Loyal Traitor

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Tomorrow around 12:25 p.m. I will be home. I can't wait to hold Jen again. See you all soon.

Finished. Sort of...

Thursday, July 10. Day 11. The Old Codger, but, then, Lucy.
Thursday started alright. We cruised down the line for most of the morning. Then, we came on a big long section with more or less no access and about a dozen or more sites that we needed to check. We decided to wait until Friday morning to try it so I could walk it in the slightly cooler morning. We then ate lunch at Lucy's Place.

This was easily the highlight of eating on the trip. We had lunch here Thursday. I had a buffalo burger and fries and ordered a piece of blueberry pie with ice cream for dessert. It was one of the best pieces of pie I've ever had. Ever. Lucy was the wife of a buffalo rancher and she was the little round-haired elderly lady in the kitchen. She was super sweet and clearly knew her way around the kitchen. The place was full of locals.

One of the interesting things we've seen eating at lots of these small town diners and cafes is the local table. There's usually a big table, or two or three tables put together, where all the local farmers show up and eat lunch together. When one of them finishes, he'll get up and cash out and leave and then, in a few minutes another will walk in and join the others. It's intimidating for us outsiders, but an interesting thing to watch the communal aspect of rural America.

After lunch we hit a bit of a roadblock, one that we have still not skirted. It's a landowner that's given the company trouble in the past. We found out about him, because we asked a farmer we ran into if we could drive down what we thought was his field road. His response was, "I can't give you permission for that. Not my land. That land belongs to XXXX XXXX [Jim and I now affectionately refer to him as The Old Codger], but I don't recommend having a conversation with him." So now we're waiting for permission to get in on his property. We finished what we could in the area and called it a day. We stayed that night in Sidney, NE at the Holiday Inn. There's a giant Cabela's there in SIdney so we enjoyed going in there.

Needless to say, Thursday was a frustrating day and, were it not for Saint Lucy, would have been a total wash.

Friday, July 11. Day 12. Lucy's for Breakfast and More of the Same.
Friday morning we drove back to Lucy's for breakfast. She raised the bar on breakfast. One of the best pancakes I've ever had. It was big and thick and had a hint of the taste of funnel cake, but not so much that you felt like you were at the county fair. It was delicious. And it was a welcome change of pace from the Continental Breakfast we'd been eating for two weeks.

We left there and Jim dropped me off at the end of the long stretch we skipped from yesterday and I started the 4-mile trek to the other end. On his way out of the site where he dropped me off, Jim was stopped by the two landowners. They could be called Old Codgers 2 and 3. They blocked the way and wanted him to get out of his car. He didn't and was very nice and in the end things worked out alright. But it didn't seem like a pleasant situation and I don't wish I had been there. Meanwhile, I blaze through the first mile, though stopping constantly to pull some sort of seeds out of my socks and shoes. The second mile was pretty long. The third was alright, but as I began the fourth I realized I had drained my CamelBak and was out of water for the last mile. I was fine and figured as much, but it unnerved me a bit nonetheless. Jim picked me up and we were neither one hungry, but I wanted another piece of blueberry pie and ice cream so we stopped by Lucy's and I got a piece to go. Again, delicious.

We spent the rest of the day getting to what sites we could without risking any more landowner issues. We finished up and had to stay in Sidney again that night.

Saturday, July 12. Day 13. End of the Line: Cheyenne, WY.
Yesterday, we ran through the final 65 or so miles getting what we could along the way. We heard that we've finally figure out who the right-of-way contact man is so we're waiting until Monday to have him speak with all of the owners to hopefully get us access to the rest of the line. Moving across northern Colorado and southern Wyoming we have seen loads of antelope. They're everywhere out here. Even in part of town in Cheyenne. It's pretty wild.

The line ends at US Highway 85 about 20 miles south of Cheyenne, WY. We checked into a hotel last night and are waiting here until we hear something more. I was able to talk to Mom and Dad, Thad and Amy and their kids and Jen via the web cam and that gave me a nice boost for the night. It was so good for my soul to see them all. Aiden and Ella Grace were hilarious and beautiful. We had a good dinner in the old downtown train station area. After dinner, I made my way back into town, went to Target to buy The Shack by William P. Young, and then to Starbucks for coffee and to read a bit. I really enjoyed the evening. The temperature was in the 60s and it was so nice.

The Shack is a really great book, but the first few chapters have been really hard for me to read. I've almost stopped three or four times. I'm going to finish it on the recommendation of lots of folks, including my brother Will who's reading it even though he hates reading. I figure if it can keep him, it'll be worth pushing through the difficult parts.

