Gainesville, Florida

My initial "final" destination has been reached! It's been so very nice to reconnect with my brother Brian! He's got a nice house here in Gainesville, and he's been so very hospitable to his old and boring brother!

Florida is MY kind of place! Forget about the women, (altho I think they are here somewhere!), the weather in just plain gorgeous! I see on my Grand Rapids weather link 29F right now! In Gainesville right now it's a cool 69 (truly cool for this time of year!)! Sure, it does get hot (Lagos hot) in the summer time - actually, come to think of it, it's probably hotter and possibly even more humid! Lagos is always right around the same temperature - year round! 89 -93. This area gets up to the upper 90's, and they are surrounded on BOTH sides by ocean. Yep, it's hot and humid here!

I've started looking for a job in this area. So far, no luck, but I don't expect to find anything right away! I have dropped off resumes and filled out applications where I can and in places that interest me. Gainesville is smaller than I anticipated (95,000). But boy does their weather appeal to me! In the end, I will probably be stuck in Michigan, but I can always dream now that I have that chance, can't I? I certainly do hope that I can relocate to this area! Give me hot weather any day!

Oh, and the SAND is so WHITE along the Gulf Coast! Brian and I went fishing there a week or so ago. Fishing sucked (or the fishermen), but the sand was amazing! So white and very fine! It could be mistaken for salt if you set it on your table! Incredible! Since I have not caught any fish yet, I guess I DO have a reason to come back here! :)

Arizona and Texas

When I thought about Arizona, I thought about the arid dryness that it's famous for. I thought of the cacti and the brown front lawns, the wide open spaces with nothing in them. Well, for the most part, my perception was accurate! It's truly a dry place! Pretty much nothing there. Of course, you do see the odd cactus sticking out of the landscape, and it holds a beauty all of its own. Amazingly, I only saw the cacti in Arizona! Nowhere else! I was a bit surprised by that...

Texas is big, but everyone says that! It's basically the same size as Nigeria, with almost no people (23,500,000). Yes, they have great big cities with huge roads that suddenly widen and become so large you think you're in Los Angeles! But there's really not a whole lot to Texas, from what I could tell! And I know most of my Nigerian friends will think of the weekly show "Dallas" when they think of Texas. Perhaps there is incredible wealth there, but in the areas I traveled, I didn't really see it. I'm sure there is significant affluence some places, but I guess I run in the wrong circles! Of course, when I travel, I like to take roads other than freeways whenever I can. That way, you SEE the country! Driving along freeways is a sure way to miss anything that might be out there of value to see! Driving along the old Western Highways where settlers and pioneers first traveled was really neat! Stopping at the DOZENS of little "Historic Monument" signs was interesting, giving just a hint of flavor of the Old West and what sorts of things went on the very place I was standing.

Interestingly enough, right behind this placard here was a Police car occupied by a sleeping policeman! I thought about running over there to take his picture, but figured he would wake up about the time I took the picture! The thought of another four days in Texas being followed by a patrol officer just waiting for me to slip up so he could seize my camera did not appeal much to me! I just know I would have slipped up somewhere in those four days!!

9,872 miles / 15,887 kilometers

Worship

“The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands! Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow. Where briers grew, myrtles will sprout up. This miracle will bring great honor to the LORD's name; it will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.”

It’s not difficult to be in a state of worship when all around me are clear indications of God’s creation and his handiwork! I can see where Isaiah got those words – now more clearly than ever! It’s truly difficult to imagine the scope of the sights that I'm seeing! Words fall far short of what I see! And once again, so do photographs. My eyes cannot fully comprehend the distances I am seeing; they are incapable of taking in the vastness of the vistas in front of me!

Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Glenn Canyon, Natural Bridge National Parks all have unique and inexpressible beauty! Each have a magnificence of their own. To say one is better than another is to make one less impressive or important than the other – and yet all have such tremendous majesty that it would be a travesty to try to rank them! Not only are the parks themselves beautiful, so are the sights between them! One of today’s most remarkable experiences was dropping 1,100 feet in only 3 miles! When we came to the first corner, seeing a sign read “5 mph” we thought that must have been a mistake! But then, upon reaching that corner, it became very apparent why we needed to go that slow! Were anyone to miss that turn, it would be a 1,100 foot free-fall to certain death! The drop-off was incredible! Once again, pictures cannot show the extraordinary view I got from that mountain. Nor can they get close to giving you that uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach!

A Pick-up

I am no longer traveling on my own. I was warned that on this trip I may meet someone special and end up taking that person along with me. I didn’t really expect that to be the case, and I certainly wasn’t out looking for anyone! But, they do always say that it’s when you are NOT looking that you stumble across what at one point, you were seeking! So yes, I am traveling with someone now…

My Dad joined me on Wednesday evening in Las Vegas (a preacher, no less, in Las Vegas!). We spent the next day visiting an exhibition called “Body – The Exhibition” (I think that’s what it was called…). It was very interesting indeed and tastefully done. I would recommend you take the time to see it if it comes into a town or city near you!

