With the crazy heat of late July and the fires I continued to go North and headed back to the Tetons and Yellowstone for a week. 
 
Coming from Idaho I was excited to take the Tetons pass which had been closed when I last was in the area due to the road collapse. I knew that they had “all hands on deck” to fix it up but still was surprised that it was open when I drove through this time. And boy am I glad as it afforded some amazing views. I spent some time in Jackson which last time I had just driven through and was pleasantly surprised that they had lots of parking. So Joy and I set out to embrace the tourist part of the city. It was fun to look at the historic buildings and imagine what it must have been like for those who settled the town especially with an understanding of how brutal the weather could be in the winter months.
 
After doing a harvest host site in Jackson I was able to get one night at a campsite in the Tetons.  Revisiting the Tetons was fun because there was so much I had not been able to do the first time I went through because time was limited.  I even got to attend a ranger talk that helped to explain the uniqueness of the Tetons which was very cool, and I saw the Mormon Ruins and old ranch that only lasted a few years but helped to tell the story of the ruggedness of the area.

After Leaving Arkansas I had no clue where to go, the south was going to be hot and humid going back east would be a lot more travel and humidity! So west it was with a stop in the newly crowned LA Olympic city of Oklahoma City, OK staying at Core 4 Brewery in the downtown area. This was a fun stop as the couple who owned the brewery were some of the coolest people I have met and their beer was great! Talking with them I really heard a lot of my goals and hopes as they talked about their brewery as a change maker in their community. Like most downtown areas they have their issues, I saw that with plenty of police activity while I was there, but as change makers they are pushing through, they are active in their business association and they have a charity they work with every month. The one they were supporting when I was there was one that is integral to the LGBT community in OK City. I asked them why they chose that one they said that it saved lives.  It blew my mind again as the media keeps playing up the rugged individualism in this country but again I stumbled into a business that gets that the only successful country is one that cares for their neighbor.
From OK City I went to Albuquerque. I realized in this stop in Albuquerque that it is one of those places that is a total home base for me. Even though I have been back to Albuquerque many times since my grandparents left and died I actually drove by their house, the little sliver of a lot looked the exact same and when I stopped I had to laugh as I remember a picture of me when I was 13 in a white linen blazer and pants with a salmon linen shirt my grandmother bought me. The memories made me tear up so I had to reset reality and went for Mexican. OMG I had the biggest stuff sopapilla I had ever seen smothered in the New Mexico red chili (I never did the green chili thing) that was so amazing! 
I headed out to Ft. Collins but before leaving Albuquerque I got to see one of the funnest parts of Albuquerque, the Hot air Balloons in the early morning, a great send off and final memory as I doubt I will make it back to New Mexico in this trip. 
The drive to Ft. Collins was uneventful which allowed me to enjoy the scenery, well as much as I could make out through the haze of fires and heat.  In got into Ft. Collins just in time to get a tour the famous New Belgium Brewery. Though part of a conglomerate now, Fat Tire beer was something that holds many good memories as it was the favorite beer of one of my better friends in seminary and we would often share a six pack when we could find it.
That Night I stayed at another harvest host site and then headed to a KOA in Utah with the thought of going to Boise, ID but a combination of a fire and heat had me detour to Idaho Falls, ID. I found a campground on the Snake River a little over a mile from the downtown area which was perfect for biking down there. I really had no expectations, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a community that was delightfully simple for a tourist town with lots of local shops and pretty devoid of the typical tourist trap. The town hosted what might have been one of the largest farmers markets I have been on in my tour and the unique products made me jealous for the people of that community and unlike so many farmers markets thing were fairly reasonable, I bought a bone for joy that was bigger then her head yet was only $5.  What was really unexpected was the distillery that I found.  The owner/distiller was a woman who totally embraced the community, so much so that she named her vodka after a historic burlesque drag performer and leader in the community named Hotcha, not something I would have expected in Idaho, but one of the biggest things I have learned on my trip is that things are often different then you’d expect.

