Published!

I’m now a published travel writer and photographer! Well, kind of! I subscribe to Wanderlust magazine (a subscription not to be taken lightly because reading those magazines does you serious harm, you just want to instantly skip off across the globe on a big mission of exploration) and about a year ago there was this item on their website about the publication of a new travel book called ‘Weird World’ - they wanted people to send in their photos of the weird and bizarre things they’d seen on their travels to contribute to this book. I sent in a picture (previously featured here) which I’d taken from my work trip to Texas in April ’08 and promptly forgot about it…until I came home from work the other day and found a parcel in my letterbox which made me curious considering I hadn’t ordered anything recently and wasn’t expecting any deliveries. It turned out to be a copy of Weird World complete with my picture credited to me on page 121. And in fact my photo also features on the front cover! (If you look carefully you’ll see the outline of a graffittied car – my photo was of Cadillac Ranch where 10 Cadillacs are buried nose-deep in the dirt randomly in a field.) I've only had a flick so far through the rest of the book and there are some suitably weird photos including ones of people with various sharp implements stuck through parts of their faces, not exactly tasteful, but whatever floats your boat.

Perhaps a new career awaits me? (Hey, it’s nice to dream!)

Arizona PhotosI enjoyed driving round Phoenix, there were mountains pretty much every direction you looked.

This was a view from Camelback mountain which I climbed, unfortunately my camera was playing up so I didn't get many photos, but I absolutely loved it. Below is a photograph from Summitpost which gives you a better idea of what it's like:

This was Sedona which was just stunning. It's kind of a spread out town but the road you can see on the right leads you right through it. How amazing would it be to live there and drive past those kinds of views on your way to work everyday? Bound to lower the blood pressure!

Cathedral Rock - awesome!

The landscape at Cathedral Rock.

A view from Cathedral Rock.

Me at Cathedral Rock!

Can you tell that I got trigger-happy with the camera?

This just shows how steep it was to get up and down Cathedral Rock, thankfully there were some footholds cut into the slickrock. If you look carefully you can see someone dressed in pink sitting on the rocks, she was one of the New Agers I met and mentioned in a previous post!

At Slide Rock State Park I spotted a couple of guys about to jump into the water. It was a fairly big drop...I don't know if I could do it. One of the guys was trying to encourage the other to go for it and he was having a hard time getting himself going, the other guy would try to count him down and then he would take a step but immediately step back. I felt nervous for him! Eventually he did it - fair play!

Slide Rock State Park is a popular swimming spot - lots of natural little water chutes and perfect for the whole family, a good place to cool down.

I enjoyed taking a walk along the West Fork Trail through Oak Creek Canyon, a total contrast to the broad vistas of the Cathedral Rock trail.

It was nice to get my feet cooled off in the stream as I went along the trail.

And at this point my camera decided to call it a day which was a shame as there were a couple of place where the red rock hung over the stream and you could see how it had been worn away by the creek over time.

I wasn't sure what the results would be but I took a couple of pictures with my mobile phone camera (remember the days when we thought 3.1 megapixel was good?!) on the offchance I might get something half-decent. This was a view of the San Francisco peaks near Flagstaff on the day I walked up to the Inner Basin.

This was a view on the way down the forest road, Arizona landscapes are just stunning.

Again this was a bit of a hit-and-hope shot at the Grand Canyon, but I guess my shadow proves that I was there! This was taken at Cedar Ridge on the South Kaibab Trail, I could have sat there for hours.

This is also taken at Cedar Ridge, man I just have to go back there and do the Canyon properly!

Well I have made it home safe and sound and I’ve even managed to avoid jetlag. My last 5 days in Arizona were fairly relaxed. On the Thursday I went to Walnut Canyon just outside Flagstaff. It’s the site of cliff dwellings built deep into the canyon walls where the Sinagua people lived more than 700 years ago. There’s an Island Trail which takes you 240 steps down into the canyon to see some of these dwellings. Unfortunately there was a major rockfall last December and since then the trail has been closed for repair so all I got was a short dander along the rim, but it’s a pretty place.

I pretty much faffed round Flagstaff the rest of the day – read magazines and sipped tea in a café etc. Then I drove to my brother’s place about 2½ hours drive away near Show Low. It was great to see my bro, niece and nephews again as well meet their friends. Friends of Robert’s - John & Denise - were putting me up and I got settled in there. They have a beautiful home with amazing views from their deck. It was tough to look at everyday! You can see a little creek that runs straight through, apparently one of the few creeks which flows all year round, you could even hear it from the deck.
Their home is also a bit of a menagerie – I counted 5 dogs, 3 cats, 2 goldfish, a plec fish (one of those algae eating fish that cleans fishtanks), a parrot, a cockatiel and they also own a number of chickens, geese and goats! One of their dogs is a beautiful white husky, but the poor thing is not exactly meant to endure Arizona heat!

