Kementian News, 12-30-07 Edition

12-30-07 Kementian News

Howdy everyone!

I'm sure you are all wondering what my Christmas was like. To tell you that I need to fill in a few small details.

Wendy's parents came in for a visit last Friday (the 21^st) for their first visit to the project in ten years. Wendy's been quite adamant about them not coming in because she didn't feel comfortable with them hiking the trail. So now that the helicopter is here, they were able to fly in without having to mess with the trail. Watching them hike around the valley here, I totally agree with Wendy's assessment of their hiking ability. They could probably make the trail, but it would be an issue of unnecessary worry.

Normally we are not allowed to even think about entering Wendy's hut (she's a single female and thats wrong on both our social standards and even more wrong in the social standards of the Palawan people) though since her folks have been here and staying with her, we've been allowed to go and visit for meals and various other gatherings.

Leonda George came down with malaria on the 18^th and was in no condition to host a Christmas dinner from then till the 27^th. So our Christmas dinner was provided for us by Wendy's parents.

They really went the extra mile. (Kilometer since I'm in the RPI?) We had rolls, specially carried in from the lowlands, we had stuffing, we had cranberry sauce, we had mashed potatoes and gravy, we had FriChik just about everything thats supposed to be at a proper Adventist Christmas meal. In fact the only thing that I felt was missing from the meal was my grandmother's gluten.

Christmas day itself wasn't really anything spectacular save for the meal. Well, I guess we did get a day off which is an absolutely astounding deal up here. Even our Sabbath's are packed with things from sunrise to sunset. It was nice to have a chance to do whatever I wanted.

Chris, Michelle (A former SM), and Bubit (A Palawan thats off at Mountain View College) were able to hike in on the 24^th to join us for Christmas. We were starting to wonder if we were going to have to launch another Holiday Rescue Mission© when they didn't show up when we expect them. They did make it safely, even with the really slippery trail (The rainy season decided to come back for a visit the first of last week). We are already wondering what kind of Holiday Rescue Mission© we are going to have to mount for Valentines day...

I had a good Christmas, but the pervading fact that I wasn't going to be able to spend it with my family left a permanent shadow over the day. I'll be the first to admit that I was envious of Wendy's parents getting to come for a visit. It helps when they are already here in the RPI, its just too expensive to fly anyone here during the holidays.

As a result of Leonda being sick, we weren't able to get our Internet time in, so I apologize for not getting to everyone's emails in a reasonable time.

I am in need of your continued prayers regarding my relationship and interaction with my supervisor. To say that we clash would be akin to saying that the Empire State building is kinda tall: an incredible understatement. There's a differing of opinion on what the cause of the problem is as well.

I ask that you keep both of us in your prayers as we work to resolve this difference. I am working quite hard to be optimistic that this can be worked out though my gut is telling me that its only going to build and get worse as time goes on.

I pray that each and every one of you had a wonderful Christmas, hopefully surrounded by family and friends.

I also would like to wish you a slightly early HAPPY NEW YEAR! If you'd like to find out what next year's like, give me a call and I'll tell you as I'm about 14hrs ahead of most of you so I'll get there first.

Belated Merry Christmas, early Happy New Year, and I pray that everyone is doing well and enjoying this holiday season

Take care and God bless!

Nathan

Kementian New. 12-16-07 Edition

Kementian News. 12-16-07 Edition

Howdy to everyone!

Things are pretty much going the same as they have been for the last three months. This email marks nearly 13 weeks for me here in the Philippines. Just over 1/3 of the time I'll be here. My, how time does fly.

Rain's slacked off a bit, which has allowed the trails to dry out and be much less treacherous.

My language learning has progressed to some degree. Still not nearly as far as i would like, but thats to be expected. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just 'install' another language as easily as a program can be installed on a computer?

I managed to stick my foot with a saw Wednesday of last week. No, its not dangling by a piece of skin or anything like that, just a small gash between the last two toes on my right foot. I took some pictures of it, but as usual, the Internet doesn't allow me to upload them.

On the bright side, I do have a DVD of pictures en route to the folks, so hopefully a few of the good ones will make it to the Internet from there.

The clinic was dormant while Dwayne took of to Manila to get some stuff done with the Govt there and to pick up a fellow GMI pilot to come look at the project. When Dwayne got back, it was discovered that Jonathan (the other pilot) has a history of home construction so the plywood is down on the floor, the walls are framed and its time to start pulling wire for electrical. This is an amazing amount of progress considering all the delays that were thrown up due to discussions about how the clinic was to be laid out which should have taken place before the construction began.

The Kensuli and Kementian schools had their Christmas plays this past week. They came off quite well and the kids seemed to have fun.

After the programs there was various fun and games for which I served as a bit of a half-time show by doing a little tumbling. (no, I didn't have a wardrobe malfunction) I wish there'd been some grass to tumble on, as the dirt was quite hard and strewn with small rocks. So the folks didn't get a decent sampling of what tumbling is. I was very much wishing for a trampoline, but the thought of carrying it in on that trail quickly expelled that idea from my mind!

Thank you all for your continued prayers and emails, its very much appreciated!

Take care and God bless!

Nathan

Kementian News, 11-25-07 Edition

 

Kementian News, 11-25-07 Edition

Howdy y'all!

Thursday started out like most any other day, with one exception. We were all anticipating the evening meal that Tammy and Leonda were working on.

Work proceeded as normal with a little extra checking of the time to see how much longer till we went down to play games till the food was ready. The weather finally gave us a bit of a break in that it didn't rain all morning, just most of it. There was enough break in the rain that it was decided that if Chris could get free in the lowlands, that Dwayne was going to fly out and pick him and the groceries up. In the end it turned out that Chris had to stay down there and baby-sit a few patients so was unable to come in. The river's were flooded enough that Chris wasn't able to cross them to get the groceries to the trail head for someone to bring them in either. So many substitutions were made in the recipes.

Sometime mid-afternoon, we were informed that we could head down around 1600 to play games.

Getting everything wrapped up took a bit longer then expected so we were just about ready to head down when we got a radio call from Kensuli that there was gentleman there with a large cut in his foot that hadn't quite bleeding in about 36hrs. Somebody needed to go stitch him up.

To get to Kensuli from Kementian, you have to cross the Tamlang (Pronounced Tom-Long) river as well as several smaller creeks. Usually a 30-45min hike down to the river and up the other side to Kensuli. Since Thursday was the first day in about 5 that it hadn't rained all day, these water ways were very flooded. Pastor had tried to get to Kensuli earlier Thursday morning and had to turn back at one of the creeks. The Tamlang has a rope across it so that was passable.

With the injured person in Kensuli needing attention, Dwayne fired up the helicopter. We kept waiting for him to take off, but he kept getting out to look at the tail rotor. Apparently the incessant rain had filled one of the blades with water, making it out of balance. Dwayne was able to get it drained and took off with David, 10min later then anticipated. By now its nearly 1700, it gets too dark to fly by about 1805. The flight is maybe 3min to Kensuli, but stitching takes time.

The rest of us headed down to Pastor's house praying that they'd make it back in time.

About 1810, we heard the helicopter fly over and we jumped on the radio to contact Kensuli to see if David had come back as well (he had said he'd stay if it was needed). We were saddened by the news that David was still in Kensuli.

David is a big fan of food. Thanksgiving has a lot of food. David had been talking about the food for well over the past week and was very eagerly awaiting the meal. This, coupled with the simple fact that we wanted as much of the team together as possible, and that David didn't need to stay the night, but had simply finished about 10min too late to catch a ride back on the helicopter, made us quite sad.

A quick consultation of the problem and it was decided that we should at least try to get him home. Pastor said the creek was passable if a rope was available. So Brandon, Napthali, and myself took a rope and headed out to get David.

Crossing the Tamlang was kinda fun actually, you hold onto the rope and work your way across hand-over-hand while your body is essentially surfing across the top of the current. Not to hard, but your tired from fighting the current once you get to the other side.

Once the three of us had made it across the Tamlang, we set off down the trail. In about 10min hiking we came to the creek (whose name I don't know) with David on the other side. This creek is normally a docile, pretty babling little creek. After all the rain, it was just shy of waist deep and moving very swiftly.

With nothing to tie the rope too on our side, Brandon and I anchored the rope to ourselves and braced against the rocks. Napthali waded out as far as he could and tossed the other end to David. Once the rope was there, it was quite easy and he made it across in no time.

