., Howard Hendricks said it, "May your tribe increase!"

A Plague of Frogs- ALMOST

Remember the Exodus of Israel from Egypt, against Pharaoh's will? G^d, the Deliverer, sent a series of Plagues on Egypt until after the Passover the Pharaoh finally relented. One of those plagues was frogs, frogs everywhere!

This plague came to mind at our new place in early June.  We have been almost "over run" by many, many little toads. One of our grandkids caught 33 of them in about 10 minutes. When I was mowing on Wednesday, I tried to avoid them, but suspect several got run over, hopefully to little harm.

I am supposing that the pond we live on is a great breeding ground for toads. We like them, they are fun, and they eat insects. But if all these little toads made it to adulthood, we would have trouble waling through the yard.

If you look closely, you can see two of these little ones below.  They are about the size of a pencil eraser.

So, what do you call a Plague you enjoy? A Blessing, I guess.

The Curse of Being Old and Having DONE a lot of Stuff

I typically really hate the question, "Well what did you think about that ______, movie, book, song, sermon, etc.?"

My wife Brenda and I are the victims of having seen a lot, traveled a lot, and seen/heard a LOT. I am not saying this to brag, but rather as a warning. I suggest that you NEVER ask us, "what did your think about that _____?" Because, we have MOST LIKELY seen, heard, experienced a BETTER one sometime, somewhere before. In fact, we dread the question.

We are NOT trying to be overly critical. We aren't trying to be snobs. We are NOT trying to be jerks. It's just that the L^rd has blessed us with a lot of exposures over a long period of being alive.

So, speaking for me, and not for Brenda--I may WELL be overly critical, a snob and a jerk, but those things may have little to do with my answer to your question.  Soooo, don't ask us what we think, merely tell us what YOU think, and we will likely smile and nod and support your assessment (for your view).

So, what did you think about this BLOG post??