Tempus Fugit

I was out walking at lunch today and found myself at Photo Central. And as you can imagine when you find yourself in a store that specializes one of your favorite hobbies, photography, you can’t help but look around and getting interested in some new gear. The first was a camera bag by Lowepro that was also a backpack, very nice. Then there was the tripod bag, which would be great for trucking around the Manfroto. Or how about a new monopod? Light, portable and flexible a great accessory. Then there was the Canon hand strap, a whopping $50, which also required that you use the battery pack. And of course I been looking at the flashes, 430EX & 580EX , which are both quite nice. There was also an announcement for some photography courses and it would be good to improve the technique. Any way, just in case anyone is interested, Christmas is coming.

We left Billings Montana at 8am this morning and decided on the scenic route as opposed to the Interstate. The scenic route takes us right through Yellowstone National Park, a first for Shirley and I. It was a sunny morning and the mountains and country side were quite beautiful. The road tracks along the Yellowstone River and then the Snake river and there are many guys out in the rivers fly fishing, something I’d like to try in a big way. several years ago I bought a very nice fly fishing rod in Banff and have never really used it yet and never caught a fish either. Anyway, the drive is very nice and views are spectacular. Around lunch time, we’re at Old Faithful and according to the predictions we’ll have 40 minutes to catch lunch in the cafeteria before the eruption. The cafeteria is quite busy but service and the food is good and we’re back outside with 10 minutes to spare. The forecast is pretty accurate and Old Faithful does it’s stuff for the crowd. Surprisingly nobody cheers and it’s very nice but somehow not as spectacular as I thought it might be, but then perhaps I’m just jaded. After all it’s been erupting for longer that I’ve been alive with great regularity, and that is something of a wonder all by itself.

The scenic route has added several hours on to the trip and now were really booking it to make up time but the 2-way highway, curves and mountain, and little towns ever couple of miles are making some of us wish we were on the Interstate. But, I’m having a good time and the whole day is dedicated to the trip and getting into Salt Lake will just put us inside a hotel anyway and I’m glad we’ve spent the time enjoying God’s creation.

We just drove through Paris, perhaps we made a wrong turn at Alburque, Doc! Shortly, we’ll hook back up to I-15 for the run into Salt Lake City and then we’ll play with the GPS to take us to the hotels. The next few days will be the USANA convention and we’ll start with the Head Office production tour where they make the bust nutritional supplements in the world.

I seem to have slacked off on posing anything over the last little while which is surprising since one of the big sign posts for time flying just flew by, Eric got married. That’s right, August 21, 2005 Eric & Desirae were married. The day was fabulous, and more exciting that I ever imagined. We’re thrilled to have Dez as part of our family and so happy and proud to see them both start out in their new life together.

All of us parents have heard the line that typically goes like “they will be grown up and gone before you know it”, and of course we try to ignore it or think it won’t happen to us or something equally lame, but guess what? Time Flies. So here we are, adjusting to having one less in the house and wondering when we’ll see him next, trying not to call too often and thinking of almost any reason to make the call anyway. A new stage of life for them and a new stage of life for us. The best is yet to come.

Here we are on the road trip to Salt Lake City. Thanks to my Lotus Notes client I’m writing this from the back seat of the van at 3pm and it will get posted later tonight when we arrive a the hotel. We left town at about 7:30am with Keith & Barb and we’re on our way to the USANA International Convention. This will be our first and we’re looking forward to what we’ll learn and experience. We’re on I-94 heading west on the same route I’ll take in two weeks to go “Biking with the Boys” on our fifth annual bike trip to the Maah Daah Hey trail near Medora, ND. The big difference this time is that the sun is up. On the biking trip we’ll be driving through the night to arrive for a pre-dawn start on the day for a hard day of biking.

We should arrive in Billings at about 8pm and get a good sleep for the second day’s drive which will be a little shorter, only 9 hours as opposed to todays 12 1/2 hour haul. There has been quite a bit of construction on the road, but he delays have been minimal. On several stretches there have
been state troupers enforcing the construction zone speed limit, so we’re being careful now for sure.