Schedule Me

I swallowed hard and pulled the trigger.

It was hard seeing it go, it took so many years to grow and now it is gone.

We finally bought our tickets, the tickets for our trip and now the bank account is withering. We are counting down the days and feeling the time crunch to get our chores done. Only a few "Have To Do" items remain and the weight on our minds grow lighter. I wanted to publish a list of our travel dates and locations to let you know where and when we'll be and to invite any of you to join us along the way! Seriously consider it, lets meet up in Egypt and explore the pyramids together or in Tanzania and climb Kili together, or maybe in Peru and we'll surf the beaches and explore Pachu Picchu or raft part of the Amazon!

- OK here goes -

Alaska to Portland - October 3rd


Portland to Mexico - October 21st

Mexico to Thailand - November 18th

Thailand to Egypt - February 11th

Egypt to Kenya - February 27th

Kenya overland to South Africa

South Africa to Brazil - April 6th

Brazil overland to Peru

Peru to Panama - May 6th

Panama to Alaska May 15th

All right now you know, its your job to come! See you there!

The New Wild(er)

At this point in my life I find myself on the craziest adventure I could ever imagine. First, I got married to the best man I know last December and as all of you married people know that is the craziest adventure of all time. Second, I quit my teaching job, the job I spent over seven years of my life training for, thinking about, and planning for and have become a commercial fisherman and a receptionist/dispatcher/whatever else needs to be done person. Third, Lyle and I have decided to spend seven months travelling around the world, seeing the sights, checking out several mission organizations, and most importatnly seeking the Lord's will for our life together.

With these three major changes in my life I find myself doing and experiancing things I have never done before, never imagined doing before. I often find myself completely out of my comfort zone just looking around for some clue as to what our next move may be. However, through all this newness, that can bring discomfort, God is bringing amazing blessings that I could have never received had I stayed in my comfort zone. I have a Godly, tender hearted, protective, funny man who is constantly trying to love me the way God loves me. Lyle's devotion to me has been one of the greatest gifts God has ever given me and I have seen a real picture of how Christ loves me through Lyle's love for me. Praise the Lord for a Godly husband. I also have a part in a thriving commericial fishing family and buisness and learning to fish this summer was so much fun. I was able to get durty, live on a boat, pick fish, and hang out on the sea in the sun (praise the Lord it was sunny most of the time). Most of all Lyle and I had a chance to do something together that was high stakes, dangerous and lucritive. It was a growing and bonding experiance for us to see each other in that tough environment and I look foward to next season! I also have a year of travel set before me that will challenge me, force me to rely on Christ and Lyle, and give me a "reality check" of what life is really like for most people on the planet. I have dreamed of doing the things Lyle and I have planned to do in the next year but never thought they would really be able to happen, but Lyle is a doer (to my advantage) so off we go.

When I think about the last few years and the year to come I think of Lyle's analogy of life being a river with many unknowns, rappids and whorlpools, shallow water and deep water. He is right I think, life, as God intended it, is an ADVENTURE! He intends for us to have an intimate, meaningful, completely fufilling relationship with Him where we take His out-stretched hand and willingly follow Him wherever He leads. He can lead into some crazy stuff, but there is a place inside us that desires that kind of adventure, the kind of adventure that has purpose, passion, meaning, value, the real gut wrenching stuff that cuts right to the heart and really means something because it cost something!! This kind of adventure, this kind of life attitude that is willing to abandon worldly security and comfort to follow a sometimes crazy God of the univeres is scary, terrifing, and risky. He could ask me to give up everything but that is still what we want! So, we find ourselves coming into another turn on our river and asking that the Lord will strengthen us and humble us to follow where He may lead.

His Name is "Dolly"

Dolly rhymes with Dall I think.