On Friday I helped out with wedding preparations. Somehow I got put into the creative team so found myself decorating the garage, parcelling favours etc, and despite feeling that I’m not the most creative person I actually managed not to mess anything up too badly! My sister Jenny and her hubby arrived that day so they brought a digital camera Dad lent me for the wedding. They also stayed with John & Denise and we were shown the most amazing hospitality. Denise is a great cook and we had the most amazing breakfasts and dinners together.

So Saturday was the wedding, but not until 4pm which gave me plenty of time to get my glad rags on. For those who haven’t seen me in a skirt before, here I am in all my glory (please note that I even painted my toenails, I can count on the one hand how many times I’ve done this in my life and I hope you appreciate the effort I went to here!!!)
The ceremony was quite simple but beautiful and the new husband and wife looked great and were very happy indeed. They got married on decking which had been built by friends on the Friday! We ate outside in the garden which was really pretty, especially as the sun went down. I gave a hand with getting the food put out but managed to burn my hand in the process so had to keep running into the kitchen to stick my hand in a saucepan of icecubes! After the main course there were speeches which went really well. Considering the tragedy of losing Paddy in May everyone did really well. We missed her, but I think she would have been really happy with the day and her kids and hubby did her proud. She was remembered and honoured and the whole day was about celebration. I think what Ben and Zoey have done in stepping out into marriage together is a reflection of Robert & Paddy’s influence and example. So the dancing got going after the speeches in the garage and everybody had a great time.
Sunday was a very lazy day. Denise made an amazing brunch for us and all Robert’s family and the new couple. Jenny & Harry had brought over some good Irish bread – soda farls, potato bread etc – so we fried it too, but it was quite entertaining watching folks stick bits of cheese on top of the soda bread and munching away!

So there you go, that was it, a great trip, great to see family again and celebrate a very special occasion with Ben & Zoey. Hopefully they’ll get to celebrate their honeymoon in Ireland next summer…and hopefully we’ll actually have a summer!

On the road for home...
Well I'm back in the fierce heat of Phoenix (100 degrees F), I left Show Low this morning and dropped off one of Paddy's sisters and her daughter at the airport then got checked into a nearby hotel. My flight goes out tomorrow fairly early so I didn't want to have to get up at the crack of dawn and deal with rush-hour traffic, I think I'm just about 15 minutes away from the airport here which is pretty handy. I was dying to get another walk up some hills today as I haven't had any proper exercise since I was at the Grand Canyon last Wednesday and just to soak up some of the great scenery and get my head showered, but to be honest I was a bit bushed by the time I got to the hotel and I've just been taking it easy. I'm near to Arizona State University and took a drive down there to find some grub. Found a wee pizza place, Otto's, where I had a huge plate of tasty spaghetti & homemade sauce for just $7 - hard to beat. So I'm going to read for a while then hit the hay before getting my butt into gear tomorrow morning. I'm not looking forward to all the travelling tomorrow and the prospect of jetlag but heigh ho it's been a great trip and worth it. I'll do an update on what I've been up to over the last few days and the wedding etc when I get home and have discovered which way is up!

Well I'm back at Biff's this morning for another yummy breakfast bagel and the all-important internet access. I said farewell to my CS host this morning, later today I'll be heading over to my brother's to join the party that seems to have started already for my nephew's wedding.

So since my last post I've been fairly busy! Tuesday morning I spent a few hours trying to decide what to do about my camera. I took it to a camera shop but the only way they do repairs is to send it off and it takes 4-6 weeks, and they're the only repair place in town. So that option was out the window. I then started looking at cameras to buy and spotted one on offer in Sears. The guy told me it took AA batteries which was important as the AC adapter lead wouldn't work back at home. However after I bought it I realised it takes a different kind of battery. I also checked out some reviews online and it didn't seem to get a great write up, so I've decided to take it back and spend a bit more time researching (and saving) for something I'm 100% happy with when I get home. Travelling without a camera? Is that possible? Well it's not ideal, but more on that later...