The rest of the trip back is simply a reverse of the trip across save one small detail. David has lost nearly 30lbs since arriving here over a year ago and his shorts are over sized. As a result Pastor had recommended that he remove the shorts to keep them from becoming a sail in the water and pulling him off the rope of the Tamlang. So this he did, leaving him in his boxers. The problem is, boxers have no way of being tightened around the waist and on David's first attempt to cross, it became clear that the boxers weren't going to stay on. Saying that these were a good pair of boxers, he took them off and proceeded to cross. Brandon was on the opposite shore with myself on the home side when David came across. Brandon's headlamp is very bright and while he was laughing at David, he kept looking across the river right at David. This tended to keep David in the spotlight. If it hadn't been for the light, it was more then dark enough to keep everything hidden.

Due to this little streaking experience, I very nearly titled this story "Naked in the Tamlang" :-)

Once we made it back to the George's to sit down and have our wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, it was 2000, yes, we were quite hungry and ate huge portions.

Leonda and Tammy had spent at least the afternoon in the kitchen and had made a veritable feast. I honestly hadn't expected nearly that much food and was pleasantly surprised how many of the items I'm used to seeing at home were on the table. Grandma's gluten wasn't there, though I think I survived without it. I'll just have to eat double next year!

As with any holiday, the most important part is family. Since I'm out here, I was missing family a lot. I was able to talk to the folks on Wednesday morning, which was very nice, but its just not the same as having them there.

I've a great many things to be thankful for this year. Far too many to begin listing here, but the foremost items on my list are these:

A loving God who cares and protects even little ole' me.

And, family and friends who show they care by keeping in touch when its oh so easy to just forget that I'm on the other side of the world missing them terribly.

If you could keep a couple items in prayer for me, I would be greatly appreciative.

First, my learning of the language is far behind schedule. I know a few words and phrases, but I'm not where I should be. This is partly due to weather, schedule, and a few various other things, but the single biggest problem is a mental block. I'm not averse to learning the language, in fact I want to, but something isn't working right. If you'd keep that in prayer.

The other request is a silent. I need prayer for it, but don't want to expound on the details.

I pray this letter finds you all quite stuffed from Thanksgiving, reminded how much you have to be thankful for, and blessed.

Take care and God bless!

Nathan

Kementian News 11-11-07 Edition

 

Howdy everyone!

Hard to believe I've been here on the project for two months now. My, how time does fly.

Things are still going very well. Been staying busy so the past few weeks have been a bit of a blur. Guess Pastor is trying to keep me out of trouble ;-)

Wendy had a birthday on Tuesday. Dwayne brought in a bunch of ice so we could have ice cream for her birthday party that evening. Sadly the ice cream freezer didn't work quite right so we had cold cream. It was very tasty but was lacking in the "ice" part. No worries, I enjoyed it quite nicely over the chocolate cake.

Thursday the hydro-electric generator decided it was going to give up the ghost. After much poking and prodding we decided it was something within the alternator and took it apart to discover that the brushes has pretty much disintegrated. Pastor had a spare set laying around and we were able to put it back together and get it working again in a few hours. Its funny how much we rely on power even out here in the sticks.

I'm at a loss as to what to tell y'all about life here. I suppose I'll give y'all a break from my long diatribes.

If you have any questions about anything out here, drop me a note and I'll do my best to answer it next time around.

Thank you so much for your continued thoughts and prayers.

May God bless each of you and your family and friends

Nathan

Kementian News, 10-28-07 Edition

 

10-28-07

Howdy Y'all,

Things are still going on here. We are coming along pretty well with the new clinic, despite the rain every day. The roof is nearly complete so now the rain will stop and the work on the interior begins.

There'll be two in-patient rooms, a pharmacy, a lab, and a examination room inside. Still have to put a porch on the back, doors, windows and floors in the attic in before its usable.

I've got plenty of pictures of the progress thus far, but I haven't been able to upload them. I'll be sure and let y'all know when I do get them done.

Pastor and Dwayne are seriously looking at a 25 acre tract of land down near Brooke's Point. The intention is to build an airstrip and a base of operations. Right now they are having trouble finding people with the right knowledge to get the transfer worked out legally.

The house that is our current base of operations is barely sufficient and the neighbors are less then wonderful so getting our own property would be an answer to prayer.

The real question now is if this property is what we are supposed to acquire or if God has something else in mind.

Please pray that this situation will work out.

The weather here has been a pain for the work on the clinic. Sun comes up in a clear sky and creates a nice hot morning. Then anywhere between 1000 and 1300 it starts raining. It could rain for 20min or for 5hrs. The rain and the high humidity (the lowest we've seen is 75%) makes drying clothes quite the challenge. This week it only took 1.5 days to dry the clothes and we were thrilled! We expect the rain to quite just about the time we get the roof finished.

Two weeks ago I opted to hike out to Bingbilang and Malis to assist with Sabbath School (assist as much as much very limited Palawan allows) We finally made it back in around 2000, about 2hrs after dark. That trail is challenging in the daylight, its even more so in the dark and rain!

After that I was planning on going to a close village like Tamlang last week so i could actually get some rest on Sabbath.

Pastor had been out for about 10days and finally made it in last Friday, so when he met me at church last Sabbath, he asked if I could go out to drive the Hilux. Knowing he really dreaded going out and getting stuck there, I agreed.

Lunch and cleanup took longer then expected and we finally hit the trail out about 1330. We made it to Bingbilang at just about 1500. Knowing that Sabbath School at the each location takes at least an hour plus drive time, I was expecting another dark hike.

Turns out there was a person who needed some medical attention there in Bingbilang so that took another 30min.

En route to Malis, Leonda called us on the radio to tell us we had a patient to pickup near Malis and take to the hospital.

By the time we got to Malis it was already past 1630. Leaving there about 1715 we headed off to pickup the patient. Driving down back roads and trying to avoid falling into the irrigation ditches that line the road and following directions in Palawan we finally got there, got him loaded into the truck and headed back to Bingbilang to drop of the truck full of kids. We accomplished that around 1900.

On this trip we found out about another person that needed taken to the hospital but didn't have much info. Acquiring that info took another 45min. Then we were off to find this person.

The road ran out before we got to their village so Sublitu and Naptheli headed off to find her. They made it back to the truck around 2100.

I drove back to Bingbilang to drop Sublitu and Naptheli off so they could hike into the mountains while I took the patients to the hospital and stayed the night in Brooke's.

Arriving at the hospital around 2215, we all marched into the hospital and got them checked in. While the nurses were getting them settled in, i was sent up the street to the pharmacy to collect some IVs an a few other items that i couldn't tell you what they were. And to answer the question, no, the hospital does not have its own pharmacy. It expects family members or those helping with the sick to collect the meds etc.

I finally got back to the house about 2330. Only to discover that I didn't remember the combination to the lock to get inside. Being too late to want to disturb the George's for the combination, I just crashed in the truck. I was tired enough it didn't matter much were I slept.

Woke up about 0600 and started the day off with a call to Kementian to get the code for the door. Got in, got some food and cleaned up the truck.

Ran a few errands and checked on the patients in the hospital, picked up meds for them. Took a family member back to his village to find people to donate 1500cc of blood for one patient and began my hike into Kementian about 1245.

Prior to this, I've only hiked in twice. Once in the day and once at night. Both times following someone. This time I was alone, praying I could remember the way.

Turns out I did remember it and made it to Kementian in 1hr and 25min.

Sometime along in that mess I managed to find a stick sticking off the side of the road that quite neatly took off the passenger mirror and scratched the front fender and door. I checked, but the mirror is not repairable. It'll have to be replaced.

I was kinda worried about being on the trail alone as I wasn't entirely sure of the way nor did i want to do the hike alone. Its always more 'fun' with friends along. Not to mention should i fall on one of the numerous slippery sections of the trail and hurt myself.

In the end, I had a very enjoyable and quite relaxing hike. I took my time, took pictures and had a nearly 90min prayer time going. By the time I got to Kementian, I was in a much better mood and my mind was quite clear.

Sometimes the 'worst' turns out quite good.

Starting to look at putting up the HF rig and discovered that the antenna had an unfortunate meeting with a lawn mower. I haven't strung it out yet to see whether it is salvageable or not. I should have acquired that HF antenna that I was toying with getting before I came over.

The HF rigs and antenna tuner are supposed to work, but haven't been tried in years. Gotta get them out and plug them in to see whats what.

Pastor said that he does not have a Philippine license as they didn't seem to care all that much when he brought the equipment in.

I'm tempted to check into getting a Philippine radio license so I can play with making some contacts with an RPI call sign. We shall see how many hoops need jumping through to get that to happen.

I thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers for this project, everyone here, and myself. They are much appreciated.

I pray God blesses each one of you and all of your families.

