Wow, what a car

Well, it has been forever since I made a post, but I have been BUSY!!

Over spring break, I drove a car that is worth more than my house. It was a Mercedes Benz, in particular one of the limited edition AMG models. It had 500+ horsepower, convertible hard-top, smart-shift,...

Basically, it had everything I've ever thought about. Then when I talked with the owner, it had more!!

I didn't ask to drive the car, I just asked if the owner would give me a ride in it. However, he said to jump in and go, so of course I did. I rode with my brother for about 5 minutes in the car. One time, we punched the gas while going 50 mph and it accelerated to 80 mph in about 1-1.5 seconds. It pushed us back in the seat like a roller coaster. It was really awesome to get that feeling. Prior to this the most horsepower I had experienced was around 350 (which is a lot in itself).

Anyway, back to the price. This car was worth around $140K, and my house didn't cost anywhere near that amount. It was weird riding in something that expensive.

Anyway, that was one of my highlights of spring break this year. The other was planting about 300 pine and sawtooth oak trees on my parent's land. That was fun for sure, but not quite the rush of 500+ horsepower!

Finally, some snow

We finally got some snow here in Athens, AL that lasted more than an hour or so. With all the cold weather we've had this year, it's been amazing that we didn't have more snow so far--which brings me to those claiming global warming is causing this cold weather we're having this year. Really?? That's what we have to blame for the many days of the coldest winter we've had in forever? I am hard pressed to believe that the warming planet is causing us to get snow and cold weather in Alabama. It's gonna take way more than that to convince me.

On another note, the shooting this past Friday at UAH really got me thinking. We REALLY never know when our last moment on earth will be. Let's not forget to live each day to the fullest, and to enjoy family and friends whenever the opportunity arrises. Those folks who lost loved ones on Friday at UAH were planning on a normal Friday night, no doubt. Instead, they are left grieving. Any moment may be our last!! Let's not forget to be thankful for what we have--even if it's something that we don't see as special (unless we lost it).

Happy President's Day!!

A Trip to the Big City-Final Installment

So, as I left off in the last post, we arrived just in time (11:58 with a start time of 12:00). We came out of the subway tunnel, and there were people coming from all different directions heading towards the Capitol steps. On our way, we stopped and had someone take a picture of us in front of the building, just to prove we were there.

After that, my dad wanted to get a picture of the crowd as a whole just to show the amount of people that showed up. He got multiple shots from different angles, but I really liked the ones he took with the Capitol in the background (see below).

The actual rally started a little after 12:00 noon, and it started with the entire crowd singing the National Anthem and saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I must say that was EXTREMELY awesome to be able to sing and pledge right at the foot of the Capitol building. We then had multiple speakers including Michelle Bachmann (the main orchestrator), Mark Levin (talk show host), Jon Voigt (Hollywood Actor), and a large contingent of the Republican Representatives. They all were inspiring, and they filled us with both anger and hope. The anger was for the way the Democrats (including the Speaker and the President) were trying to shove this legislation through the House without taking into account the fact that the majority of Americans (as polls showed at the time) didn't want this legislation. The hope was for the chance that the bill might not pass because it was going to be close for sure.

The last thing that was done at the rally was the presentation of two copies of the bill. It was so big that they had it bound in ropes just to keep it together (2000 pages is a lot of paper). They started throwing it out in huge chunks. They wanted us to each get at least a piece of the bill, and then (the coolest part) we were supposed to go across the road to our Representative's office and ask him/her about the bill. We were supposed to determine how he/she was planning to vote, and we were asked to obtain any knowledge they had about the bill.

