- I won the 4-H biscuit making contest in the 4th grade. This needs to be qualified first. My dad was the principal at my elementary school, which definitely had its plusses and minuses. Sure, my brother and I got to drink all the chocolate milk we could hold between 6:45 and 7:30 in the morning Monday through Friday, but if you ever got an award or won a contest or anything positive, it was b/c ‘your dad is the principal’. So, when I won the baking contest in the 4th grade, it was b/c ‘my dad was the principal’! I’m not bitter, really.
- I had dinner with Miss America when I was a junior in high school. Kellye Cash was her name and I think she was crowned in 1986. It was a neat experience to say the least. She is probably the most famous person that I have ever met, at least that I have realized.
- I went sailing for a week on the Chesapeake bay the summer between my senior year in high school and when I started college. This was a YoungLife camp of sorts that just happens to be on the Chesapeake Bay. Me being able to go came about b/c someone had to back out on the trip. It was a cool experience. A group of about 8 kids and 3 leaders (about 2 years older than us) rode the Greyhound from Cookeville to Cambridge, Maryland and got on a 100 foot sailboat, complete with 2 sails, a crew of three, and completely stocked with food for a week. Once we were on board, they took our watches away, divided us into groups of 2-3 people, and set sail for our first destination. Each group had tasks that they had to complete each day, and those responsibilities rotated – cooking, cleaning, and driving. I was paired with another guy. On our cooking day, he and I stood on the bow sprit of the boat and netted crabs (easy picking since it was mating season for crabs in the Bay – for some reason they float on top of the water). We probably caught 50 of them and had streamed crabs for dinner that night. Cleaning day was... cleaning day. Driving day was awesome. When it was your turn to drive the boat for the day, the captain of the boat set you down with the charts and showed you where you were. Your job was to figure out where you wanted to go and get the boat there by dinner. It was cool for the simple nerd reason that we had to use a blend of geometry and orienteering to get where we wanted to go. So, did I mention that this boat had something like a 7 ton keel underneath it? So this massive counterweight begged me to ask the captain about rolling the boat over on its edge, you know, like they do in the America’s Cup. If we had the speed, we could do it was the response. Later in the day, when the temperature was driving the winds, we managed to get that speed, and we rolled the boat over to the point that the side walkways were completely submerged, something like driving your car on two wheels and being able to reach out the windows and touch the ground. The other neat fact about this trip was that the Perseid Meteor showers were occurring at the same time. I slept out on the deck of the boat with a friend and watched dozens of shooting stars each night. There were so many and they occurred so frequently that you didn’t have to pay attention to see them.
- I am an Eagle Scout. I finished the process on March 25, 1989, two days before I turned 18. If Scouts taught me anything, it was a self-reliance that I can do anything I need to do. That doesn’t negate any hard work or any resourcefulness that may be required. It is funny how simple things like having to build a fire hot enough to boil water or camping through severe storms will teach you things about yourself that you don’t realize until years later. I always thought it was odd how the twelve points of the scout law (trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, brave, clean and reverent) and the fruits of the spirit seemed to match, at least generally.
- I have hiked the Grand Canyon three times – 1998, 2002, and 2004, in three different seasons – Spring, Summer, and Fall This is one of those thing that you never think you’ll do, but it is soooo addictive. I have hiked it from the South Rim twice (1998 and 2004), down the South Kaibab trail to Phantom Ranch and then back pup on the Bright Angel Trail. In 2002, we hiked from the North Rim on the North Kaibab down to Phantom and then caught a raft and rode out to Lake Mead. This trip was by far the most interesting, just because of the time spent. The hike in was ~ 16 miles in August. We hiked from 45 degrees at 7 in the morning through 125 degrees in the afternoon and lost more than a mile in elevation. The raft trip was about 200 miles and included rapids that make the Ocoee and Natahala seem like ripples in tub – 10 foot standing waves at Lava Falls that made our 37 foot boat stand on end.
- In July 1998, Laura and I drove across the country to Yellowstone and stayed for a week. It was probably the best trip I have ever taken. We stayed in a cabin about 300 yards from Old Faithful for a week, for only $200. The neat part of it was that the tourists, the ones that only show up on buses, don’t start showing up till around 9:30 or 10 in the morning and then disappear around 4 in the afternoon. Before and after those times, we and the other cabin people basically had the the geyser fields and hot springs to ourselves. There were three very memorable days. Day 1 - We took a day and drove from the Old Faithful area north to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River and then back south through the Lamar Valley. It is a neat drive that takes you past paint pots (colorful clay bubbling) to this enormous waterfall and then back through a lush, grassy valley with a meandering stream and bison everywhere. Day 2 – We went to the ranger station and wrote down the geyser predictions on the geyser map. We spent they day going from one geyser eruption to the next and managed to see 13 geysers go off. It was really neat. Sometimes we sat for a long time waiting which was cool too. Day 3 – We waited until late in the day to start touring through the hot spring fields. Because of the elevation and the western longitude, it stayed light until 10 at night. So, we were milling about hot springs in sort of twilight conditions, sort of ethereal.
- I have a security clearance, but that’s all I can say about that.
So, that’s seven things about me. Now, who should I tag... I’ll think about it and put a comment here soon to let everyone know.
