(Ir)religiosity

I had every intention of finishing up my thoughts on Transforming Christian Theology and the series on constructive theology over the holidays.  So much for that.

Early tomorrow morning I will be flying to Havana, Cuba with a group from BU STh for a class on the Gospel and Empire and will be there for 10 days.  I won’t have cell service or internet access so my online thoughts will have to wait until I return.

Immediately following that trip I will be attending local pastor’s licensing school for the New England Conference.  Oh, and then school starts sometime.

So all of that is to say I am alive but will be very busy for the next several weeks.  Who knows how long it will before I have time to blog.

Below is a map of our Boundary Waters trip. I’ve never really messed with Google’s custom maps so it’s the best I could do in a short amount of time. Anyway, the first blue place-marker was our entry and exit point. The red line represents the entry and exit routes and the second blue marker is the campsite. We made the entry trip in about 3-4 hours. It probably would’ve been a little quicker but we had to wait on some other campers at a few of the portage points. The exit trip was much quicker, we made it in about 2 hours or so.

We spent most the week fishing around the campsite, off some of islands (the smaller ones don’t show up on Google maps) and in a few of the coves. Fishing was pretty slow as the weather beforehand threw off the normal cycle. The weather while we were there was very nice, a few showers in the evenings but nice. We did catch some though (mostly Pike, Walleye, and a few Smallmouth Bass) and ate fresh fish almost every evening.

The green line on the maps represent a trip a few of us took one day in about 4-5 hours. We went up through some of the other lakes and looped back around to our campsite via a marshy stream. It was a nice little day trip and the scenery was absolutely breathtaking.
View Boundary Waters Trip in a larger map

It was a great trip and my time away from technology was wonderful. It helped put things in perspective. As I mentioned before I’m going to be cutting down on my media intake and plan to reorganize things this week. More on that to come.

Friday
 

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Friday was a long day. Longer than we had anticipated and just shy of 500 miles.  We left Erie, PA in the morning and drove north of Buffalo, NY to see Niagara Falls.  Even though we didn’t visit the Canadian side — which would’ve been much more beautiful — it was still well worth the trip.  We were able to see American Falls which is the smaller one and we did the wet and windy Cave of the Winds tour.  Finally, we walked out to Terrapin Point to see the massive Horseshoe Falls. It was amazing. Here are a few pictures. Click here if you have problems with the slideshow. Read the rest of this entry »

Tuesday

 

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A little over 300 miles. We stopped in Hastings, Michigan to visit Bonnie’s aunt, uncle, and cousin. Got there late in the afternoon. The weather was absolutely perfect. We walked around town a bit and spent the rest of the day visiting and resting. Pretty uneventful, but very relaxing. Read the rest of this entry »

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Well, that’s it. That’s what day one looks like on the map. Right at 500 miles. And we only had to fill up once! Gas was $3.79 when we left Oklahoma, $3.86 in Missouri, and $3.99 in Indiana. I don’t want to think about what we will pay tomorrow.

We left around 9:30 this morning, said our goodbyes, and hopped onto the interstate. Tomorrow we’ll go other 300 miles or so through Indiana into Michigan to visit some family.

We have pictures, but I haven’t uploaded them yet. Hopefully tomorrow after some rest.

It has arrived.  Tomorrow morning Bonnie and I, with everything we own riding behind us, will bid Oklahoma farewell and begin the trip up to Boston.  It is the beginning of a grand adventure.  I’m hoping to update here every day or so with pictures, maps, etc.  I’ll be twittering for sure.  You can follow me there in the event we don’t have internet access.  Or you can do both.  

We’re planning to leave Vinita by 10:00 CST in the morning and stay somewhere north of St. Louis tomorrow night.  

I’m declaring this Dropkick Murphys tune the theme song for the trip:

It’s been a crazy weekend.  I mentioned a couple of months ago that Bonnie and I would be moving to Boston this summer.  We started the moving process this weekend.  And it is a process.

Later on in July I’ll be in a friend’s wedding.  Instead of hanging around and paying another month’s rent just for that we decided to pack up early and stay with Bonnie’s mother in Vinita for a few weeks until after the wedding.  That’s what we did this weekend.  It was pretty hectic.

Saturday we rented a Uhaul trailer and loaded up most of the stuff, made a trip to Vinita, unloaded and came right back to return the trailer.  Sunday was my last day at VUMC.  After all the church stuff we loaded up what was left in the apartment, cleaned, and headed back to Vinita from Oklahoma City for the last time.  We got in a little after midnight last night, unloaded and passed out.  We were both pretty exhausted.

So I’m hanging out in Vinita for the next three weeks until phase two (actually moving to Boston) begins.  I plan on blogging during this time, but probably not as much.  We’ll see what happens.

I’m going to try and blog the trip to Boston as well with pictures and everything.  We’ll see that goes.

So that’s the update.

Ok, so I stole my title from a Dropkick Murphys song. Good song by the way.

But it’s true. Bonnie mentioned it the other day, so I thought I would too. After submitting applications, taking the God forsaken GRE, and waiting to get acceptance letters in the mail, I finally got some responses. I’ve been accepted at Boston School of Theology and they’ve offered me a nice financial aid package, the best of any other school, and I’m accepting it.

So, sometime late this summer, Bonnie and I will bid Oklahoma farewell for a time and head up to New England. It should be quite an adventure and I’ll try to blog the trip if I can.

If anyone out there is from Boston or lives close by drop me a line and we’ll get together. Maybe you can show me the ropes and we can grab a beer or two.

So that’s the update. Got a busy summer ahead.