Tuesday afternoon I decided to hike a trail in the San Francisco peaks. This range of mountains includes Humphreys Peak which is Arizona's highest at over 12,000ft (apologies if I'm repeating myself on this blog, I keep forgetting what I've already written!). I did the Inner Basin Trail which leads up through the forest to a little plateau surrounded by a number of the peaks. It was mentioned in one of Michal Lisa's books - Cosmic Ray's 50 Favourite Hikes in Sedona & Flagstaff - quirky but v useful book! The trailhead is a good bit up the mountains so I had to drive about 4.5 miles up a dirt track and I was nearly having a hernia because the road was pretty rough and I was thinking if I got a puncture I'd be in a bit of a soapy bubble. In fact after about 3 miles I decided to pull over in a little clearing and walk the rest of the way to the trailhead because I was getting worried about the track! The irony is that the last little stretch was probably the best bit of road - I'd already done the worst! Anyhow the trailhead is at roughly 8600ft (according to Cosmic Ray) and you just climb steadily up through the forest for about 2 miles to the Inner Basin. It was slightly eerie in places but there were other hikers doing the trail too which made me feel better. At the top you come out of the forest and have some open space, there's a little marker saying you're at 9792ft, adn the trail continues through the mountains, but by this stage it had clouded over, there was a bit of thunder in air, it was getting windy and there were spits of rain. And where was my raincoat? Back at my host's flat! So I turned right around and headed back down. Thankfully the rain didn't come to anything much and I got back down to my car no problem. I headed back into Flagstaff and chilled out at Macy's, a cool wee coffee place, for a couple of hours with my book and a v good hot chocolate - very satisfying after all that fresh air!

So yesterday was the big day - the Grand Canyon!!! I drove to the East Entrance at Desert View where there is a Watchtower - the highest point on the South Rim. The views were FANTASTIC! The canyon really is gobsmackingly beautiful. Unfortunately it's fairly touristy too. The inside of the Watchtower has a souvenir shop and is decorated on the inside with reproductions of ancient petroglyphs. To be honest it was all too fake for me, the petroglyphs were too symmetrical on the walls to have an authentic feel! So I didn't actually bother climbing up the 5 storys of the watchtower, the whole touristy thing was getting to me! (and why is that tourists the world over are the rudest people ever? It's like they're on a mission and nothing should get in their way!)

I drove the 25 miles west to Grand Canyon Village, stopping off in a couple of places to admire the view. At this stage I didn't actually miss having a camera, I don't think your average digital camera would do justice to the grandeur of the scene before you. I got the car parked and then walked along the Rim Trail, but it is just full of tourists and tour groups. I saw a few condors swooping in the canyon and lots of people were trying to get pictures of them, their wingspan is amazing. I had a bit of a rest in the sun, thankfully the thunder clouds which had been looming earlier had moved away.

So then after getting some more food supplies I set off to do a trail down into the Canyon. There are loads of warnings about going down to the Colorado River and back in one day - lots of people have died from heat exhaustion and dehydration so I didn't really fancy that, anyway I wanted to hike a bit later in the day when it would be a bit cooler. So at 4.30pm I set off down the South Kaibab Trail. There was a guy on the shuttle bus doing the same trail with his full pack and tent etc - he was heading to the river to camp down there, man I was envious! According to the info notices and the Lonely Planet, the trail down as far as Cedar Ridge was a 3-mile round trip and pretty steep (1000 ft down from the rim) taking 2-4 hours - you have to allow twice the time to go up as to come down. So part of me was doubting whether I'd go that far, especially if I wanted to see the sunset up from the rim. But it only took me 15 minutes to get down to the first lookout point - Ooh Yah point (or something like that!) and then another 15 down to Cedar Ridge. The views from Cedar Ridge were just astounding, I wouldn't have missed that view for anything. I sat there for about half an hour soaking it all in. With the sun beginning to sink the shadows that are cast on the formations is just beautiful and seeing the shadows of clouds etc is cool too. At this point I was definitely missing my camera! There were 4 Japanese people at Cedar Ridge too - the whole time I was there they were constantly running around with their tripods taking pictures from every conceivable angle and of every tree or bush with the canyon in the background - 'twas amusing, I'm glad I'm not that obsessed, but to be fair the Canyon is every photographer's dream. I really didn't want to leave that point, being down in the canyon away from all the tourists is something else, though I wished I'd had the time to go a bit further to be able to see the river itself. I've come to the conclusion I'm just going to have to come back one day and do the thing right i.e. do a kayaking trip down the Colorado River, and do a multi-day hike in the Canyon. At the South Rim you're apparently only seeing about a quarter of the canyon, it's a vast expanse and hard to get your head around. For the river you have to book a few years in advance so I should probably get organised now! Anyone want to come?!!! So anyway I turned around and set off back up the trail, most of it is stepped and you're just constantly climbing, there are no flat bits! But actually it only took me 41 minutes! I guess the trail time estimates are generous to allow for heat etc. Mind you I didn't hang about and was fairly puffing my way up!

At the top I'd just missed a shuttle bus back to where my car was parked but there was a couple just behind me whom I'd passed on the trail and they offered me a lift back to the car park - really good of them. Doug & Riva were a really lovely couple from Vancouver so we had a good chat in the car, and even spotted some beautiful deer at the side of the road too.