Hopefully, I'll update later today to talk about Cheyenne a bit. It's great here.

Beauty, then Frustration, then Homesickness, then Ready to Go

Monday, July 7. Day 8. Mountains of God.
Monday we had a pretty good day. Nothing too eventful either way. But, we did drive far down a few dirt roads to check a few water crossings. We had to go through a few gates which is always somewhat nerve-racking. There's always that chance that this piece of property is the one with the insane and angry land-owner who's going to come out with a gun to run us off. But that didn't happen Monday.

As we drove down the road, it seemed to go forever. We knew we were getting pretty far out from any main road and residential area. But our usual policy is to go until the road ends or until the pipeline crosses the road and there's no better way to get to where we need to be. As we drove north on this road, I happened to glance over my shoulder back to the east. Beauty as far as I could see. The road had taken us far into a small canyon with green valleys and rolling hills as far as we could see. And far to the east, just above the horizon, I noticed a cloud formation that stretched for miles. The clouds looked like the snow-capped peaks of some distant mountains. They were just high and far enough that the sky separating them from the earth was a deep blue hue. Though we had just come from there and I knew there was nothing that way but flat farm land, for a moment I thought I was seeing mountains that we'd missed somewhere. In that moment, I realized that the God that made the Rockies and the Himalayas made those sky mountains as well. They were His and all that was in them. On that winding dirt road in the middle of flatland central Nebraska I saw the mountains of God. They were beautiful. I wish you all could have seen them.

Tuesday, July 8. Day 9. I'll Take A Nice Big Helping of Frustration, Please.
Tuesday morning we left our hotel at our usual 9 a.m. We had spent the night in North Platte, NE and were around 15 miles due north of our line. We got to the line by 9:30 or so and then spent the next three hours of our day searching to find access to four or five crossings down in another canyon. We never got to a single one of them. I was as frustrated and angry as I've been since I got here. We attempted to drive down a field road around a farmers corn field. Half-way down the road we realized that the road, though it looked firm and well-surfaced, was actually mud. I think I said to myself, "This stuff is slick-as-snot." Or maybe I said something else and my brain has already edited itself in the meantime. Either way, this stuff was nasty and we did not need to be down the road. Luckily, we got to a high spot and were able to turn around and make our way out the same way we came in, but not without leaving our mark. I'm sure the farmer was happy when he saw the evidence. Finally, after 3 hours of trying we called those inaccessible and moved on. We made up for it that afternoon and by the end of the day we'd covered some 60 miles of line. That was the most we'd finished in a day so far. It felt good after the frustration of the morning. We called it a day and made our way to Ogallala to stay the night.

Wednesday, July 9. Day 10. A Home-Sick Day Off and An Afternoon of Pipeline Mapping.
I woke up yesterday feeling really down and homesick. We needed a day off pretty bad, but slowing down makes my mind crank up and I immediately started realizing how homesick I was. Being up here has been much better than I thought, but living hotel to hotel has grinded me pretty good and I wanted to go home. I missed Jen. And Aiden and Ella and Jessie Rose and Ainsley and Asher and Chiptole and church and Andrew and the rest of my friends and my bike and everything from home. On top of that, I'd looked at the rest of the line we had to cover and got really overwhelmed and worried that we might have a hard time with it all. I tried to finish up my Rich Mullins biography, but got restless doing that and decided to go try to find some detailed maps of the Colorado counties we'd be working through for the rest of the trip. I ended up finding an Ogallala history museum, a petrified wood gallery, a historic Boot Hill cemetery, and finally, the map I needed at the truck stop next to our hotel.

I spent the afternoon after lunch attempting to transpose our pipeline from the detailed alignment sheets we were given onto the county maps I had. It was actually a lot of fun and made the afternoon go pretty fast. It also made me realize that we could quite possibly be headed home by the middle or end of next week. That raised my spirits considerably and got me ready to go again. Jim and I went to dinner after that and then back to the hotel for the night.

Today, I hope we'll be able to finish up the third section we're covering. We have two pretty long spots that appear to be without road access so that may mean some pretty serious walking. One of them is just about 2 miles, but the other is about 5. I'd actually like to walk to 2 miles but I'm not so sure about the 5. I'll try to update this evening.

Rec(r)ap

I'm going to try to do a quick recap of Thursday through Saturday and then an update as of this evening.

