El Malpais National Monument

Romans 1:20 "For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities - his eternal power - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made..."

El Malpais is Spanish for "the badlands". To me it is evidence of God's sovreignty in nature. The beautiful sandstone cliffs and mountain sides combined with volcanic lava tubes and miles and miles of lava beds demonstrate both the harshness and the beauty of this land. The lava as it cools forms caves where the lava tubes have collapsed. Some of the caves actually have ice in them year round even though the outdoor temperatures get quite warm.

Indians inhabited this land before the Spanish settlers, then came the Anglo settlers from the westward expansion. The indians still predominately own this land (apart from the National Park). It is amazing to read of the stories of these hearty people who have learned to live in such dry and barren lands.

Much of this park straddles the Continental Divide. We hiked a couple of trails that took us back and forth across the divide. While this area is truly desert, it is also high in elevation (between 7000 and 9000 ft). It provides for comfortable days even when it is warm in the valleys.

http://www.nps.gov/elma/

Welcome to New Mexico

Finally, we reach our destination... New Mexico. We just couldn't stop looking side to side as we traveled west to Grant's New Mexico. The vistas of layered rock and mountains in the distance were beautiful. This is certainly the land of Enchantment.

In Grants there are lava beds where there was a volcanic eruption several thousand years ago, I will share more on that later.

The temperatures are wonderful. In the 80's during the day and very cool at night (in the 30's) great sleeping weather. It is dry and many of the dirt roads in the area are not passable if it should rain. It isn't a problem though since they don't receive a lot of rain.

Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo TX

People who know me well know that I like to visit the unusual and unique. I love the oddities that many tourists never take the time to visit. Often you can learn a lot about a community by the kinds of displays they have. Amarillo is certainly not afraid to show its colorful side.

We stayed at an RV park down the street from Cadillac Ranch. I couldn't help but stop by and see this phenomenon! This web link tells a little about the place and certainly is going to be added to my web destinations as it reviews all kinds of oddities. Imagine there are others out there like me!!!

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/TXAMAcadillac.html

Good Friends

One of the highlights of our trip was an opportunity to visit some dear friends who moved from Virginia to Oklahoma this year. Dwight and Lois Gluck were former members of Grace Bible Church and wonderful mentors to me.

We were able to share a meal or two together. I feel like we could have just chatted and chatted for a week or more, but our time was limited. Lois is still moving cautiously after her back surgeries, but she was so encouraging and joyful, you would never know she has any physical issues.

They are such models for me of the life a mature Christian should lead. I am so grateful the Lord allowed me to get to know the Glucks. I will have wonderful memories of them and will continue to look to them for their wisdom.

Mid America Science Museum and BSF

Kenny had an absolutely wonderful time at the Mid America Science Museum. They had several engineering displays as well as some exhibits on how vortexes and tornados are created. I have pictured Kenny near an exhibit that shows how siphons work. He pumped the water to an overhead tank which then siphoned to several other tanks.

The museum was featuring some power and electrical displays including a Tesla Coil that had 1,500,000 volts of electricity that was released inside a cage. We learned the story about Nikola Tesla and all his inventions that really didn't get the attention for him that he truly deserved. He was a genius who laid the foundation for much of our electronics today.

I got to visit a Bible Study Fellowship class while I was in Hot Springs. I was just amazed that though we are from separate classes that I written virtually the same words in answer to the first question related to our response to the prior weeks lecture. We had listened to two different lecturers, but we gathered the same essence. Very cool.

Hot Springs

Our stop over for the night of our anniversary was Hot Springs Arkansas. We have visited other hot springs before and I somehow envisioned a public pool where I could get a nice relaxing soak as I have in other locations. Hot Springs however doesn't have a set up like that. At the National Park you can see where they used to have some bathing areas and saunas, but they were generally individual tubs. There is a place where you can still soak in tubs, but they were closed by the time we arrived. The water out of the Hot Springs is about 130 degrees.

We had a good time anyway. We toured up to the top of the mountain at that park and went to the top of their observation tower where you can see vistas for up to 7 miles in any location.

In Honor of Kenny

24 years ago, I married a man who turned my world upside down. God must have known that an extreme personality such as my own required another extreme personality to come along side it to bring balance to my life.

Kenny first impressed me by his complete spontaneity. He quickly acts on impulse and when we were dating would convince me to take my entire paycheck and blow it on a trip to Niagara Falls for a day. He would on his way to his grandparents for a dinner travel by way of several out of the way towns, just for the trip of it all.

Kenny is completely impulsive and compulsive. The object of his attention has his complete passion. There is no such thing as 100% with this man, he is 150% all the way. All other things that are not the focal point of his attention must be sidelined in favor of his passion.

Kenny allows no obstacles to hinder his passions. No boundaries, nothing to stop him. He is beyond strong willed and it has allowed him to do some remarkable things in his life. Without this tenacity, he certainly would never have completed Nuclear Power School and would never have taken on seemingly impossible projects and seen them to their completion.

Kenny is extremely loyal and defends those he loves with great vigor. When they suffer, he takes it personally and suffers with them. He cares deeply and takes his responsibilities seriously.

I am grateful that the Lord has allowed me to see life through a completely different set of eyes than my own and I have grown so much as a Christian by learning to completely trust in only God's provision for my needs, physical and emotional. Without a strong willed person to counter my own, I certainly would not have learned to trust and lean on Christ the way I have. Kenny has taught me how to really love someone not based on merit but based on grace. Loving by grace is the only true love.

Thank you Kenny, you are the person God created for my husband, and I am looking forward to all the years ahead of us and how God will continue to develop us as we grow in grace and knowledge. Without you in my life, I certainly would have never grown to this point. God has used you mightily in my life and I am forever grateful.