By this stage the sun had set and it got dark over the canyon pretty quickly so I had some food then made my back to base in Flagstaff. A totally amazing day, I just loved it! Although it seems sacrilegious not to have a camera at the Grand Canyon I think it made me enjoy the moment far more, I didn't have to worry about missing something or trying to get the right shot or stopping at every hole in the hedge to take a photo like everyone else seemed to be doing! Maybe it's a good lesson in learning to do without and enjoying what's before me.

Living it up
Well I've been up bright and early this morning - my couchsurfing host had to leave at 7am to go to work - she does a couple of 12 hour shifts per week at the Grand Canyon driving a tour bus - respect! So this morning I'm at Biff's bagels, have eaten my breakfast bagel, supped some tea and am ready to go! The keyboard on this PC is a bit dodgy, so expect a few typos! Biff's is kind of interesting, they seem to be true dog-lovers - there are photos of people's dogs covering the walls - all the dogs seem to have died so the photos are a little 'in memory of' kind of thing. It's kind of nice but part of me is thinking it's slightly weird, maybe that's because I was brought up on a farm and we're used to animals dying...hmm that sounds a bit callous, I do like dogs you know!

Anyway...let's rewind a little. SUnday was a pretty chilled out day, I just wandered round Flgastaff a bit, actually let's be honest, I drove around - the town (like most American towns, there's just so much darned space in this country!) is kind of spread out. The was one studenty place I had some great lunch and I was the only person sitting outside in the blazing sun - everyone else was sensible and sat inside or in the shade, but heck I'm Irish, I haven't seen too much sun this year so I was determined to soak it up! (with plenty of sun cream on of course!)

I went with Michal LIsa to a Sustainable Living fair which was on in the town centre - lots of stands on various green energy solutions etc. Also there was info on a local biking organisation which has got planning permission for a cycle trail the whole way round Flagstaff, when it's finished it'll be about 22 miles long - impressive!

Flagstaff is pretty cool, I think it's my kind of place, mainly because it's very outdoorsy - the San Francisco peaks (which include Arizona's highest mountain, Mt Humphrey's) surround the town, and it's kind of studenty too so it's got a bit of energy about it. ALso it's got nice outdoor clothing shops, I know I'm sad but I love those kind of places! The only thing that's missing here is good rivers and water - no opportunities for whitewater kayaking I think!

I went for a walk in the later afternoon. I was trying to do a trail called Observatory Mesa Trail but I don't think I followed the right trail, but hey it was a nice, quiet walk, just a few joggers around, oh and a few disc golf players.

The weather has been amazing, sorry to rub it in for you guys at home, but it is truly beautiful, I could stare at the blue sky all day, I'd really forgotten what it looks like!

Yesterday was an amazing day - I went to Sedona. I drove along the Oak Creek Canyon road which I'd read was supposed to be very scenic. THe first few miles through woodland I was thinking, ok, what's the big deal here, then all of a sudden the road opened up to this huge canyon and the road started to wind it's way alpine-style down into the canyon - stunning stuff! ABout 25 miles later you enter red rock country and Sedona - again just superb scenery - the kind of place you expect John Wayne to pop out from behind a cactus!

Sedona itself is extremely touristy, I think that's its only trade. So I got out of the town fairly quickly and went to Cathedral Rock to hike the trail up to this enormous feature. It's only a 0.7 mile trek but fairly steep in place. They have great wee markers along the route to keep you right and to protect the land - little cairns - a knee-high pile of rocks in a wire basket. You're basically climbing up slick-rock, I was glad of good grip on my shoes and it wouldn't be fun if it was raining! Cathedral Rock is the site of a vortex apparently so popular with New Agers. ON my way down there were a few people having a bit of a sing-song in one place - I almost thought of joining them with either Danny Boy or Kumbaya...lucky for them they left before I caught up with them. ANyway I'm so glad I did that trail the views were just stunning, I can't wait to get my photos sorted.

Speaking of photos, my camera has decided to pack it in, well the zoom lens keeps getting stuck, so I'm going to try and take it to a repair place this morning. I'm planning on doing the Grand CAnyon tomorrow so I'm hoping I don't have to resort to my mobile phone camera or a disposable camera!

After Cathedral Rock I got some lunch - the most amazing gourmet sandwich which seemed to have everything in it. Then I took a drive out to Slide Rock Park which is a popular swimming hole and watched a few people jump in and slide down little water chutes etc. Then I decided to do a little more walking , this time in Oak Creek CAnyon itself. I walked a little bit of the West Fork Trail - it's on the canyon floor, the walls of the canyon stretch up about 200ft either side and you have to criss cross the stream as you walk up the creek. Splashing about in the water was nice and cooling. I got a fair few photos there until the camera decided to quit.

