Shakamak State Park

Today we made a trip into Linton to get some sand and tools for the brick project. Terre Haute is about as close, but we prefer going to Linton whenever we can to do our shopping. This has nothing to do with Shakamak, but it gives me a chance to tell a fun story:

The 'nice' lady in the Wal-Mart garden center said that they had been out of sand for a few months. When I asked where I might find some in town .... she told me to go to Pope Brothers . When I asked for directions, she asked me in a rather condescending and huffy tone if I was "at all familiar with Linton?" I replied, "Well, I know where the Wal-Mart is ...."

--

Back to Shakamak ...

I took this picture as we crossed a land bridge that separates two of the three lakes in the park. Ironically, this lake shares it's name with my high school in Springfield, MO - Kickapoo. Go ahead and get all those jokes out of your system right now and remember that I marched out in every football game wearing our school colors of brown and yellow (N has pictures)

--

We ended up at Shakamak because we heard that they have a 4 mile hiking trail. On our way back from Linton, we saw a sign (and since we are unemployed and carefree) went about 10 miles out of our way to go try it. The next few pictures are from the trail. It reminded me of the the road to Rivendell

--


Finally - after our walk we finished the trip home and got our yard work done. Here is a picture of C-Man sweeping some of the sand into the bricks. Because of the late afternoon shadows (and an unfortunately located shed in my neighbor's yard), it looks like a cave troll took the picture. C-man, on the other hand, looks rather tall for his age.

Back in Khaki

As Dust pointed out, it's been over a week since my last post and I want to apologize to all 6 of my loyal readers for letting you down. :o)

For the better part of last week, I attended the National Training Camp for Royal Ranger leaders. I must say that it was both more and less than I expected in that I was challenged to grow some of my camping abilities to a point (something I was a bit intimidated by) but I found that the most profound experiences had to do with how to teach boys problem solving skills and teamwork while modeling what it means to be a Godly man.

We left at 4am last Thursday, so I was a little off balance when I got to the campgrounds. 20 minutes later I entered into the role of "trainee" and began to experience a Royal Ranger training camp from the boys perspective. That meant being part of a patrol with 7 other "boys" and being issued out camping gear, pointed to a campsite, and told to get all expectations from the Senior Guide (a faculty member playing the part of head-boy).

Senior Guide was a large black man from Dallas. A former Navy officer, he knew how to do the Drill Seargent thing. This guy made my old Band Drill Instuctors look weak. It was genuinely fun to do some of the activities ... like lashing tables together, cooking meals, and standing inspection. We also got to make a Patrol Flag, bolo ties, a yell/cheer - even a patrol song (it was a re-write of a country song that all the other guys on my team seemed to know.... so that was a bit tougher to learn) I even did the coreography for our presentation.

Like I said earlier in the post - I expected all that. In fact I thought we would spend more time standing at attention, tying knots, or repelling down a cliff face. What I didn't expect was the very practical teaching tecniques for handling boys and real life accounts of how the ministry has worked in countless lives. I was exhorted to pray for the boys and men in my outpost - to use every oportunity to share the gospel (and shown several neat ways of getting there that I had never thought of) I was also cautioned to keep my own family life in balance; not to ignore my own first priorities or my own walk with Christ. The instructors, from all over the country, made an impression on me and I hope I can do a better job in my own outpost.

One of the fist items I was issued upon arrival was my NTC blue beret. I was instructed to have it with me at all times (it took me a while to flop it the right way so I didn't look like some hack french painter.) I brought the beret home - along with a new patch for my uniform - saddly many of you will never see it.

You'll also never hear the cool "Blue Beret Anthem" that we sang at graduation. I know you're dying to .... but you'll have to settle for seeing me in Khaki on Wednesday nights. Berets aren't allowed inside the church building. :o(

Not much to post about

Well, dusty posted this weekend ... so I guess I should too. I spent most of the weekend camping out in the Vacation Home. I had forgotten how good it felt to sleep out in the cool air. Forrest and his little sprig stopped by to take the grand tour. Mr. and Mrs. Sunrise joined us for a delightful lunch, and I was successful in not spilling on my shirt or telling any stories I shouldn't have. As for other leisure activities I finally got around to watching the movie about a short French dictator and Nobel’s greatest invention. I also listened to way too much Frank Sinatra.

By the way, Dirt is typing this for me as I lounge in the office sofa. She insisted that she typed better so if you see any mistakes it's her fault.