Thursday - Saturday, July 3-5. Days 4, 5, & 6. Meet Lonny, Take a Hike, and Eat With the Locals.
We ran into a corn farmer named Lonny Jacobitz Thursday that wanted to walk us through one of his fields and show us how the pipeline construction workers didn't rebuild his terraces right and so his field got all washed out. He was hilarious though he had no intention of it. When he first told me his last name, my immediate though was, "Jacobi...like the French Revolution? How'd crazy French revolutionary types end up in Hebron, NE?" Lonny made sure we knew exactly what was wrong with his field so we could report to whoever we report to.

I also had/got to walk a two-mile stretch one of these days because there was no road access to several sites we had to document. Man, I loved it. It was hot for sure, but I listened to the first part On The Road which takes the narrator through part of Nebraska to Ogallala, where we'll be tomorrow night. It was great to be listening to that while I was working my way up and down creek bottoms and around corn fields and over fences. When I got about half way I was again reminded that I came up here for walks like that. It was great.

Like I mentioned before, almost everyday we've been out we've eaten at some tiny local hole in the wall place in whatever tiny town we were near. Grampa's Crossing and Dick's Place were two of them. Dick's had one thing on the menu when we were there: a hamburger, a hot dog, potato salad, and baked beans. But it was quite an interesting place. They had lots of old antiques in the place. But they also were a general store and a liquor store in one. And the lady at the counter told us that the hot dogs were "the good kind". I didn't know there was such a thing.

Sunday, July 6. Day 7. Take It Easy, but Fast.
Sunday we didn't leave the hotel until 11 a.m. I needed a bit of a break, but we didn't want to take a full break yet. So we left at 11 and because of the scarcity of sites on the section we were working on we covered more miles in half a day than we'd covered any day to that point. Something like 50 miles of the pipeline. It was a welcome advance and showed us that the last three sections appear to go much, much faster than the first. We ended up in Lexington, NE that night and due to late lunches decided to eat dinner at the Taco Bell/KFC/Baskin Robbins/Gas Station. It was a bad choice.

I should catch up to yesterday and today this evening or tomorrow. It looks like we're taking tomorrow off to rest in Ogallala, NE. I need it.

Nebraska Makes Me Tired

I'm too tired to give much of an update tonight. We're staying at a Holiday Inn Express in Lexington, NE. We had a pretty light day, but nevertheless covered around 50 miles which is the most we've done in a day by far. Tomorrow and Tuesday may be interesting days.

I'll recap Thursday through Saturday tomorrow night, hopefully. I'd planned on it tonight, but I decided to get a web cam from Wal-Mart and was able to make it work so Jen and I could talk to each other sort of face to face. That was great. She looked beautiful tonight. I'm so glad she's going to be my wife soon.

And for the record, I'm reading Travels With Charley and listening to On The Road on my iPod.

Welcome to Nebraska

Monday, June 30. Day One. To Nebraska and Meeting Jim.
I flew to Omaha, NE from College Station with a connecting flight in Houston. The flight from CS to Houston was delayed, then canceled, then rebooked, and, finally, turbulent. Approaching the landing in Houston we had a moment of turbulence that was as bad as I've ever experienced. The plane suddenly pitched left and then immediately back right and then left again before correcting itself. It was enough that I thought we either had major mechanical issues or that the pilot fell asleep during the approach. My best guess is the latter because we landed fine. Amateur. I was on the very last row on that first flight and then had to more or less run through the terminal to my second flight only to find it delayed. Once I got on it, I realized I was yet again on the very last row and this time against the window next to a man who looked like he was Jewish and a professor. I'm not sure about either and mean neither derogatorily, only descriptively. Immediately my seat mate fell asleep with his head back against the seat, began snoring, and proceeding to spread his legs so wide that when I put my tray table down it hit his knee and woke him. He was crowding me and it was more than I could bear. I knew I would wake him by putting the tray down. That's more or less why I did it, though I did use the tray. And I guess as payback, the four year old little girl in the seat in front of me spilled her Sprite through the seat onto my brand new backpack. But by the time I realized my bag was wet I didn't care because I wanted off the plane so bad.

I arrived in Omaha and met Jim, my partner on this job. I've really enjoyed him, though I was a bit worried initially. Jim's a 47-year-old husband and father of three girls. He's worked behind a desk for 25 years doing mostly software and computer development work. He's lived in Florida his entire life and has been best friends with the company owner since they were in Elementary school. He's a bit out of his element up here, I think, and he was quick to admit that he had terrible directional skills. Both of which could have been rough on this gig but haven't played much of a part yet, what with my being to the outdoors and to navigating what Bono is to wearing huge sunglasses and being pompous and saving the world. I'm glad Jim's here.

