Gatlinburg Day Two

Good day today.

Woke up at 7:00, thinking it was 8:00. My phone didn’t switch timezones until this morning. So I watched TV for an hour. There’s not much on in the morning.

Went to breakfast, had a Baked Apple Pancake. They restaurant claimed it was one of the best in the world, but it wasn’t that great. The Apple Pancakes from Old South are better.

Drove into Pidgeon Forge, which is a larger town five miles away. We went to Walmart where I picked up a pack of bandages, a tin of Altoids, and some toothpaste.

Then we went to Wonderworks which is this really weird show/laser tag/”mind tour”. It’s basically a kids place, but we played Laser Tag anyway. It was pretty lame because it was in a small room with no major obstacles.

Then we went to a Go-kart track that was three stories high. It was great. I started out first by about 100 feet, but it was getting boring, so I started swerving like crazy until everyone else caught up to me. Then I stayed right in front and let off the gas occasionally just to let everyone else hit me. I got a little too reckless, and let Adam wedge into my right side between the wall and me. We slid down the track about 30 feet with me facing diagonally skidding and Adam yelling at me to move. I eventually did, but I moved right in front of him (I didn’t have much control. It was either stay locked with him or let go and lose. What would you pick?). He didn’t like that very much, especially when he rammed into me. Then Taylor (Gary’s daughter), who was behind Adam, rammed into me again really hard. The attendant had to face me the right direction. All in all, it was fun.

Then we went out to the Zorb, which is this giant human hamster ball that you run down large hills in. It was $35, so I didn’t do it, but Gary, Adam, and Taylor did. Kent thought it would be fun to lay down in the middle of the track and get run over. He did, and he said it didn’t hurt at all. Gary, who was in the Zorb, said he didn’t even feel it when he ran over Kent. I have a video of it that I’m taking home.

I’m going to wrap this up quick ’cause my stomach hurts. We went to lunch at a Cuban place (pretty good). Went back to the hotel, watched the original Pink Panther (very good). Went to the convention center, set up. My stomach started hurting, so I took some Tums. The  I felt better. The first night of Winterfest went great. There were around 13,000 people there (split into two sessions, though). It was fun. There was a Kutless concert, and we had pizza for dinner.

Alright, goodnight.

Gatlinburg Day One

I’m not really sure if I’ll end up keeping up with this or not (I’ll be out until about 1:00am for the rest of the trip), but I feel like writing right now anyway.

Woke up at 5:00am (!) this morning. Gary, my boss, picked me up from my house at 6:15am. We drove to church to pack a few things that we had forgotten, then drove to DFW International for our flight. We parked, unloaded the stuff inside and checked in our luggage. Adam Biggers, part of the crew, showed up about ten minutes later. Gary went to move his car to cold storage from the one hour parking spot while me and Adam waited. He got back 30 minutes later at 7:45am, which was the boarding time for our flight. We hadn’t even gone through security yet.

So we went through security and did a lot of stuff that I didn’t have to do the last time I flew (which was before 9/11). We took off our shoes, I took out my laptop and put it in the bin, took off my belt, my keys, my jacket, took my my deodorant and chapstick out of my backpack and then passed everything through the scanner and went through.

Unfortunately, you can’t have toothpaste over 4.4 oz. because it’s considered treason or something so that got confiscated. Also, my can of soup got confiscated! I have this can of Rigatoni & Meatball soup that I like a lot and they apparently considered it a violation to the safety of the nation. The TSA official took it out (sorta joking about the dangers of soup as she did) and was about to let me go when she asked her boss. Her boss came over, held the can up to his ear and shook it, then took it away. I was about to offer to open it and show them the contents, but I guess that wouldn’t have done me much good ’cause then I’d have to cook it and we were already running late anyway.

So I let it be. The flight was late boarding so we were all good. The plane was only about eight feet wide (Knoxville’s apparently not a popular destination these days) and I took an aisle seat. I haven’t flown in a while, so I couldn’t keep a smile of exhilaration off my face when we took off (My mom hates flying; I can’t figure out why). I ended up half-sleeping, half-staring at the ceiling for most of the flight (I stowed my laptop in the overhead compartment and we couldn’t take off our seat belts because of turbulence).

I started to feel sick from the air pressure changes but then we landed and all was well.  We got out, rented a car and tried to pack as much stuff as we could fit into it. We rented a town car (it was a lame town car; something that old people might drive), and there wasn’t a whole lot off room so I ended up riding the whole way to Gatlinburg (an hour drive) with my feet higher than my head because they were propped up on top of a camera case.

