Polaroid Photo

Pictures from Lifestyle of Wandering: Reflections of a Wanderer

Lifestyle of Wandering: Reflections of a Wanderer

“Not all who wander are lost” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

Choose a Topic:

Sun
17
Jun '07

The Fourth Gospel (Day 2, through Troy’s eyes)

Wow, so yesterday was the first day down here, and what a day it was. To start with, I’m not a big fan of mapquest. And after yesterday I’m REALY not a big fan.After being lead down a series of progressively less navigatible “Roads” we eventually got to the soon to be NFS 51. if any of you have ever driven in sand dunes, up and down side to side, then you will be able to picture the driving condition. “But wait, there’s more!!!!” now add palmetto’s and scrub brush so close to the side of the road, that at several points we simply had to gun it to force our way though. These are full sized tree’s mind you. Still in all for the majority of this section it was fun. Our huge 16 passenger van sits so high, that we rocked and pitched like some tiny ship in a tempest, or a friggin awesome rollercoaster. I was feeling pretty confident in moms driving, and was impressed with how she had handled some of the tight spaces {though a bit over cautiously} so I was about five seconds to late to ask, when she merrily plowed into the deceptively calm looking sand pit. “Mom, do you uhh….remember how to drive in sand?” {whump} back axle hits ground. “No I don’t” well in the end we only spent a few hours stranded there, Jed and I decided to head for the primitive campground we were supposed to be heading for. And hopefully find some to pull us out. After all we were only .25 miles from it!!!! Curse you mapquest! three and a half miles later, we finally reached said camp. And were greeted with a sign proclaiming “Open October 1- June 1” it being the 16th of June we were…. Disheartened. No biggie, we’ll just walk back the 3.5 errmmmm .25 miles and tell every one. Well we prayed that god would send us some one to pull us out. We had no signal on any of the three phones in our group no signal on the computer, and figured we would be out here some time if we had to wait for some one to find us. As we walked Jed pointed excitedly is that a Truck? And sure enough we could see the back end of a truck sitting on the side of the road. “Yes! Proclaimed some one there will have to ba able to help us.” When we got there it was rather bazaar. After taking a closer look it appeared that some time the night before someone {insert drunken redneck name here} had been traveling down this road at a ….high rate of speed. At this speed they didn’t see the 36” diameter log laying across the road, which they hit at said high rate of speed. The end result was they snapped off the log with enough force to completely snap off there front end in the process, and pushed the log some forty feet. Then bounced over the log and slid sidways another 40-50 feet be for coming to a stop 16 inches from yet another fallen tree that surly would have skewered the vehicle. The note read, in scrawl. “ChArlY _____ Be bAcK In tHe MorNin!

Well no rescue there but shortly after that we heard the roar of a ridiculously over powered engine and new help was on the way. {or maybe charly} we were rescued by four guys in a huge jacked up truck, who seemed to think it was quite funny that we had some how gotten our massively over laden Van down NFS 51 “Why did you ever go down there?” well in the end it was fine, Rachael and mom had a good time typing, and the kids played with there buckets and shovel in the sand. After we got pulled out we got to swim in the blue hole. A local swimming hole spring, that was more black than blue.

But the awesome thing about that, was that the last time we had been there was 1989 when I was a mere 7! Wow it was really cool to see it again, I Remember catching a tiny turtle about the size of a quarter. Once again God kept us safe {in spite of the devil and all his wiles…. Mapquest} and we had a very enjoyable time. Anything less than this would be …. Well boring. And to any of you who know our family, this is all routine. At least it didn’t happen in a 72 datsun pickup that runs on propane, right after a hurricane….. today we head down to our next destination. As Jed so affectionately put it. Florida’s very own alligator petting zoo. The Everglades oohhhhh yeah!!!!!

Comments Off on The Fourth Gospel (Day 2, through Troy’s eyes)