We drove from Omaha to Beatrice, NE Monday night and checked into our hotels. We were meeting a 57-year-old pipeline veteran named Terry there so he could explain to us what the hell we were doing up here. We called him when we got to Beatrice and he could not have been less interested in meeting us that night. So we ate dinner at a local joint called Risky's. It was not great. I guess we should have known from the name. I was slightly unnerved by the riff-raff that both ran and were hanging around my hotel that night.

Tuesday, July 1. Day Two. Meeting Terry and Realizing This is Not Exactly How I'd Imagined.
We met Terry at 8 Tuesday morning and promptly realized that he was as unsure about what we were doing there as we were. Not a good start for me. But shortly we figured it all out and got in our cars and headed south to the pipeline.

Tuesday was overwhelming for me and was the most frustrating day so far. In my mind I had prepared myself to walk along an above-ground line that sat on a clear cut right-of-way. Something like this:

Instead, in lots of places the line looks more like this:

The pipeline is buried all the way from where it starts to where it ends near Cheyenne, WY and we have to find it and walk to all of the major and minor water crossings to check for water erosion. Sometimes you can't get to it because of the crops. Sometimes you have to walk an extra half a mile around the corn in order to get to a tiny creek with zero signs of erosion. Needless to say, all that I had created the trip to be was left flailing in some Nebraska cornfield south of Beatrice. We spent most of Tuesday in the car and not on the ground walking where I wanted to be. I did get to walk one good stretch by myself and had to make my way through three electric fences, a foreshadowing of things to come. That stretch was fun, but it was the highlight of the day, which wasn't a good thing. We ate lunch in a tiny town called Steel City. It had a population of 84 and we ate at the only place that seemed open in the whole town. Terry left us about 2 and we met him back at Risky's that night for dinner.

Tuesday night I pretty much went back to the hotel thinking, "I didn't come to Nebraska for this, but I'm here and it is what it is. We'll see how it goes tomorrow."

Wednesday, July 2. Day Three. Nebraska Gets Better If You Just Start Walking.
Wednesday started like Tuesday. We followed Terry out to the line and he went over a few things with us. Then, he put us in the lead and just followed us to be sure we were doing alright. One of the first places we came to Jim and I had to get out and trek down a private drive, past a house, and through a livestock pen to get to a ravine and stream right on the line. As we got out of the car and started to climb the gate Terry mentioned to us that the owner was a bit crazy so he'd stay out by the gate in case he came home. I took that to mean, "In case that man comes out of his house with a gun I'm going to stay on public property and near my car." The man never came and the walk was great. It was the longest we'd done and I really enjoyed it.

Terry left us for good sometime before lunch. Jim and I ate lunch at Subway somewhere along the way and then we finished out the day. We drove up to York to spend the night that night at a Holiday Inn.

By the end of the day Wednesday I was more or less enjoying myself. We were out of the car a good bit and Jim and I were getting along better all the time. I officially became the navigator and let Jim do all the driving. I've really enjoyed the navigating part. The maps we have only show a narrow section along the actual pipeline so we have to work and figure out where to go so it's challenging.

I really started appreciating the landscape Wednesday and for the first time felt pretty well pleased to be here.

More to come tomorrow. I hope. Maybe. We'll see.

Some Thoughts in Random Fashion

Politics
I'm not sure what to think about the current presidential primaries.  I think I like Barack Obama.  I don't like Hillary Clinton.  I'm not sure what to think about John McCain.  This marks the first time in my life since I've been a voter (a whopping 6 years), if someone were to ask if I sided more with the Democrats or the GOP, I'd have to say the Democrats.  Maybe it's because I'm tired of George W. Bush, despite the fact that I voted for him in 2004.  Maybe it's because the Republicans haven't produced any candidate who really moved me in any way.  I think it's probably a combination of the latter and this statement written to Andrew Sullivan, a political blogger I enjoy reading:

"The reason Obama is winning and will win is so simple. Americans want to believe in themselves again."

When I read that, it seemed to resound in me.  Not because I'm extremely patriotic.  I'm not.   I simply think people ought to be able to be proud of being Americans and have hope (I must be channeling Barack here) that America can make a positive impact on the world.  George Bush hasn't done much to help us there.  And McCain and Hillary Clinton don't seem to be doing much inspiring right now.  Sullivan goes on to comment:

"And that's why, I think, the criticism of Obama as a messiah figure is misplaced. It's not about believing in him. It's about believing in our own capacity to act as newly reasonable democratic participants in an age of extreme danger. I don't think of him as a messiah. Mine has already come. I don't believe this world will ever be heaven on earth. I don't need or want another person to give my life meaning.

