June 2004 Archives

I had a hard time falling asleep last night. It was midnight when I put my book down and I tossed and turned for a good while. After a half hour some late night crew outside dropped a man person-hole cover and rattling me awake. It was another half-hour later when the wife came in saying, "The whole house just shook." In my slumber, I put the person-hole cover and house together and feel back asleep. We woke up to the news that a 4.5 magnitude earthquake struck Illinois. Cool.

The groan of the hydraulics had just started when the plane dropped ten feet. A collective “Ooooh!” rang out as the passengers’ stomachs touched the bottom of their throats. Outside, wings disappeared into thick clouds, masking the city skyline. The final turn was rounded off and everything was in line for the final descent. Only, the plane sped up and slowly rose from its final departure. For what seemed like eternity, the cabin was murmuring about our bypass of the runway. “This is the Captain speaking…” rang the speakers. The voice was familiar from the hour-plus mechanical delay in Minneapolis while panels were replaced. “…we had to discontinue our approach due to a computer discrepancy. While we work things out with the tower crew, we’ll remain in a holding pattern.”

Things are returning to normal now that we've been back from Utah for a week. It was fitting that the PhotoFriday challenge for this week was 'Landscape,' because we saw plenty of it while visiting five national parks, a national monument, a state park, and the Westwater Canyon of the Colorado River. I've teased with some of the pictures we took. We're going through them right now. I hope you can understand the delay in posting them. The previous picture is one of literally one of thousands that we're combing through. I also kept a small diary to keep track of all the stuff we did, like hiking, mountain biking, driving, whitewater rafting, canyoneering, and filling up the gas tank.

Overall, an awesome and tiring trip. I would do it again anytime. Stay tuned for more pictures and an accompanying description.