Having got back to my car around 5.30pm I headed back through Sedona for some petrol and then along a road which leads to an overlook. Already the crowds were gathered to watch the sunset. I always forget how early sunset is here and how quickly it gets dark. But it was beautiful with the last of the sunlight casting different hues on the various features & buttes etc surrounding the town.

SO there you go, this really is an amazing trip. Today I'm planning on taking it a bit easier, a hike somewhere and hopefully sitting in the sunshine with my book to try and even out the tan-lines in time for the wedding!

Flagstaff
I've now made it to Flagstaff and am staying with another great Couchsurfing host, Michal Lisa. The weather is a lot cooler here thankfully, I haven't been outside yet but according to the internet it's supposed to be about 25 degrees celsius - that's more like the thing! The temperature gauge in my car hit 100 degrees fahrenheit yesterday around 5pm!

So yesterday I ended up cimbing Camelback mountain - a hill in the middle of Phoenix which is shaped like a...uh-huh a camel! It's something like 2600 feet and the views from the top are amazing. At the carpark I took a look at the trail and it said just 1.25 miles to the top though the trail was described as moderate/difficult. I thought I would just get going and see how far I would get. But once I was halfway up there my stubbornness kicked in and I just had to get to the top - I would have been disappointed to turn around! It probably would have been more sensible to turn around as I didn't have a huge amount of water left in my water bottle and the heat was fierce, but I couldn't resist! I understand why the trail is described as moderate/difficult, its pretty steep and you're scrambling up lots of boulders. I would compare it with the top bit of Slieve Bearnagh. But the views at the top were definitely worth it, the panorama of Phoenix was amazing. Phoenix is really flat but surrounded by lots of mountains. Unfortunately my camera is playing up, I think there's an error with the memory card so I had started to get snappy happy and then the card was reading full, bummer! I didn't start the walk until just after 5pm so by the time I got down, about 6.45pm, the sun was down and the colours were even more beautiful. Hopefully I'll have got some decent pictures and I'll post them when I get home.

It was a 2-hour drive to Flagstaff last night and it was fine although it's a bit unnerving when you see a sign warning of elk and beneath it says "For next 35 miles"! Considering my hire car is white, a collision with an elk would be messy to say the least. No elk were in my path thankfully.

Alrightie, going to try and figure out what to do today, I think I'll take it easy, I'm a bit sore after the walk yesterday!

Valley of the Sun
Last night I touched down in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm here for my nephew's wedding in a week's time so I've got a few days to do a bit of a road-trip before meeting up with family. The heat is fierce! I was in the car about 9am this morning and even at that stage it was 78 degrees fahrenheit and it's up into the high 90's this afternoon. This morning I went to a diner for a v. yummy breakfast of French Toast, syrup, blueberries, egg & sausage (heck, I'm on my holidays!) and sat outside, thankfuly under the shade of an umbrella but I was intrigued by the misters surrounding the outdoor seating area - even when you walk through them, you don't get wet because the water is evaporating so quickly in the heat. Northern Ireland's misting system has been a little over-enthusiastic recently...

I couchsurfed last night with Phoenix's Couchsurfing Ambassador, Larry. Dead on guy, has a parrot called Corona and is very well set-up for couchsurfers - he basically has a room set aside for anyone passing through the city which includes a refrigerator!

I had a bit of an adventure when I arrived in Phoenix as my luggage didn't come with me. Apparently I was supposed to pick it up and re-check it in at Newark. But the last time I went through Newark on the Texas trip I only had carry-on baggage so it didn't enter my head that I would have to pick my bag up this time in Newark. And actually I did check at a customer service desk if my bags would be checked all the way through to Phoenix and they told me yes.Anyway that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. My bag came on the next flight and I picked it up from the airport this morning so it was all good.

Okey-dokey I'm hoping to drive out to the edge of the city now and get some views of the desert then I'll head up to Flagstaff. Adios!

Lone Star State
I mentioned several posts ago that I had been in Texas on a work-trip in May but until now I’ve never properly sat down to write about it. It was a flying visit (I left Thursday 11.20am and arrived back the following Tuesday 9am!) resulting in major jetlag but it was well worth the effort. The reason for the visit was that in October last year I was approached by the pastor of a church in Amarillo asking for help to set up a social action project for his high school youth group in Belfast this summer. The church then invited me to do some preparatory work with the team in May.

So I can now show you the way to Amarillo but it’s a bit of a long trip! I flew via Newark and Dallas but when I got to Dallas the Amarillo flight was cancelled. Thankfully the airline put me up in a Hilton. I got there about 8 or 9pm and was bushed so headed straight to bed so that I’d be able to get up at 5.30 to make the first flight to Amarillo. It would have been nice to make the most of the hotel and the pool – the bed in my room was gi-normous and there was a comfy recliner which I think would look well in my living room in Belfast!