We went across the street and after standing in line for 10 minutes realized that my dad's Representative was in the next building (not the one we were waiting in front of). So, we moved on down the trail to the next building and stood in line for almost two hours!! When we finally got into the building and through the metal detectors, we hunted down my dad's Representative's office. When we walked in my dad, being none too shy, asked to see Mr. Robert Aderholt. In keeping with the hilarity of our trip, we found out that Mr. Aderholt was actually in Cullman, AL that day (only 15 minutes from where my dad lives!!). That was an obvious dissappointment. So, we talked with his aides for a few minutes and determined that Mr. Aderholt was planning to vote "no" on the bill. Just to satisfy himself at least a little, my dad took a picture of Mr. Aderholt's empty office.

My dad, being the great orator of that day, asked the aide if there was some way we could get to Parker Griffith's office (my Rep) without having to wait in the two hour line again because it was starting to get dark. With very little hesitation, the aide told his other mates that he would be back in a few minutes. With that, we set of towards the underground tunnels that connect the buildings. That was really cool!! Also, we were able to arrive at Parker Griffith's office within five minutes only to find that he was NOT there either!!! AGH!! I checked with his aides and determined that he was also planning to vote "no"--which was a huge deal since he is a Democrat. After signing the log and speaking a little to the aides, we headed out the building to board the subway again.

Now, it should seem that this would be the end of the crazy part of the trip; however, we DID have to make the long trek back to our vehicle and ultimately back to Alabama. We got on the subway without any hitch, which was a big deal because we didn't have our helpers anymore. We were simply going it alone. We got off the final stop just like we were supposed to, and set off to get to the truck. After a slight detour (which included us going the wrong way off the subway and thinking we were lost before coming to our senses and realizing our error), we were on our way to the truck--1 mile away from the subway. We were both talking about how we were excited to get to the truck and get on the road. Most of all, we were pumped about eating supper because we hadn't ate since 9:00 that morning and it was 4:50 p.m. when we were walking to the truck. Here's where it gets crazy again:

We got back to parking lot where we left our truck and my dad said that he didn't see the truck. In my mind, I had multiple thoughts including: 1) He's joking--not funny, 2) It is possible that we were in the wrong lot--no it looked too familiar to be wrong, and finally 3) I don't see the truck either!!!!!

We went into the bank and found out that our truck had been towed. As it turns out, the bank we parked at has a man that sits in his vehicle during bank hours and calls a tow truck if anyone parks in the lot and doesn't go into the bank. When they tell us this story, I'm immediately praying for patience for my dad. We're in a town a LONG way from home and if he gets arrested for causing a scene, how can I get him out of jail--we don't have truck!! With much patience, he calls the tow company who gives him the number to another tow company who then gives him the number back to the original tow company. Yes, they have the truck, and they are about 2 miles away. Since it's getting dark, we then have to take another big-boy step to call a cab. I don't think either of us had ever been in a cab, so here we go again with another first. While we're waiting for the cab, the bank ushers us out the door because they are closing. So, my dad and I have to stand out in the cold for 10 minutes and wait on the cab to show up. If you've ever seen the movie Dutch, all I can picture is Dutch and Doyle looking pitiful--that's what we probably looked like.

After the cab arrived, we boarded and rode 2 miles which cost $10--rip off. We went in and were met with one final surprise----we had to pay the after hours fee because it was 10 minutes after 5:00 p.m. That's an extra $25!!

Anyway, after that things were pretty smooth all the way back. In the end, we were happy that we went, but when the healthcare bill passed the House, we were devastated. All that hard work, money, and effort felt like a waste. However, I'll always remember the fun, crazy, and unforgettable time my dad and I went to the big city (a.k.a. Washington, DC)!

A Trip to the Big City, Part 2

As I left off in last post, we were en route to the subway station just outside Fairfax, VA. We drove through the ground parking lot and found nothing. So, we decided to ask one of the cops that was on the scene. He told us that up around the corner, there were two parking garages and if there was no parking in the first one then try the second one.

Well, we went through EVERY level of the first and second parking garage and nothing was available. Because our time was getting short, my dad was even considering parking in a corner (not a legal parking spot) between two other cars. That wouldn't have been too bad of a deal if we were only going to be away for a few minutes, but I was afraid that someone might be mean on purpose and pull their car into the legal space just enough to where we couldn't get out. Needless to say, we couldn't find any parking at all on the subway parking premises.