Nathan

Kemantian News. 10-14-07 Edition

 

Kemantian News. 10-14-07 Edition

Life continues here in Kemantian. I've been here just over one month. In some aspects its rally flown, and in another regard, its crawled by. Its all good.

In some aspects its just as busy as home, in some other aspects its much slower, and in a few aspects its much busier then home. Its kinda hard to explain.

Let me see if I can describe a typical day here.

Sun comes up around 0545-0600 right now, we are up and about by 0600.

Between 0600 and 0800 we have our personal devotions, shower, fix and eat breakfast, and any other chores that need done. After home where I did all that in half the time, I don't know how I did it.

0800 starts the day officially (unless it was preempted for some urgent reason) Thats when we head out for a couple hours of language learning. Ideally that is, its happened often enough that I've got called off to work on something else that its not an all the time event.

1000 we set off to our various tasks.

This continues till about 1200 when we head back to get something to eat.

By the time you cook something up, eat it, clean up and get headed back out, its typically about an hour or so.

1300-1700 is more taking care of what needs done which seems to be never ending. At present, most of our time has been taken working on the new clinic.

About 1700 we head back and start supper. Again, this takes at least an hour. We usually get somewhat more elaborate with supper so it does take longer.

By 1900 its dark and we are typically free for the evening. Team meeting and a few other things change that but I'm not sure what the official schedule for those are yet.

We usually turn in by about 2100. not much to do beyond that and the roosters like to make sure they now how to crow about 0300... Anybody know how to fry a chicken?

Saturday's are much the same as far as time goes, just what fills the hours differs.

Church starts at 0800 and continues through its various parts till about 1200.

Potluck follows with rarely enough to fill even the kids. So we typically go back and eat something in addition to the potluck.

After church/potluck, everyone splits up and covers a bunch of different villages to hold branch Sabbath Schools. Ranging in distance between 10min and 2hrs hike away from Kemantian.

Yesterday, Brandon and I elected to go to Bingbilang and Malis for Sabbath School. Bingbilang is the village in the lowlands very near the start of the trail. So we the entire way out. Took us about 1hr 45min. We figured we were doing pretty good.

After all the activites down there, we hit the trail back in about 1700. Seeing as its at least a 2hr hike and the sun goes down about 1800 we didn't have much time to hike in the light. With dark coming and the trail being slippery from an earlier rain, we didn't make it back in till nearly 2000. Brandon's sandals were being rather contrary and not holding his feet in a manner to make them useful. Quite a few raw spots and sores later, he was quite fed up with them.

Last time I sent out an email, it contained a story about a particular Tuesday a couple weeks ago. David Aguilar told us his side of the story last week and we were all in awe of what had transpired. I won't spoil it by telling it again here, but keep a lookout for a two-part story in an upcoming AFM Magazine. If you don't receive Frontiers, you can contact AFM and they'll get you setup. http://www.afmonline.org

Dwayne Harris is here from Gospel Ministries International with a Hughes 269-A helicopter to assist the project. He's been a wonderful help, not just with the whirly-bird, but also with the other projects we have around here. We are going to try and get the HF rig setup here in the near future so he can be in touch with several other missions here on the island in case they need help. I know the folks we bumped into in Puerto Princessa from New Tribes would be thrilled to have an emergency out should they need it. Their projects are located just on the other side of the ridge from us. About 4 days hike, but less then a 10 minute flight.

The helicopter has turned whats normally a 2hr hike into a 10min flight at most. We can't use it too much with the cost and lack of availability of AvGas, but its darn handy when it is used.

Dwayne was held up at Manila International Airport because they were out of AvGas, otherwise he would have been here about a month ago.

We discovered that Wendy had a oven that she wasn't using so we hauled it over and tried it out. Its not mom's convection oven, but it works better then nothing! I tried my hand at bread on Wednesday, and it turned out decent. A little dry, and not quite enough time in the oven. Can't complain really as this is the first time I've tried my hand at making bread. I still miss mom's bread immensely, but this will tide me over till I get home.

The weather is such up here that bread doesn't keep for more then about 3-4 days if you are lucky. So prior to this we had bread for the first week we brought from Puerto, after that we were trying to find something to fill the cracks with. Now we can actually have bread as a food and not just a treat.

Rice is the main staple up here. So far I'm not tired of it. We shall see what happens in the next 8 months.

We have been able to keep a nice stock of bananas around. Right now we are waiting on a large batch to ripen so we can eat them. I do love my bananas.

Last Friday, my radio decided to give up its ghost. Its had a habit of locking up and requiring the removal of the battery to get it functional again, but this time when i did that, it didn't come back up. It acts like it fried, but I don't see any evidence of that inside the case. I'm hoping it will resolve itself, but I somehow doubt that its going too. Seems I have a rather expensive paper weight now. Oh well, its served me well for the last 3-4 years, I just would have liked another 10mo out of it. :-)

I do believe thats enough from me.

Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers for this project, everyone here, and myself. Its very much appreciated.

May God bless each and everyone of you as well as your entire families.

Nathan

Kementian News, 10-1-07 Edition

 

Kementian News, 10-01-07 Edition

Howdy,

Its sunday and I've been here for just over two weeks. Well, I say I've been here, I spent the last week down in Brooke's Point so count it how you want.

The last week went by in a blur. Attempting to figure out how life works down in Brooke's, and then trying to understand the language down there. I hadn't even got Palawan down and then trying to throw Tagalog on top only made things worse. I did survive for those of you that were wondering...

Most of my time in Brooke's was occupied running around in the truck chasing stuff down for medical patients, picking up folks from Kementian to take to patients, running errands for Pastor (Kent George) working around the house, cleaning the Hilux, maintenance on the Hilux, etc.

Tuesday David Aguilar had gone out to work on a patient that had fallen and cut his had very badly. David took my radio and it had locked up on him so no one was able to talk to him, nor was he able to hear any of us. He was out of touch for nearly 5hrs. Long story short, the patient needed to get to the hospital as the sutures that David had weren't enough to hold the wound closed. Since he was lacking radio contact with us, he was going to have to hike out, the patient was very week due to blood loss, and catch a tricycle for the 20km trip to the hospital.

I'd taken off on the motorcycle to see if I could find him. After dinking around for 1.5hrs, I was able to find David and the patient on the trail. I was able to use the radio that I'd brought with me to reach Brooke's and have a truck come pick them up. Just about this time the sky started to darken up and look like rain. Now rain on a motorcycle doesn't normally bother me. The thing is the bike I was riding was 125cc little thing with no fairing and no windshield, I didn't have a helmet, I was wearing shorts, t-shirt and flip flops. Not exactly the sort of thing you want to wear when the skys about to let you have it.

Pretty soon I'm doing less then 30km/h trying to see ahead of me to dodge the pot holes. Then the bike decided I needed to switch to reserve on the fuel tank and died. So I flipped the valve and kicked it to restart. Nothing. 10min later, still nothing. I'd checked and re-checked everything to be it was right. It was. So after several prayers and a couple more kicks, she finally lit off. I made it back to the intersection of the National Highway, and two other roads that I don't know the name of, and the bike died again. This time it wasn't fuel but water getting between the spark plug and the wire. So I just pushed it the remaining 1km to the house. By the time I got there, I was wet enough that I would have been dryer had I jumped in a pool.

Talking with David, he said that he'd just about given up on everybody and lost faith that he was going to reach us, and he was honestly worried about the welfare of the patient, just when I showed up on the trail. He said had I showed up an 1.5hr earlier it wouldn't have had the impact that it did.

That 1.5hrs that I spent dinking around trying to find the right spot to look for him was by God's plan. Then the bike dying on me helped forced me to get beyond my mechanical abilities and to trust simply in the Lord and Him getting me home. God also blessed me with a smile when I was most frustrated about the bike. I couldn't help but laugh. Here I am sitting on a dead bike that won't start even though I know its mechanically fine, in the pouring rain, and all I can do is laugh.

They got the patient to the hospital, got his hand sutured up, got a blood smear for david, confiremed he had malaria, and got him home to bed for some rest.

Everything worked out like it was supposed to. Not according to our plan, but according to God's.

God is still working in each of our lives in a very real manner

I pray that each and everyone of you may experience this as well.

Sunday evening, after the wind had been howling all day, the wind ever so kindly took the ridge cap off of our thatch roof. This allowed a hole about 16ft long and 5in wide to run the width of our hut. With more rain in the wind, we hunted down a tarp and managed to convince it to stay on the roof covering that hole.

I'm told that someone is supposed to be coming up sometime to replace our entier roof. The kicker is, nobody knows when exactly they are coming. So for now we will make do with a tarp and hope the rest of the roof stays put!

