Luke’s Notebook

I’ve got five photos from the past several days.

ArcheryReally, I was trying to hit the target. It’s just that… wind.

North rim of the Grand CanyonIsn’t that gorgeous???

South rimGod is pretty amazing, isn’t He?

Me on the raftSuch a peaceful ride down the river.

Colorado RiverThe beautiful river in between Glen Canyon.

Pretty neat stuff, huh? We’re having a blast! It’s hard to believe we’ll be home in, like, five days! Three weeks of vacation have already passed. Wow.

Well, we have been without Internet for the past few days. It’s been hard, but we have managed to survive. We’re staying at an RV park in Dewey, Arizona, though, and they have one fast wireless connection. Thank God!

So… what have we been up to the last few days? Let’s see…

On Day 18, we drove from Cannonville, Utah, to Kaibab National Forest, where we stayed at the Kaibab Camper Village. It was a beautiful area! On Day 19, we visited the north rim of the Grand Canyon. All I can say is: Wow! God is so powerful to create something like that. It’s amazing.

At the end of Day 19, we ended up in Page, Arizona, staying at the Wahweap Campground, near Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. On Day 20, Mark, James and I embarked on a four-hour, 15-mile float trip down the Colorado River. We started at the Glen Canyon Dam and got out at Lee’s Ferry. It was awesome!! The ride was pretty gentle, but it was just so cool riding down in this canyon, with 1000-foot-high red rocks on either side of you. We had a grand time!

Today, Day 21, we drove from Wahweap down to Dewey, Arizona. Before arriving in Dewey, though, we spent some time at the south rim of the Grand Canyon. I’ve got to say that I think I like that even better than the north rim! Both are beautiful, but I think the view of the south rim is more striking.

This evening, Mark, James and I drove out to a Golden Corral for dinner. Tomorrow is James’ 17th birthday, and we were going to take him out for supper. He chose Golden Corral, and the two of us were happy to go there with him.

I may post a few pictures soon. So… stay tuned for that!

We are now in Cannonville, Utah, real close to Bryce Canyon National Park. We visited Bryce this afternoon, and I was very impressed at the red rock formations, the hoodoos, along with the pines in the canyon. It was really beautiful!

Tonight, we played some poker and did some laundry. Tomorrow morning, we plan to visit Zion National Park and then head down to the Kaibab area in northern Arizona.

Gotta go!

What a blast we had today!

In the morning, Mark, James and I played poker for a little while. We played for a bit at the table and the RV, and we also played for a while in the game room here at the KOA. I think I ended up with more change today than I began with.

This afternoon, the three of us decided it might be fun to go and do something, since we had some money, a car and some time to kill. We thought about maybe playing disc golf or visiting the Utah State Fair. Finally, Mark came up with this completely original idea: archery.

I hadn’t “arched” in probably eight or 10 years. But, we tracked down an archery range in Salt Lake City, and we drove on over there. We each rented a bow and three arrows, and then we pinned up our targets.

We had a blast! I don’t know how many arrows we shot, but I would guess somewhere from 120 to 150 each. Through it all, I managed one bull’s-eye shot. Actually, looking at my target is really striking, as probably 95 percent of the holes are in the top-left half, if you were to divide the target diagonally. It’s so odd. I might literally have three or four holes on the other half.

Anyway, archery was very, very fun. After that, we drove to downtown Salt Lake City. We stopped near Temple Square and walked around the Mormon Temple/Tabernacle. It’s a beautiful area, no doubt about it. I felt a bit uneasy about being there, though, because I know Mormonism is similar to Christianity in a lot of ways, but they have taken many liberties, evidently, and don’t check out with what’s in the Bible.

Honestly, I left wanting to find out much more information about the Mormon religion, but mainly to educate myself on what else is being taught. I know Mormons teach and believe a lot of the same things that Christians do (in fact, they even quote many books of the Bible, teach about Jesus’ crucifixion, et cetera), but they have a lot of fabricated teachings, too, I hear. So I’m going to read up on the differences to better educate myself on the subject. I can see how somebody can easily be fooled by Mormonism and think it’s just a branch of Christianity or simply another denomination, when it really isn’t.

This evening, we went back to Bob and Alicia’s house for dinner. We met their son, Paul, who is staying with them for the time being. He cooked up some salmon, and it was just delicious! I’m not a huge fish person, but this was awesome! There were also some stir-fry vegetables that were top-notch, as well.

There were many more stories shared by Bob, Alicia, Paul and Grandpa. I found myself laughing throughout most of the night at the different things they were saying. All in all, it was just such a fun evening. The food was great, and the hosts were even better! So very hospitable, and providing a great dinner.

