Category Archives: Vacation

Andy, Candid Portrait, Jaxon, Mission Trip, Road Trip, Self-Portrait, Travel, Vacation, WPC - Reminder, Youth Group

Rapid City Mission Trip – Day 3

July 5, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

I woke up Wednesday morning and it was the first night I got something that resembled sleep. My hair was starting to look greasy as the ice cold shower wasn’t being 100% effective in washing out the travel shampoo-conditioner combo I had brought on the trip.

We got up and went to Black Hills Works. What had been awkward on the first day was now becoming routine. I knew the names of most of the clients and how to communicate with them.

It was the first day that I made a connection with Amy. Amy was one of my favorite clients because I think she has the system worked out. Amy spends most of her day in the fitness center. In the fitness center is one massage chair. Amy monopolizes that chair.

I also had a good conversation with Mike in one of the learning centers and helped with BINGO in the other learning center. I also played lots of War and Go Fish and UNO Attack and Yahtzee.

When we went to the shower site I went down to the basement shower with I think his name was Ken. I freely admit that one of my biggest weaknesses is learning the names of the other adults from the other church’s. It was either Ken or Steve. I know the Pastor from one of the other churches was named Tom because I had a couple long conversations with him. I had a long conversation with Ken or Steve as well, but I just can’t pull the trigger on his name.

The only thing I can remember about the other adults is that the kids in our church were convinced that a couple of the other adults were having extramaritals. I don’t believe that they were, but I didn’t put much effort into trying to convince them otherwise. This usually throws gasoline on the high school imaginations. Best to let those embers rest.

As Ken/Steve and I were waiting for the kids to finish up there showers so that we could enjoy the mountain stream that was the shower, a guy came walking down our hallway wearing a raccoon tail. Not a raccoon hat. A raccoon tail. Coming from his backside. He tried to go into the youth shower but we stopped him and let him know that there were kids in there and he would have to wait.

When our last youth came out of the showers, Ken/Steve and I went into the locker room and got ready for the shower. Raccoon Tail followed us in and then just sat in the locker room staring at his phone.

When I got out of the shower, he was still just sitting there. Staring at his phone. I never feared for my safety, but man was it creepy. I hoped I wouldn’t see Raccoon Tail again.

That night our cultural event was going to the Club for Boys and learning to dance with the Lakota. I can tell you that this was a tremendous workout. I must have sweat out about a gallon and my quads were on fire by the end of the night.

Despite Wyatt ratting us out, I still took the group to Armadillo’s for ice cream and our Church Time. This is always a light Church Time. With the set up at Armadillo’s it is difficult to communicate as a group. Jaxon wanted to run Church Time, so I let him. We went around and shared our favorite part of the trip so far.

Then we announced that anybody that we were going to take an early morning trip to Dinosaur Park. Anybody that wanted to go needed to be awake by 6 AM.

Here are some pictures from the day:

The pictures with the potato dancers was a contest. I think Andy and I finished just out of the medal stand. Kyle and Autumn finished second, but they were bested by experienced potato dancers, so I consider them to be the winners.

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Here is your reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is ROAD TRIP:

ROAD TRIP

A ROAD TRIP photo is any photo you take on a ROAD TRIP or preparations you make for a ROAD TRIP.

Happy photo harvesting!

Andy, Animals, Candid Portrait, Jaxon, Mission Trip, Nature, Self-Portrait, Travel, Vacation, Youth Group

Rapid City Mission Trip – Day 1

July 3, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Mission Trip Day 1 started with a 6 AM walk around Rapid City. This is a Mission Trip tradition started by Andy. He takes people out for a 6 AM walk every day of the mission trip. I don’t join every day, but I usually join a couple times during the mission trip.

The church we were staying at was in downtown Rapid City and walking around that area, I loved the Rapid City downtown area. They have statues of all the president on their street corners. There are plenty of local businesses, but perhaps my favorite part of the the downtown area is the “Art Alley” where people are allowed to put graffiti, during designated areas, if you have a permit. I admit that all these things are the antithesis of graffiti. Kind of like a Republican claiming to be punk rock, but that being putting aside, it was a pretty cool alley.

At about 9 AM I headed to my worksite with my group. I don’t even remember the name of my group, which is rare, but as the official “trip leader” this year, I decided to dial down the amount of trash I talked to other groups. My group consisted of Andy, Megan, Anna, Jentry, Wyatt, and Noah.

We were assigned to work at Black Hills Works. This is an organization that works with people with physical and mental disabilities. We worked it what was essentially their day care program. They have a ton of other programs, but this is the one where we worked.

This was not physically demanding work, but boy was it hard. I split my time among 3 rooms. 2 learning centers and a fitness center. Our job was to interact and assist the clients.

