San Antonio

Riverwalk - The street and all car traffic are a level above

Riverwalk - We took a ride on one of these boats

World's Fair Park and Tower

Hemisfair Park (World's Fair)

Wendy & Cathy about to go eat steak at Salt Grass on the Riverwalk

This horse is wearing a hat - (Howl at the Moon is on the corner to the left)

Good Morning San Antonio!  Without mountains the sunrise is HUGE!

The Alamo

Plaque outside the Alamo

Me at the Alamo

The grounds of the Alamo

Cool tree on the grounds of the Alamo

The Alamo

Outside of the Alamo

A very cool hotel across the street from the Alamo

Cathy and Sally on the boat ride

Outdoor stage along the Riverwalk - seats are on the other side of the river

Outdoor stage along the Riverwalk

Waterfall along the Riverwalk (& me)

Cathedral of San Fernando - There was live entertainment outside  - music, fire twirling

I am a Nomad

I don't remember the details of the moves my family made before I was the age of 4.  I was born in Yankton, SD and I have been told that sometime during my first year we moved to California for a very short stint in the San Fransisco area.  I have no memory of any of that.  I do remember living in Columbus, Nebraska when I was 2 and my younger brother Rik was born. I don't know how old I was when we moved there, but we stayed in Columbus until I was in 2nd grade, so 7?  I lived in Madison, Nebraska from 2nd grade until 5th grade, then it was back to Yankton for 3 years.

By those calculations, I lived in South Dakota for 1-2 years, a few months in California, then 5 years in Columbus, NE, 3 years in Madison, NE, (a grand total of 8 in Nebraska, does that make me a Cornhusker??)  and another 3 years in South Dakota.  Somewhere in all of this, we spent a winter in Fargo, ND (I know, who winters in Fargo????) and I think we had a small detour into Iowa, but I can't be 100% sure on that one.  At the end of 8th grade it was on to El Paso.

I spent all of high school and 2 years of college in El Paso, for a total of 6 years.  I spent the summer after my Sophomore year in college in Saugus, CA - well not the entire summer, just from the time school was out the end of May until The first of July.  July to September of 1988 I was in Provo, UT.  Sometime during September I drove to St. Louis, MO.  Carl and I were married in December 1988 and we lived there until July of 1992.

El Paso was 6 years, California again for a couple months, Utah for a couple months, and Missouri for 4 years.

In July of 1992 we moved to Colorado.  We lived in Colorado Springs until 1994, then we moved to the Denver area.  We left Colorado for Utah in 1999.

Colorado Springs was 2 years, and the Denver area was 5.  That makes a total of 7 years in Colorado.

We lived in Utah from 1999 to 2005.  Another 6 year stint.  We were in Provo for 1 year, and Eagle Mountain for the remaining 3.

In June 2005 we moved to Hawaii.  Ewa Beach, Hawaii to be exact.  We have been here ever since.  (Oh, well, except for that bit where I was going back and forth to Utah every few weeks for work, and the kids started school in Utah in 2006.  That didn't last long, and by October we were all back in HI again.) That is six years in one state, in the same town.  That is a tie with El Paso.  Unless I move in the next few months, this will be my personal life-time record.


This recollection only hits the highlights - the big moves.  I'm not sure if my memory holds the details of all the individual addresses I have had over the years.  The most time I have ever lived in anyone house is - I HAVE NO IDEA!  I am trying to remember, and figure out which house we lived in the longest, and I think... but I am not sure .. it was the 3 years we lived in the house we built in Eagle Mountain, UT.  I think.... I could be wrong.  I think we were in the house my parents built in Nebraska for 3 year too, maybe .... I might be missing something.

I am a nomad.  I pull up stakes so often, a tent might be practical. 

So where is home? Is it onlne? I have had the same email address MUCH longer than I have had the same physical address.  Is it where I started, or where I have lived the longest, where I am now, or where I was when the most memorable events of life occurred? Yes, yes to all of these, and no.

