Rained Out

One of the places we planned to stop on our way west was at Teddy Roosevelt National Park, which is set in the North Dakota Badlands. We spent the night in Bismarck and headed to Medora in the morning. As we traveled, the landscape suddenly shifted from flat, green farmlands to what are known as the Badlands. The Native Americans gave the lands this name, as the terrain wasn't much good for settling in. It sure is amazing to look at, though! We saw bison, deer, prairie dogs, and wild horses in the park.

My one planned golf excursion was also going to be here in Medora, at a new golf course called Bully Pulpit. Some courses are shaped by excavators and dump trucks and designs that reshape the land, but Bully Pulpit is one of those courses that embraces the land that it's given and uses its natural beauty and/or ruggedness to determine the layout of the course. The picture above is the green at #1, and you can see one of the Badland ridges in the background. It turned out to be 25% of my golf experience, as it started raining on #2, started pouring on #3, and pretty much turned into a typhoon on #4. I've played in rain and snow, but this wasn't making it. Half the purpose was to photograph the natural beauty, but I didn't dare take my camera out after this hole. Oh well. I do need to mention that, unlike many courses, I did get a full refund. Kudos to Bully Pulpit! If you want to see more, check it out here: http://www.medora.com/bully-pulpit/

All was not lost, as we got an earlier start toward our destination for that night. Originally we were going to stay in Glendive, MT, but we were having a hard time getting a decent price, even via Priceline. So we tried Billings and had much better luck. We passed through Glendive on our way, and I'm not sure who Glen is, but the place seemed to be pretty much a dive. Because of the rainout, we didn't have to drive until midnight to get to Billings.

As a result, we changed our plans from a northern to a southern route through Montana, and it turned out to be a good choice. The scenery here is quite beautiful. Our journey the next day took us through Bozeman and Helena on our way to Kalispell. It just so happened that while we were refueling in Helena, the Thunderbirds F-15 team flew over our heads, low and loud! We had driven into the middle of an airshow! We pulled away from the pump and into a parking space to watch the show. Bonus!

Babel

Genesis 11:7: "Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

We spent the first night of our journey at the Holiday Inn in Marquette, MI (upper peninsula). The picture is a slightly obscured view of Munising Falls, also in the U.P. The hotel was nice enough, and we got a four-for-one breakfast deal because the kids eat free and they were running a two-for-one special.

Sarah and Nathan love to swim, so they hit the swimming pool as soon as they could after we arrived. That's where the entertainment began. A well-toned guy was swimming laps peacefully in one "lane" of the pool. We'll call him "Lapper." A little bit later, a number of heavyset girls in their teens and twenties took up residence at one end of the pool, right in Lapper's lane. Lapper kept on lapping, flapping his feet with a splash at each turn - one of which was now right in the midst of these girls. Rather than asking them to move, Lapper kept on lapping right into their laps, so to speak. The girls made no effort to communicate either, choosing instead to giggle and then kick at Lapper when he made his turn in what they had now annexed as their area of the pool. Lapper stopped and yelled at the girls to stop kicking him, then returned to lapping. This infuriated one of the girls, who climbed out of the pool to call in some reinforcements from her cell phone. Soon what appeared to be "daddy" showed up. We'll call him "Zubaz," as he appeared in neon orange zubaz (if you don't know what these are, do an image search) pajama pants and a white tank-style undershirt. He could've been a long-since-retired WWF wrestler, but it would've had to have been long enough ago that he could attain a complete state of being out of shape. Zubaz starts yelling at Lapper, who can't hear him because he's underwater most of the time between breaths. Another couple suggests that Lapper is just trying to get his exercise in, but Zubaz discovers a pool noodle and starts slapping the water around Lapper, who is continuing his lapping. This works almost as well as the yelling, so he grabs the wooden lifesaver off the wall and looks as though he's going to bounce that off of Lapper, likely inflicting an injury of some sort, but then a hotel employee shows up and listens to his case as Lapper keeps on lapping. The employee agrees with the couple, that Lapper deserves his space. Zubaz tells the employee that he doesn't want Lapper "touching those girls," before he finally gets Lapper's attention and tosses out a number of f-bomb laden threats that Lapper tosses aside before diving back into his routine. Finally, the hotel employee suggests to Lapper that he move to the other side. He does. All is well. The laps resume, the giggling resumes, and Zubaz heads back to his room. About 30 minutes later, when Lapper finishes his routine, he climbs out of the pool. The whole room goes dead silent as Lapper towels off, heads to the door, and wishes the Zubaz family a good night. Exit Lapper. Giggles return. The girl with the cell phone climbs back into the pool, phone-in-hand. End of episode.

"What we've got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach, so you get what we had here last week which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. And I don't like it any more than you men." Cool Hand Luke

Inspiration

We spent the morning hiking around Duluth and Two Harbors, both sites along Minnesota's north shore of Lake Superior. The photo above captures the inspiration for the title of our blog, and it was found on the Tischer Creek Trail, a gem to be found right in the middle of Duluth. The title also captures the spirit of my sabbatical, which will be an exploration of what God, who joins us in the waters of baptism, is doing in some of the less cultivated places in our lives. I hope you will join me here from time to time to see how Evie, Sarah, Nathan, and I are doing on our journey together!