A diamond of another kind

I am in no longer in Arkansas, but I am going to write about it anyway. Aside from being the land of the Clinton's Arkansas boast several other claims to fame. They have natural hot springs there which naturally cost a good deal of money to experience. They have the world's only diamond mine open to the public (read "not economically viable"). And, they have a baptist church on every street corner.

I am not meaning to imply that they have many street corners, they do not, but they do have an inordinate number of baptist churches. Every once in a while (five miles or so) something goes awry and you find a Methodist church; usually the first one ever. This idle rambling is actually quite important. You see, I was there over a weekend and a catholic church is what I required. I was beginning to think that I was going to have to drive all the way back to Virgina to catch a mass.

Thankfully there is a wonderful little website that helps with these sorts of conundrums. I was able to find a parish not 15 miles from my campsite (it was more like 16). Apparently there are 50 Catholics in rural Arkansas, enough for a very small parish hidden on a back road of a small village. Now for the great part. When I arrived a small group of devotees were praying the rosary.... in Vietnamese! Vietnamese is a tonal language and as such the prayers had a very musical quality. About the one third of the parish was Vietnamese, one third European, and one third Hispanic. The Mass utilized all three languages with the sermon being delivered in English then Spanish. Now for the kicker; the priest was from Africa.

How an African priest ended up in rural Arkansas, serving a multilingual and multicultural congregation none of which are remotely his by birth, is far beyond me. He handled it with an astounding adroitness. It was amazing to see the universal nature of the church demonstrated so thoroughly in a little back country town. In the bear hug of earth that Christ gives the world through his church, little Nashville, Arkansas is where the fingers meet in the back.

I spent the rest of the day poking through a slimy mud field for diamonds but the real find was St. Martin's of Nashville.

Sam's Summary

• I was in Arkansas looking for diamonds
• I am now in Texas
• If I was baptist I would feel right at home
• I am not baptist
• I feel right at home anyway
• St. Martins has four cultures in the span of 50 people
• I found no isometric-hexoctahedral crystal lattice allotropes of carbon.
• I saw a living armadillo (they are usually born as roadkill)

Live from Hunsville Alabama

As you may have guessed from the title, I am now in northern Alabama. Last night was my official first camp for this trip. By camping I mean that I broke out the brand new tent. I borrowed a queen size air mattress from my brother. It fits my tent exactly. So I am sleeping in style. Of course it rained last night. The good news is that my tent does not seem to leak.

Tonight is supposed to bring thunder storms. Normally I like those but I am camped on a mountain top over looking the city. We will see how that goes.

Now you may be wondering what the heck I am doing in Alabama. I wonder at it a bit myself. Everyone done here is so friendly and talks so sweetly that they must be up to something. But really I am here because Werner Von Braun built rockets here, Big manly rockets at that. The Saturn V for instance. They have a nice museum on rocketry here. So that is why I came. I spent the day shouldering school children out of the way so I could get a crack at the flight simulator. I also purchased a cardiac arrest special chicken bacon sandwich.

The highlight of the museum was the Saturn V show room. They had one hanging from the ceiling and when no one was looking I crawled up to the back, struck a match against my teeth, and with a flick of my wrist I lit that hulking candle! Ok maybe not, but I did think about it.

Really the cool part (for a nerd) was the rocket engines they had laying about. I mostly took pictures of those. I was interested in their various injector designs, trust chambers, and regeneratively cooled nozzles.

Upon returning to base camp I took a little hike on a trail called rock cracks. It was about the coolest trail I have ever seen. For about one eighth of a mile it wound through narrow fissures in a twenty to thirty foot high rock. The walls were vertical and only a few feet apart. sometimes it became a tunnel. It was very other worldly. I kept expecting to come out the other side into a magical kingdom with unicorns and the like. Monte Sano Sate park. Not bad, not bad at all.

Tomorrow I head to Arkansas. They have a diamond mine there. It's open to the public. I am the public. That means that it is open to me. What I am trying to say here is that there is a big hunking shiny rock out there with my name on it. All I have to do is go pick it up.

Sam's Summary

• I am in Alabama
• I can land a space shuttle.
• I looked at rockes
• The mission to mars simulator is a cheesy, goofy, knock off mall ride.
• I hiked a very middle earth like trail. ( the mines of Moria are around here somewhere)
• Hiho hiho it's off to Arkanas I go.