However getting to Amarillo was great. Jeff, the pastor, had told me there may be a possibility for a couple of guys from his church to take me mountain-biking in a local canyon and I had been well up for that. The funny thing was that when I arrived in Amarillo at 9am, Jeff picked me up and asked if I was still keen to ride for biking as the guys were meeting at the church at 10am! Of course I couldn’t pass up an opportunity like that, especially to see Palo Duro Canyon (apparently the only other canyon bigger than Palo Duro in the USA is the Grand Canyon) so after tea and toast I met up with Chad and Levi and we drove out to the Canyon. It’s beautiful! I was surprised by the greenery on the floor of the canyon – I expected it to be completely devoid of plantlife. I’ve never actually been mountain-biking before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. We did a trail called the Lighthouse Trail which leads to a huge hoodoo shaped like a lighthouse. Unfortunately I left my camera back in the truck so the photo below comes courtesy of Wikipedia. The views from there were stunning, it would be so amazing to see a sunset or sunrise there. Chad also spotted a couple of horned toad lizards (see left, photo from Wikipedia) and managed to pick one up to show me, I’m not really fond of reptiles and even though he looked pretty fiercesome with his spikes, he was quite cute! I was also told there were rattlesnakes which was slightly unnerving when I needed to relieve myself! Anyway I absolutely LOVED the biking! In fact if I get the chance, it has the potential to become another addiction alongside kayaking! My own bike however could just not compete, after 50 yards on that trail it would have been in 50 different pieces and I have a fresh appreciation of why a decent mountain bike costs so much.


So on the Friday night I got to meet the team of young people preparing to come to Belfast. I did a devotion with them, answered their questions about NI and almost succeeded in convincing some that we had a law in Belfast that forbade people to wear flip flops. On the Saturday I did some planning with Jeff and Ryan, the youth pastor. Then Ryan and his wife took me to his son’s baseball game along with their other 2 sons. The baseball players were all about 6 years old and it was kind of funny to see these little kids running around with their baseball gear on, the helmets were way too big for some, and you could see that those fielding had difficulty concentrating on the game. It was kind of cute but kind of weird too when they’re so young – I think they’d probably be better off just playing ball in their back yards for a couple more years yet, but that’s just my opinion. Sport is such a big deal in the States, I’ve often noticed how they take it more seriously at school & university level than we do here. I remember someone last year telling me about guys with basketball scholarships at some US universities having golf carts take them round the campus and they get treated like complete heroes. NI is a complete contrast - we could do with a major injection of enthusiasm in school sport…there’s bound to be a happy medium somewhere.

Anyway Ryan and Elise were kind enough to take me to a couple of shops so that I could get a new pair of trail shoes and take advantage of the pound-dollar rate. Then they took me to Cadillac Ranch. According to Wikipedia it's a 'public art installation and sculpture' with a bunch of Cadillacs half buried nose-first in the ground. The cars have been graffittied over the years and to be honest it’s just random. Interesting but random. One of the people behind this is a local millionnaire who also paid Amarillo residents to plant fake traffic signs in their front gardens. I saw a black one with a red rabbit on it and some other weird ones. Whatever floats your boat…

One of the things that struck me about Texas was obviously the flatness of the landscape. I’d always heard people talk about the big skies of American plains and kind of thought that the sky is the same size anywhere, but now I get it. You get such a greater sense of the vastness of the landscape when you’re somewhere like Texas.

Sunday was Mother’s Day in the States so the church had a breakfast for everyone, then a group of children from the Sundayschool performed a play on the 10 Commandments which doesn’t sound promising but was actually quite entertaining with some great acting by the kids. For the service itself I was sitting at the front because I had to do a wee 5-minute spiel about the summer project in Belfast, so I was completely unaware of anything behind me and I got a bit of a surprise when the church’s handbell choir launched into a wee introit at the start of the service. When it came to my turn to speak, I tried to speak more slowly than usual but I knew rightly that people were probably mesmerised by my accent (and my dulcet tones…not!) and it was unlikely that anyone would have a clue what I was saying! But folks were really friendly and appreciative of the opportunity their young people were getting to work in NI.

I stayed with Jeff and his family and got to meet some of their friends and their kids on the Sunday evening when they fired up the barbecue. After eating we all sat down together to play a card game and I was amazed – in this country it would be rare for a bunch of parents and their teenage kids to sit down and play silly games together. It was really cool to see and experience that, it was just pure simple fun. Many teenagers here would be too ‘cool’ to do that with their parents and many parents here wouldn’t want to sit down with their kids to do silly stuff like that. I think we could learn something from that.

