Bendy roads mending Hearts

Well, let me tell you about my weekend. It all started with me leaving OHio in a frenzy after not getting back to NC in about a month......Doodley doot,doodley doot, doodley doot..................I was driving on 77 after about 9 hrs on the road and traffic got diverted off the interstate around an accident(nobody got hurt). SO i'm sitting at the light looking at the map to figure out where the heck I am and the light turns green....Go right? Not for the guy in front of me. So I smack him for a little fender bender of my own. YEAHHHHHHH! I got the cringing feeling and then immediately decided it wasn't going to get to me. He was a pretty nice guy I guess. Just got off of work bailin' hay (wer'e in WV by the way) and definitely had a turkey foot in his window flicking people off. He made it himself. Anyway, that didn't slow me down. The next day I went to work and found out that I had made a dumb mistake at the job I just left and got reprimanded. Actually, it wasn't that bad...the worst part is that I should have totally caught it and corrected it. Anyway, that didn't get me either, I was determined to learn from my mistakes and enjoy the weekend home. And I did.
I drove to Rich's house, who was so incredibly nice to let me use his Honda 650 Enduro for the weekend. After dinner with an old friend (a 3/4lb. hamburger) off I went on the bike. Crazy, how spending so much time alone I would choose a pastime like riding a motorcycle by myself to occupy my time. It was beautiful. At 7:30 pm I wandered the mountain, taking the back way from Richards to Apple Hill, no destination in mind. Just experiencing how beautiful the place that I call home is. You should have felt the wind as I ripped up the mountain at bursts of 50mph. Close to the creek the breeze was clean and cool. Call it a male primal instinct but power is good. I'm not ashamed! I swear if I took my arms off and stretched them out that thing would have lifted off the ground and swirled in the sky. I ended up cruising up apple hill, the scent of honeysuckle catching everynow and then. My suspicions were right, that Harry and Louise Bizzell would be on the porch of the lodge, reclining and storytelling and drinking coffee. I made myself welcome and listened in on the conversation of the vacationers and some of Harry's stories. Some new and a few I'd heard, all of them interrupted by Louise to get the facts straight. I had'nt seen them and actually hung out with them in probably a year. It was good to reconnect. Afterwards I sauntered (you should have seen it) to Seths place. ..who had a very important phone call to take as soon as I arrived. You can read all about it at www.sethdavis.net should you choose. Anyway, the weekend was full of various activities including, but not limited too, a movie and Krispy Kreme with the Krew (Mike Salter, Seth Davis, Samuel and Leah Bergeron. Carowinds with some of my best buds Wes, dana, Brian(Nilbog) and Adam and his fiance'....dinner with one Ms. Laura Anderson and her cadre of little gentlemen (I don't know how she does it). And how did I get to Charlotte you ask? Well by motorbike of course. I couldn't resist. Upon my first extended trip on the interstate I became aware of an unwritten code that all motorcyclists experience as they travel. Imagine my excitement as you see nearly every bike that passes you acknowledge you. Its as if everyone of them is excited to to see you
simply because they are having just as much fun as you are. Only they don't wave all out b/c thats not so cool....you get the hand down to the side move. It's pretty amazing b/c it comes so natural, sort of an instinct. The closest thing the military has is the salute. Now I'm not one for leather and a bandana but I will admit that experiencing the "wind in your hair" phenomena is pretty remarkable. I recommend it...just do it with a helmet on.
Anyway, in true biker form I almost got in a barfight with Jordan and Pop when we went out on Sat for Fathers day. It was really refreshing to get to hang out in a relaxed setting, catching up and enjoying each others company. It did me alot of good to hang out with them. The fight almost occurred when Jordan was frustrated b/c he couldn't find me and got a little perturbed at a group who seemed to be mocking him. If you know Jordan at all things like this don't sit well with him, especially when hes already on edge. After hearing him call for help I run in with a kick of adrenaline to aid the situation. Nothing happened except a little grandstanding but it was enough to get excited. I'm glad pop didnt see it. Good times....Seriously. I headed back Sunday after lazily hanging around the house and watching Nacho Libre with the fam. I think the highlight of the movie though was Noni, my 92 year old grandma leaning over in a quiet part near the end and asking loudly(shes hard of hearing) "How much longer is this?" Awesome. Thank you Noni for redeeming a rather blase moviegoing experience. Sunday night I had another treat of spending the evening with a bunch of friends eating and celebrating a friends birthday. Thank you Laura, thank you Daniel and Nicole, Mike and Nicole, Josh, Tyler and Rachel and Suzanne. Thank you Wes, Dana, Theresa and Adam, Boglins, Barbara, Richard and Holly, Eli and Katherine. Thank you little Samuel and Leah Bergeron. Thank you Pop and Jordan and random fighting biker guy too. Thank you Noni, Mom, Seth and Mike. Thank you Austin, Davis and the third one. Thank you WV cop with a chewing tobacco plug in your mouth. Thank you all for a wonderful weekend. Thank you motorcycle. I love you all the same but in different ways.

Na Bydarky! (In Canoes!)