God bless

Nathan

Kementian News, 9/21/07 Edition

Howdy all,

 

A little longer on the trip

2hr flight from DFW to Minneapolis where I sat for 6hrs

Then a 12hr flight to Tokyo where we sat for 1hr

Then a 8hr flight down to Manilla. We landed there about 11pm Tuesday local

After making it through immigration, claiming our stuff, and clearing customs, we met and headed to the hotel for the night. We finally hit the sack around 1AM. Only to find that the time difference was to much to really get much sleep.

Rising around 6AM we headed back to the airport to catch a plane to Puerto Princess on Palawan. That was a 50min flight.

 

Wednesday we did a bunch of shopping and hit the hay.

Thursday we got up, picked up a few last items and made the 180km drive down to Brooke's Point. That took about 5hrs. To say the least the roads aren't very nice here.

 

Friday morning we made the hike into KMTN in about 2hrs. Not bad for a couple of newbies. Course we weren't carrying the 50kg loads that some of the locals were either.

 

Things are going quite well. Brandon and I are getting used to the food and the culture. We are beginning to learn the langguage, but we still have a long ways to go in that regard.

The people here, both local and expat, are just great folks.

 

Well, I'm out of time, Y'all take care!

Thank you for your continuted thoughts and prayers

God Bless!

Nathan

I am here

I've made it safely all the way into the village of Kamantien (sp?)

 

I'll try and do a full update later, but no time now.

 

Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers!

Nathan

Well, I'm outta here

Not quite yet, though I do have an official itinerary that has me leaving DFW airport a 0604 AM on Monday morning.
I go from DFW to Minneapolis, MN where I meet Brandon for the flight to Tokyo, Japan. Where we will refuel and make the last leg to Manilla. 2.5hrs to Minneapolis, then its 18.5hrs to Manilla. Good thing I have some books!

My visa/passport arrived in my hands today.
The boxes are acquired so now I can begin figuring out how to stick everything in them
Still got a few more items to acquire, but none of them would be detrimental to the trip, would just be nice to have them.


So this thing is finally about to kick off.

Thank you all for your prayers and donations to support me. Please continue to keep myself and the entire project in your prayers.

God bless!
Nathan
seeryn@gmail.com


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Where I've been

States visited by motorcycle


create your own personalized map of the USA

The Long Way Home. Summary

Since meeting in Louisville, KY, we put just shy of 3,000 miles on the bikes. In that time I learned a few things.

Don't plan so much.
Don't expect as many miles per day
Take more pictures
Repeat as often as possible!

The Long Way Home. Tuesday

Miles: 503
States: MS, LA, TX

Getting up and partaking of the “superstart” breakfast (Krispie Kreams and cereal, what else do you need?) we topped of the tanks and headed West towards home.

Stopping only for food, fuel, and butt-breaks, we made it home around 5PM.
After being gone for 6weeks, I was more then ready to be home!

The Long Way Home. Monday

Miles: 393
States: GA, AL, MS

Leaving this morning around 945 AM EST, we made our way to Birmingham, AL for a visit to the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum. For anyone interested in motorcycles and cars, this is a must see.
Just a few of the vehicles they have can be seen in the pics I took located here.

Continuing on down the road, we stopped in Jackson for the night. We’ll get up and finish the trip home tomorrow.

The Long Way Home. The Weekend

Miles: 4-5
States: GA

After arriving Friday evening we spent the weekend just hanging out, enjoying friends, playing Wii, watching Rush Hour 3, playing Wii, defending ourselves from the vicious cats, playing Wii, and just having a good time.

The Long Way Home. Friday

Mileage: 391
States: NC, SC, GA

Knowing that the earliest the cycle shops opened was 9AM, we slept in a bit (7:30) showered, loaded the bikes and got ready to go by 9 when I called and found a Michilen Pilot Road in the proper size at Boone Honda. The didn’t have the Dunlop D220 and the earliest they could have it was Tuesday. So the ST got a PR on the rear.
They wer very helpful and got right on it as soon as we pulled in. An hour later, the ST had a new shoe on the rear, air pressure checked on the front, and the rear member oil topped off.
One of the gentleman there had to wander around my VFR and decided it was “good looking” the kid behind the counter was amazed that I was from Texas. Surprised the service guy when I gave him my address too.

With the wallet $220 lighter, we set off in search of food around 11AM.
After pestering the waitress at Huddle House, we headed for the Blue Ridge Parkway.
BRP is a beautiful road. Sadly the 45mph speed limit hampers the amount of fun that can be had there. I constantly had to watch myself for accelerating out of corners well over the limit.

Jumping off the BRP in Ashville, got directions from some locals and made a bee-line for Atlanta. The chosen route took us down to Spartanburg, SC and then over to Atlanta. Unfortunately it was all interstate, but time was of the essence.
Traffic didn’t seem to have a problem rolling 80-90mph so we made excellent time. And somewhat surprisingly, the bikes loved it too. 46mpg on the VFR, 50mpg on the ST1300 :eek:
Just 9 miles from our exit, the rain started. Couldn’t have been earlier when both bikes temp gauges were reading over 100*F, nope, had to be just before we arrived so we are trapseing all kinds of nasty wet gear into the house. :giveup:
We managed to avoid the maniacs that wanted to run us over, and there are lots of them on I85 and in Atlanta! and made it to our destination about 8PM.

The long way home. Pictures

Pictures can be found here: Link

The long way home. Thursday

Miles: 320
States: VA, NC

Getting up about 7AM we started loading the bikes. And watching the clouds roll in.
Broke out the VX-7R and listened to the NWS forcast to see what was happening. They said it would be afternoon before anything fell out of the sky. Well, they were wrong. Just after getting the tent broke down, it started raining. Not hard, just enough to get everything wet.
Waiting a bit for it to wash off the roads, it stopped raining. So we loaded up and headed down the last half of Skyline Drive.

Arriving at the bottom, we looked at how far we had to go and how much time we had and decided we needed to make up some time. So we jumped on the interstate and headed south at a brisk pace. But only after getting some food at Shoney’s.
I was pleased to see that they had sweet tea on the menu. Nice to be heading back towards the south again!

After about 3hrs on the Intersate, we were sick of it. And our iPods had died. So we jumped off onto US221. Once into NC, the road got wonderfully twisty. The 2nd county in NC, Ashe, was horrible! The road was still twisty, but the pavement was like a roller coaster! Up and down, left and right, all for no apparent reason, just terrible paving work.

Once through that we found a CiCi’s pizza and had some food.

Deciding we’d had enough for the day, we looked up the local KOA and rented a couple movies.
Unknown to us, there was a BMW motorcycle gathering at the same KOA, so the place is full of Bavarian hardware.

I’d been watching the rear tire on the ST1300 and was hoping it would survive till Atlanta where I had a tire waiting at Cyclegear. Sadly its not going to make it, so we are going to hit the local tire shops in the morning and get a replacement. Hopefully

The long way home. Wednesday

Mileage: 405
States: MD, WV, VA, PA

Today we were wanting to go to the Gettysburg Battlefield and the HD assembly plant in York, PA.
Leaving MD, we finished out US50 and made it to Parkersburg, VA for breakfast (~10:30AM)
Continuing down the wrong road, we finally made it to Gettysburg around 12:30PM. Seeing as it was on the warm side and we were already hot from the ride up, we opted to wonder around the museum.

Leaving Gettysburg about 1PM we headed towards York, 30mi away, with the plan of arriving about 1:30PM to get a spot for the 2PM tour at HD. Well traffic conspired against us and we didn’t make it to York till 2:10PM. On top of that, I wasn’t sure where HD was.

Giving up on HD, we decided to grab a bite to eat and fill the tanks. This was a challenged because we were in York. York is annoying. There’s tons of streets and lots of buildings, but there’s nothing there! We drove around for ~20min before finally finding a Taco Bell. To that point we still hadn’t seen a fuel station! On top of the town being weird, the drivers are idiots, and I swear we caught every red light in town!

After pulling the map out in Taco Bell and plotting an escape route, we topped off the Camelbaks and proceeded down the road in search of a filling station.
Once out on the road we were making pretty good time. Traffic was moving, sun was shining, nobody’d tried to kill us in the last 15min, it was good.
Then it happened. Traffic came to a screeching halt and the sirens came wailing up behind us. Cresting the hill we discovered that three vehicles decided to get into a physical discussion and had shut down the highway.
While sitting there trying not to melt, a gentleman on a Triumph Thruxton rolled up and chatted with us. It was a beautiful yellow ’06 with a little black fairing around the headlight. Beautiful machine!

About the time all the traffic in front of us had been re-directed onto an alternate route, the cleared the road and we were able to continue down our originally planned route.