That could mean anything from playing games with them or talking to them or taking them on a walk or helping them with an iPad or taking them for a bike ride or doing crafts with them or just doing a puzzle next to them.

The first day was hard. The first day was a lot of figuring out how to best communicate with each client. I don’t think I would be exaggerating to say that most of us or even all of us left the worksite on the first day and thinking, “I don’t know if I can do this for 3 more days.”

Even though, I feel like I made connections with at least a couple of clients.

The evening Monday cultural event was going to Bear Butte. It is a state park near Sturgis. It is a mountain that is considered sacred by the Lakota. We got a lesson on the mountain and then we climbed it.

They split people into 3 groups. 1 group that was going to try to summit the mountain. 1 group that was going to go halfway up the mountain. 1 group that was going to stay at base camp.

I was on the fence on whether I wanted to try to climb the mountain or go halfway. We had 5 adults. 3 of them decided to go for the summit. 1 adult decided to stay at base camp. I decided that we needed 1 adult to be with our group that was going halfway up.

I’m not sure how far I made it up the mountain. One of our kids had trouble breathing, so I went back down the mountain with her.

Even the limited distance I got up the mountain was beautiful. Some day I would like to go back up the mountain. We’ll see if it ever comes back in my sphere of influence.

We are not allowed to take pictures at our worksite, but here are some pictures from the day:

Buffalo!

After leaving the mountain we returned to the church. We had our worship time and our church time. I had Anna run our Church Time because I wanted to have the seniors have a leadership role on the mission trip.

On Sunday night I got about 45 minutes of sleep. I went to bed on Monday night hoping for a solid 6 hours…

Andy, Candid Portrait, Formal Portrait, Jaxon, Mission Trip, Nature, Road Trip, Vacation, Youth Group

Rapid City Mission Trip – Day 0

July 2, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

At 6:30 in the morning on Sunday, June 23, the Boone First United Methodist Church Youth Group loaded up 3 vans and headed to Rapid City. There were 20 youth and 5 adults. It was an interesting crew, but we were ready to take on a mission trip. Serving others and preaching God’s love… using words when necessary.

The 5 Adults:

Christopher D. Bennett
Andy Sharp
Donovan Olson
Jonnie Becker
Shannon Fitzgerald.

The 20 Youth:

Anna Olson
Megan Osborn
Autumn Sharp
Kyle Sharp
Jentry Schoff
Jaxon Schoff
Akela Salter
Sarah Hay
Nick Laube
Hector Garcia
Emily Bridges
Haley Graham
Kassidy West
Dylan Pestotnik
Kayla Miller
Hailey Fizgerald
Treva Sawyer
Leah Becker
Wyatt Sharp
Noah Moyer

On the day that I’m calling Day 0 of the Mission Trip consists mostly of driving. We left at 6:30 AM CDT with the goal of arriving at Trinity Lutheran Church in Rapid City at 5 PM MDT.

We made a couple of stops along the way. We stopped at Falls Park in Sioux Falls and ate lunch. Then we stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell.

Here are a few pictures of our travels:

Group photo at the church.

Lots of sleeping in the big van.

We made our goal of arriving by 5 PM. We ate supper. I broke our group up into teams. We had our first worship service. Then we went to bed, ready to take on the world the next day.

Art, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Christianity, Formal Portrait, Jesse, Nature, Ruins, Travel, Vacation

2009-02-18 – Arizona Day 4

June 1, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder called 2009-02-18/Arizona Day 4 are from my work/vacation to Arizona.

Jesse and I spent the night at his brother’s house. We got up in the morning and ate at a local eatery. Then we visited a National Park called the Casa Grande Ruins. I think later that day we actually had to show up for work and the vacation became work.

Here are some pictures from that day:

By adding these images to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entry to it’s original glory:

Arizona Day 4

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve even more from my trip to Arizona.

Black & White, Candid Portrait, Formal Portrait, Jesse, Lowell, Nature, Politics, Self-Portrait, Vacation

2009-02-18 – Arizona Day 3B

May 25, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder called 2009-02-18/Arizona_Day_3B are from the work/vacation to Arizona. The pictures are all from after Jesse and I met up with Lowell and Strabala and went back to the mini-mountain thing in Phoenix.

As it would just so happen, while we were there, Air Force One flew overhead. Looking at those pictures really made me nostalgic for when our country wasn’t the laughingstock of the entire world. Good times. Good times.

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entry to its original glory:

Arizona Day 3 – Part B

Next week’s walk down memory lane will once again involve this Arizona work/vacation.

Baseball/Softball, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Jesse, Lowell, Nature, Travel, Vacation

2009-02-18 – Arizona Day 3

May 19, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

My photo organization for early 2019 is a complete mess. I’m trying to reorganize it a bit on the fly. Today’s collection of images come from the folder 2009-02-18/Arizona_Day_3.