So that was it… I pretty much spent most of Monday sitting in airports and on planes. Not exactly fun but I met one or two interesting people including a retired man on the plane from Dallas who was heading off on a trip to the Holy Land with his church. He had been in the Navy and had been an engineer working on various projects all over the USA so he had some fascinating stories to tell.

I guess what has brought completion and a sense of satisfaction to my trip back in May is the fact that the 30-strong team of Texans has now been and gone and they truly did a fantastic job. We modelled the project on Streetreach so that they spent 4 days in Tullycarnet, East Belfast, partnering with 2 local churches to bless the local community in whatever way they could – tidying pensioners’ gardens, playing games with local children, clearing up rubbish from residential areas, playing football and baseball with teenagers, putting on a community barbecue complete with face-painting, bouncy castle and ‘Tullycarnet’s got Talent’! They also spent a couple of days doing some maintenance work at the 174 Trust and hanging out with some of the youth groups there. The American young people were very quick to grasp what it was we were doing – simply being Jesus on the street, sharing the time of day with people, bringing to life the good news of Jesus, making the community livable again. They were brilliant and mixed really well with the local young people. Tullycarnet is a fantastic place for Streetreach, some might perceive the churches there to be struggling because they’re in a deprived area. But they have such a huge heart for the community of which they are a part and truly strive to walk in step with Jesus as they reach out to folks around them.

Not only did the American contingent bring with them willing hearts to serve, but they also brought their very own version of Peter Kay's video tribute to Tony Christie's 'Show me the way to Amarillo song'. Kind of hard for these guys to enjoy this video to its fullest when the majority of the personalities are only known in the British Isles, but I have to say Ryan made a great Peter Kay and their performance made me laugh out loud! There's a rumour it's on Youtube, I'll have to check that out.

By the end of the 10-day project I was completely shattered but what made my day the most was the fact that without having to ‘engineer’ anything, I heard some of the American young people talking about how they could do Streetreach in their city, that there were poorer areas of their city where they could go and be a blessing. And what’s more it seems that a bunch of people from Tullycarnet are keen to get involved and maybe make their way Stateside next year! How cool would that be?!

Photos from the US trip Part 2
So from Virginia I travelled on to Michigan to visit good friends John & Abbey. I’m appalled to say that I actually didn’t get any photos of them! I guess it kind of reflects the time I spent with them – I really just got to chill and hang out with them which was just perfect, certainly for me, and I hope for them. So I wasn’t running round snapping lots of photos. There is simply this one from Lake Michigan taken on the day I arrived when John took me to the beach. It was just beautiful.

Ok, photos from the kayaking in N Carolina. Unfortunately I don’t have any action photos, I could do with getting a waterproof case for the camera, but here’s a few of my beautiful surroundings that week…

The cabin which was home…

Fontana lake where we practised basic techniques and rolls on the first and last mornings…

Relia’s Restaurant where the food was to die for (complete with wee chipmunk in the foreground)

A view of the Smoky mountains…

‘The weed that ate the south’. When I first saw this I thought I was entering a jungle and that Tarzan and Jane would suddenly swing by. Apparently this was a plant introduced to try and prevent subsidence but it has kind of taken over and is everywhere!

The Nantahala river on the banks of which the NOC is based and which we paddled on the last day. The water levels are controlled by dam release and this photo was taken at about 9am so the water level was really low and the photo doesn’t really reflect how good a river it was to paddle. The difference in temperature between this and the other rivers I paddled there was amazing, it had an icy quality which reminded me of home!

A sign that I had a good time on the water…the paddler’s tan! I think it's maybe worse than a farmer's tan! But do I care? Not a bit!

These were the guys I paddled with: L-R Bruce, Todd, Debs, Windy

L-R Chan, Todd, Debs, Windy

From the Appalachians to the nation’s capital, Washington DC. Here’s the obligatory photo of the White House.

This is Cate & Chris whom I met as couchsurfers when they passed through Belfast last December. They were so good to me when I stayed over and devoted their whole weekend to showing me off the best of their city. They’re expecting their first little one which is really exciting. This photo is taken at Arlington Cemetery and you can just see the National Monument in the background.

This is one of Cate’s photos which I nabbed from her Flickr – she’s very good with a camera! It’s taken in Arlington Cemetery with the Pentagon in the background. You can see that there’s a wee American flag at each of the gravestones, apparently those are placed there just once a year on Memorial Day weekend. There are more than 300,000 people buried there.

This is Great Falls National Park, the falls are absolutely awesome. The Potomac river divides Virginia from Maryland.

Me, Cate & Chris at Great Falls.

And finally, looking downstream from the Falls.

What a trip!

Photos from the US trip Part 1
At last I've got my photos kind of half organised from the recent trip to the States. Not sure where to start, so let's start at the very beginning...New York!


