I haven’t had the time or motivation to keep this up to date on our trip. This is a just a rough draft of the trip report. Hopefully I will make the time to rewrite it better later. We’ve covered 1200 miles in three days on the bikes. We’ve seen much devastation along the Gulf Coast and now we are in the great retirement village of Florida. The weather has been good and the trip has been great.

Day 1 – Monday
We hit the road at about 8:30am. 1050 miles, three stops, and 16 hours later we rolled into Dothan, Al. We had Aaron’s and my bike in the back of an F-350, Dad’s bike in the back of Aaron’s truck, and Aaron’s bike on a trailer. Everything rode well. At the end of the trip Aaron will load his bike in his truck and head for NC.

Day 2 – Tuesday
The goal for today: Get the bikes unloaded, look at some trucks at the dealership in Dothan, and head for the Gulf Coast. The bikes unloaded without incident. The work stuff was taken care of and by 10:30 we were heading for the gulf via rural roads in southern Alabama. It was nice running but took a while so we hit I-10 for a while of slabbing it.
We visited Bayou La Batre, Pascagoula, and Biloxi. I’m not sure what to write about those cities. They are pretty bad. Some parts appear back together but other parts are an absolute mess. We didn’t spend much time in any of the cities or talk to many people so it was just a “fly by.” I did stop to see Helen in Pascagoula. She is organizing the groups working with the Baptist’s Association in Pascagoula and we worked with her on the CU trip. I feel a bit guilty being on a pleasure trip while I could be working…
We spent the night in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Driving through the dark sections of town with no traffic lights was wierd. The French Quarter was undamaged by Katrina and the flooding but was without power for a month. There weren’t many people there but most of the places were open.

Day 3 – Wednesday
We explored New Orleans and drove to Tallahassee, Fl. I will write more later (maybe) about New Orleans. It is a mess, but there are sections which appear mostly better. It is a big city and parts of it appear to be back to normal. There are many signs talking about hope.
On the way to Tallahassee we drove through parts on Hancock County. When I thought I had seen all the destruction there was to see I saw yet more.

Day 4 – Thursday
We hit the road hard and made it to Bradenton and a visiting with Grandma and Grandpa.

Louisville ly,
originally uploaded by endofnow.

510 Miles down 540 miles to go. All is good. I now remember why i haven’t stopped at white castle - and on one ever wanted to go with me.

If you are reading this on Christmas day, you really need a life.

1220050827.jpg,
originally uploaded by endofnow.

what fun

It took two years as a traditional program; 18 months in one PGS cohort; and finally 18 months, 10 classes, and five different cohorts to earn a BS in Business Administration with minors in Management and Ministry Leadership. Tonight I finished the last class period of my last class!

I am really, really ready to be done with my undergrad degree. I don’t feel like my college career has flown by. It really does feel like it has been five and a half years. I’ve pressed on at a steady drone clicking the classes off one at a time. Working full time three years has probably influenced my perception of time.

It is good to have completed the program without student loans although I don’t think they are as evil as I once did (maybe having a mortgage has taken that edge off.) Working for Cornerstone University has given me the opportunity to earn a salary while getting 100% tuition remission. I think the path I chose to take was good although I am often frustrated by the academic quality of the PGS program. Working in Cohorts with mostly older adults has hopefully allowed me to siphon some practical application and wisdom. There are quite a few “poor” students in the program there are also really great, wise, and insightful students whom I have learned a lot from.

What next? What now? Tension. I don’t have any immediate plans. I didn’t have much desire for graduate work before coming to CU. I realize now that I know a lot more than I once did, but there is still a lot to learn. I’ll never be able to know it all — even if I memorize all the red Cranium cards. I need to figure out what to focus on next, create a vision, set some goals, and work toward them. The tension arises because I struggle to find the balance between leaning and doing, knowledge and practice. What direction should I head? Should I aim at a technical degree, get an advanced business degree, broaden my skill set, or focus in? Should I get a seminary degree to better understand “Ultimate Reality” and Truth? Join the Peace Corps?