We made it to Front Royal, VA about 6:15PM, topped off the tanks and set off for Skyline Drive.
After a wrong turn down a wonderfully twisty road, we made it to the entrance about 7PM. Only to discover that its $10 per motorcycle, $15 for “normal” vehicles, to ride the road. We paid and began slowly working our way down the Drive. (Its 35mph the whole way) Fortunately the road is fairly twisty, but 35 is a bit too slow. Taking advantage of the error in the speedo, we increased speed a bit (45 ) and began enjoying the road more. The scenery is beautiful on the Skyline Drive!

About 2hrs later and 50mi in, we stopped for the night at a campground. Its $20/night to camp, there’s no power at the camp sites and they charge you $1/5min to take a shower. So much for camping being cheaper then a hotel!

Its really pretty here and the skunks are friendly so I think its worth it.

The long way home. Tuesday

Mileage: 473mi
States: KY, OH, WV, MD

After messing around with the bike-to-bike for a little while and getting the bikes loaded, we finally pulled out at 9:15AM. The goal was to stay away from the Interstate and enjoy ourselves.
Taking US60 we headed East.
If you ever get a chance to ride US50 through WV, you’ll love it. From Parkersburg to Clarksburg is big fast sweepers (speed limit of 65) and then from Clarksburg on its fairly tight and twisty. Lots of S curves and nice little downs thrown in. Speed limit is 55, but I’m only getting there when it’s straight. 40 is about what I’m doing around the corners, but then I’m slow and the bikes loaded to the hilt!

We stopped in MD on US50 at a little mom and pop motel. Rooms were old, and lacked A/C but were very nicely kept and provided a welcome flat spot to lay out on.

The long way home. The prelude

I [Nathan] was up in Michigan for a months worth of training to go our as a student missionary. To get up there, I made a 1,200mi, 23hr run to Berrien Springs for an attempt at a SS1k IBA certification.
Finishing training on the 12th of Aug, I headed for Louisville, KY to visit my aunt and meet my brother [Larry]. It took me about 300mi and 5hrs to get to Louisville.
Larry had a 900mi to cover. He left Saturday afternoon, stopped on the W side of Little Rock for the night, then continued on his way in the morning.
Larry arrived about 6PM.
I arrived about 9:15PM.

Larry came up grudgingly on my ST1300 due to his Virago breaking a timing chain just hours before he was to leave.
I was on the VFR in Michigan, so naturally, I rode that...

Monday we made a trip to Cyclegear to exchange Larry’s new Scorpion EXO-700 for something that didn’t hurt his head. After fitting about all the helmets on the shelf, the Shoei RF1000 was the final decision.
Spent the rest of the day enjoying family and scheming for the rest of the trip.

This concludes training

As of about 30min ago, training concluded.
We've been taught how to draw closer to God
We've been taught how to serve the career missionaries on the project.
We've been taught how to step outside of our box, and learn the culture of the people we are going to serve.
We've been taught how to learn new languages.
We've been taught how to work as a team.
We've been taught to deal with conflict.
We've been taught basic medical.
We've made a bunch of new friends.
We've watched as God has worked wonders in our fund raising.
And we wait patiently while He continues to work on the remaining funds.

I thank you all for your prayers and support, its greatly appreciated.

I ask your prayers for a couple of my fellow SMs.
Marjorie Kendall of Collegedale, TN is needing over $1,400 before she can launch. The rest of her team will be flying out on the 1st of September. We believe that God will work and the money will come in so that Marjorie is able to leave with her team. Marjorie is to be homeschooling the kiddo's of a family in SE Asia.

Ebony Daniels, from TN as well, is also in need of more funds, though I don't know how much she needs. Ebony is going to serve Marc and Cathy Coleman in Guinea, Africa.

I believe that the funds will come in according to His timing. I thank you for your prayers and support.

Nathan Seery
seeryn@gmail.com

1200mi, 23hrs, 6 states. IB SS1k run to MI

1200mi + 23hrs + 7 states = 1 long trip
Needing to be in Michigan on the 15th for training, and being in San Antonio for Promise Keepers on Saturday pretty much forced me into making an Iron Butt of a required trip. I’ve been wanting to do it, so why not make the best of a given situation.

Having known this was going to be the situation for a while, I pondered which bike to take. The ST1300 has larger side bags, wider seat, bigger screen, slightly more upright seating position. While the VFR800 has a top case (much needed when you are gone for a month) and is more fun in the twisties for that tour home.
I want a top case for the ST1300 at some point but finances just wouldn’t allow it now, so I took the VFR.

Having ridden the ST to Atlanta and knowing how I felt after that, I don’t think I would have been much more comfortable on that then I was on the VFR. I actually prefer the leg positioning on the VFR to the ST though the slightly more upright bars of the ST are quite nice, but not enough to make me spend the money for the top case when there’s more pressing needs right now.

Arriving home from San Antonio about 6PM left me with a few hours to get packed before I went to bed. Finally got it all done and hit the sack around 2230. Set the alarm for 0200 and proceeded to stare at the ceiling. :doh:

Woke up at 0200, got the bike loaded and headed for Alvarado. I arrived later then I wanted, but I got there just before 0300 to find the nut cases that were seeing me off sitting in a totally dark station. I just [i]thought[/i] it was a 24hr station. So across the street we went.

I really don’t know what they were doing up at that hour :yawn:


Starting mileage


Got the tank filled, paperwork filled out, receipt from the cashier (pay at the pumps never print when you need them too) and finally hit the road at ~0320

Chuck escorted me to the US67/IH30 merge/split. Don stuck with me till just past IH635. I was beginning to wonder if he was going to run with me all the way to AR as he’d discussed at the gas station...

Made it to Texarkana just a bit after the sun came up, grabbed breakfast (Waffle House) and filled the tank.

After topping off the tank on the bike and topping off my stomach, I continued on my way.

Oddly enough, it was incredibly foggy till I made it almost all the way to Little Rock where I caught the loop around to I40 at 0940. Stopped to top off the tank and get a receipt to mark the corner and met a couple guys on a new Connie and a Zuk Boulevard (sorry didn’t get the size). The Connie14 looks better in person then it does in the promo pics. My one thought was that the bags looked like and after thought though.

Turns out the guys were from E TX (they told me the town, but I forgot) and were headed to TN. I should have said something about TWT, guess I was too busy drooling over their machines.

Continuing on my way I made it to Missouri.


Stayed in MO for less then 100mi and made it to Dyesrsburg TN around 1330 where I stopped for lunch.



In exactly 100mi I stopped in Calvert, KY for gas. I’m so used to riding for 300mi and still being in the heart of Texas, I was almost surprised to see the state line signs so frequently!

Sorry, no pic of the KY state sign as it was in a location I wasn’t about to stop in!

About 2000 I stopped made my first stop Indiana, Terre Haute IN to be specific, at 25,830mi. Grabbed a burger at Wendy’s while I was there, then I made a bee line for Indy.

Arrived in Indy at 2154, where I topped off with gas and made the turn onto I-65N.


Whats with these northern BP gas pumps :scratch:

Just after midnight (0018) I stopped in Lake Station, IN for a bottled Starbucks Frap and topped of the tank for the final leg.

At 0122 with 26,106 on the odometer, I purchased about a gallon of gas (nothing else was open) to make the end of the trip in Bridgeman, MI.


For a grand total of 1,189mi by my odometer. Google maps claims the trip is 1,172mi and I know I made a few small circles, rode around a couple gas stations, had to find a station that wound up being 5mi from from the interstate, etc. So I think I’m safe on the mileage ;)

My final destination was another 15mi down the road, but I figured there wouldn’t be anything open at 0200 in a town with a population of 1,800. I was correct.

Made a call and got my room mate for the month (and the upcoming year as an SM) to let me in and I zonked out almost immediately.

There were several turns that were way out in the sticks with nary an exit for miles, so some of those I don’t have documented. Some I was able to pull off and take a pic of the exit sign, but I’m not certain that will suffice for the IBA-required documentation. Assuming they assume (yikes thats a lot of assumption!) that I took the most direct route and trust me that I followed the printed route that I’m going to mail to them, I should be ok. Now to get the packet compiled and mailed in.

1,200mi, 23hrs, 6 states (I coulda swore I was in IL for a few miles, but I didn’t get a pic, and its not showing up on the Google directions).

[url=http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=Alvarado,+TX+76009&daddr=37.944198,-87.583008+to:Berrien+Springs,+MI&mrcr=0,1&mrsp=1&sz=6&mra=dpe&sll=37.18124,-91.767525&sspn=9.920039,16.918945&ie=UTF8&z=6&om=1]This[/url] is the route I intended on taking. I adhered to it for the most part save one or two, unintended detours. I don’t think they added real miles, just time.