These pictures were taken in Arizona as the vacation part of the trip was starting to wind down and the business part of the trip was getting ready to start up. Lowell and Eric came into town and we met up with them and checked out some more Spring Training.

Here are some pictures:

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entry to it’s original glory:

Arizona Day 3 – Part A

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve more from the trip to Arizona.

Candid Portrait, Jesse, Travel, Vacation

2009-02-15

May 4, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

The photos in the folder 2009-02-15 are from a trip I took to Arizona with Jesse. 50% of the trip was for pleasure. 50% of the trip was for the Computer Mine.

These pictures are from Day 1 of the trip. Most of that day was spent in the air or in airports. It ended with Jesse and I supping with his brothers at a pizza place that had an organ and dancing puppets. It was one of the most unique places I’ve ever eaten.

Here are some pictures:

By adding these photos to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entry to its original glory:

Arizona Day 1

Next Saturday’s trip down memory lane will involve a lot more Arizona.

Andy, Art, Candid Portrait, Flat Earth Joe, Mission Trip, Self-Portrait, Vacation, WPC - Reminder, Youth Group

Get Your Ash!

March 1, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

Today’s post is somewhat more of an advertisement than informational or even photographical. This is me telling you what you should do for supper next Wednesday.

The Youth Group will be making and serving spaghetti next Wednesday night before our Ash Wednesday Service. The cost of eating delicious spaghetti is an at-will donation. All the money raised will go to support the youth group and youth group activities.

All the details you need are on this picture of this wonderful poster the Sr. High Youth Group made on Wednesday night:

If you want it spelled out more, this is what you need to know:

What: Ash Wednesday Spaghetti Dinner
Where: Boone First United Methodist Church
Date: Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Time: 5:30-7 PM
Cost: Free Will Donation
Why: To support the Youth Group on their Mission Trip to Rapid City, South Dakota in June!

I can personally vouch for these kids. Look at some of the good works they did in Vidor, Texas last year:

Some of the pictured kids have moved on. Some of the pictured kids will be going. Many new faces will be getting their first taste of service Christianity through the mission trip lifestyle.

So come down on Wednesday and support a good cause and great kids! Then stay for our Ash Wednesday Worship Service!

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This is your reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is FACELESS PORTRAIT:

FACELESS PORTRAIT

A FACELESS PORTRAIT is a portrait that does not include a person’s face. It could be a picture of just part of their body. Or with their face covered. They don’t even necessarily have to be in the picture.

Happy photo harvesting!

Animals, Art, Black & White, Flowers, Jesse, Road Trip, Self-Portrait, Vacation, WPC - Reminder

Alamo Bowl Road Trip: Magnolia

January 25, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett

I slept like a baby. Like an angel. Like a baby angel. I woke up in the morning ready to take on the world.

After I got out of the shower I decided to walk the Motel 6 grounds to check out the lay of the land. I carried the trusty Alpha 77ii with me as I was deleting images because I didn’t want to run out of images on the memory card because we were going 2 places I planned to photograph.

Motel 6

While I was deleting pictures a paranoid Motel 6 employee approached me and wanted to know what I was photographing. I explained nothing, I was just deleting images. He seemed to be satisfied with this answer. But he also seemed to shadow me for several minutes. Not very trusting these Waco types.

I don’t watch a ton of home improvement shows, but my two favorites are REHAB ADDICT and FIXER UPPER. While Chip and Joanna Gaines aren’t making the show now, they have created a tourist trap where people can fork over their hard earned coin for overpriced mugs, shirts, and bags.

Jesse and I left the hotel and headed to this oasis in Waco known as Magnolia.

Here are a few images:

The fact that the Alabama Sweet Tea food trailer wasn’t open was a minor tragedy. True, I still had a couple bottles of Gold Peak Extra Sweet Tea in the cooler in the car, but I strongly wanted to evaluate this Alabama Sweet Tea to see how it stacked up against my own brew, Thick Soul Sweet Tea.

The lack of Alabama Sweet Tea wasn’t going to ruin the trip, but it certainly left a hole in the trip that didn’t seem could be filled.

My recommendation if you go to Magnolia is to skip the bakery. There is a trailer that sells the same food as the bakery, with a considerably shorter line.

Magnolia was cool and all, but it is still mostly just a store. As a minimalist, there is only so much unabashed commerce I can stand.

That being said, if you are in Waco I would recommend stopping.

As for the bakery, I had the Silo Cookie and the Chocolate Chip Cookie. They were both tasty, but the Chocolate Chip Cookie has it all over the Silo Cookie. They also sold cupcakes, but I didn’t purchase any, as I am not a big fan of cupcakes.

We loaded up the car and I punched the address of the Branch Davidians Compound into the GPS. I had absolutely no clue what we would find what we would find when we got to the place where 76 people died in the Waco Siege.

