It all started with a dream. A dream that Faith had to go see Leeland, Brandon Heath, and Francesca Battistelli in concert in Cincinnati. Overall, I was pretty excited about this trip as Cincinnati is only a two-hour drive and the tickets were cheap.
The drive was pretty uneventful, as we had made the trip over a month ago to go see the Cincinnati Zoo. We listened to some good music, Betsy and Faith took cat naps for part of the journey and it looked like we were on schedule.
Betsy’s friend had warned us that we might run into traffic in Cincinnati, as the part of town we had to go through was notorious for crappy traffic, but we totally didn’t expect what was about to happen.
About six miles from our destination, tummies grumbling and needing to go to the bathroom after a two-hour car ride, we came to a standstill on I-275. Now when I say standstill, I don’t mean that traffic slowly inched its way along. No, it was not moving AT ALL.
People started turning their cars off in order to save gas. Jordan and I got out to investigate. It was actually quite humorous, as it reminded me of R.E.M.’s music video for "Everybody Hurts" when, during a traffic jam, everyone gets out of the cars on the interstate and just start walking around and talking to eachother. Sadly, because of the way the median is structured on this stretch of highway, there was no way that we could simply hop on the westbound lane and drive away. There was a "turnaound" about a mile down the road, you know, the kind that you’re not supposed to use, but people do anyway. A few people took that option, but most people opted to stay in traffic, hoping and praying that it would move again.
While sitting on the middle of the interstate, I had visions. I had visions of everyone getting out of their car and having a giant dance party. I opened up all the doors and started blasting "I’ve Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas, but sadly, the idea never caught on. So after about 45 minutes of sitting in the middle of the highway and people who almost died of having to pee so bad, we finally got moving.
I read later that there was a four car chain crash that happened at the upcoming off-ramp which caused us to be stuck there so long. Apparently in Cincinnati, when one person crashes, everyone else feels like they have to join in… it must be an Ohio thing. We finally made it to our exit and ran into Wendy’s to grab a quick bite before the concert, I literally finished eating my meal as we walked up to the venue.
Fortunately we only missed an opening song or two, so I was not bummed. The concert venue is actually an old Discovery Zone that the church behind it bought and converted it into a student ministries/concert venue. Aside from people moving around so much (standing room only), I really enjoyed the place.
Leeland, Brandon Heath, and Francesca played great. They intermingled their sets, so that you got to hear everyone and didn’t get tired of one act waiting for the next one to come up. I think the one part of the concert that I really enjoyed was the part that didn’t involve music at all. They talked about a program called "Food For The Hungry" which goes into impoverished areas in the world and actually works with the people to come up with tangible solutions, not dictating what the locals should do, but listening to their ideas and partnering with them.
For example, some money went to buy seeds so that people in Cambodia could plant a field full of cucumbers. There’s really so much to this organization, that I’m actually going to write about it in another post (I’m going to sponsor a child with Food for the Hungry). So I’ll be sure to update all of you on how to get involved.
Anyway, suffice to say, it was a great concert, well worth the two-hour drive. We got stuck in traffic thinking we’d never make it to the concert, but fortunately we did and had a great time. I’ll leave all of you with this music video of Leeland’s "Follow You," with footage of their trip to Cambodia with Food for the Hungry. Enjoy!
As some of you know, I headed down to Bloomington to go flying with Jake. Our destination? Louisville, KY.
I did have the utter realization as we were climbing to 5,500 feet, that I was placing a lot of trust in Jake to know what he was doing. He liked to reassure me that if I fell from this altitude, I’d have no chance of survival. Thanks Jake!
We made it Louisville in good time, landing at Louisville’s first commercial airport and the oldest continuous running airport in America, Bowman Field (you can learn more here). Once we landed, we ran across the street to Bearno’s Little Sicily and grabbed a couple of sub sandwiches… not too shabby. After that, we headed back to Bloomington.
So Saturday night’s dinner was awesome. It seems like all we did was eat and figure out what to eat… ha ha!
The rest of the evening was pretty low-key. We sat around, talked, listened to music, and wrote in the cabin’s journal. Betsy’s co-worker owns this cabin and decided that in order to put it to best use, they would let others use it as well. The owners of the cabin keep a journal at the front of the cabin for the guests to write in, they are very particular about that. They want to know what we did, if we had a good time, so that they can look back and know that the cabin has been put to good use. Rest assured, we let them know about our fun little adventure about almost running out of gas.
As the night got darker, Chad and Andrew went outside and started a bonfire. I wasn’t in the mood to smell like smoke, so I turned on some B.B. King on the boombox and did the dishes… Faith and Betsy helped me. Then it was time to start packing up (as we would be leaving later on Sunday) and start going to bed.
