A Few Notes

Would you believe I just spent some of the most beautiful miles of the trip without a camera? I have been chasing it across hundreds and hundreds of miles of western landscape in a vain attempt at getting it back....

It all started in Sioux Falls, South Dakota when it drove away in someone else's RV. I didn't realize it till the next day and Juan Ruiz and I took off to the west hot on its trail. We tracked it to Mount Rushmore but it was no longer there when we arrived, so we looked around a little and then I took a nap to prepare to continue the pursuit through the night. The trail led to Montana, so at 8:30 we started driving - desperately wishing we had that camera as we beheld the most beautiful storm that I have ever seen in my life. After driving through the corner of Wyoming, we ran into a small storm system with high winds, heavy rain and small hail... but the camera trail led on. Around midnight, I decided to stop for a break at a rest stop and then resumed my driving around 4:30 am. We got intelligence that the camera was spotted in Livingston, MT so we followed hard with the petal to the metal - literally - for hours on end. I have never pushed the petal to the floor for such a long distance in my whole life. The only problem was the speed did not relate directly to the strength of my foot and we were often only doing 50 mph between the hills and very high head/cross winds (forecasted to gust at nearly 50 mph). The scenery was breathtaking - but no camera!

After realizing that the camera had made another escape from our grasp and was now tracking towards Spokane, Jaun and I stopped in Bozeman, MT to pick up a straggler who had inside knowledge as to where the camera was at. While here we have been doing some catch-up work, but we will resume that camera chase towards Spokane tonight.  

In an odd bit of providence, we met a man at the coffee shop we stoped at who had been at our Sufficiency of Scripture Conference in Cincinnati... and he knew the family who owned the place where we discovered the camera had spent the night. More clues. I should have it by morning for sure.

Since I have no current pictures, here are some old ones:

A church in Canada near the building we held our conference in.

Steve Grutius at the Chicago Conference.

Gary Powers' (host of the Illinois conference) home in Illinois.

The road trip team at the Powers' home.

The great room. 

The church in Illinois where Gary Powers is an Elder.

Driving through heavy rain in Illinois.

A shot out the drivers window.

A beautiful sun rise in Minnesota.

Old Glory

Sun in the clouds.

Minnesota...