We stopped at Ruby Tuesday’s for lunch. I highly recommend the Steakhouse burger, but it’s a little messy.

We got back on the road and I slept until we arrived. Gatlinburg is an awesome town; it has a very small-town mountain’ey sort of feel. Not a whole lot of bars or anything like that, but it seemed like I saw a million middle-age to senior citizens, with several Mom-and-Pop antique shops and tourist stores. Everything’s ridiculously expensive, but it is a tourist town, right?

We went straight to the convention center, where Winterfest is being held, and started setting up after meeting with my other boss, Kent. I won’t go into details on that, but I was cutting a piece of tape and I stupidly put my thumb underneath the tape and cut a nice little slit straight into it. Ow. I went to the bathroom and wrapped it in paper towels, then Gaff-taped it for a bandage. That’s a real man’s bandage right there.

We went to Bubba Gump’s for dinner. I had a Caesar salad and a water. Several problems with this. 1) The water tastes bad. Maybe it’s just ’cause I’m used to the purified stuff. 2) The salad was expensive. 9 bucks for a salad? Come on. When we were expressing our disapproval of the price, our waiter jokingly said, “Welcome to Gatlinburg.” 3) I would liken eating a salad with no right thumb to use (the cut split every time I put pressure on it) to killing a animal slowly by beating it to death with pool cue. I had to switch over to using my left hand because stabbing salad while only using four fingers gets really hard, really fast. I was the last to finish.

The salad was really good though.

We all went back to the hotel. My bosses are watching Lost in Kent’s room. I have my own room (and a TV), which is a first. It’s really nice. I can put my stuff wherever I want and no one yells at me.

I’m meeting with the rest of the group at 9:00am tomorrow, which is 8:00am for you DFW folks. I have to get to bed.

Joey’s Sick

Joey has been real sick and had to go to the hospital in Abilene last night. He was extremely dehydrated and they had to use an IV to get more fluid into him. My parents drove out to Abilene to pick him up this morning and he’s been asleep on the couch ever since they got home.

I think he’s got the flu, but I don’t really know. He’s feeling terrible, though, and I’m sure he would appreciate you praying for him.

A Short Political/Religious Rant

Side Note: I never finished my Red River post series. I just got tired of writing about it. Sorry about that.

I’ve been noticing over the last couple years the huge amounts of criticism that George W. Bush has been receiving for his actions as president. Critical remarks have come from all directions, including internet, TV shows, national news, newspapers, and most importantly, friends. It’s become common for me to hear accusations directed at the president regarding alternate agendas, “stupid” decisions, and his general mental health.

Now, I’m a Christian, and I believe that all aspects of Christianity are true and right. It’s kind of painful to hear fellow Christians participate in the bashing of our President. I think it’s wrong to bash him on several levels.

First of all, he is in a position of authority. I don’t care what religious background you may come from, it’s simply important to respect those in authority over you. This is a universal truth.

Second of all, he is an elder in our society (over most, at least). He has more experience at life than you probably do. You should respect your elders, whether they live next door to you, or rule the country you live in. This is another universal truth.

Lastly, and most importantly, one of the fundamental beliefs of Christianity is to respect and love those around you. All Christians, every single one, should respect George Bush simply because he is a person just like the rest of us. To insult him or his staff members is just plain wrong on the most basic of moral levels. As Christians, our Truth is that everyone deserves the same love and respect that Jesus would give them. It isn’t even our job to judge people; that’s also a no-no for Christians.

His actions as president, good or bad, make no difference to the respect that he is due. I expect that you personally wouldn’t hold up too well under the scrutiny of a nation for eight years.

This doesn’t just extend to George W. Bush, of course. This extends to all people: celebrities, American and foreign political leaders, authors, leaders of other religion, etc. That means no matter how bad of a person you may judge Britney Spears to be, she deserves your respect because she is a child of God just like you are.

You may criticize the actions of an individual, but do so in a respectful, constructive manner. Not impulsive, immature bashing.

Red River: Day Two

Just woke up.

We pulled into Red River around 10:30pm Mountain Time yesterday. The Best Western had managed to get a vacant room for us. It wasn’t a suite like we had requested, but it worked just fine for the night.

