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.