Cycling Roanoke, Va

Was that my ears popping!!? or just my aorta rupturing? A nice guy (for the sake of anonymity we will just call him "Adam") mapped out a bit of a ride for me yesterday. I wanted to do a bit of climbing while in the mountains. Climbing, I got. The first little hill was in all actuality an 1,800 ft tall mountain rising a thousand feet above Roanoke, VA.

I did NOT feel like I was going to die, or vomit, or any other such weak feelings. I did however have very fond thoughts of going the other direction and for taking 'picture breaks'. Did you know that it is nigh on impossible to clip back into your pedals while trying to start out going up hill. For that reason I ended up only using the photo excuse for one picture on the way up. For my success on this climb I would like to thank my mother, father, and the really little chain ring on my bike.

I have provided, for your enjoyment, a nice picture of my trusty steed against a stunning valley backdrop which you can hardly see and a trash receptacle that you can. The top of Mill mountain boasts a park, an overlook, a vending machine, a zoo, and really big illuminated star that is just to the right of the picture. I did not go to the zoo, eat at the park, use the vending machine and will not post a picture of the star. For all Roanoke is very proud of their star, it is a rather ugly and unimpressive structure that we could happily ignore if it were not a 100 ft tall heap of metal and neon lights.

With temperatures soaring nearly to the upper fifties, I about froze my hands to the handle bars descending the backside of the mountain. I should probably say something about the flora and fauna and whotnot. Well, I won't; it is just a beautiful ride on a nice road with light traffic. I would like to see it in summer sometime.

Next up? Roanoke mountain.

Roanoke mountain drive off the Blue Ridge park way is by far the most superlative laden ride I have ever taken.



Can you say granny gear? I can't, I am trying to catch my breath.



Yeah that little hill down there? that's the first mountain I climbed today.


2,000 ft and barely breaking a sweat. Never mind that I was averaging about 7mph up this thing. I felt much better by this point in the ride and enjoying myself more than strictly necessary. What you can't tell from the picture is that I am about to partake of a tasty powerbar snack.

The top of Roanoke Mountain is about 2,200 ft above sea level and 1,400 ft above the city where I started. The new blog banner is a photo from the summit. If you ever get a chance to spin a bike up this mountain, do it. If no chances come up, make one.

For every climb there is a decent. I considered trying to video tape the road down but am glad I did not. It would probably have found it's way on to YouTube among the famous last videos category. The first drop was a long, steep, pothole hosting, straight away. I could have probably coasted to over 50 mph down it. That would have been great fun right up until the 180 degree hair pin turn at the bottom. Did I mention that I now might need new break pads? The whole 1000 or so foot drop was like that; steep inclines, sharp turns, and smoking hot breaks. Ok so I have injected a little hyperbole throughout this post.

The ride back into town, over the shoulder of Mill mountain, was just plain awesome. Back on open roads I could finnaly just let go on the decents. This was the kind of decent that I have dreamed of for years. My legs were actually feeling better and stronger as teh ride went on, so I was able to drag my average speed up from an embarrasing 7 or so mph to above 10 for the whole trip.

Once back into town I chased cars all the back to my friends house and took a delightful nap. For now this stands as the ride of my life. I terms of shear awesome anyway. The 109 miler my cousin and I did last year still stands as biking triumph #1.

Sam's Summary

• This was a longe entry
• I rode up a mountian
• I made fun of what I found there
• I froze down the mountain
• I road up a bigger mountain
• I liked it... alot.
• I ate a power bar
• I scared my self silly going down the mountain.
• The local bikers are nice and give helpful directions.

Leaving again... Tomorrow...

My Time with my sister is coming to a conclusion. Not because I particularly want to leave (they have excellent amenities here) , but the road goes on and so must I. Apparently the road heads south about two and a half hours to my friend Kristin's house. I rather enjoy taking the country on in diminutive chunks. This is either because I want to experience the country in its entirety or because my car features a lack of cruise control and my foot tires. Take your pick.

Aside from being one of my best friends, the next stop should be good because she lives at the tail end of the blue ridge and weather permitting I would like to ride the blue ridge parkway. Perhaps on Tuesday. Aside from those two reasons she also seems to have acquired a phd mathematician boyfriend. I hope he likes a good brain picking session. I only have about 113 good solid questions who's answers I plan to demand from the next available mathematician.

