Recent Goings On

Most of you know by now that we have plans to go to Ghana, Africa next year.  These plans are going forward and from what I can tell, are going well.  We were able to go out this last weekend for a long weekend of team meeting and greeting out at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.  It was a great time of getting to know one another and get updated on the latest progress.

Pat had met most of the team, but until now I had not.  Would they like me?  Yep, I'm a little insecure.  I also wondered how well they had gotten to know Pat!  We made sure to show our true selves, made even easier by the fact that we had a serious hit of allergies.  We just didn't feel the energy to fake anything, not that we do that sort of thing anyway! So they all got to see our snorting, nose-blowing, sneezy selves.  I know they were thrilled.

Fortunately, we stayed in a beautiful place made possible by some friends of Don, our fearless leader.  Because I was horrible with taking pictures, I have very few, and even less of actual people.  Someday I will steal respectfully ask to borrow and repost pictures that others took!  Then you can see who we are.  I am the only one with wild hair.  All the other women have this beautiful smooth hair.  I expect I'll live.  Digression...back to all seriousness.

Pat was able to show his exceptional outdoor skills by arranging a scavenger hunt/race for the kids one of the days, which included the use of our two canoes!  He was also the king of fishing, setting up pole fishing for bluegill off the docks.

  Eventually, he was able to teach the 3 older girls how to use grown-up fishing rods and reels to fish for large mouth bass, white bass, and even a blue catfish!  Those girls weren't afraid to bait with worms or "pet" their catches, which of course were all christened before returning to their watery homes.  In case you were worried, we did keep one day's catch and fried it up to reward all the new anglers.  Fun was had by all, and thankfully, no hooks ended up in fingers, toes or any other body part.

Our next step in this journey is to spend some time in Pella, Iowa to manufacture two prototypes of the vehicle we will be manufacturing in Africa.  Once this is complete, our fearless leader and his family will blaze the trail for the rest of us in Ghana where we will meet them in January to build two more in country.  We will then return to the U.S. and complete more of the business side of things before we return to Africa, hopefully in March(ish).  That's the nutshell!  Again, if you are interested in Vytrak or have more questions for us, please give us a call/email/skype/whatever!  We, and especially our team, will love to have your prayers as we go forward.

So, since that was informational but less photographic, I'll finish with a few pictures of a walk we took to see some ruins of an estate that was built in the early 1900's, and burned in the '40's.  It was a beautiful day and had some gorgeous views!

 The ruins of the "castle" were captivating.  In the midst of the awe, it seemed sad to me that so much effort was put into something to serve himself and now literally lays in ruins.  It made me really think about what I put my efforts and resources toward and what others will see when I am gone.

 It was a beautiful place and I am thankful for the people who let us stay in their condo's.  It was a real retreat for all of us, and a perfect place for us to connect with the people who will be our closest connections for a while - snot and all!

Backing up...

Back before Marc and Katy came to visit, Pat and I took a little trip to Hidden Lake.  We headed out a bit late, on a whim, but took our chances and our canoe out.  It was rather late when we arrived.  We had a fairly long trek to canoe, so we parked the car where we thought we could (later finding a note indicating where we were supposed to park), and began our paddling.  It was a lovely evening, so our rapid paddling took us relatively quickly to the island where we hoped to camp.  We took the first campsite we came upon.  It wasn't too bad really!

The next day, we decided to hike around and take in the views.  We camped near a cliff, which we climbed, much to my protestations since I despise steep descents.  The climb did have some spectacular views, and I found myself thankful for the "encouragement" of my husband to push me beyond my comfort zones.

Our camp from above:

 Looking back from where we came.  It was a really lovely lake with rock cliffs and smooth waters (that day).

 Upon our investigation of the island, we discovered multiple other camping sites as well as this fabulous swing!  Since we both get motion sick, we didn't go too high, and we didn't feel like testing one of the lifeless branches that held the top ropes!

As the summer wanes, my flowers are in full bloom!  I'm loving the color flush!

Glacier Cruising

This was Pat's perspective!  This red crane was visible from every vantage point.  It was enormous.

I may have mentioned that I tried to do the last trail to some extent.  It's a very long trail that suggests a time frame of 14 hours round trip, so I thought I'd just do 4 miles of it, that is until I went a mile in this:

Once I emerged from the alders and mud, into this lovely meadow (still mud), I decided this was as far as I'd go.  No glutton for punishment am I, so I took a few photo's of the area and promptly made my way back.  I was almost back to the car when a group of 3 ladies (daughter, mom, and grandma) met me and after telling of my decision, they were right behind me.  I did suggest they go on the Mineral Creek Trail that I did first and the seemed excited about that one!

Valdez is really spectacularly surrounded.  There is no way to capture it, but I still try!

Here begins our saga of my own personal "Glacier Cruise"!  We took the canoe to the Valdez Glacier, just 2 miles from our campground and set forth.  It was a bit breezy and cool, so the way into the glacier was choppy, but after our exploration, the wind died down and made for a lovely trip!  The glacier is mostly covered in gravel and rock debris, so we were less impressed with it's beauty.  It was still interesting.

I really can't get enough of this guy!

"Point!"

The glacier was broken up at the waterline and we canoed as far as possible before ascending the rock slides on one end.  Below you can see how the glacier sweeps back into the valley.  It seems this was the preferred method of gold seekers to travel into the gold/copper valleys beyond.

Why do I not wear makeup when I know I'll be photographed?  Oh dear, and that hair.  I look like quite the wild thing.  Someday I'll clean up and show that I can do that too!  In the meantime, we looked for and brought out a little rock for my mom, the rock collector!
Did I mention it was really steep?!

After throwing rocks at an ice outcropping on the glacier (yes, we are 7 years old at heart), we set out and decided to paddle about the moraine lake filled with icebergs.  We did have to pick off a few pieces of the glacier to taste!  It was cold!

It was really beautiful.
We canoed up to one of these floating islands of ice and found a little nook to get a closer look.  It was the most gorgeous clear blue.  The sounds were also fascinating.  It sounded like a constant tinkling of ice melting and water dripping down.  You could see the bubbles and water moving throughout the surface and even down below the water line.

He is just too good-looking.
Did I mention I'm claustrophobic?!

We capped our trip off with a little trip back in time to an abandoned crane that was left to rust.  It was really fascinating and like the 7-year-olds that we are, we had to play on it for a while before we left and went back home!