I haven’t made a decision. I’m taking two classes at GRTS “just for fun.” I’m looking forward to learning for learning’s sake without a credential motivating me. Systematic Theology I with Mike Wittmer and Urban and Local Development with David Stoner should provide a balance of academic theology and practical application. I planning on becoming more involved in my church, finding ways I can use my gifts and skills, and getting out of my comfort zone and norm. Maybe I will make time to focus on a social life somewhere in there.

Do I know what the Lord has planned for my life? Nope. Is there a tension there? Yes. Is that tension good? Yes.

My reward for finishing my degree: I get to go to the dentist tomorrow morning.

My Roommates and I really needed some good bonding time. Rather that do something productive we decided to prank.,
originally uploaded by endofnow.

Poor car….

Becky was the target of our prank and Becky’s car was the avenue of our devilish deeds. We thought it looked a little lonely sitting all alone in the parking lot. The snow pile would be a much better place for it. ,
originally uploaded by endofnow.

This picture was sent via text messaging and served as her invitation to find her car. It also happened to be posted to my blog prior to her finding the car thanks to the wonders of flicker and mobile blogging. ,
originally uploaded by endofnow.

You may not be sure that you want your life to make a difference. Maybe you don’t care very much whether you make a lasting difference for the sake of something great. You just want people to like you. If people would just like being around you, you’d be satisfied. Or if you could just have a good job with a good wife, or husband, and a couple of good kids and a nice car and long weekends and a few good friends, a fun retirement, and a quick and easy death, and no hell – if you could have all that (even without God) – you would be satisfied. That is a tragedy in the making. A wasted life.

P. 45 Don’t Waste Your Life. John Piper.

It is a little after 10:00am and my pot of coffee is gone. The funny thing is that I don’t have any student drinkers. The stress of finals week must be rubbing off on staff.

Time to make a second pot. Then, since the hall is mostly empty, I can crank my Trans-Siberian Orchestra and write some mean code to take over the world… or at least display the ABTS class schedule!!!

http://www.devilducky.com/media/28888/

Other Favorites:
Parallel Parking
A Cappella Nintendo Medley
Fair Chase

Exciting Stuff!!! The first of the much anticipated series of exciting home videos is here! Ok, ok, maybe it isn’t much anticipated and maybe it isn’t that exciting, but it is a part of my childhood and has helped define who I am as an adult. And since all of you eagerly read my blog in hopes of… oh wait, why do you read my blog??? (Surly it isn’t for my great command of the English language or storytelling ability)

This video was shot when I was about ten by my grandpa and an uncle.

Growing up we were always involved in activated that involved motors and various levels of competition. During the winter we would fix, ride, fix ride, did I mention fix our old snowmobiles. The yellow Skidoo my dad is operating was the newest (1981) and fastest. It was a present to my mom (like she really wanted a snowmobile) was almost sold (unbeknownst to my mom,) and survived a shed fire before this video. It was rolled (Aaron and I), ran into trees (Troy and Nathan,) and had the motor blown up (Dad.) in addition to just plain being old. Did I mention this was the newest snowmobile?

Just riding snowmobile around in circles wasn’t fun enough. Just riding in the black sled we acquired from my grandpa wasn’t that exciting. Dad sought to create more excitement by creating a sled out of smooth aluminum. It worked well and was later replaced by a super slippery plastic sled.

I eventually got the privilege of driving the snowmobile with the sled. I made laps in the lawn trying to through my brothers off the sled. All was grand until I swung my little brother into the swing set headfirst. After that, we could only use it across the road in the field. The good thing about the field was that we could get faster speeds!

Riding snowmobiles was a lot of fun and a great brother activity. The snowmobiles are still around although they all have various issues. Two of us have switched to motorcycles and I anticipate the other two having bikes within the a few years. Part of me would really like to dig the sled out and give it another shot. Does anyone have a snowmobile they will let me borrow? Could be a great weekend trip!