When I think of home, I think of all of these places, and it all sort of blends into one.  Home is where I am, where the people I love are.  Home can be anywhere.  Home is my heart.  If you live in my heart, you live in my home.  Home knows no boundaries, has no zip code, and transcends time and space.  Home is Christmas at Grandma's when I was 7 and home is today sitting at the dinner table with family and friends.

Home is a state of mind, and not a location.  Home is where I belong, and that is with the people I love, no matter where they are. Home is the Gospel if Jesus Christ, that is the same wherever my travels have taken me.  Home is my heart.

As much as I long for roots, I think the pull of the next adventure is stronger.  I dread the actual process of moving, while I anxiously await the opportunity to explore.  There is no eminent move looming in the near future.  I don't know what the future holds.  With each move I have been happy and I have been sad.  I love exploring the unknown, unpacking and setting up in a new place.  I love finding the new library, meeting new people, and learning new things.  I dread the packing and getting rid of unnecessary things.  My heart breaks to say good bye to friends and family, and leave a chapter of my life behind.  The bitter and the sweet, every time, time and time again, over and over.  It never gets easy, and it never gets boring.  I am a nomad, but I am not disconnected , rather I string a line, that follows me from place to place, connecting them all together.  Each new move adds a room to my home, the home I keep in my heart.

Ryker ate a Chicken Foot

Ryker is in China. He is 19, although in China he is 20, since they start you out at one when you are born. He left about 10 days ago for WuHu in the An Hui province.  It is a city of about 2.5 million people, all but 30 of which are Chinese.  He is there as an intern teaching English for the next 4 months.  There are 7 interns, and he is the only American.  The others are from Europe, mostly the UK.  He lives in an apartment with 2 other guys, and has his own room and bathroom.  He teaches English to kids from 9-17 at a school, and receives Mandarin instructions from a private tutor.

It costs 2 bucks a minute to talk via his iphone, and a dollar a mega bit for data.  He used up his 50 texts/month while traveling, and Facebook is blocked in China, soooo .... Skype is how he communicates with those of us here at home.  There is a crazy time difference of 18 hours between Hawaii and China.  While I write this at 8pm Thursday, he is already experiencing Friday afternoon.

I am waiting for him to email me photos.  He only has internet access when he plugs his comp into a data cable in his apartment.  The technology disconnect would give me a panic attack.

Here are some of the highlights -

Food is super cheap.  He can eat out and have a huge plate of food and a drink for about .50. At one of these meals he ate a chicken foot.  I admire his adventurous nature, especially with food.  I don't think I could stick a chicken foot in my mouth, let alone chew and swallow it.   Shopping and cooking for yourself is even cheaper.  He went to WalMart the other day - yes, they have WalMart in China, weird I know - I wonder if all the stuff they sell in China, is made in China, like it is here?  Anyway, China in WuHu is in a 7 story high rise, no escalators, just moving ramps, which according to Ryker are skkkeeeeeetchy.  The meat department was a couple of guys with saws cutting up cows and pigs - ewww!  But, hey, at least you can see where your meat is coming from, and maybe that's better than a massive plant infected with ecoli.  If I keep thinking about gross meat I'll never eat meat again.  He bought some duck eggs, which he said were delicious. 

Crossing the street is dangerous, trucks and buses especially disregard pedestrians, and a taxi ride is cheap.  Tons of people are on bikes, rik shaws, and mopeds.  Traffic on Oahu can be bad, but is apparently nothing compared to WuHu.

It is late winter there, and has been in the 40's and rainy.  He's cold.  He took what warm clothes had, which wasn't much, and wishes he had more.  WalMart there doesn't carry his size - in anything, so, he'll just have to make due until Spring.

Being one of 30 foreigners in a city of 2.5 million, he gets stared at a lot, especially by children.  I wonder what they think when they see him?  Last week he went to a kindergarten and taught English a few times.  I wonder if when they went home and told their parents that a giant with big curly hair told him how to say "frog" and "duck" they thought they were making it up?

He says the people he works with are super nice, and that he is enjoying the work.  I think it's awesome that he has this opportunity to go see one of the far flung places of this world.  Ever since he was a small boy he has decorated his walls with maps of the world and made a study of them. Now those maps are going to start getting pins in them, to mark the places he has been.