Sunday
We got up early on Sunday since we had a reservation with Gilligan’s Boats for a pontoon boat at 10 a.m. So we spent most of the morning packing up as much as possible and had a fairly small breakfast before heading off.
We had originally reserved the boat for Saturday, but after checking the forecast, we decided that Sunday would be a better day… fortunately, our gamble paid off. It was GORGEOUS out, you couldn’t ask for a more perfect day: clear skies, no precipitation, 80 degrees… ahhh, thank you JESUS!
After stopping by the marine shop to pay for our boat, we headed off to the lake where they were getting our boat ready. The staff gave “Captain” Chad a 5-10 minute overview of boating safety and operation and we were off! We went around the lake a little bit before finding a spot to anchor down and relax for a bit. I was itching to go for a swim, but waited until everyone else was ready. We spent a good portion of time talking and hanging out before preparing for lunch.
In order to make sure our stomachs didn’t get sea-sick, we decided to move the boat to an area that wasn’t as frequented, so the wake wouldn’t rock our boat around. We mostly stuck to basic picnic food: turkey sandwiches, macaroni salad, potato salad, etc. It was a pretty good lunch. After allowing our stomachs to settle for a bit, I decided to go ahead and jump in… the water was perfect. Shortly after, I finally got the rest of the crew to dive in.
Betsy, Faith, and Chad are training for a triathalon, so they did a little more swimming, I just tried to enjoy myself as much as possible. After we were done swimming, we decided to just boat around the lake for a while… all of us taking turns. Faith had the worst luck driving the boat, first she lost a cup that fell in the water and then the pirate’s hat flew right off her head and into the lake. Whoops! Now before all of you try and judge us for littering in the lake, we did go back and try to recover the cup and the hat, but couldn’t find them.
The rest of the time on the boat was uneventful, we laid out, read our books, enjoyed the peace and quiet… it was a good time. Around 2:30 we decided it was time to head back. The ride back to the boat rental place felt like a long time, so I’d guess that we went farther out that I had previously thought. But we finally arrived and in typical Chad fashion, he smacked the corner of the boat right into the dock. Fortunately there was little damage… phew!
Once Chad did his final walk-through of the boat with the rental company, we headed back to the cabin to pack up, clean up, and leave. I had finished packing up the entire car when I walked back to hearing whispers, “Hey Kiel, go get your camera!” Without asking questions, I ran to the car and grabbed my camera which was buried among the girls’ stuff. When I came back, I was pleasantly surprised to see a doe taking a nap in front of our cabin.
I got really close, but unfortunately a leaf was blocking its face. When I went to move the leaf, the doe decided to get up and leave. Either way, it was nice to see one of God’s precious creatures.
We finally said our goodbyes to the cabin and headed for home. We decided to take a different way home, which would give us all highway. We were doing good until we got to Louisville and I see Andrew swerve to get off the interstate. Apparently I was so focused on singing that I totally spaced that our exit was coming up. Ha ha!
After making a u-turn, I got back on I-65 N and tried to catch up with Andrew… and tried to catch up to him for the rest of the two hour drive. There were a couple points when I was within two miles of him, I know this because I was able to make radio contact with our little walkie-talkies. But for the most part, despite my NASCAR driving skills, I never caught up… sigh.
So overall, it was an awesome weekend. We enjoyed eachother’s company, enjoyed the great outdoors, but also got to spend plenty of time relaxing. It was a weekend we will never forget.
This past weekend was a pretty good weekend for my group of friends. Last summer we created a “Bucket List” of things we wanted to do together, camping was one of them. Fortunately, one of Betsy’s co-workers had a cabin down near French Lick, IN. So on Friday evening, we packed up two cars and drove down there.
Friday Night
Friday night was pretty chill. We ended up leaving later than anticipated because of Chad’s lack of timeliness… ha ha! I had bought a pair of two-way radios from Fry’s Electronics, so it was fun being able to communicate car-to-car. Me, Faith, and Betsy were in one car while Andrew, Chad, and Stephanie were in the other car. The trip was fairly uneventful and we made it down there in about three-and-a-half hours.
We had a hard time finding the cabin at first, but we eventually found it. We took the time to turn on the water and unpack. Afterward, we sat around talking until it was time for bed.
Saturday Because we had worked hard all week, we had decided that it’d be cool to sleep in on Saturday. I personally woke up at least three times during the night… which sucked, but I guess I had a hard time sleeping. The girls helped prepare a breakfast consisting of pancakes, scrambled eggs (with bits of green onion and tomatoes), muffin wedges, strawberries, and grapes, it was awesome.
