Calfornia

Year of First Visit – 2006
Point of Entry – Sacramento International Airport



I always experience extremes in California. The stunning sheer cliffs and spectacular waterfalls of Yosemite, the giant trees of Sequoia, the towering heights of Muir Woods and the Redwoods parks, the dry depths of Death Valley ---- one more extreme place after another. From Big Sur through the Mojave, California is the place where I find my most extreme memories.



After being there a while, I lose all sense of proportion. Giant trees seem normal. Being below sea level seems obvious.



It’s no wonder, then, that the man-made things of California are equally audacious. Hearst Castle, LA’s freeways, the Golden Gate Bridge, the fresh water canals, the miles upon miles of farms with every possible food imaginable, and, for that matter, the mega-blockbuster movie, body sculpting, the self-proclaimed “Happiest Place on Earth,” and shocking levels of pollution. After a while, those audacious extremes seem normal, too.



It doesn’t take much time there to see that California is a land of big dreams and big plans. I always come home from there believing that anything is possible. There, the nature and the people seem to try to prove it every day.



Once in a while, a hearty dose of California does my soul a world of good. I can’t wait to see what shockingly disproportional thing I’ll experience there next time I go. I wonder, how will I ever fit memories this big in my suitcase to bring them home?

Arkansas

Year of First Visit – 2006
Point of Entry – US-63 near Hardy

As I pulled into Arkansas, “Tradio” was on my FM dial. As people called in to broadcast audio classified ads, they reminded me of listening to the daily “Trade Mart” on my family's radio when I was growing up. It felt like a throwback to my childhood and Arkansas made me feel welcomed and at home.

My only trip to Arkansas so far was to visit an ill friend. I’d been meaning to visit her when she was well for nearly a decade. Her sickness caused me to rent a car and make the trip. We weren’t sure how much time she had left.



Time stands still for no one. This merging of the radio “throwback” experience at the state line with the urgent need to prioritize my travels while there was still time wrapped the trip in a call to check my values and priorities.

Arkansas, thank you for calling me back home.

P.S. My friend survived and, though not completely healed, is doing well. It would be good to go back to Arkansas to visit, her and the state, again.

Arizona

Year of First Visit – 1995
Point of Entry – I-10 near Wilcox

When I got back from my first road trip out west, I found myself listing things that I saw for the first time like an elementary school student. “I saw a canyon and a mesa and a desert and a dry river bed and a cattle ranch and a cactus and . . . and . . . and . . . and . . . and . . ..”



And I saw almost all of them for the first time somewhere in the state of Arizona.

Not too far into the state I saw boulders the size of houses right along I-10. From that point the amazement with the state only grew. My white knuckled ride on US-93 from Phoenix to Kingman brought baptism by fire to my mountain driving experience. The pink desolation as we continued along 93 past Kingman was an isolation I’d never experienced before. And who can forget the oddness that is Colorado City?



My favorite road in this country is Arizona’s short portion of I-15. Passing through the Virgin River Gorge strikes awe in me each and every time I go that way.

Not all my Arizona memories are at 75 miles per hour, though. Experiencing stillness on the rim of the Grand Canyon, the magic of Antelope Canyon, the refreshment that only comes from swimming under the desert sky, and the deafening silence that comes from being alone amid sand dunes counterbalance the high-speed sites and provides balance in experiencing Arizona.



There’s much of Arizona I haven’t experienced that I very much want to. Of course, just like my unintentionally ordering the same dish at Marble Canyon Lodge at meals 11 years apart (Navajo Taco Salad), I’m eager to re-experience the Arizona I remember, too.

Alabama

Year of First Visit – 1998
Point of Entry – I-59 near Livingston

My first time in Alabama was a trip through the middle of Alabama. Most of my memories there, though, are from trips to the Orange Beach area.

We had a couple of different training retreats for work in that area. The church rented a neighboring beach houses in the off season so we flew into Pensacola and drove over.

That’s where I got to drive Linda Costello’s Porsche. More importantly, I was able to establish and build relationships with people who became important connections for me.



We also visited this area when visiting friends (Peavys, Carnahans) in the Pensacola area. On all our Gulf Coast trips we went up to Foley to have rolls “throwed” at us for dinner.

The church doesn’t rent the beach houses any more. (I don’t know if they survived the hurricanes that hit them directly.) The friends who lived there have moved on in life.

With all the reasons I went to Alabama having moved on, Alabama may only be visited by me in memories from this point forward.

Redirecting

So, clearly my initial blogging plans have changed direction and this particular blog has gone cold for a while.

As many of you know, I've been off of work for while I get healed up from an illness. To keep my writing skills from total atrophy, I started a little project on the side. It's simply a memoir of the different states I've been in. I've gotten quite a few done though clearly not all of them.

For your entertainment pleasure, I'm going to start posting the ones I have done here on Fridays for a while. I'll be posting basically alphabetically. I've been in 45 states so far so if you see a state skipped that means either I haven't been there yet or I haven't figured out what to say.

At any rate, enjoy the memories with me.

Thanks for reading.

SPECTACULAR

We're trying to send some kids from inner-city Baltimore for a week in Iowa on the campus of Graceland University. The program is called SPECTACULAR and lives up to its name.

We've already secured scholarships for the fees and now need to buy plane tickets and ground transportation. Several kids who have attended in the past have come home with academic and athletic scholarships which allowed them to be the first in their families to attend college.

Please consider helping make this happen for more kids from our church this year.

Day 39 (February 20, 2011)

I just have to say that I don't think it's rocket science to distinguish between cutting employee pay & benefits and cutting people's rights to organize. One is tough to deal with. The other is worth camping out at the capitol and standing up for your rights. Though I've never been employed as a union member, my hat is off to the protesters in Wisconsin (and the legislators who have gone to Illinois) who are helping protect the rights of Americans to organize.