At the same time, we thought that we might could find some church or other business to park at (about a mile or so away) since there was nothing else available. Much to our surprise, there was a shopping center and a bank about a mile away from the subway. So, we pulled into the bank parking lot and started getting ready for our trek to the subway station. I happened to grab a couple of packs of Now & Later candies just because I thought I might enjoy them later.

We set off on our mile hike to the subway station and along the way, we noticed that more and more people were following us. My dad, being the conversationalist that he is, asked a few of them if they were going to the protest and they were! He then asked them if they would help us get to the subway and on it since we didn't know what we were doing. Everyone we talked to was very helpful, and we met people from 3 or 4 different states just walking to the subway.

Once we made it into the subway station, we were met with a row of massive ticket machines with numbers all over them (see picture below).




Can you imagine a couple of country bumpkins like us trying to figure out how to pay for a subway ticket? I didn't even attempt to help because I was afraid I'd make matters worse. My dad ended up buying two subway tickets for $10 each, and we hoped that was enough to get us where we were going.

We then waiting for our train (orange line) to arrive and boarded. My dad was extremely loud and proud about us being from Alabama (not that I'm not), and he told everyone we came in contact with why we were there and where we were from. (perfect spot for a movie line--He's just proud of his town. You know that's a $%#& rare thing these days--John Candy, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles) As it turns out, there were a couple of guys on the subway across from us that were from the same district in Alabama as my dad (they were from Gadsden). We both thought that was cool that we were 13 hours from home and we saw some fellow Alabamians. The people sitting across from us were nice enough to snap a picture of my dad and I - we were having a fun time obviously (see below).




We ended up having to ride on the subway for about 30-35 minutes and it stopped about 10 times on the route we were on. When the ride ended, we had about 3 minutes to spare before the rally was to begin.

Here's a shot of us coming out of the subway back into the light!!

I'll pick up at the rally in my next post.

A Trip to the Big City, Part 1

A few weeks ago, my dad and I decided to go to Washington DC to attend the "House Call" for the House of Representitives vote on the Healthcare bill. The following story will provide the details of our wild trip.

First of all, the "House Call" was broadcast on Foxnews and Sean Hannity's radio show on a Monday. The actual event (House Call) was to take place the following Thursday (only 3 days of notice). The event came about because Michelle Bachmann (Rep-MN) wanted to have a group of regular American folks come to the US Capitol building to protest the soon-to-be-voted-on bill.

So, although we did not receive much warning, we both were interested in going. Going to Washington DC for us was about a 12-13 hour drive, depending on traffic. We both decided on Tuesday night that we would go, and that meant we would have to leave on Wednesday afternoon around 3:00 CT (and that wasn't allowing much sleep time on Wednesday in order to arrive by the time the rally started at 12:00 ET).

However unprepared we were for the trip that was ahead of us, we set out with smiling faces and passionate hearts. We both were against the passage of the House Healthcare bill for many reasons (of which I will not discuss because the trip itself is enough to discuss), and we were excited because not only were we attending a rally, but we were also going to get to meet with our representatives face to face.

The beginning of the trip was somewhat uneventful. However, we swapped drivers just outside of Knoxville, TN and I was now in the driver's seat. I got on the interstate after filling up with gas, and we were on our way. After driving for an hour or so, I looked down at the odometer because I enjoy seeing the miles pass by when I'm on a long trip. The odometer read 117. Alright, 117 miles since the last fill up. About 5 minutes later, I looked down again--117. Again, I was happy because we had put 117 miles behind us since the last fill up. Once again, I looked at the odometer---117!! Of course, while we were on the trip, the odometer decided to fail. That was somewhat disheartening to me because then I knew we couldn't push the gas level too far towards empty because we didn't know what kind of mileage we were getting.

