Traveling part Two

Well I had an amazing time in Colorado with Ben and Rose, but unfortunately all good things must come to an end as they say. I left Montrose, Colorado on Friday at 10.30am and embarked on my second(and hopefully last for a little while) long bus ride in the US. This time though was a fair bit different from the last. To start off with it was only 26 hours long not 30 like the last and the bus was alot more crowded than the first ride. Coming from Texas to Colorado the bus was never more than 50-75% full and I always had 2 seats to myself. Whereas the first bus of my second trip was about 99% full and the second one was over booked by about 6 people, so thank God I was one of the last people to get on. To say the lest it was a far bit harder to get comfortable and get to sleep so I was only able to 1 to 2 hours sleep in total. So apart from the lack of sleep the bus ride went well and I got to Iowa where I got off at a truck stop and was picked up by a small local bus for my last little bit of the trip and I was the only passenger on board(there are some pictures of the bus inside below). It was about a 40min ride to my final destination so I just sat up the front and chatted with the driver. We arrived in Fort Dodge my final destination on time and my Friend Vandi was there to meet me at the bus station which is a good thing because the bus station was closed so I would have been waiting outside in the cold had she not been there.

From Snow to Sand

Well today my friend Ben and I decided we would go for a change of scenery, so we took a road trip to Utah. We got up early at 4.30am and had some breakfast before heading out on a 3 hour drive West to the next state. Lucky for me Ben drove the whole way which meant that I could catch up on some sleep. We arrived in a small kind of touristy town of Moab and then a short drive from there we reached our destination of Arches National Park. We got a week pass(because there is no such thing as a day pass apparently) and proceeded to drive through the whole park just taking in the sites. Then at the far end of the park we parked the car and went on a 7 mile (11.5km) little hike around some of the more spectacular rocks and arches. We took our time and went off on most of the little side trails off the main track to see extra arches and things. After the hike which took us a few hours we sat on the back of Ben's car and had a delicious packed lunch that his awsome wife Rose had made for us, while starring out at the awsomeness of Gods creation and the great day we had to view it on. After lunch we took a nice slow drive back through the park before heading into Moab, where we aimed to grab and ice cream before heading back. This proceeded to be more difficult than we first thought as most small places in town were closed because the tourist season has not yet really started there. So we went from place to place asking where we could find some ice cream and after finally giving up and deciding to have a smoothy we were pointed in the right direction to the local diner where they had a nice selection of ice cream for us to choose from. After our ice cream we headed on home and got back around 6pm so it was about a 13hour day in all so we were quiet tired.

To finish off the evening me and Ben cooked dinner for Rose who had been working all day so couldn't come play with us and then had a nice game of Apples to Apples before bed.

Yurt Pics

As promised I have some yurt pics although the quality is not the best as i took them with my webcam on my laptop.

Me and Kitty Poo
The Yurt

The outhouse

Inside the yurt

Canyon Day

Today after been picked up from the Yurt by my friend Ben. We went to a place called Box canyon falls which is apparently the place where the world ice climbing festeval gets held every year. I was cool to go and just watch a few people doing some ice climbing which is similar to rock climbing only with ice and u use 2 small pick axes to climb with. We met a guy named Victor from Chili there who was just visiting to do some ice climbing and he explained it a bit more to us. After watching for a bit we went and did a little walk they had there into the little canyon down by the stream which was cool.

After stopping back at the house for lunch we then headed out about an hour away to a place called Black Canyon. Now this is an impressive place and if you ever get the chance I highly recomend going there. We stopped at a few points around it to take in the view before heading to the visitors centre and taking a short trail around one area of the canyon. We were lucky cause even though there was several feet of snow it was fairly compact so we could walk on it ok without the recomended snow shoes that we did not have. There was just one spot of about 10 meters where there wasn't really any trail so we had to wade about knee to waist deep through the snow so that was lots of fun. After walking the trail we watched a little video about the history of the canyon and the guy that got it listed as a national park, so that was cool. The canyon is not as deep as the Grand Canyon but is much steeper and narrower so is just as cool to look at.