I just got back from taking a 4 day canoe trip this last weekend! I went with my friend Marina and large group of people from her "Lindy Hop" swing class. (I gonna start taking lessons in the fall) This was a sort of mini-vacation for me since I'll be working a lot this summer. Here's a lot of pictures too, to make up for my lack of blogs these past few weeks.


Here is picture of our camp the first day. We traveled 70km north of Kiev, camped for a night, and then began our trek down the river back to the city. This was kind of a scary/exciting trip for me b/c it was all in Russian (of course...we are in Ukraine). There were a few people who spoke english, but for the most part (90%) everyone spoke in Russian or Ukrainian. Needless to say, I was very quite this trip :-) Apart from the introductions the first night around the fire, I spoke very little Russian. I was too overwhelmed trying to understand everyone to really think of something to say. Very frustrating, but for the better, I think....


The guy on the left spoke english, so we talked a little. Here we are traveling down the Dnipro in our canoes. We had to assemble them the first night...they were made of aluminum supports, canvas, and rubber. We had to pack all our belongings in them underneath the waterproof top. We don't have these in America I don't think. All our canoes are wooden or plastic. These are at least 10x more portable and at least 20x more annoying...some assembly required.


I really knew that I was in Europe on this trip because of the bathing suits. All the guys wore speedos (except me in my gym shorts cause I don't have a bathing suit here). And the girls certainly didn't mind the warm weather either...what with their few strings and all. I was really taken aback by how comfortable everyone was with their bodies...it was actually quite refreshing. Ok, that sounds a little wierd, so let me explain. Unlike in America, there weren't any 'uncle rico's' out there trying to be macho by flexing the whole time they were in the sun. I did get used to all the skin and after a couple of days it just seemed normal. well....sorta. Ok, I'm lying...there was way too much man flesh for all to see for it to be really normal, but the initial shock did wear off eventually.

This is from our last day of canoeing. This was the only sunny day that we had. We covered most of the distance on the first day, so we could just take it nice and slow on the 4th. We were able to just float down the river with little paddling and just relax, stretch our legs out, and soak up the sun. It reminded me of when we used to go tubing down the Saluda river in SC. We would just lay out and let the river take us. On the third day I didn't want the day to end...it was so relaxing...awww man...


This was actually really cool. We came across an old soviet tram (which they still use today) that had been converted to a sort of River-Palace-Fortress complete with screened in porch. It was way out in the country so I have no earthly idea how they got that thing way out there. It was funny cause everytime a set of canoes would pass the inlet you could hear the "wow's" echoing down the river.

Ohh and did I mention that the Mosquitoes were absolutely killer. They were as big as crows and would attack in organized attack patterns. They usually used the 'fly-by face diversion' method to get you distracted and then would go for your the back of your legs. Oi sabaka! they were annoying. But still a small price to pay for the beauty of the Ukrainian countryside.


We often formed little flotillas of canoes as we floated downstream. It was good for me to hear all the conversations and jokes and what not...not that I really understood it all, but it's always good to be in the middle of it to help my understanding. We camped for 3 nights and 3 days. Ukrainian camping is much like American camping, but the food is one of the main differences. They cook soups and buckwheat, cream of wheat, oatmeal, kilbasa, bread, cheese, lots of ketchup, and mayonaise. We took water right from the river and then boiled it to make all of our food and tea. The day that my group cooked, the girls forgot to boil the water before we started making the cream of wheat, so there was algae and little minnows swimming around in the milk! It was hilarious. I just laughed and went along for the ride...."when in Rome..."


GOD BLESS AMERICA...i mean....UKRAINIA!...the sunsets are absolutely beautiful here! Geeeeesshhh, I love the outdoors! God made the earth awesome so we could enjoy stuff like this. Oh how he loves us!



I also saw the next major purchase I would like to make. This sucker is absolutely amazing! I freakin' love the sidecar! It didn't have a name on it, so I still have to figure that out. Simeon, I think it had an engine design like your Subaru...it had a 4 cylinder "boxer" engine that stuck out on each side. It was actually funny to look at b/c if you had to lay the bike down during a daring feat of stuntery, you would endup scraping the engine block on pavement. Ohhh, wait, no you wouldn't, there is a sidecar, duhhh. Nevermind. Now the engine design makes sense. I saw this after we landed at our destination outside of Kiev. It was in a small village and had a trailer hitch with a small boat hooked up to the back! I want to get one of these for my trip across Ukraine. This would be perfect for a couple of people and some luggage. My friends say that there are still a lot of these sickles from the 40s and 50s still around in the villages. I will make one mine one of these days...and that's a promise.


I'll leave you with this awesome picture. This is one of my favorites from the trip. All in all, this was one of the best times I have had here in Ukraine. I got to know some cool people that I'll be dancing with next fall and got to be out of the city for a nice long stretch. I even got a tan....pale winter Jared is no more. All the people I went with were very welcoming to this foreigner with horrible russian. I thank God for this wonderful opportunity. His Grace is surely upon me! Thanks for all your prayers!

Next, I think I'll blog about my previous trip to L'viv in Western Ukriane. Until the next adventure....