Cool story though. My Dad and I were unpacking the car and someone yelled “Hey! I know you!” from the outdoor hot tub. The conversation proceeded as follows:

“Hey I know you! Where do you go to church?”

“Uh, in Texas?”

“North Richland Hills 24:7?”

“Yeah, where are you guys from?”

“FWC.”

So that was interesting. I was under the impression that FWC started school Thursday. They must be either heading back this morning or skipping some of the week.

The rest of the hotel was filled with almost exclusively teenagers. I don’t think I saw one adult outside of my parents. I think it was probably a youth group ski trip or something because the conversation was pretty clean.

It’s 8:16am here-time now. I have to get ready for my ski lesson. I’ll finish this later.

***

We moved lodges. We’re now in the Deer Lodge, a nice collection of about 10 condominiums across town from the Best Western. My Mom thought the old room was too small for our family and the dog.

I took a ski lesson today. Since I’m still 17, I had to be in the 11-17 year old group. There were two sessions. The first was the basics: putting on and removing the skis, the different ways to turn, how to slow down, what angle to keep your skis at, etc.

I fell a couple times, just like everyone else. I was the oldest by a few years, and one of only two boys. I had gotten boots so tight (size 12) on accident that I couldn’t fell my toes by the end of the day. I thought I had frostbite, but feeling returned about an hour after I took off my boots.

I finished the hour and a half lesson, so I went home.

Lunch was great. My Mom thought it would be a good idea to make some Lasagna, so we wouldn’t have to spend too much money or time procuring food. She was right.

Immediately after lunch, my Dad, brother and I went to a nearby ski store to buy socks. I tried the mediums on after, didn’t fit, so I grabbed a pair of large socks and checked out. Much to my dismay, I had grabbed what definitely looked like a women’s pair of socks. I wore them anyway, but I was pretty conscious of taking my shoes off.

I went back to my ski lesson soon thereafter. The only other male in my group decided not to return. So, I was stuck in a ski lesson group with about six girls three to six years younger than me. It got even better, though, when I was paired with a excited little 11-year-old named Holly as my chairlift partner. Everything turned out okay though. There was a small accident at the chairlift. My buddy, Holly (hah – Buddy Holly. That really wasn’t intentional.) and I were boarding a new chairlift. I got in front of the seat as it was swinging around to pick us up, and I guess I wasn’t far enough up, because I sat down and Holly couldn’t see where I was and she hit me instead of hitting the bench as was supposed to happen. The result was that she barely was able to grasp one bar of our bench as the chairlift rose into the air. When the attendants saw her dangling perilously off the bench, they quickly stopped the lift, helped Holly on board, and sent us on our way.

The lesson was over a couple minutes after that. I went home, walked around my neighborhood a bit (we’re staying in a condominium), and gave the dog some air. My parents picked me and my brother up a couple of ruebens from some nearby restaurant. Then we all sat down and watched a special on thermonuclear holocaust shelters on the History Channel.

It’s 9:15pm here-time now. I’m getting off.

Red River: Day One

First day of the Red River trip. We’re still driving the last stretch of the way. I’m typing this on my phone because my laptop would destroy everyone’s night vision.

We decided to take our dog, Dennis. He’s kinda neurotic and everytime we go on a trip and leave him with the doggie day care people he goes all anorexic on us and won’t eat until we get back. Early on in the day he kept wanting to go out every hour or so, but as the drive progresses, he’s sorta calmed down.

We’ve been driving since around seven this morning. My Dad took the first driving shift for about five or six hours until we got to Amarillo. We picked up some Taco Bueno, Joey switched spots with my Dad, and I kept on reading my books.

I’ve been reading an interesting science fiction tetralogy recently: The Rama Series by Authur C. Clarke. Weird series, but interesting enough. I read the first book at home, started the second at home, finished it on the trip, and almost finished the third, but it got dark too fast.

The entire family has been awake since darkness fell, and we’ve fallen upon other means of entertainment. We decided to bet on how low the temperature would go. I said 18, Joey said 17, Mom said 15, and Dad said 12. Well, we all lost, because it went down to 5. Five degrees Farenheit may not sound like loads of fun, but it was gloroius. I can’t remember the last time it got anywhere near five degrees in NRH.

Joey’s been kinda sick the past couple days. It got worse while he was was driving and he had to stop and let my Dad take over, which is probably for the best because we’re in hilly terrain now, and my Dad has had plently of experience having accidents in cold weather. He knows exactly what not to do.