My night in the Yurt

Well tonight I am staying at my friends Yurt. I wanted to try sleeping here for a night because its one of those things that how many times are you going to get to spend the night in a Yurt. So my friend dropped my off here and is going to pick me up again in the morning. So its just me here in this large family size tent, well my and a 20 pound black cat named kitty poo (no joke). So the first thing I had to work on was trying to get some heat going so I currently have a propane heater going as well as a wood fire while snuggling with kitty poo. This is something I was really looking forward to doing as I had been interested in Yurts (also known as Gers) because I have a friend living in Mongolia. Although this yurt is slightly different to the Mongolian ones, the outside is made of nylon where as the Mongolian ones are made of felt and this one is a permanent structure and the Mongolian ones are made to be packed up and moved from place to place. Other things are similar though I think, a wood fire to keep warm, no running water or electricity. Well I have survived so far I will wait and see how I go during the night because I can't leave the heater running all night, but I should be ok I will write more in the morning.

Well morning has coming and I am still here. I didn't get too cold last night, although it did take me over an hour to get out of the warmth of my sleeping bag this morning. The sky last night was just amazing I don't know if I have ever seen quiet that many stars in the sky at once. I slept on the little second level that has been built into the yurt and could see the stars through the sky light in the top of the yurt while lying in bed. When I woke this morning I found kitty poo waiting at the bottom of the ladder meowing for some company or maybe he just wanted me to come and put the heater on. Unfortunately I was silly enough to forget to bring my camera with me for this night in the yurt so I have no photos to show from my experience although I will try and get back here to take some just so I have some proof of my time in the yurt.

To conclude I think I would be able to live in a yurt, but it would take some time for me to get used to the cold. But during summer I think it would be great.

Traveling stage one

Well I had a great start to my visiting of friends in the US. My first stop was in Dallas just 2 hours up the road from where I have been spending the last month. Where I met up with a lovely nurse named Lisa who I had met on the Africa Mercy last year. She opened up her house and we had a good time chatting and hanging out for the afternoon and even went and got some nice Thai food. Unfortunately my stay there was only short lived as I just spent the night before catching a bus early in the morning onwards to my next destination in Montrose, Colorado.

Apart from been long the bus ride went well, although it did seem a little bit indirect but I hear thats how greyhound works. I went from Dallas up to Oklahoma City, to Ambrose Texas, to Albuquerque New Mexico, and then finally up to Montrose Colorado, 30 hours in total. Fortunately I was able to got some sleep on the bus so I wasn't totally wrecked when I got to Montrose although I did get a nice little surprise when I got there I found out that my checked bag had not made it all the way with me. So I will be going back and checking if it is there tomorrow as the guy said it would probably take 2 days to sort out the problem. So please pray it will turn up.

I was met at the “bus station”(small one room building with one guy inside) by my friend Ben and his wife Rose who I had not met before, I had also met Ben during my time on the ship. They then took me back to where they are house sitting at the moment in a town called Ridgway. The house is this amazing large house on a little bit of a hill with one of the most amazing views I have ever seen just looking out at the rocky mountains. They are house sitting there for the next few weeks or so, but they normally live in a Yurt (Mongolian nomad tent) which I hope to spend the night in at some stage while I am here.

Gateway is over

Well this month here in Texas has just flown by I can't believe its over already and yet at the same time its like I have been here for ages and made some really good friends.

Over the last month I have been doing the Mercy Ships course called Gateway. Now to be totally honest I didn't really want to have to come all the way to the US and do this course, I figured it was just a waste of time stopping me from getting back to the ship earlier. To say that my point of view on this has now changed would be an understatement, I now am not only happy that I came and did the course I will highly recommend it to anyone thinking about working with Mercy Ships.

