Although today was our 6th schedule day off of the trip it was one of our busier days. Somehow that seems to be the common theme for off days with us. We slept in til about 9am and had breakfast waiting for us thanks to Dirk and Whitney. Eggs, bacon and of course southern biscuits were on the menu. The three of us watched the end of the 1975 Disney Classic 'The Strongest Man in the World' staring Kurt Russell. Ken loved every second of it and I could hear him laughing from the other room. He just couldn't get enough of the comical genius simply known as Russell. I highly recommend everyone renting this movie. I can’t give you too much background because I don’t want to spoil it for you but the tagline of it reads - The biggest dumb-bell on campus... and the secret formula got it off the ground!
We left the house at 10 and drove into town, thanks to Whitney. She donated her VW orange Bug to us for the day. We were all excited to have another vehicle on our day off but even more so because it was a standard. Ken was the only one of us that has any experience driving a stick shift even though Kaitlyn has repeatedly tried to teach me. At least offer to teach me. I entered the garage and found Ken frustrated already. He was having trouble getting the car in reverse. He tried a few more times before he put the car in neutral and I pushed it out of the garage.
We drove around the block a few times so Ken could get his driving legs back before he decided he was ready to hit the city. After a few stall outs and herks and jerks we finally made it to the First United Methodist Church. Archie was the minister of this church and Dirk and his family was also members. They all invited us to pray with them for the day. It was a great experience and only our third time in a church since we left Tybee Island almost 10 weeks ago. The first time being with Reynold and John's men's group in Columbus, GA and the other with the Church of Christ in Leonard, TX.
After mass we all went out to lunch. Ken and Matt each tackled and dominated the double cheese burger where as I stuck to a single patty. Lunch was great and we were able to say goodbye and thank Archie and Donna again for everything they did for us. They are moving back to Texas in a few months and only adding to the great number of people we met in that state. Texas might be hard to top.
The day was beautiful, in the low 80s and sunny which made it even better to be taking it off. Yesterday as we were running into town we noticed a sign for The Bottomless Lakes State Park. The name alone intrigued me and we all agreed this was something we had to check out if we got a car for the day. Ken was finally finding his groove at this point and we made it to the park without any problems. We drove around for about 20 minutes enjoying the view. The road curved around and dropped below a number of cliffs and red rocks. It was kind of neat driving around and seeing the area but it just wasn't the same as running passed them. We seemed to move to quick and miss things that we would normally see. It was definitely a nice change but I am glad that this trip will remain on foot.
We were all feeling good at this point in the day and decided it was time for the main event. The reason why we were in Roswell in the first place and the reason anyone travels through this part of the state. We were going to check out the UFO Museum and Research Center. Matt kept commenting that we were about to get ripped off big time...but in a good way. He couldn't wait to see what it cost to walk around and read newspapers from the past. I think we all felt that way. We entered the museum and immediately were greeted by cashier wearing antennas that were flashing. She made us sign in before we had the privilege of paying $5 a piece for admission. As we were exploring the research center we stumbled upon a computer that documented all UFO sightings every recorded. There was one report from Endicott, NY, my hometown! I can't tell you much more after this because it's top secret information. Only those that pay $5 at the door can learn the history and possible cover up of the Roswell UFO crash.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around town looking for cheesy tourist t-shirts to spend our money on. Unfortunately, we were unable to find anything that we wanted and left empty handed. As we were about to leave we walked past the town electronic marquee. Once again our names were in lights. Best of Luck Ken, Matt, Andy Georgia to Cali. This made our afternoon.
We returned back to the Sonive residence to get some rest and try to upload more pictures. We have been having trouble lately getting to a computer that will allow us to upload them. We were only able to get 44 of 103 up last night before the computer shut down on us. Once again the computer wasn't cooperating with us and we had to give up. I played catch out back with Mason and tried to get my arm warmed up for our big first pitch when we reach San Diego. Nothing is official yet but I have a good feeling about it. Dirk cooked us deer steak for dinner with potatoes and broccoli as Whitney packed us lunch and snacks for tomorrow. I wasn't/am not feeling 100% and decided not to go back into town with Ken and Matt to talk with the youth group at the church. They are currently on their way home and I will let Matt or Ken tell you how that went.
Matt and I (Ken) went to the church to talk about our trip with the youth group. There were about 30 in the group and we covered just about everything and answered all of their questions for about an hour. It was really cool to connect with these kids; it seemed as if they were pretty interested in what we were doing! I absolutely love kids…so this was right down my alley. I love it when I get to talk or just hang out with kids in any setting. Especially junior high and high school aged like the youth group we were with tonight. The kids invited us to play some ultimate frisbee with them in the parking lot after our talk. Matt and I were captains and we then chose the kids for our teams. After we split up onto teams, we went to separate sides…my team got together and we put our hands in and on three we yelled: “BEST TEAM EVER!!” Well…Matt’s team shut us out...but we all had a blast. The two leaders, Jordan and Joe played with us as well, and they were pretty good. Matt and I were limited in our abilities because of our flip flops…but I had so much fun running around for a good 45 minutes with these kids. It was great.
Tomorrow we have our last big day for a while with 39 miles. We hope to get out early and on the road before it gets too hot. Wish us luck and keep thinking about us. Thanks for everything. We love you all.
One day at a time...
-Andy
No comments:
Post a Comment