After that stop I really have no idea of where I am going. The general notion is west, but the route eludes me for the moment.

Sam's Summary

• Kurt and I hit up the driving range
• I have a nice slice going on
• I am using my weak wrist as a handy excuse
• I am leaving Ruth's tomorrow
• I hope to ride the blue ridge mountains (perhaps tuesday)
• After that I am not sure where I will lay my weary head next

Good day,

The music is playing

There is a highland dance competition going on across the street in an auditorium. I took the nieces. I even paid the the entrance fee. Thank goodness for free entertainment, especially if it is the same song and routine ad nausem. There was some variation. A few of the dancers were significantly less clunky than the others and approached something like real grace.

I am not sure how they are able to dance around on one foot for so long without pulling something important. My working theory for the moment is that Highland dance originated at local fairs and festivals in Scotland when unwitting spectators to the caber toss had a 200 lb log land on one of their big toes.

I need to start making some plans for the next few weeks. I am not sure at all what I am doing past sunday; but that's the fun of it I suppose.

Sam's Summary

• There is a hopping on one foot competition accross the street.
• It is Scotish
• I am a bit Scots myself
• ergo I am good at hopping on one foot. (see dunking)
• I don't know what the day after tomorrow will bring
• It has been too cold to do any further biking.

Take care,

Breaking out the Bike

I let my bike out of the trunk today. The cycling coach at my brother-in-law's school gave me a nice map with some good rides highlighted on it. Today was perfect for biking; 65 degrees, sunny, and not too windy. As this was my first ride of the season, I took the 19 mile route. There are a few noticeable differences between the roads here and the roads back home. At home we regularly ride hills with a 300 ft elevation gain. I don't think I saw a hill much over 100 ft here.

However, they don't bother to make much of a road bed here either. That makes for roads that hug the contours of the land much more faithfully. They are on the whole; rougher, narrower, and the hills steeper. The homes I passed were also more interesting. Take the house with doberman's staked out in chains around the perimeter for instance. A fruitful imagination can play all day with a man who needs that kind of security. He probably owes his brother-in-law five bucks.

In other, yet related, news I totally yoinked my cousin's blue riding jersey. I borrowed it last summer and some how failed to return it. It will be happier visiting all the roads America can offer anyway.

I have discovered the defining difference between my two older sister's offspring. Whereas Laura's progeny will use you as a trampoline, should you attempt a nap, Ruth's will tuck you in and comb your hair.

Sam's Summary

• I rode my bike.
• It was warm out.
• I wore Alex's jersey.
• Ruth's kids are not Laura's kids
• I am teaching my niece to ride a bike.

From the road

I am writing from the driver's seat of my car. It had to happen sometime. I am in a parking lot at the Franciscan university of Stuebenville in OH. I will be posting the massive amount of pictures from the Seminary at a later time.

For now, I am simply taking in the ridiculous amount of changes that have occurred on campus in my absence. There are new dorms, new additions, and double the acreage or so. They bought the adjoining golf course and turned it into a field. Must have taken alot of work. Anyway I am going to keep this one short as I still have 350 miles to cover before I sleep. Take care all.

Sam's Summary

• I am in Steubenville
• I am leaving Steubenville
• Much has change since I got my sheep's skin (diploma)
• I still own the tight rope in the woods.

Moving right along...

I am no longer staying with my sister. Actually I have not been since Friday at precisely 8:32 pm. I don't really know the time that accurately but it is more fun to say it that way. The next stop was Bryan Ohio. If you have not heard of it then you are obviously not from Bryan Ohio.

Its a nice little town with public greens and broad boulevards. Its claim to fame is that it is the "Fountain City". Just don't go there looking for fountains. The fountains are all underground (heck of a place to put fountains if you ask me). A little background work revealed that the fountains are actually Artesian wells. Apparently Bryan, Ohio did not make the short list of famous artesian sites, unlike a little resort a few miles from my home.

Bryan's real claim to fame is that it is home to Chris, Monica, Victoria, and Quinn. Their last name has been omited to protect the innocent. Chris is a household brother from the ol' college days. Monica is his wife, not a device in the RJG engineering department. (it's an RJG inside joke that I don't even know)

I would love to go into detail about all the fun I had while enjoying their hospitality, but really it was just good. The in-laws were in town, and Chris' parents live near by. It was a regular party with all the usual good stuff; BBQ chicken sandwiches, birthday cake, gifts, great conversation, chopping down large chinese elms, and hot breakfast; the usual.

