Vacation....

I was going to write a long post on the trip Mike and I took recently, but I decided to forgo the post...there are simply times when a paucity of words are better than a deluge..

On July 14 Mike and I departed our home and went to New Orleans, where we met up with friends to ride to the Blue Knights International, which was taking place in Chesapeake VA. In 12 days we covered 4073 miles and saw places that I've never seen before. Aside from the fact that I got heat sick in Delaware, thus missing a chance to go to New Jersey, the trip was awesome....some of the memorable places we hit were:

Yorktown, Jamestown Settlement, The Outer Banks, Kill Devil Hills, Gettysburg, the Appalachian Trace and other sites. We saw the beauty of the valleys in Pennsylvania, mist filled with farms and barns with red silos rising out of the mists. Fields of corn, wild dogs, roads that twisted through mountains following streams. We crossed Chesapeake Bay, a beautiful, glistening body of water and sandy shores. We met friendly people, helpful and concerned...not mindful of the puddle of water I left on their floor when Cherie and Jason and Mike saved me from heat stroke...(it's shocking how fast ice melts on hot flesh!)

When one grows up in the South, one hears about the brusqueness of Northerners, but the one;s we met were all politeness! Annapolis is a beautiful, friendly town...a perfect stranger puled up along side Mike and I at a stop light and raved about Texas..we raved about Maryland.

The food was to DIE for, those little country diners where one can get a proper breakfast for less than $10 a couple...I'm talking eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy with coffee and juice...the whole nine yards. The accents were cool too.

The most memorable part of the trip for me was Kill Devil Hills and the Wright Brother's Memorial.

Space flight and the exploration of space has always fascinated me. I remember watching Neil Armstrong take his first steps on the Moon...even though I was 2 at the time. There are some things that one never forgets.  I suppose that I get this love from my dad, as he's always been a fan of NASA and space exploration.

So, the chance to see where it all began, Kill Devil Hills, was something I couldn't pass up. You see if it weren't for The Wright Brothers, we'd have never made it to the moon when we did.

Think about this...it was ONLY 66 years from the first flight to the first landing on the moon....such a scant amount of time, especially when one considers that the Dark Ages lasted for about a 1000 years and the Industrial Revolution took place roughly 100 or so years prior to the first flight...not even that long if I am correct.

We went from horse and carriage to space in about a century, and man has occupied this planet for thousands, no, hundreds of thousands of years before this.

So naturally I geeked out!

I walked the length of Wilbur and Orville's first 4 fights! On the very same spot!  The very spot that changed the world...the very world we live in.

The progression of what we saw isn't lost on me...we went from Jamestown to Yorktown...that final battle that gained our independence from England, making us the nation we are now, to the very site that launched humans into the air. That led to humans into space...it was, and is so damn awe inspiring.

This trip really brought home to me what a great nation I am blessed enough to live in. The very founding principles of this country unleashed the potential of human intelligence and creativity into this world. The freedoms we have enabled men like the Wright Brothers to pursue their dream. The freedoms we enjoy, and take for granted, have led to the improvement of lives all over the world, whether through efficient farming techniques or through advances in medical science.

We are that beacon on the hill...calling others who desire the freedom that is God given to our shores...

Most of all, this trip reinforced the love I have for my country. It bolstered the faith I have in Humanity...when a man, or woman is free to pursue their dreams, anything is possible. Anything. Governments can try to suppress the human spirit, but they can never kill it. God designed us to dream, to achieve.

That is the Human condition. That is our destiny....to be that shining beacon on the hill. We may have to go through rough patches, but those patches are the test of one's spirit, one's determination...it does take fire to forge the strongest metal.