But I have been deeply, deeply demoralized about this country for the past few years.

McCain goes part of the way - these primaries have ensured that the U.S. will not be torturing after the Bush-Cheney years. His election is a defeat for the insular, toxic forces that have taken over conservatism. But Obama is a deeper solvent for the Bush stain. His election would be a statement not about him, but about Americans themselves. About how they do not recognize themselves any more. And want to again." 

Good words.  I think Obama is dynamic and inspirational and has, at least, in his rhetoric thus far, made a concerted effort to restore people's hope in government and politics in America. 

Here's a couple of videos I thought were insightful and helpful: 1, 2.

Sin City(s)
Forbes put out a study this week that gives the top 10 cities in the US for each of the seven deadly sins.  Texas has a representative on 5 out of the 7 sins.  We missed on pride and wrath which seems somewhat odd given that Texans are known for thinking we're the best in the union and possibly one of the most gun friendly states in the union.  But, don't worry, we're still fat, lazy, jealous, greedy, and lustful.  Houston pulled a 2nd place finish in the lust competition, a fact, which will come as no surprise to anyone who's ever been there and noticed the token sex shop on 1 of every 3 blocks or so.  San Antonio showed up three times, which is impressive when you have Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and Houston to contend with.  You can check out the study here: America's Most Sinful Cities.

Birds
I was working in a lab on the first floor of the Ag Building Tuesday.  There was no one else in the lab, but at one point I thought I heard someone moving around in there.  Since I knew there was no one in the room, I just assumed it was outside the door.  Then, about an hour later I looked to my right and noticed something in a box on the counter.  It was a bird.  And then there was another one.  How they got inside, I'm not sure.  I kindly opened a couple of doors and herded them back into the wild.  But for a few moments, I wondered if I had wandered into a Hitchcock film.

Basketball
It's hard to be an Aggie some days.  Especially days like Monday.

Google Earth Meets The Scriptures

These pieces are fantastic.  To read more go here: Creative Review.  My favorite is Moses.

Eden

Noah 

Moses

Cross 

Lyle Only Knows

Hey Now, Hey Now, Don't Dream It's Over

I've been toying with the idea of reviving my blog life.  It's been pathetic and suffering for quite some time.  There's all sorts of goodness floating around in my head and journals from the last year or two.  I've been letting them "marinate in my head" to quote a less than stellar metaphor from a Bible study teacher I know.  I'll put those on the grill later.

Today, as I sit alone at my house watching college football games, my blog life is gonna go all Frankenstein.  Today, I deliver what was for me the Best of 2007.

One note: I began working on this back when my friend Ian first sent me his list.  There were several albums when I compiled my list of 2007 albums that I felt deserved a bit more attention than I'd given them.   Actually, there are still a few that deserve similar treatment, but time has expired for 2007.  The list must be finalized.

Top 15
1 Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
2 Radiohead - In Rainbows
3 Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
4 The National - Boxer
5 Waterdeep - Heart Attack Time Machine
6 Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
7 Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
8 Jose Gonzalez - In Our Nature
9 Feist - The Reminder
10 Patty Griffin - Children Running Through
11 Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin
12 Lyle Lovett - It's Not Big It's Large
13 Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
14 The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
15 The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse

The OK (and may have deserved more PT) But Not Top 15 Material, At Least Not Tonight (alphabetical)
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
Andrew Osenga - Letters To The Editor, Volume I (The only EP on my list and only because my name's in the liner notes.)
Andy Gullahorn - Reinventing The Wheel
Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City
Caedmon's Call - Overdressed
The Cobalt Season - In Search Of A Unified Theory
Eluvium - Copia
Elvis Perkins - Ash Wednesday
Explosions In The Sky - All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone
LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
Lost In The Trees - Time Taunts Me
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Over The Rhine - The Trumpet Child
Pela - Anytown Graffiti
The Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army
Rickie Lee Jones - Sermon On Exposition Boulevard
Robbie Seay Band - Give Yourself Away
Travis - The Boy With No Name

The One Album I Heard and Didn't Like And Probably Never Will
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

That's it.  2007 summed up in a blog post.  The interweb is an amazing thing.  You can take an entire year and sum it up just like that.  2008 has some big shoes to fill.  I honestly don't think it's possible.   Especially after seeing Stereogum's list of 2008 albums. 

2007, I hope it was as good for you as it was for me.