Not a single lick of trouble from the bike. Ran perfectly and returned 42.5mpg avg. I even managed to keep the chicken strips down to my normal 1/4”


My wrists and shoulders were a bit sore, but nothing worth complaining about. My bum did fine. After ~200mi I would have to get off and move it around to get the blood back in it, but thats also the upper tank range on the bike so its not a real problem. Should I run into an extra $400, I’ll most likely get a Sargent seat for it. Oh, a throttle lock would be nice. Too bad the $18 one from Cycle Gear didn’t work when I bought it a couple months ago.

*all times are CST

AFM training, week one

Let me get you up to speed on what’s happening. I landed in Berrien Springs Michigan early on the morning of the 16th for Adventist Frontier Missions Student Missionary training. Its a four week course designed to get the SMs ready for service in the field.

Monday through Thursday was mostly spent filling out forms, learning about how to deal with various cultures (this will continue) and learning about the different personalities within the group of SMs and how they relate differently.

Thursday evening we were given eight Tupperware boxes about the size of shoe-box and told anything we wanted to take with us, had to be in those boxes. Keep in mind that there are 17 SMs this year. Sleeping bags and water bottles were the only exceptions.
We dressed in grubby clothes (as instructed) and loaded onto the bus. The first stop on the bus trip was a grocery store for the food we would be fixin’ during the long weekend.
After that we took off for a large piece of property owned by the SDA church up here in Michigan.

At this point I get to a point where I can’t really tell you what all happened cause its kinda secretive, not shoot-you-if-I-tell-you secretive, but we ain’t supposed to tell.

We arrived back on the campus of Andrew’s University at about 1830 local time one exhausted bunch of folks.

About two hours later, six of us had the bright idea to run to St Joseph, MI to get something to eat. We didn’t arrive back till about 2300 even more exhausted, but we had a blast, though I think the restaurant would have been fine if we hadn’t showed up.

The main goal of the event was to build the SMs into a team. A second goal was to push us to our physical limits. The first succeeded incredibly. I’ve only known most of my fellow SMs for a hair over a week and I’m now closer to them then I am to some people I’ve known for years. Its amazing what a proper mixture of trust-building activities and exercises can do for trust.

The second goal succeeded for some of the people on the team. The size difference between the team members is quite vast. Ranging from girls that are doing good to reach 5’4” and might weigh 110lbs if you threw them in the water in winter ski clothes, to myself at 6’2” and 175lbs. There is one other person who weighs more then myself. I”m going to guess, but didn’t ask, about 200lbs.
I’m by no means as fit as I’d like to be, but my long legs made it incredibly easy to maintain a fast walk while the small girls were jogging, thus making it very easy for me to keep pace with the team and not push myself that hard physically.
Please don’t take this as bragging, I’m simply saying that I was expecting to be pushed much harder then I was, but due to the team oriented nature, some of us un-natural freaks had it much easier then others.
While the physical part was a challenge and a fair bit of fun (for me anyway, others seemed to dislike it a bit more ;) ) the team building aspect is what really impressed me more.

We would be given a task to complete and a different person from the team selected to lead for this event. Various restrictions were placed upon us to make the task more difficult. Restrictions ranged to not being able to speak at all, limited word usage, some members blind-folded, English dis-allowed as a communication form, etc. The tasks themselves ranged from physical challenges, to mental challenges, to seeing how we would handle being pushed with time limits, lack of sleep, lack of food, etc.
It was a lot of fun to watch the individual members and the team as whole grow through this experience.

Initially, everyone tended to think as a single individual and as time progressed to the point that when given a task that had the team subdivided into smaller teams, that we joined together to complete the task.
Individuals grew in confidence in themselves, confidence in their leadership abilities, physical abilities, spiritual connection, and many other areas that are kinda hard to put down on (virtual) paper.
Suffice it to say I learned a fair bit about myself and learned a lot about the other SMs.

After this weekend the rest of the training goes back to the classroom. So while we’ll be getting lots of good instruction, it’ll be terribly boring to tell you about.

If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to try and answer them

I thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, I greatly appreciate them.

I did survive the IB attempt

I really didn't die attempting the IB run. I simply got in super early and didn't feel like blogging at that point. and I've been busy since then and am just now getting around to writing a report.
I'll hope fully get that posted in a few days
Till then, here's the generalization
1200mi, 23hrs, 10min of rain, 4hrs of fog, lots of gas, a sore bum, and a great time!

Taco Bell. Dyersburg TN. 600mi

Taco Bell. Dyersburg TN. 600mi done. 600mi to go

Little Rock

Little Rock AR. Just under 400 mi completed!

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7am n ive made it

7am n ive made it to Texarkana TX. just 1000mi to go!

Off to training

Well folks, I'm off to training. I leave for Michigan at 3AM tomorrow morning. I'll be staying in one of the men's dorms on the campus of Andrews University.
Training starts on the morning of July 17th and will continue till August 12th.
The fund raising is coming along wonderfully!
Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and support.
Nathan Seery
seeryn@gmail.com

Just testing stuff!

Just testing stuff!

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Triumph StreetTriple

Triumph recently announced the StreetTriple

Looks like a hoot to ride around the track.


I'm really digging that Roulette Green

Long time no blog

Its been far too long since I've updated this here blog. I'll blame it on being really busy, but in reality I just haven't felt like updating it.
So whats been going on for the last few weeks...

To say I've been busy would be an understatement.
Running to NVR every weekend to do the video for them, work from 0830-1700 every day, trying to get things finished up at work before I leave work here for training, fighting with software thats supposed to make my job easier, dealing with tech support on that, riding the motorcycle as much as possible, trying to squeeze in some lake time, offering in-home computer support a couple evenings a week. well I think you get the picture.

I did get a chance to take my bike to the drag strip in Kennedale Thursday night. I went to hang out with friends and watch them run, I must admit that I had an absolute blast taking a few runs down the track. Its clear I'm not professional drag racer by looking at my RTs (reaction time) and I did discover that my VFR800 is a hair bit faster then the mid-'90s VFR750 but it was VERY close. to the tune of .0071 sec difference at the end of the 1/8th mile.

With the rain lately I've gotten to test the wet-weather capability of my new tires (well I say new, they now have over 1k miles on them) and I'm very pleased.

With all this rain, I need to get out and do some mudding, but then who wants to mud by oneself? besides the fact of what to do if you get stuck, its just not as much fun when alone.

Last night was a time for getting back together with friends that have been out of touch for sometime. One came out to ride at the lake. The other decided to be my MySpace friend again. Good times to be sure.

Track Day Pics

Finally got the pics from the track photographer of the track day that I did back on May 7.


Full link is here

now I can see how poor my form was...

Thoughts of the moment

You know its time for a haircut when you walk in and your friend immediately bursts into fits of rolling-on-the-floor laughter.

I knew I had a lot of junk, but I didn't realize I had THAT much junk. Good grief I need to get rid of some stuff.

You can conceal all kinds of interesting things with the proper equipment.

Mom can barely conceal her excitement that I am home.

Now I gotta get stuff sorted out and get packed for the weekend...

Not quite folks...

Reading the news, they are going to raise the minimum wage. And of course its being heralded as the greatest thing ever to help the under-paid minimum wage worker.

Lets run this through its course.
Raise the minimum wage.
Workers are happy
Cost of everything now goes up
So in the end, nothing has changed.

Cost of living will be forced up, due to the rise in production. Thus negating the wage increase.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm ok with helping the underdog (to a degree) but this is not the solution that people think its going to be.

Now that I think about it, why is the Govt in the business of managing the "free market" anyway??

Oopsie

It was a beautiful day and I'd already sat on my duff and read a bunch of pretty much useless info on the interweb while hoping something would come up with something to do. Nothing happened so I jumped on the bike and off I went. No particular destination in mind, just knew I had to be in Alvarado by 1900. No worries it was 1600 as I fired up the Viffer.
Weather was a perfect slightly over cast, but still plenty bright day. Viffer was running great and the new tires were feeling great. Tunes rolling the helmet couldn't have matched the mood of the ride any better. Smooth and rolling along nicely. Really just one of those perfect rides. Great for clearing the head even when your not actively thinking about anything while riding.
Having no destination in mind, I was turning at random on any road that looked decent. Ran down a road (don't recall the number) and the neighborhood bull was just standing there watching me. Naturally I stopped and took a pic.


Knowing FM51 has been a haven for crashing sport bikers, I turned off on FM205 and wound my way past Dinosaur Valley State Park and wound up turning down CR1005 (I'm pretty sure that's the number) and paused at a low water crossing to walk across it and take a few pics.