I’m writing this at 9:28 Central Time. The temperature has dropped to three degrees. I stuck my head out the window to get a look at the silouhette of the mountains and got a soaked head from all the moisture in the air. It’s not raining or snowing at all, but the air is saturated with water.

It’s 9:34. The roads are frozen over with frost now. My mom is getting slightly jittery with fright. She hits me as I narrate this post out loud.

I’ll take a break to describe the current lodging situation. Apparentely, the Best Western we booked got a new computer system in this week. They lost our reservation, and are now booked up. We called them earlier to see what the situation was, and they said they has a suite booked for us for the rest of our stay in Red River, but not for tonight. They did say they were working on getting us a place though, and Dad seems to think that that means they’re checking the other hotels for vacancies. Regardless, we’re likely to either get a real nice room for tonight, or a real good price for the rest of the week.

It 9:48 and we just stepped outside for a unobstructed view of the stars. There really is nothing like a view of the stars from the mountains, where there’s almost no pollution. It’s too dark to take a picture right now, but I’ll post a picture later this week.

It just hit zero degrees. I’ve honestly never been in weather this cold. I probably should’ve also worn something besides a short sleeve shirt and my ski jacket.

Oh, now it’s negative four degrees. This is a great start to the new year.

Red River!

Well! Turns out that my parents were planning a surprise trip to Red River, NM on New Years for our family. We went to Red River not too long ago (summer last year, I think), and it was probably the most beautiful place I’ve been to besides maybe the grand canyon.

If you’ve never been to Red River, it’s a great vacation place for any time of the year. In the summer, you can take a jeep ride up the side of the mountain and explore a couple of the old gold mines (The story behind them is that Coronado or somebody made seven gold mines because of the huge amount of gold believed to be in the region. They’ve only found one or two so far, but people come every year and try to find the undiscovered ones.). In the winter, it’s a great ski place.

The town of Red River is nestled in a small valley in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (part of the Rockies), and is completely surrounded by the Carson Natural Forest. It’s a small town, but there’s tons of stuff to do. The surrounding area has that clean mountain air smell, a big change from the nice polluted air we have in the DFW metroplex. There’s several lodges and hotels there, most of them being small, family owned ones. There are a few cheaper, bigger lodges that are part of chains, but you don’t get cozy sort of “village” feel.

When we last went there, we took around 500 pictures that I seem to have lost (otherwise I’d post them). It was pretty quiet because the tourist season hadn’t started yet. I hope it’s the same way this year. That’d be a great Christmas present.

I guess I’m also going to learn how to ski. Everyone in my family has done it already except me. My dad’s supposed to be an expert skier. He says that when he lived in California, he worked at Disneyland during the week and drove out to the mountains to go skiing on the weekends. My mom went skiing with him every so often when they first got married, but claims she’s not very good at it. My brother first went on the church ski trip way back when they didn’t cancel it every year. It should be interesting to see how it all works out.

Video Games

I just got home from Wednesday night church. I went to the kitchen, grabbed a cookie and a glass of milk, and went to my room. I turned on my computer with the intention of playing an old video game that I’ve played twice before already.

Then I had one of those moments. You know, when you are just going about your everyday life, following your routine, and you get this sudden revelation or realization. Something that you’ve always just sort of known intellectually comes back and hits you in the face and you, for a moment, completely realize the full depth of what you’re doing. Well, that was one of those.

I put the game disc into my drive when I sorta realized how meaningless life has become when all you want to do is play video games. What’s the point of buying a game just so you can have fun for a few hours all by yourself shooting the crap out of virtual people, or moving the cards around in Solitaire just so can see the end where they fly all over the screen? Life could be spent with so much more flavor than that.

It seems to me that if we were meant to play video games all by ourself, there would be no one else in the world. God made all of us, even the introverts (like me), to be social creatures. We take joy in the company of others. The only difference between all of us is that some people feel a need to be around others more often. Others can go longer without contact, but still need to socialize.

I can never tell if I’m writing about what I originally thought about. Regardless, my game’s installed now, and I’m playing it.

My Grandfather

About this time of year, my brother and I go over to my Grandparents house to set up Christmas lights since they can’t do it themselves. Well, Joey was stuck at Abilene this year, so it was just me this year. My grandfather, who I’ve always called Tata (pronounced “That-tha”), came over yesterday and picked me up from my house.

When I got there, Tata and I pulled out the