After breakfast we went to work deciding what we were going to do for the day. It was decided that we would go hiking at Hemlock Cliffs, which is part of the Hoosier National Forest. It was a pretty sweet hike for only being a two-mile loop. We went off trail several times, mostly following Chad, as we explored the cliffs! Faith lightened the mood by singing camp songs that she learned at Spring Hill, including The Moose Song, it goes a little like this…
There was a great big moose
Who liked to drink a lot of juice
There was a great big moose
Who liked to drink a lot of juice
Chad was having lots of fun exploring the different cliffs. We finally found a nice little area to sit down and to have a snack, drink, and a group picture. It started to sprinkle, but it was a welcoming rain, as we were getting hot. Later in the hike, Chad found a fairly steep cliff and ended up finding a cave. Me, getting bored waiting for him to come down, decided to go up and take a look at the cave that Chad had found. Stupid me. As I began to inch down into the cave, my foot slipped and I fell a few feet. Fortunately I wasn’t hurt and my camera was still intact, I climbed out and headed back down to the others to find that I was bleeding below my elbow. After washing off my little wound in the creek, Betsy put a band-aid on it and we were back on our way… this is where it gets interesting.
As we wrapped up our hike, we hopped into Andrew’s Jeep. As he turned on the engine, we realized that his gas gauge was on “Empty.” I further clarified this by looking at the heads-up display that said, “0 Gallons to Empty.” I fired up my GPS and located the nearest gas station… over 10 miles away.
Andrew made every effort to coast when possible to conserve fuel. This plan went a little awry when a turkey ran out in front of our Jeep as we were heading down the hill. Andrew hit the brakes and the turkey flew off, unharmed. The thing that sucked is that we were driving through country roads past very redneck-looking places. We finally made it to IN-37 and headed south towards the gas station which was still 5-7 miles away. I really didn’t think we were going to make it and my fears got worse when we passed a sign that said, “Prison Area: Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers.”
“Great, as if God could be teasing us anymore,” we said to ourselves. So Stephanie grabbed the MP3 player and turned it to Bon Jovi’s song, “Livin’ On a Prayer.” Fortunately for us, the gas station came into sight and we made it in. Once Andrew finished refilling, we noticed that he had filled up his 20 gallon tank with over 19.9 gallons of fuel… we BARELY made it to the gas station. PHEW! Bullet dodged.
That, my friends, is a story that we will never forget. We made it back to the cabin where Faith, Chad, and Betsy decided to go on a short run while Stephanie, Andrew, and I got our showers out of the way. Saturday night was a great night to just sit back and read a book as dinner was being prepared.
Stephanie really took the lead on preparing dinner and we had a TON of food to eat: hamburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, macaroni salad, cole slaw, baked beans, diced potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and so much more. It was a great meal and it was great to share it with awesome friends.
It all started with a dream. A dream that Faith had to go see Leeland, Brandon Heath, and Francesca Battistelli in concert in Cincinnati. Overall, I was pretty excited about this trip as Cincinnati is only a two-hour drive and the tickets were cheap.
While sitting on the middle of the interstate, I had visions. I had visions of everyone getting out of their car and having a giant dance party. I opened up all the doors and started blasting "I’ve Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas, but sadly, the idea never caught on. So after about 45 minutes of sitting in the middle of the highway and people who almost died of having to pee so bad, we finally got moving.
After stopping by the marine shop to pay for our boat, we headed off to the lake where they were getting our boat ready. The staff gave “Captain” Chad a 5-10 minute overview of boating safety and operation and we were off! We went around the lake a little bit before finding a spot to anchor down and relax for a bit. I was itching to go for a swim, but waited until everyone else was ready. We spent a good portion of time talking and hanging out before preparing for lunch.
I got really close, but unfortunately a leaf was blocking its face. When I went to move the leaf, the doe decided to get up and leave. Either way, it was nice to see one of God’s precious creatures.
Because we had worked hard all week, we had decided that it’d be cool to sleep in on Saturday. I personally woke up at least three times during the night… which sucked, but I guess I had a hard time sleeping. The girls helped prepare a breakfast consisting of pancakes, scrambled eggs (with bits of green onion and tomatoes), muffin wedges, strawberries, and grapes, it was awesome.
“Great, as if God could be teasing us anymore,” we said to ourselves. So Stephanie grabbed the MP3 player and turned it to Bon Jovi’s song, “Livin’ On a Prayer.” Fortunately for us, the gas station came into sight and we made it in. Once Andrew finished refilling, we noticed that he had filled up his 20 gallon tank with over 19.9 gallons of fuel… we BARELY made it to the gas station. PHEW! Bullet dodged.