After my walk across the water, I decided it was ok, and thought I'd ride across and continue my random explorations. Well, the path I walked and the path I rode were apparently different as I found a slick spot with the bike. Back end decided to take a different path then the front and down she went. No worries I was going a like 2mph at the time. I'll just pick it up and ride on.
DOH! The last 3" of the clutch lever decided to snap off. well, I can still ride it home no worries.
The kind lady standing there watching me do all this informed me that those low water crossings were slick. Where is Bill Engval when you need him?
So I get it out of the one-lane water crossing and look the bike over closer to see what damage was done.

=


Only to discover that its quite nearly pouring oil out of the top of the oil cooler. Seems the drop moved the headlight enough to puncture the oil cooler. Double check the oil and thought I'd ride it back to at least Glenrose.
About the time I got to DVSP it was clear that the bike had other plans. Too much oil was blowing out for me to continue riding. I parked across FM205 from DVSP and called HRCA.
The lady on the phone was having trouble with her computer (aren't they always? :scratch: ) and I wound up spending nearly 15min trying to get a tow setup. In the end they dispatched Don's Towing from Granbury saying it would be 2hrs before they could make it out.
As I'm sitting there on the side of the road staring at the sky, The game warden pulls out of DVSP and comes over to check on me. I explain it, he oogles the bike and drives away. A little while later, a car pulls up to ask if I'm ok. I inform them that I've already got a tow setup and am just waiting for them to arrive. They turn around and then stop and ask me if I have what I think was drugs. I had the camera in hand, I shoulda snapped a pic of their plate

As time goes on, there's no less then 6 cars pull out of DVSP full of folks that I know. Most all of them stopped to check or at the very least wave.

Laying there staring at the sky I had this random inspiration hit and snapped this shot:

I don't know, maybe the bugs were getting at my brain

Low and behold I hear a bike riding down the road and what should I see appear but a red VStrom blur piloted by a man in a Tecknic jacket. I say to myself "self, is that Bill?" soon enough I find out as he's back and it was indeed our very own Bill (Graubert) out testing his new Laminar lip. Bill proceeded to wait with me till the tow truck shows up. I am here to tell you that talking to another person is much more fun then talking to yourself!

As Bill and I were standing there, there was a gaggle of sport bikes that went by. The last of which was a familiar looking black bike piloted by a pink-helmeted rider. Bill and I both asked if that was Melanie (Vitto) Turns out we were right!

The tow truck shows up and the first thing out of his mouth is "I'm going to have to get you to sign a waver as I ain't equipped to haul bikes." :doh: well, I guess I don't really have any other options. Sign the waver and load the bike up. Took a bit, but got his straps around the lower fork clamps and get it strapped down. I'm not super happy with it, but it beats pushing the thing all the way home.

Its really a sad sight

Got her home and into the garage. I'll tear it apart and figure out exactly what I need to get it going again.

A big thanks to Bill for hanging with me while the tow truck took forever to show up.

Needless to say, I missed my Alvarado meet at 1900. Oh well, sometimes things happen.

Avon Azaro

Replace the shoes on the VFR yesterday. 7600mi in 14mo not nearly enough miles. Course I did put 4k on the ST1300, so I shouldn't complain too much.

The old tires still had some life left in them. but I thought I was going to Arkansas this weekend and I didn't want to chance the tires running out of life while I was up there. Peace of mind is worth sacrificing a few miles on a set of tires.

Ok, The previous tires were Avon Azaro ST45/46. I absolutely love those tires. Great turn in, great feel, great grip wet and dry, great mileage. I really think I could have matched the ~9,000 that I put on a prior set of Michelin Pilot Roads had I left them on. In short, I loved these tires.
I would have replaced them with the same thing except Avon release the Strom 55/56 ST tire which is being heralded as better then the 45/46 if thats possible.

So I've got new shoes on the steed so its time to ride!

Definitions

So there was some confusion about "biker lingo" in my last blog so let me see if I can't clear some of it up.

• CheapSTOC: an excuse for members of the Honda ST Owners Club to ride. This event was held in Junction TX.
  
  
• Connie: A Kawasaki ZG1000 Concours Touring/Sport Touring bike.
  
  
• vitch: say the 'v' with a spanish pronunciation and you come up with a term used for riding on the back of a bike, or in the middle of a bench seat. I was spelling around the filters on the forum I posted that on. (link is clean)
  
• Centerstand: a stand incorporated into the bike to lift the rear wheel off the ground for service. folds back in front of the tire but hangs lower then the frame.
  

If you are confused about something else, let me know and I'll see what I can do to update this list.

110 miles to no where

Today I rode 110miles and never went anywhere. All while averaging ~27mpg. So what was I doing?
I convinced Tony from EuroSport that my VFR was a Sprint ST and went to his track day at Motor Sport Ranch

Having never done this before I was quite unsure what to expect. Asked around here on TWT, read through Sport Riding Techniques, strapped a cooler and a chair to the back and headed out.
Arrived in Cresson at 0800 and got started taping the bike off (no truck/trailer) At first there weren’t many people there, but they gradually started filtering in.

While I was going through tech, Loyd, apparently he had convinced Tony that his CBR600RR was of European descent as well.

As I was starting to gear up, Loyd decided that I should at least try on his spare set of leathers, to my surprise they actually fit. Well, except for the sleeves, but I haven’t found much that fits my monkey arms. So now I’m looking the part and take off around the track behind the instructors (Tom and Guy) they are taking the track at a “leisurely” pace. I’m riding along thinking “this is fast enough for me!” fortunately for me, a few laps had me feeling much more comfortable with the track. Then it was back to the classroom while those who could actually ride took to the track.

As the day wore on, my confidence level increased and I was actually getting around the track. Nowhere near what would be considered fast, but I had a hoot and that’s what mattered.

At the end of the last session before lunch, I pull off towards the pits and notice a familiar face standing on the wall. Pull around and attempt to figure out what this foreigner is doing so far from home. Turns out she was headed home from the CheapSTOC event and made a wrong turn :-P seeing as she was there, she thought she’s stop in and take me to lunch


I’ve never ridden vitch so it was a new experience. It seemed to be a day for them.

In the first session after lunch, I was attempting to pass a Connie, panicked and ran off in to the grass/mud. Guy stopped and we rode back to the pits at a super slow pace. Don’t want to get mud on the track for the rest of the riders. He explained what I had done, what I needed to do to correct it and sent me off. I kicked myself and headed off to wash off the tires for the next session.

I wasn’t the only one to leave the track today. Couple other folks messed up turns and went on “agricultural trips”. Loyds dad got clipped in a corner and crashed. Fortunately no one was injured.
Sadly, the crash ended both Loyd and his dad’s day at the track. I had to give the leather back, so I finished the day out in my gear. Which by the way, is MUCH warmer then perforated leather!
Back on the track the next time I concentrated on just being smooth and trusting the bike. Things went great so I picked up the pace next time around.

When the day was over I was sweaty, tired and happy. I’d successfully completed my first track day and kept the shiny side up on the bike. I’d improved my riding and gotten ride of those darn chicken strips. Drug the left peg feeler twice, and Guy was telling me to take the center stand off for next time as it was dragging.

So yeah, I had a blast. Learned to trust the bike more and had a blast! Did I mention I had fun?

Am I older then I thought?

Honda West Cleburne was having a Demo Day today, so my dad and I, having nothing better to do, decided to head that way and see what we could ride.

Got over there around 3:20 and discovered that the last ride left at 3:00. But seeing as we are in there all the time buying parts for our various machines and they all know us by first name, they setup one more run for us.

The bikes they had to choose from were a pair of GL1800s, what seemed like all the cruisers Honda makes, the Reflex, and the Silver Wing. If we'd had time we would have ridden all of them, but since we only had one pass, we picked the Wings.

sorry, new camera, just had to use it

Dad got the one that had $18,799 written on it (Silver), and I had the one with $20,699 on it (Black). Mine had the Navi system, his did not. Both had the CB.
couldn't tell you how many buttons there were or what all they did
I managed to figure out how the stereo worked, but thats about all.

Dad managed to get his in Reverse and Jeff (ride leader) had to go help him out on that one.
Once he was moving in a forward direction, we took off.

The first thing that I noticed was how the Honda engineers had managed to figure out a way to drop 3-400lbs off the bike as soon as its moving. I don't know how they did it, but it sure is effective!

I actually really enjoyed taking that boat for a spin. While I wouldn't trade my VFR for it, swapping the ST1300 did cross my mind... Thus leading me to the title: Since we all know GoldWings are old men's bikes, am I older then I thought?