From there, it was the Hoover Dam and then off today to see Zion National Park. Currently, we are just outside of Bryce National Park staying at a hotel in Panguitch, Utah. We expect to head to Bryce tomorrow and take the time we need to. Dad will be with me for a week, and flies out of Phoenix early Wednesday morning. So we have a leisurely schedule in this area and should be able to do some hiking and trekking much as we did today. The scenery is incredible! It’s hard to believe that this country can have so many varieties of landscapes and sceneries! I am often left in awe at the surroundings! This is indeed, a very beautiful country! If you have not made such a trip, it’s well worth it – never mind the cost!!

I went back to the west coast along California Highway 1. Once again, I saw more clouds and fog than anything else! Perhaps this is normal for this time of the year. Even when I visited Hearst Castle, it was very foggy and I could not see the entire castle for the fog in the air! Still, it’s not the weather that makes the experience pleasant. It’s the freedom to travel and the ability to take the time to do this. What has become boring, tedious and mundane to the familiar is exhilarating, exciting and stimulating to me, a newcomer…

Foggy Thoughts on Nigeria

We’ve had to set our clocks back. Now it’s dark a whole lot quicker! Driving along a dark, lonely and winding road, I thought back to the risk I would have been taking in Nigeria. I would never consider driving like this at night in Nigeria—especially when several minutes passed with no oncoming traffic! That would have been a sure sign of armed robbers ahead!! But I was in the United States and that was not an issue here!

I sat in the motel I stayed at that night and looked out the window—another stark reminder that Americans live in a very safe, secure and sheltered world. No bars, no alarm, no guards, no razor wiring atop 10’ walls… This is a country where people tell me there is such corruption and insecurity, yet they live in homes that would take less than 5 seconds to break into! No one has heard of a strong room. No one has 10’ walls with razor wiring as fences between them and their neighbor. No one is protected by 24 hour guards and closed steel gates. At least, no one I have met. Even when I lived in an area closer to “the hood” than most, it was still far safer than living in Nigeria!

Yet, living in Nigeria was such a wonderful experience for me! It definitely has its security issues, and it definitely is a corrupt society, but it’s the average Nigerian I care so deeply about. That person who is working for pennies and doing his very best to make the most of the position he finds himself in, knowing that he or she is accountable to God for his or her actions on this earth. They are the ones who make me realize how good I have it and how easy it is for me to be a Believer. They have so little, and yet they are able to be happy and find satisfaction and joy in a very difficult situation. Kudos to my Nigerian friends!

California Coastal Redwoods

It’s hard to describe adequately the Californian Coastal Redwoods. Pictures fall far short! To say they are huge is still an understatement! They stand 300 feet tall, with those tallest stretching to 370’! The AfriOne communications tower that I have climbed on occasions is only 200’, still falling 100 feet short of the Californian Redwood! I remember shots I took from the top of that tower, and how even the tallest trees were far below me! Even the birds were flying well below where I was perched atop that tower!

I was not able to see the tops of most trees, but I think that was more as a result of the fog than anything else! Taking a walk along such well-defined paths was enjoyable; I was amazed at the work that went into creating these paths that are there for the enjoyment of tourists passing by. No one asked me to pay anything; no one stopped me along the way to hassle me for being on the wrong path. No one bothered me at all! I could have been totally lost in that forest (except only a blind man could really get lost on those paths) and no one would have known otherwise! It amazes me that so much money would be spent on literally hundreds of paths that are randomly selected by passing motorists. They are marked, but nothing other than a small placard indicates what is on those paths. It’s up to you to check it out and to follow a path to its destination. I followed one to “Big Tree”. This sign I only saw after having walked into the forest for 200 meters. I decided to follow it, thinking that if this tree was big, then it must be just immense in size as all of the trees around me were big! I also decided to follow it because I knew I could complete 5km in an hour of trekking. Upon arriving at the Big Tree, I can attest that it is indeed BIG! Very much so!

I did enjoy the trek, but I found that had I just driven 500 meters to another spot, I could have saved myself 50 minutes of walking! The Big Tree was really not that far off from the road – I just chose to come at it from a distance that encompassed 4 kilometers of forest path!

As I drove into the little town of Eureka, I noticed a line of trees along the road that I actually knew! These were obviously planted and I was surprised to see eucalyptus growing in temperate climes! Didn’t know they grew in any place other than tropical areas (though I think they may be an indigene of Australia)!

Eureka. The name of the town I stayed at. All I can say is that this town had its eureka moment a great many moments ago!

I can now attest that I have found a Nigerian hotel in northern California, complete with cockroaches! This was far and away the dirtiest and dingiest hotel I have stayed at yet! It was also the noisiest, situated on the inside of a very busy corner with trucks passing all night long! All in the name of trying to get back on budget… At least there were no prostitutes banging on the door all night long to boot!