Anyway, I drove on listening to a different radio station every 15-20 minutes (because reception fades quickly and unexpectedly when you're driving 70 mph across the state of Virginia). We tried AM and FM, and while my dad was singing periodically, we mostly just scanned through the channels about 100 times!!

We swapped drivers one more time because my eyes were crossing, and we didn't drive much longer until my dad said he needed to stop for the "night". I put night in quotes because it was now 1:30 a.m. ET. We still had around 4-5 hours of driving to arrive in Washington DC. So, we stopped at the darkest hotel I've ever been to (except for a really obscure one in Helen, GA), but neither one of us even paid any attention to the decor, the odor, or the general condition of the hotel.

We were able to sleep from about 2:00 - 6:00 a.m. ET. This allowed us 15 minutes each to shower and get dressed to get back on the road again. Thankfully, my mom had packed us a cooler with some drinks and a bag of various snacks. Had she not packed the snacks/drinks, we probably wouldn't have ingested anything for breakfast because we were in a HUGE hurry. We got on the road around 6:30 a.m. ET, and we had to be at the Capitol building at 12:00. The first couple of hours of the ride meant time to eat and time to look up some parking areas in Washington DC. I used my myTouch phone to try and find as much detail about parking that I could, but I just didn't come up with more than one option. Since we only planned to do the trip a few days before, I hadn't had time to go out and get any specific directions or details about Washington DC.

When we got about an hour outside of DC (10:30 a.m. ET), my dad was starting to get a little frantic about where to park. We tried calling the number on the signs that is supposed to provide information, but the number has been disconnected at some point (why it was still on the sign is a mystery). So, he thought we might could park at Dulles Airport and catch a shuttle to DC. When we pulled of the Dulles exit, I informed him that Dulles was not even on the Washington DC portion of the map which meant it was around 50 miles away from DC still. So, we made a U-turn (which was not easy when 4 lanes of traffic are bearing down on us) and got back onto the interstate.

Still somewhat frantic, my dad decided to pull off at the Fairfax, VA exit to go into the Visitor's Center and see if we could get some more information. We didn't find the Visitor's Center, so he pulled into a gas station and went in. By now, it's 11:00, and that means we only have one hour to be at the steps of the Capitol. He comes back out somewhat excited because only two exits up there is a subway station that we can get on that will take us all the way to the heart of DC.

I know this is somewhat long, so I'll continue in a later post. :)

Vacation Time!!

A LITTLE SHOT OF US WITH NO OTHER PHOTOGRAPHER AVAILABLE

For Rachel's fall break, we decided once again to go to Asheville, NC. It is such a wonderful place, and the leaves are always a little ahead of ours in changing colours.

During our trip, we ran on some trails just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Then, we took a drive down the BRPkwy to attempt to get to the highest point east of the Mississippi River (Mount Mitchell). However, the fog was so bad the higher up we went, that we decided against going to the top and instead went to the Devil's Courthouse.

As you can see from the picture, it was fairly high in elevation itself (Mt. Mitchell was supposedly around 6600 ft in elevation). We got to walk up to the top, and it was really awesome to be able to see from such a high point. It is amazing to think as well how God formed the mountains, and it even looks from high up that he molded them like playdough. I am always amazed at his work when I get to see it from that angle. It really helps put things into perspective.

Well, we couldn't have a vacation without something funny happening. So, Rachel and I decided while we were in Asheville to do a cross country 5K. It was ran on grass and trails, which was just what we used to do in college. Since we were running on grass, I decided to go up to the attic and get out my old cross country spikes from college. At the start line, I felt great and the shoes were extremely light (just like I remembered them). We took off, and things were going great. I was in 3rd place after just a few minutes, and I was really looking forward to finishing with a good time because the weather was great, the course was flat, and it is just fun to run on grass courses. So like said, everything was going great until about the half mile mark. I suddenly felt like I had something stuck to the bottom of my shoe. I was bummed out, but I figured it would work itself off. Well, every step it seemed to be getting worse. I felt like the bottom of my shoe was flopping, and lo and behold it WAS!! My sole of my shoe was coming off, and it only took about 20 seconds for the entire process. About 20 seconds after I thought I had something stuck to the bottom of my shoe, I no longer had a sole on my shoe at all!!! Thankfully, Nike was smart enough to attach the spike plate into a better layer on the shoe so I still had my actual spikes for traction.