The course was split up into 3 main parts the 3^rd been optional which I did not do. The first part was 3 weeks long and I guess you could call it the classroom phase. In these 3 weeks we had a variety of speakers from all over with heaps of different experiences, both people that work with Mercy Ships and others. We had classes on such things as Worldviews, Listening to God, Working with the poor, living in community and different personality types, and many more. My eyes were defiantly opened over this time and I got something out of everyone of the classes, although I was quiet exhausted by the end of it (yes sitting down for 8-9 hours a day can be exhausting). In this 3 weeks there was also time made for us doing the gateway to meet all the leaders of the organisation and sit down and ask any questions we wanted. This was very good as now I have a better understanding of the people leading the organisation and I can better trust any decisions they make.

The second phase would be the BST or Basic Safety Training. This went for 1 week and talk about a packed week. We started off with learning basic firefighting and fire safety with an emphasis on shipboard fires. The first day was all theory and then the next day we went and put what we had learnt into practice. We went down to one of the open fields on the property and they had a large shipping container set up for us to practice with. We all donned full firefighting gear including a SCBA (Self Contained Breathing Apparatus) pack and proceeded to learn how to put out all different sorts of fires including wood, diesel, gas, electrical as well as learning how to rescue a victim from inside the container. After the practical we then had to go back to the classroom and complete an exam on everything we had learnt. The next phase of the BST was CPR and first aid, which was a very full day as we did it all in 1 day and its normally a 2 day course. I found it quiet easy as I was already qualified in CPR and first aid from different organisations one of which was the course we were doing, so even though I may have dosed off once or twice I still managed to pass the test with 100%. The next day we looked at living on a ship and safety and responsibility of living on board. The day after we did a whole day of theory on what to do in emergency situations on a ship and all about the emergence equipment available and how to use it. Then for our last day we went to the local Junior College and used the pool there to put into practice what we had learnt about. We learnt how to use Survival/Immersion suits as well as life jackets and getting in and out of a life raft while in the water and how to flip a life raft back over if its overturned. All in all a very full week where I learnt a lot of neet skills and got to practice them.

The 3^rd phase of gateway is the field service in the Dominican Republic. This part is optional and I am not doing it as I am visiting some friends and then going to the Ship.

I am currently sitting in a bus stop somewhere in Texas after already traveling all day I have an overnight section still to go and then I will hopefully make it to my friends place in Montrose Colorado.

A little Taste of Texas

Well Time has been flying by, in fact most days I don't even know what day of the week it is (should I be worried?). I have however managed during our full schedule here at Gateway to get out and try and experience a little bit of this State/Country I am in. Last week a group of us decided to get a feel for small town Texas by going up the road to the nearest small town named Van and stopping in at their little road side Diner call the "Dinner Bell". It is a nice little place that apparently totally transforms over holiday periods into some sort of themed wonderland. We went there for breakfast before class so we had to go at 6.30am so we would be back in time, but it was worth it. I had a great breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausage(that's the American style where they serve it in a patty) and toast.

Then on Saturday I went along to what is apparently the largest flee market in the US called "First Monday". From what I heard about it I don't think i really scratched the surface with my few hours spent there. I made it to the car show section as well as the animal and pets section and not too much more.

On Sunday night we then proceeded to have a Superbowl party and even though I am not a big American Football fan, I am a sports fan so I could not resist. I got pretty into the game in the first half and enjoyed some of the adds that were on in between, but in the second half I was slightly more engrossed by the thrill of tossing pigs (a small travel game consisting of 2 little plastic pigs and a score sheet).

This week although most of us a quite tired and busy we did manage to go out for breakfast and experience another great little American restaurant. On Tuesday we went to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast. A nice little place just off the highway where one half is a store and the other half is a nice country restaurant with all sorts of old guns and stuff hanging on the walls. The food was very good especially their amazing apple butter they had, it tasted so good it couldn't be good for you.