After that lovely stay (and some more missing skin; log splitting demanded some) I am now at the Josephinum pontifical college visiting my seminarian brother. I will be providing an update of how that went when it's over. I can, however, promise in advance that it will involve trigger happy camera work and wet feet.

Sam's Summary

• I left Laura's
• I visited Chris
• I hacked up an elm
• I ate cake
• I wracked my noggin into a beam and was rejected like a Ben Wallace block
• I am now at Peter's "humble" place

Until.... tomorrow??

Just add water

One hundred sixty odd frozen bits and cold pieces later the basketball hoop is complete! That is it makes a nice lawn ornament. The directions for these things are clear, concise, and easy for anyone with phd in mechanical engineering to comprehend. Actually they were not too bad, I suppose it may help that I have built one before. As my brother-in-law noted, there were not even any left over pieces when I finished. It takes about eight hours to build one, seven of which are spent digging through unenumerable plastic baggies trying to find the part that they clearly specified for the next step.

So it is done. They just forgot to include water in the package. Without it the thing will not stand upright. Through no fault of his own, my brother-in-law's neighbor's hose was a solid rope of ice. It is none of your business as to why we did not use the hose here.

Thus, the game is suspended to such time as Michigan thaws out a bit. This is just as well, since my skills suffer mightly under the weight of four shirts and a coat. I like the cold as long as I am warm.

For those of you who are dying to know (read sisters) what I bought with all that cash I mentioned in the previous entry I am providing the too-cool-dan-in-new-duds-and-soft-light picture at right. (dang I have a little head, you'd think someone would have told me)

Sam's Summary

• The Hoop is finished
• We can't use it yet on account of it being so cold out.
• I wear many, many layers on account of it being so cold out.
• I sometimes take pictures of myself wearing my new outfits.
• I beat not a six but a SEVEN AND A HALF year old in the quarter mile. BMX vs feet.
  

The Clothes Make The Man

The clothes may make the man, but the man certainly pays for them. My sister and I hit the local suburban shopping mecca to try to make a significant dent in my savings, er.. that is retool my wardrobe. She is the family guru on such things. I am the type that marches into a store grabs the first thing that grabs me then I bolt to the first exit I can find. When I discover, upon actually wearing it, that it does not fit / clashes with highlights in my hair; I simply chuck it to the bottom of a drawer because returning it would require me to reenter that misers hell again.

I was, therefore, somewhat unprepared to discover that real shopping entails visiting every single discount rack in a five store area. Any item that could possibly be worn must be held to my face to check the color, pass my sister's exacting standards, and get tossed in the cart for further evaluation. "further evaluation" entails me spending hours in a changing room try the same pair of pants in 6 different sizes to find that perfect pair that has been waiting for since the dawn of... well the dawn of something...

Five hours, an unspecified amount of debit, and two plates of chinese later; I left with a pile of clothes that I had been unaware were necessary and a feeling of extreme satisfaction of a job well done, or was it exhaustion?

Hopefully between the bright colored shirts and the spiffy haircut she gave me, I am now fit to be seen in public with out random strangers dropping copper coins into my hat.

In a final note that no one cares about. I stubbed my pinky toe this morning racing Isaac around the play room. I now sport a very cute strawberry shortcake bandaid. Apparently there are no batman bandaids in this house.

Sam's Summary

• I spent too much money on "bargain" clothing.
• It was a laborious project (but hey I stimulated the economy)
• I ate chinese food.
• I stubbed my little toe.
• I have a strawberry shortcake bandaid
• I must now go finish the basketball hoop

Take care,

On Idle

I went to outer space today. Actually I just took my four year old nephew and two year old niece to the park. Nothing like a grey drizzling day in March for a nice trip to the local play ground. It is especially fun if you are of a preschool age and there are puddles the size of small ponds laying about. Yes we equipped them with rain boots. The play ground is one of those wonderful wooden castle types, with lots of stairs, tunnels, and towers. One of the towers was painted like a rocket. No, it WAS a rocket. We launched after a very short countdown. (preschoolers not being too good with long count downs) After which there were electric swords and hot lava involved. I am not sure how it all fit in, but in a dream like way it worked.