US AFTER THE 5K

I went on to finish 3rd overall, and I was pleased with my effort. Rachel finished 2nd, and was just off of her season best time (only 15 sec off). We hung around after the race, and when Rach and I were doing our cooldown, I found my shoe sole. :)

All in all, it was a great trip. We came back fairly energized, although on the way back home we got a roofing nail stuck in our back car tire and had to stop at Walmart to get new tires. While in Walmart, our credit card was denied because the company thought it was being used fraudulently in Tennessee and North Carolina. However, we made it back safely, and we're looking forward to going again next year!!

Justification Finally!!

This past weekend was the 10th annual Frantic Frog (FF) Triathlon in Scottsboro, AL. I have always competed as a team at this event, but last year I decided that I would give doing the whole thing a shot this year.

It was a great day for racing: 68 degrees and overcast. We arrived at the race site plenty early (2:15 before race start), and this allowed me to do some "other" things that morning. I got to help a guy air up his tires because he didn't have a pump, I helped a couple of people set up their transition areas, and I got to talk to some folks that I don't see much anymore (shout out to--Andrew and Sarah Hodges). Something odd always happens on race day though, and this race was no exception. Just after the national anthem and prerace prayer were completed, I started walking towards the dock to prepare for the swim. Little did I know, one of man's best friends had left a little treat in the grass which I, of course, didn't see. Yep, I stepped in dog doodie. This is gross, but it squished up in between my littlest and next toes---EEEWWWW!!! I just kept walking hoping the other grass and sand would take most of it away because I didn't have time to clean it up at all. I also thought the swim might help wash it away.

Now that episode has been documented, so onward for the race details. The swim was decent for me. There were plenty of buoys on the way out, but scarcely one or two on the way back. That made it tough to see where I needed to be going. Anyway, I was somewhat pleased with my swim (7:20), and I really just wanted to minimize any time lost from the other competitors.

The bike ride was fair to decent. There was a north wind (only 5-8 mph) that just didn't let me get to the speed I wanted. I did hit my power numbers just fine, and I had one of the fastest bikes in the race (24.5 avg), but I just didn't feel like I did all that well.

When I started on the run, I saw who I thought was probably the leader about 75m ahead of me. I knew that he had started much earlier than me on the swim, so I just needed to close the distance on him in order to beat him. As a side note, I had competed in a triathlon last Monday that finally allowed me to break 18 for the 5K this year (17:33 was my time), and I had run that race a little more like I prefer (run the first mile somewhat hard, then just try to hold a good pace after that) rather than the way I've attempted to run this year (run conservative on the first mile and pick it up after that). Back to the FF run, I decided that I would run the first mile harder than I had been running the first mile in my other triathlons this season--all the while trying to catch up to the guy ahead of me. I ended up finishing only 5-10 seconds behind him, and I knew that I had beat him because of when he started. The exciting and yet somewhat maddening truth was that I had run 18:01! If I would have pushed just a tad harder, I could've broken 18 minutes in a triathlon (which I've never done). Anyway, I found out about 30 minutes later that I DID win the race overall!! That's only my second win ever, and this was a much bigger triathlon to do it at than my other win (600 competitors at the FF). So, as the title of this posts says, I have finally received some justification for the work I've put in this year. I am so thankful for the win, and I hope it's not the end for me. My next race will be a 5K in Winfield, AL (Mule Day 5K), and my season will wrap up with the Heel and Crank Duathlon in Huntsville, AL. I'm looking forward to both of those as opportunities to do well!!!