Well, tomorrow morning we leave to head down to the Bryce Canyon/Zion National Park area in southern Utah. I hear a lot of great things about it! You can trust me to bring you an accurate report of the area. =)

Day 15 started bright and early. After breakfast, I got straight to work on this laptop, as I transcribed a hearing that my brother John had recently reported. In the morning hours, I managed to get nearly 40 pages typed.

Around lunchtime, Mark, James and I drove to a KFC/A&W to eat. We don’t have any A&Ws around home, so it was kind of a novelty to eat there.

After lunch, we decided it might be fun to go bowling! So we found a bowling alley called Delton Lanes, and we wasted no time in renting shoes and selecting our bowling balls. I found a nice pair of 14-pound bowling balls that were pink. They would lead me to scores of 152 and 138, respectively, in the first and second games.

It was really fun to bowl again! I hadn’t bowled in a good five years or so, and I think my all-time high score was 160. That 152 made me feel pretty good.

Across the parking lot from Delton Lanes is this restaurant called Sconecutters. Sconecutters, what’s that? We were intrigued, and I decided that I wanted to once and for all try out a scone. So in we went, and I ordered a cinnamon and buttercream scone. It was really good! I wonder if they make any scones back home. Does anybody have a recipe for a good scone? If so, e-mail me!

Our next stop was the Kennecott Copper Mine, which is a huge (think two-and-a-half miles in diameter and three-quarters of a mile deep) copper mining pit. We got to look down into the mining area, and it was incredible to see these absolutely humongous vehicles — six-wheel trucks that have 11-foot tires — drive around with tons of rock. It was definitely an interesting place to visit!

This evening, Mark, James and I prepared dinner on our own, as Grandma and Grandpa went out to eat with their friends, Bob and Alicia. Mark grilled some pork steaks, James cooked up some soybeans, and I microwaved some rice. We had a pretty good meal! Those steaks were terrific. I really liked the rice, too. I’m not a big fan of those soybeans, but they aren’t bad either.

Later on, I did some laundry in the campsite’s laundromat. I brought the laptop along with me and spent some time responding to e-mails and listening to the new Casting Crowns CD as I waited on the dryers and then folded laundry. It really made it enjoyable to be able to listen to music while I took care of all of that.

Well, here I am now, in this big blue tent. We don’t have a whole lot scheduled for tomorrow. Maybe we’ll do a little more exploring. Who knows?

I’m sitting at the table in the RV at the moment. Mark is to my right, writing postcards. Grandma is sitting across the table from me, changing channels on the TV. Grandpa is sitting on the couch, reading a book. James, who we picked up from the airport this morning, is snoozing on the couch.

So today has been a fun day! It started early, as Mark and I left around 7:15 with Aunt Jane, in order to bring her to Salt Lake City International Airport, where she was set to catch a flight back east to Lambert Field in St. Louis. James was scheduled to arrive in Salt Lake City shortly before noon.

After we dropped off Aunt Jane, Mark and I came back to the campsite. After straightening up a couple of things, we drove back to the airport in order to meet up wiht James. I mentioned this in a previous entry, but this was the first time any of us Arndt “kids” have flown, so I was anxious to hear about it. Turns out he had a really easy flight, and he seemed to enjoy it.

It’s weird to think that it took Mark and I two weeks to get to Salt Lake City, and it took James just two-and-a-half hours or so. Flight is amazing!

This afternoon, us trio of Arndts left to grab lunch and then to do some exploring. We ate at nearby Denny’s, and we discussed the different places in this area that we would like to visit. We finally decided on heading towards Olympic Park and Park City, which are spots where the 2002 Winter Olympics were held.

Once we arrived at Olympic Park, we immediately saw the different ski jump ramps, the bobsled course, and even what I think was the luge course. It was a bit off in the distance, but that’s what I would have guess it was.

It was really cool to see the spot that was the center of attention some three-and-a-half years ago. I tried to visualize how things looked on TV and how official everything was, and then I look at this park that is very nice, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just off of a state highway, and it’s not exceptionally huge or fancy. But it was really neat to just get to see that stuff.

From there, we went to Park City. Evidently, it’s a very popular ski destination in the right seasons. It’s not surprising, though, since it’s basically built on a mountain, and it’s a very hilly city.

After driving through Park City for a bit, we spotted a chairlift, starting at Main Street and ascending the mountain. We decided to check it out, and we ended up buying tickets to ride this chairlift, which took us up the mountain — quite a height, let me tell you — and then back down. It was really cool — and kind of scary! I have never been on a chairlift before, so I was a little nervous. But it was a lot of fun, and we got quite a view of the surrounding area. We saw many bike trails, ski slopes, and we got almost an aerial view of Park City. It was lots of fun!