After a long night of packing we finally fell into bed after midnight and set the alarm for 5AM with a little sick feeling in my gut knowing the time would slip by so quickly. The relentless racket of the alarm broke my dreamless rest only moments after shutting my eyes and my arm shot out to pound the snooze button for another glorious 6 minutes of rest. The excitement of the days prospects slowly ran through my brain and and I chased them away to gain those last few moments of bliss before the buzzing returned. Finally ousted from our bed Heidi and I set about our final preparations for our adventure. We set out full speed ahead on Lake Clark and up the shore to Copper Mountain where we intended to go to the far end of the mountain to start our assault of the 4500' peak. We changed our plans a bit after seeing the large cloud cap on the top quarter of the mountain. Not wanting to get turned around in the fog on top we opted for a more cautious and probably arduous journey up the south west rib. Our fears where not ill placed and with-in hours we were battling up hill into a sea of alders. We felt like the alders were the mountains sentinels sent to protect its slopes from the human invaders and trying to turn us back at every step. Every now and then we would find a small clearing that would afford us a few modest gains but then back to the war until we were allowed to gain the high ground and set foot above tree line. The cloud cap on the mountain soon absorbed us and we crept up the hill expectantly, only able to see a few hundred yards in front of us. It was nearing noon and the thick clouds were persistent, we worked our way up the ridge and stopped to check some suspicious shapes that turned out to be rocks. Suddenly the clouds disappeared and no more than 200 yards away sat a group of nine rams resting peacefully in their ignorance of our presence. For thirty minutes or more we sat and studied our new friends trying to decide which one to take home. We finally decided on our favorite one and Heidi took care full aim. The rifle shot pierced the crisp afternoon air and all the sheep jumped to their feet and our new buddy headed down hill away from the group. We chased the poor fellow and finally got a chance for a second shot and Heidi nailed him. He plunged down the slopes and landed on his feet only to bed down behind a large rock and nurse his wounds. The fatal bullet found him in his bed and the rugged terrain swept him down hill. Over and over he rolled, end over end all the while Heidi and I willing him to stop only to see his feet once more raising over his head. Finally it came to a rest and we began to make our way down being care full not to succumb to the same fate ourselves. We were amazed to find his beautiful horns unscathed by the tremendous fall and his body hardly worse for the tumble. First came the pictures and then we set to work quartering him up for the long walk down the mountain. We boned him out on the slope to save weight and began the death march back down the mountain eyeing the alders waiting for us with open branches. Apparently those alders didn't mind us leaving their lofty terrain, we found the controlled fall down much more appealing than pushing up. Soon we were down into the woods and the lake not far in the distance. We pushed on, eager for a long drink as our water supply had run down to nothing and our mouths were feeling thirsty. A stiff walk down the beach a few miles returned us to the boat and we retrieved our packs only to head off into the waining light in search of our bed and a warm house. We had made a memory that we will not soon forget and long after the meat has passed our lips his horns will grace our wall. She called him Dolly on the way home and I thought it was an odd name for a ram but . . . it did rhyme.

Fish Stretched Around the World

We were estimating the pile of fish it would take to send us around the world before the season and it looked pretty huge, gigantic in fact. The Bristol Bay salmon season has come and gone and Heidi and I are back in Port Alsworth preparing our big travel plans. It was Heidi’s first summer in Bristol Bay trying her hand at the commercial fishing industry, for the last five years she has been a BLM firefighter in Lewistown Montana and now jumping to yet another dangerous job. Heidi was excited for the challenge of something new and I knew she would excel at this new experience. In fact she did, she learned faster and caught on, as if through osmosis, to the process and skills required for the unpredictable living and working on the boat. My buddy Rhett Buchanan and I have been fishing together for many years now and he has honed his own skills in the fishing industry and we work very well together, he was an excellent teacher for the skills she needed through the season. The first day of fishing brought a slow start for team Maggie (the name of our boat) but the catch steadily increased as well as the amount of fishing time for us. The last two weeks we slept about four to six hours per day split between two naps. Nothing I have experienced will keep a guy awake like a beautifully set net boiling with freshly caught fish up and down its length.
Success is measured in many ways. We consider ourselves successful. We made it through the season and kept all our fingers, none of us left the boat unintentionally, Heidi and I are still married and love each other more than ever, and we caught that gigantic pile of fish we were praying for and more.
Maybe the married folk will relate but Heidi and I had so much time together through the salmon season and we enjoyed our time together but we seriously lacked the quality time that we were use to up to that point. Quantity doesn’t make up for quality I am finding. We have had a few days of rest recently and the chance to reconnect has been great. I have found a jewel of a woman, she is truly a Proverbs 31 woman!

River Wild

The river is still there. I am still at its mercy. The rules have changed a bit though. My companion, my friend, has joined me. I love this woman, this companion of mine, ya shes mine! I love her from the hairs of my head to the tips of my toes. It seems a bit irrational at times. We are both quitting our jobs and packing our backpacks and taking off on an adventure in the midst of a economic downturn, we are giving up some personal security to invest in others. We are trying to be sensative to that still small voice telling us to go when we dont really know where. We have our ideas and plans but . . . who knows. In October we will be leaving our home to spend a year on the move, touching down in different places to lend our strong backs to the work at hand and listen to that vioce to see if our home has moved.

The mind of man plans his way,

But the LORD directs his steps

We're still on river now and excited for the future! Excited to see what adventures and rapids the river will bring.