So I am playing uncle. I would be better at it if I had not been nursing a cold when I arrive, which is now waxing to a lovely and congested crecendo. I still have a basketball hoop to finish building and my sister is going to take me shopping tomorrow to see if she can't do anything about my horrendous fashion sense. Hey I'm an engineer! what do you want?

Friday I will set out to a not-so-old college friend's house in Ohio. I here he has a tree that requires hacking into bitsy bits of firewood. Should be fun.

Sam's Summary

• My imagination is every bit as good as a four year old's
• I have a cold
• I don't have a sense of fashion
• I will be helping friend Chris hack up a tree on Saturday

Thanks for reading.

Lift Off!! sort of.

*Note* I will be adding a section at the end for the dyslexic and ADD enabled called "Sam's Summary" in Honor of my brother Sam who thinks he can't read good. For people with other disorders such as OCD I can only suggest reading the first post once, the second twice and so on.


Today marked the official launch of my trip about the USA. 9:30 AM was the time out of the drive, but 7:00 pm yesterday was the official start of what I am sure is going to be a string a travel related mistakes. That is when I began packing my car. The first chore was to make sure that my bike fit into the trunk. Normally I use a trunk mounted bike rack or fold down the rear seat. Neither was a viable option on this trip. As my bike figures to feature prominently on this trip a solution was absolutely necessary. It was much easier than my imagination indicated.

Can I get an amen!?

It still takes up alot of room but I expect it to earn it's keep. The real fun began when I shoved my brand new sleeping bag in on top of the bike. I should have been alarmed when the trunk light went out. I went back to check on the light an hour or so later and discovered to my complete amazement that I managed to melt a trunk light bulb over half way through the synthentic fabic; effectively welding the two halves of the sleeping bag together. Please don't judge me if I had a very strong case of the " I want my mommies." Having a glass bulb embedded into a shiny new sleeping bag is not the best way to start any adventure.

Luckily Mom came home and according to the legend she made it all better. Smashing job really. She cut out the offending area and patched with some excess fabric from another area of the bag. I did not get a picture in time to show the actual carnage. but here are the cleaned out holes.

From now on may the only thing embedded in my sleeping bag be me.

For now I am publishing from my sister's house in Lansing. I will be playing exausted uncle for the next few days for these thugs. I'll let you know how that goes.

Sam's Summary

• I fit my bike into my trunk :-)
• I melted a hole in my sleeping bag :-(
• Mom fixed it :-)
• I am at Laura's.......
  

What's the Hold-up!!

The intent was to head off to my sister's house on Friday, March 6th Anno Domini 2009. That would be today. Well I need to see some people one more time, who I like enough to see one more time before heading out. Besides, I completely forgot to get my snow tires taken off my car. The catch being that I may very well need those snow tires just to get out of Michigan.

All the pieces (short of a good haircut) are now in place. I got my kick butt alienware computer on Tuesday. There is something nice about those little Windows Vista performance score numbers. I get a kick out of seeing the image at right.

The only thing I am not too tickled about is that Alienware screwed up my order. I ordered the more reserved case design, they sent me the You-Can-Tell-It's-An-Alienware-From-100-Yards design.

Oh well, I called in and complained just so they have a record of it in case I decide to send it back in for repairs after the trip.

The New ETD is Sunday morning.

Traveling Kit on order

I have been busy, in a lazy sort of way, since my last post. A camera has been purchased. A data capable phone procured. And the car has been through a trip to the shop. All it needed was an oil change, new rear break pads, a new tie rod on the driver's side, and an alignment. Well that and new front break pads and a bit of touch-up paint to keep it from rusting out from under me, but those I can perform myself.

The computer is still on order and will be until tomorrow. The contingency tent and sleeping bag should be ringing my door bell at any moment now. If you are one of those people who check links in blogs (I don't either) please note that I paid nothing near the list price on any of it. No, I am not getting paid to advertise.... Yet.

On a side note, I have yet to decide whether or not to take unemployment while I travel. They stipulate that I must be actively seeking and be ready to work. I will actually be seeking and be somewhat ready. I will however, be doing it on my own terms. I will not drop everything because I got a lucrative offer to be a greeter at E-Z Mart. If anyone is aware of the ethics of this situation please enlighten me. While I am pretty sure it would be morally ok. I will after all be seriously looking for the next thing, I am not sure my uncle Sam would see things the same way.

ETD Friday morning.

See you at lift off.