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This is your reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is SURPRISE!

SURPRISE

A SURPRISE photo is a photo of anything that deals with a SURPRISE. From reactions to results to planning.

Happy photo harvesting!

Black & White, Candid Portrait, History, Jesse, Macro, Road Trip, Self-Portrait, Vacation, WPC - Reminder

Alamo Bowl Road Trip: USS Batfish

January 18, 2019 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

After paying our respects to “The Tall Chief”, we hit the open road. We headed south in Oklahoma and weren’t really sure what we would find.

Several miles down the road we saw a sign for Muskogee. While I am personally devoid of musical talent, I do love music. I wanted to visit the town from the Merle Haggard classic.

Unfortunately, the signs indicated that we needed to make about a 60 mile detour to visit Muskogee. Nothing against Merle Haggard, but we aren’t talking about Johnny Cash here.

However, the signs seemed to be wrong. Not seemed to be wrong. The sign was wrong. We headed straight when it told us to turn. Yet, we drove right into Muskogee, Oklahoma. Where we were able to observe many an Okie. From Muskogee. Many of them seemed to be livin’ right. We didn’t see any that had let their hair grow long and shaggy. Unfortunately I can’t say I saw any Okies holding hands and pitchin’ woo. That being said, it definitely seemed like the kind of place where even squares can have a ball.

Since we had hit the mythical Haggard town, I was hoping to find a statue of Merle Haggard or at least a plaque that bragged up the only reason anybody has ever heard of Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA. But my mad googling didn’t come up with any information on a Merle Haggard statue or even a plaque indicating where kids still respect the college dean or even a store that sells white lightning.

The biggest tourist attraction in Muskogee… Oklahoma… USA.. according to the googles was a park that had a submarine in it.

A park with a submarine in it?

Muskogee is a good 10 hour drive from the nearest ocean, gulf, or sea. So a submarine… in the middle of a park? This is something we had to see.

We put in the GPS coordinates into the phone and before you knew it, we had paid $7 and were staring at a submarine.

This is what we saw:

The submarine is the USS Batfish. It was launched in 1943 and decommissioned in 1969. It is known primarily for sinking three Japanese submarines in a 76 hour period in 1945.

It was definitely one of the surprise bonuses of the road trip. It also confirmed my belief that I would never make it in a submarine. In addition to never wanting to me submerged underwater at a depth of any more than a few feet, submarines are definitely not made for the talls.

Average height for people serving on the USS Batfish was 5 foot 8 inches. I believe anything below 5 foot 10 inches is considered a midget. Some of them preferred to be called dwarves. None of them enjoy being tossed.

We bid a fond adieu to the USS Batfish and got back on the open road. Let the tones of Merle Haggard take us from Muskogee.

“We still wave Old Glory down at the court house…”

As we meandered down to Texas we enjoyed a beautiful Oklahoma sunset on an unknown lake:

When we hit Atoka, Oklahoma we stopped for gas, snacks, and a restroom break at a Pilot Travel Center. It was here that I made the most wonderful discovery! You could call it an Alamo Bowl miracle!

As an aficionado of sweet tea of some note, Gold Peak Extra Sweet Tea is kind of like my holy grail. While southerners cling to their racist past and try to denigrate us yankees incorrectly for not knowing sweet tea, there is one thing they do have. Gold Peak Extra Sweet Tea. I have never been able to find it up north. This makes me melancholy. It is a fact that I have even tried to order it online, with nothing but failure greeting my every step.

I was beginning to think Gold Peak Extra Sweet Tea was something that I had imagined. But it isn’t.

I picked up a few bottles and we hit the open road, more than a little bit happier than before we had met the magical place known as Pilot Travel Center in Atoka, Oklahoma.

Our next stop was for supper. We got a little ways past Dallas and pulled in to the first Whataburger we could find.

Who has two thumbs and LOVES Whataburger?

This guy!

I realize now, that would work better with a picture.

Enjoy these pictures instead:

Whataburger is the #1 franchise we don’t have in Iowa that I wish we had in Iowa. There isn’t even a close second. And not just because as a general rule I can’t stand corporate eateries.

We made the rest of the journey and found a cheap hotel in Waco and bedded down for the night.

It was a Motel 6. They don’t have breakfast, but it is still relatively nice compared to some of the other places that Jesse and I have stayed.

I slept like a baby. Like an angel. Like a baby angel. I woke up in the morning ready to take on the world.

To be continued…

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This is your reminder that this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE theme is MACRO!

MACRO

But what is a MACRO photo? There is a technical definition that involves the ration of the real life object being a 1:1 ratio for reproduction blah, blah, blah.

All you need to know is that it is close-up photography. Get close to your subject. Very close. Very, very, very close.

Happy photo harvesting!