I have read all kinds of stuff about how well the Wing handles, and how much power it has, yada yada yada. But until you park your keister in the seat and experience it for yourself, its really hard to believe.

Dad was curious to ride them as he absolutely disliked the GL1500. Said its seat was too high, and it felt heavier then it was, didn't like the engine. Just plain didn't like it. After sitting on the GL1800 at the IMS show back in Nov, he decided that maybe it wasn't as bad as the GL1500.
After taking the GL1800 for a spin, he was just short of singing its praises (dad getting excited is saying "yippie" in sarcastic, flat tone)
Dad's too much of a cheap-skate to buy a new one, and probably a used one, but I wouldn't be surprised if he kept his eyes open for a salvage one

I was quite impressed with the bikes, and as always, very happy with the service from Honda West Cleburne

The Night Stalkers

The Night Stalkers by Michael J Durant and Steven Hartov is a tale of deft and daring, skill and courage. Well, actually is quite a few smaller stories about that.

Its a collaboration of stories of the pilots and crew of the US Army's 160th SOAR(A) (Special Operations Aviation Regiment), the pilots who fly the Special Ops guys into places. Most always flying at night, with no lights on the birds.

If you are even slightly interested in recent military history, or the military in general, I highly recommend this book.

2007 Texas Pathfinder Camporee Video

I seem to have a knack for whirl-wind trips

So, made another whirl-wind trip to GA this past weekend. And as usual, there was no real reason to go, just wanted to go.

This time I went with Pamela and Danny and we took Danny's mom's new Subaru Forester. While there's a certain appeal to riding the bike, it was nice to be able to nap while somebody else was driving.

Took off after work on Thursday and made a bee-line for GA. With three drivers we were able to make it almost non-stop and made it in 13hrs. Not bad considering its 850mi.

So we arrived after our friends/family had already left for work, so we just crashed till they got home .

Saturday we went to Stone Mountain and attempted to climb to the top. I say attempted cause we somehow missed the trail and only managed to walk 3/4 of the way around this thing.
We finally made our way back to where we could climb up, but by that time we had a pair of knees that weren't really wanting to climb and an ankle that had decided to see if it worked on its side. so we just got in the car and went home.

So we sat around for awhile and ordered pizza online. Now, I"m a geek and even *I* think that is just ridiculous. How hard is it to dial a phone!?! Pizza was good regardless and we had fun playing card games and just generally yacking.

Got up sunday and slowly, begrudgingly hit the road home around 1030 TX time. 12.5hrs later we landed in Keene and headed for bed.

Was whirl-wind trip, had some interesting tensions and discussions, but it was a good trip.

So when we going again?

A beautiful day for a ride!

Took off this morning to try my hand at a street enduro hosted by Precision Challenge.

To explain basically what this is, you leave the start point with a very specific set of directions at a set time (0900 this time) and drive exactly as they tell you. The goal is to arrive at each of the check points at the exact time they pre-determined. This repeats at each of the checkpoints along the route.

I met Ryan, Steve (friends from TWTEX.com) and a gentleman on a Harley (Mike) there. Along with the folks putting it on. Ryan, Mike and I are in the same class. Steve is in another one because he brought his wife on the back of his Tiger.

So myself and Ryan are assigned to the first group. We decide to work together to get this done (none of us had done this before).

Made the first check point ok, got our time card stamped and punched and off we went.
Got to the second check point, took of and promptly (well, 3 miles later) discovered we'd gone the wrong way. So we are now 6min behind schedule. Gotta make up time.

Traffic on I35 (where we were supposed to be) was thick and we couldn't make up any time.
good fortune shined on us once we left the interstate though and we were able to make tracks (At the posted legal limit of course )

Arrived at the third checkpoint exactly on time and took our 40min lunch break.

Got back on the road and nearly missed the 4th check point. (I think they were trying to hide from us...) Then back on the road.

Somewhere along this stretch we got to looking at the route sheet and realized things were a bit funny. we were WAY WAY ahead of the alloted time. and we were running 5 UNDER the limit.
So SH121 saw myself and Ryan running ~12mph on the shoulder trying to eat time.
Steve and Mike caught up with us and we discussed whether there was typo or we really were supposed to take 2hrs to cover ~35mi.

Finally rolled in about 20min before the route sheet time and discovered that they'd made an error in the calculations. They felt horrible, but now I've got a crazy story!

I had an absolute blast. Cost me $25 to enter and I walked away with a tie for 2nd place, a $150 check, and a nice trophy.

So when's the next one?

Ah, the sound of a Viffer...

Finally got the Viffer back in running condition Monday night. Got the valve inspection, oil change, thermostat replaced, and headlight relay replacement finished Sunday, then did the Throttle Body sync (Thank you Gary!) Monday evening.

Took her home that evening in place of the ST1300 and wow, I'd forgotten how SMOOOTH that V4 is! not to mention that slight (I think I need Staintunes...) exhaust note. Pure heroin I tell you, truely addictive.

Now I've got to decide if I want to take the ST1300 or the VFR for my first Saddle Sore 1000 in a week or so

How to spend Easter weekend as a geek

• First, volunteer to do the video for the Texas Conference Pathfinder Camporee like you have for the past seven years.
  
• Drive for 4hrs with $15,000+ in equipment in a SUV.
  
• Spend the next hour getting everything setup.
  
• Shoot people setting camp up
  
• play Ghost Recon while waiting for more people to show up
  
• capture the video and stay up till 2400 editing
  
• get up at 0600 and start filming people
  
• repeat till dark
  
• edit till 0100
  
• prompt fellow editor to work on his section
  
• while editing, crash the editing suite, thus rendering your computer useless
  
• fight with computer and finally break out the backup machine
  
• get up at 0600 and film more people
  
• escape the rain and go back to editing
  
• fight with the backup machine
  
• prompt fellow editor to work on his section
  
• get it finished and show to the people who were brave enough to stick around
  
• pack up and drive home at 0100
  
• marvel at 1" of snow on the road between Caldwell and Waco
  
• arrive home at 0530 and promptly go to bed
  
• repeat as seen fit
  

Homeshow was great!

SWAT Homeshow was Saturday night. I was pleasantly surprised that it came off as well as it did.

Spent all of last week working on various things for it. Had the regular practice every day, shot video Tuesday through Thursday evenings, then I was up till almost 3AM Friday morning editing.

Friday afternoon was spent setting up and rehearsing for the show.

Saturday, I adjusted the length of a song and showed up for final setup at 5PM.
Had a bit of trouble getting all the videos from the other editor, but it all worked out. Now if they hadn't been in 1080i HD my system wouldn't have had trouble playing it . My system plays it fine, but when you are trying to compress it down to fit on a 800x600 screen its a bit slower.

The gymnastics part of the show went off really well. 95% of everything hit and thats a lot more then I was expecting due to a lack of focus in some of the team.

Looking back, it would have been very nice to have someone run the lights/sound/videos instead of having myself do all that, try to run a couple cameras and perform as well, but it really worked very well and really wasn't a problem.

Now if I could get a chance, I'll start editing the video from Homeshow and get it put on a DVD.

Finally, progress

Spent a couple hours last night working on the Viffer. Got the valve shims and buckets all changed out and in place, cams back on and tight. The best feeling of the night? turning the engine over and getting that wonderful feeling of it working properly!

Now if I can get some time to do the thermostat, shift lever seal, headlight relay, and the oil change, I'll get it back on the road! Having been with out the Viffer for a month, its high time to get it back!

Clarification

Mimosa is my schools annual formal banquet.
This year it was held in a ballroom of the Gaylord Texan

Mimosa, a recap

Decided to go to Mimosa last night, so I paid my $30 and off I went. Dressed as a Ninja.
The brother and a fellow gymnastics teammate were also dressed as Ninjas.

After walking in from the parking garage (I'm not paying Valet when I'm going stag!) and getting many interesting stares, looks, and comments, we finally made it to the ballroom. Of course we ran up the down escalators, cause thats what Ninjas do.
Upon attempting to enter the banquet, we were asked to wait, pending arrival of someone to approve our "disruptive" attire. We pressed the issue a bit and were allowed in.
Tables are set for groups of couples so it makes it a bit interesting when you're alone and I wound up at a nearly empty table in the corner, no worries, its easier to observe prey, I mean, people, from the corner then the center of the room.

Entertainment was a bit on the sparse side, but may have been ok if I'd had a date. But then I heard more then one person commenting that they would have rather spent the $60 to take a date some other place.
Food was ok, but I guess I'm just not uppity enough, too fancy for me.

All in all, a decent evening, but a note of reference for myself: NEVER go solo unless being paid or specifically with a group of friends and y'all are sitting together.