This was the view towards the financial district of the city from the Empire State Building. Kind of cool to think that we'd stepped on a plane in Belfast mid-morning then suddenly (well not exactly but you know what I mean) we're in one of the largest cities in the world in the afternoon. The weather was great so the views were really clear.

This is Ground Zero where they’ve got a number of large boards pinned to the fence with all the names of the people who died at 9/11.

This photo was taken from the Empire State building as well but this time you can see Central Park just behind the skyscrapers.

If we’d had more time I would have loved a dander through the park, but 36 hours isn’t quite enough! New York is a full-on experience, I’m glad I’ve been, though it’s not somewhere you’d go to relax! Would I go again? Well I’m not a city-slicker, but I think probably the best way to experience the city would be to meet a local from each of the districts, then they could show off their city to you. Maybe the next time I’ll couchsurf!

Onto the Summer Peacebuilding Institute and this was my class:

And this photo proves that contrary to popular belief, I actually did some work whilst I was there!

But of course there was plenty of fun to be had and at the Community Dance I made sure I got a wee boogey on the dancefloor.

The fab four included from left-to-right me, my colleague Laura, Laura from Seattle and Candice from Philadelphia. We shared a 4 bedroom dorm on the university campus and the craic was good as we drank tea, shared stories and discussed global issues late into the night!

On the weekend of 12-13th May we had free time from the SPI classes. However my tutor arranged for our class to do a visit on the Saturday morning to meet some of her old-order Mennonite (like Amish) neighbours. We met Lewis Martin, pastor of the local church who explained to us a little more of the Mennonite traditions and beliefs and he also showed us round his Harness shop which was full of everything it seemed bar the kitchen sink. We also met an older lady whose business has been to make rugs and she showed us the looms in her basement. It was fascinating to get a little insight into this hugely traditional way of life, and we spotted a few people driving down the road in their horse-drawn buggies. The Virginian countryside is really beautiful and in some ways reminded me of home. The tradition for old-order Mennonite families is to share out their land amongst their sons. However this means that farms are getting smaller. Already the Mennonites in this area have been permitted to use modern farm machinery because they couldn’t otherwise earn a living from the land. I don’t buy into their way of life and separation from modern living, but I do respect what they’re doing and I’d hate to see this way of life dying out.

On the Saturday afternoon the 2 Laura’s and I headed off to Shenandoah National Park. The park takes in part of the Blue Ridge Mountains which form part of the Applachians. The Skyline Drives runs north to south through the middle of the park for 105 miles which makes it hugely accessible. All along the road are overlooks with vast vistas of the mountains fading into the distance (I now know why they’re called the Blue Ridge Mountains – they do look blue!) and carparks so you can go for a dander or a serious hike along the 500 miles of trails.

We took a wander along the trail to Dark Hollows Falls which are 70 feet. On the way down to the falls we passed a girl carrying a camera and tripod and naturally thought nothing of it. On the way back to the carpark Seattle Laura got talking to this girl and it turned out she was there to photograph bears and the previous week a bear had accidentally stepped on her head! At this point I was suggesting an impromptu karaoke session seeing as I didn’t have any bear bells with me! We bumped into a guy a few minutes later in the carpark who had just spotted a bear at the edge of the carpark. The only wildlife we spotted were deer and hawks and I’m very glad we didn’t disturb any bears!

That evening we were invited to go contra dancing. What’s that I hear you ask? Well I was kind of wondering myself and kind of went along a little bit reluctantly. Basically it’s American folk dancing and I guess borrows a bit from English, Scottish and other folk dancing traditions. Seems to have a big following all over the States. I have to say I did have a really good night. It reminded me a little of Scottish ceilidh dancing from my uni days in Aberdeen and the sweat fairly lashes off you after a few dances! I was amazed at the diversity of age-groups at the dance, there were young guys there about 18 or so – you wouldn’t catch blokes that any age in this country doing something like that for their Saturday night entertainment! Unfortunately no photos – we were too busy trying to keep up with the moves!

On the Sunday we decided to take things a little slower, with the intensity of SPI I felt like I needed to get my head showered and have little bit of solo time in the morning. But in the afternoon we headed back to the National Park, this time with Ionka who is originally from Bulgaria but now lives and works for the Mennonite church in Ukraine. We headed further along the Skyline Drive and decided to do the trail along to Stony Man Mountain and the trail at Little Stony Man Cliffs which also form part of the Appalachian Trail. The views were spectacular and actually it was a clearer day than the previous day had been.

Debs feeling at one with nature:

In terms of transport this was what made it all possible - the Chevy Impala! I had ordered a compact car at the airport in DC but all they had was this full-size model - I called it 'the Beast' because it was just humungous! It was fine to drive but because of its size I really didn't like the blind spots.