Sun
17
Jun '07

Day 2- From Rachael’s Viewpoint

This is my first entry into our blog, and I’m typing it up in the van like everybody else has done, except we are sitting here “stranded” after Sandi tried to drive through some sand, but she didn’t make it. Troy tried to ask her if she remembered how to drive through sand, but he asked her a little too late, as she drove right through and got stuck. But it’s all good, I mean, it’s funny, in kind of an ironic way. I just got back from taking a number two in the woods, bringing my toilet paper with me in a Ziploc baggie and a big knife in case I had to cut a snake in two if it tried to bite my exposed buttocks. Oh yeah and then I had the joy of burying my poo—yippeee!!! But please don’t mistake my sarcasm for disdain at the current situation. I am still having fun. The girls are playing in the sand behind the van, and Mary Ruth was rolling in it and they’re all pretty much covered in sand. It’s hot as hell (well, maybe not, but it’s pretty hot) but there is still a nice breeze every once in a while that keeps us fairly cool. Now, let me tell you the story of how we got here. Soooooo we Map-quested Hopkins Prairie, which is where we were going to camp for a couple days of our vacation. Well, DON’T EVER MAPQUEST SOMETHING MORE THAN 100 MILES AWAY FROM WHERE YOU LIVE. Because…..it took us the back way on a dirt road for 3 and a half miles, and then we turned down another dirt, uh, road that was filled with bumps and tree trunks and all that sort of thing. We’re driving through trees and our van is barely making between them. And actually it was all really fun and the kids were having a blast, but then, yeah, we hit the sand and poof! We’re stuck. Sooooooooo, yeah. But, it’s all good, not a big deal. The only people who are probably not having a lot of fun right now are Troy and Jed, because they had to walk to the campsite we’re trying to get to to see if there’s anybody there who could come help pull us out of the sand. They’ve been gone for about an hour, and they had to walk in the sandy trail in the sun, not even knowing how far we really are away from the campsite. So they’re probably not having a whole lot of fun. But anyway, so far, our trip had been pretty uneventful until this, and I anticipate many more wonderful adventures in the next eight days!! :O) HOORAY FOR BIRD VACATIONS!!!!!!! :O)

Comments Off on Day 2- From Rachael’s Viewpoint

Sun
17
Jun '07

Day 2…Sandi’s Version

Well, it’s Day 2 of our trip. We got as far as the Florida State Line EARLY this morning and then had to stop for a few hours for a nap in one of the the always safe Florida Rest Areas. I awoke to the gentle (Haa!) snoring of my eldest child. The sun had just risen, and it was a beautiful sunny morning. We’ve made great time despite leaving home so late. We had a yummy breakfast of Krystals and are getting ready to get back on the road.

Kickin’ back, chillin’ in the van. It’s noon right now and really hot.(Yeah, I know I just said I was chillin’. That was figuratively.) Remember that old saying that starts out, “The best laid plans of mice and men…”? Things were going REAL good, TOO GOOD, up until aout an hour ago. We were driving along the dirt “road” that is called NFR 51 (you’ll have to check out the pictures!) dodging tree limbs, tree trunks, fallen trees, biting deer flies, and so forth. You know..the usual Bird Outing type of things. We came out of the woods and into the sandy part of the road through Hopkins Prairie. Just as we hit a really soft, sandy spot in the road, Troy thought to ask me if I remembered how to drive in the sand…wish he’d asked me that a couple minutes earlier–before I buried the rear tires in the sand! Oh, did I mention that there’s no cellphone or Wireless signal out here? Yeah…and no people either. For a long way away! So what do you do in the middle of nowhere when your van is stuck in the sand? Throw up a tarp for shade, let the kids play with their bucket and shovel in the sand…(Maybe they can dig us out?) and do some writing for the blog. Sure, I can’t upload it right now, but it’s a great time to put my thoughts down while they’re still fresh! Aside from that, our trips are always an adventure, so there’s no telling what might happen next! I wouldn’t want to get behind in writing!

The guys have set out to try to find help. We’re hoping that there is someone at the campground (a very PRIMITIVE campground) that might be able to pull us out. Until then…we just wait! It’s actually comical…and we’ve had vehicles stuck in much worse places in the past! Hope you enjoy the pics when we finally get back to civilization to upload! Things could be a whole lot worse. :0)

Addendum: Well, we’re sitting at a campground right now. The boys’ entries will fill you in on the rest of the story from earlier.

Comments Off on Day 2…Sandi’s Version

Fri
15
Jun '07

On our way!


Ohh yeah! how sweet it is to finally see months worth of planning and anticipation coming to fruition. this afternoon after attending Mary Ruth’s graduation, we finally managed to get out of Roanoke. In true Bird family fashion….several hours behind schedule. Some how I, being the most grammatically and phonetically inept, get put on blogger duty. No prob, i like to talk! So far we have had a very {and thinking back to many many many trips} very good trip. mom is apparently the only person allowed to drive our new van. Which I’ve affectionately dubbed “The Flaming Bird Wagon” Or “Ark” for short. I guess my Commercial drivers license and years of experience don’t count. Its ok though, other than getting lost in a Burger king parking lot. we have had no “Navigational” errors. And other then being 7 hours late, we seem to be right on schedule. I’m sending up a pic that Jed’s boss John, so nicely snapped of us as we left. I look forward to sending a stream of pic’s, movies and blogg entries. I’m gonna hop off here for now. see you guys later!