So that about does it! We had a really good day. I’m not exactly sure what we are going to do tomorrow, but I know there are a couple of things we’ve been talking about. For one, Mark and I have quite a bit of work to do, so we’ll hopefully get a lot accomplished tomorrow. Secondly, there is the Utah State Fair going on just a half-mile or so from this campsite. We’ll probably try to check that out sometime tomorrow.

Yesterday (Day 13), we left Vernal, Utah, and drove some 170 miles, ending up in Salt Lake City.

The campsite here is pretty nice. They have a pool, a big hot tub, a game room, wireless Internet with a good signal (finally! =) and bathrooms with keypads on the doors. It’s funny that they would have such security there. I almost expected to have to pass through a retina or thumbprint scanner in order to gain clearance to that sector.

After arriving at the campsite yesterday, Mark and I took off to explore for a few hours. We drove through downtown Salt Lake City, and later we drove west on Interstate 80 and stopped at the Great Salt Lake.

The lake is huge, and it’s really pretty with the mountains in the background. Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy yesterday, so it wasn’t as beautiful as I’m sure it can be. Nevertheless, it was neat to see the lake.

Yesterday evening, the five of us went to the house of Bob and Alicia, old friends of my grandparents, for dinner. In fact, Bob and my grandpa were in the navy together way back when. It was nice to meet them!

They were very great hosts — very down-to-earth, having many stories to share, and served some great food, from fruit, to chips, to shrimp, to chicken with rice, and with ice cream and cookies as dessert. It was great food and great fun! Grandpa, Bob and Alicia kept going back and forth, sharing different stories from past fishing trips or other adventures. It was really funny!

Well, I have to get going. We’re about to leave the RV in order to take Aunt Jane to Salt Lake City International Airport. In a few hours, we’ll be picking James up. Please pray for safe plane rides for both of them!

I’m not sure what we’ll do the rest of this day, but we may go to the Utah State Fair or… who knows! We’ll see.

Well, this morning we left the campsite in Teton Village, Wyoming, and headed south. After about 300 miles, we ended up in Vernal, Utah, which is where we will call home for tonight and tomorrow night.

During today’s drive, we stopped by the Flaming Gorge Dam, which is near the Utah/Wyoming border. It was a really spectacular view, to see the body of water, the name of which escapes me at the moment, and the dam and its surroundings. Very neat stuff.

Okay, so what’s the deal about this bockwurst? Ugh… I almost gag to think about it again. Let me share…

This morning, we were preparing breakfast in the RV. I was making eggs, Aunt Jane was making oatmeal, Mark was toasting toast in the toaster. Anyway, Grandpa mentions that we’re going to cook some bockwurst for breakfast. I initially thought he said bratwurst, and though I’m not a huge fan of it, I can stand it okay. I wasn’t about to fuss about eating it, even though I don’t especially like it.

Well, then I hear that it is, indeed, bockwurst. Now, I didn’t know what that was, but, again, I was going to be a good sport and eat what was given to me.

So out from the microwave come these six bockwursts which resembled bleached hot dogs, as Mark so accurately likened them. Uh-oh, I thought. What was a guy to do? Well, so I go ahead and take a bite. Let me tell you, it did not taste very good. Now that I think about it, maybe bleached hot dogs would have tasted better.

Anyway, so I barely am able to force down the bites of this bockwurst. I just thought it tasted pretty horrible, but I figured I could live through a few more hearty bites of this “food.”

I see the light at the end of the tunnel as I am down to my last couple of bites of this bockwurst, when, wouldn’t you know it, there’s a whole extra sausage (I wonder why!). Grandpa starts to cut it up and give each person another chunk. He loads my plate with a chunk, and then as Mark politely refuses, I end up with Mark’s chunk, too! (Thanks, Mark!) In fairness to Mark, he didn’t know his declining would cause me to have to chug down his portion.

What’s kind of amazing to me is that, obviously, people like this food. To be honest, I thought it tasted terrible. It looked a sickly whitish-pink color, and the taste was just really, really bad. It’s really interesting how God makes us difference, how people’s taste buds can differ so much! Grandpa really, really likes these sausages, and I could barely stand them. Ah, diversity keeps life interesting!

The day was redeemed big time, though, as lunch and dinner were quite delicious. For lunch, we stopped at KFC in Rock Springs, Wyoming. For supper, we drove to a Golden Corral in Vernal, Utah, and ate lots of great food, from steaks, to chicken, to pizza, to ice cream. By night’s end, the bockwurst was a distant memory.

We’re about to pull out from the campsite, but I’ve got to say — bockwurst is not very tasty. Yuck!

More on that later.

We drove from West Yellowstone, Montana, to the campsite in Teton Village, Wyoming. We drove through the Grand Tetons National Park, and we saw some magnificent views of the mountains. It was awesome!

I’ve got to run. Lots to do tomorrow. 300 miles to cover and many pages to type.