Ghost Ranch was such an amazing time and as much as I wanted to stay out west, but one of the goals of the sabbatical was to reconnect with my past so I headed back to the midwest to where I had my first call in Council Bluffs, IA. This was a formative call as my position thrust me into realities I never thought would be part of ministry, namely working with a congregation that was working hard to be the church in a rapidly changing community with needs greater then the church could offer. After a year of being there I had found documentation of when the church had been in talks to merge with their sister downtown congregation. to make a long story short, things fell into place and they merged with that congregation in 2005 and I left for New Jersey. but the people in that congregation were some who I will never forget. Led by my organist/ music director Alice Gerard who unfortunately died soon after I got to San Jose, the people at first took me under their wings and taught me what was important in ministry and probably most importantly showed me that it was ok to relax and have fun in ministry.

While the plan was to meet up with my good friend Lowell, who had served as the head of staff at the congregation we merged with, our lunch became a homecoming of sorts as a whole group of former members were eating at the same restaurant. it was really great to see them and I was amazed with how much they looked the same after 20 years! It was fun to catch up and laugh and talk with them and Lowell again.

From there I went on a search for the first house I lived in. Of course I got lost finding it, transposing number is a thing, but when I did I was amazed that I did not recognize our house, but absolutely recognized every other house on the block. Probably because I paid more attention to those houses then my own or that the trees that were so huge now that it hid the house. Either way that street was and will always hold good memories of a time before my medical stuff and being able to head out an play without any worry or expectation.

 Ghost Ranch is one of the three Camp/Conference centers owned by the PCUSA. Though given independence in its running in recent years Ghost Ranch has been a special place that embraces God in a very tactile way holding Arts and Nature at the core of its identity.   Famous for surrounding the Georgia O'Keeffe estate, you'd recognize many of the sights from classic movies like Indiana Jones and City Slickers 2 (Curly's Cabin is still there) and currently the set of Up 2 (if you zoom into the the picture with the crane you can see the balloon house.). Needless to say it is a beautiful place and after GA I really needed a change of pace to get back into my sabbatical mindset.

As seems to be a theme for me in education, I really lucked out in the art class I chose. Tough by Joseph Cavalieri, he walked us through the process of creation step by step and with his calm and almost zen like presence all the anxiety and fear quickly left this class and we were able to enjoy and laugh through the various mistakes and experiments with creating glass works.  The people in the class were amazing. The youngest was a college student who goes to Stone Church and the oldest was in her late 70's with every age group represented. It was also fun to just be creative with no expectation of perfection. while my works were not something that will bring me millions, I like them.  On the left from top to bottom  "perfect imperfection," "first and last," "Sacred Sky" On the Right from top to bottom "Change is Hard" and "Proud Beer"  two are already hanging in my parents home and Proud beer with proudly be displayed in my bar.  

I was surprised at the end of the class to find out that Joseph had taught classes at the School of Visual Philosophy and that the marketing team behind the Business Association (Ani and Cat) had done a documentary on him.  How cool is that!

Going back to Ghost Ranch was something for me on a psychological level since the last time I was there I endured a summer that was not what I was excepting. Having been hired as the chaplain to the college staff, My role was supposed to be a support position for the college staff, basically being like a youth director, having vespers and doing activities. Unfortunately, the dysfunctional leadership lead to me having a much bigger role and having to lead in areas I had no experience with. Though it turned out fine and kept relationships with a few of the staff, it was not the most pleasant summer and so I had always wanted to go back and enjoy Ghost Ranch for what it is not the politics of the camp, and thankfully that is exactly what I got and am really excited about what the future holds for Ghost Ranch.

The drive from Utah to New Mexico was definitely an interesting one! With two fairly short drives I was able to visit another National Park, ​Black Canyon of The Gunnison National Park in Colorado. While a small park, it was magnificent with the deep canyons and charcoal colored rock and the little spurts of color coming from the sparse vegetation and river. It was truly spectacular. That night in Montross I had gotten a harvest host site at a local distillery that turned out to be one of the more fun stops along my way. 
 
At one point few gay couple came in and we got to talking only to find out that one of the guys had actually done his dissertation on how evangelicals approach faith after becoming accepting of gay people. He sent me the dissertation and I am looking forward to having a moment to read it!
 
After a good night sleep I made my way to Santa Fe. After starting on my journey I got an alert that 50 would be closed, a guy at the welcome station said it was slated to be open, but not wanting to add more time because I gambled and lost I went with the sure route that only added 15 min. Unfortunately, I did not look at the map and ended up on the Million Dollar Highway. The Million Dollar Highway is one of the scariest roads to drive with a road that, in places, looked like it was melting away and is famous for its hairpin switchbacks and shear drops with no rail guards, let’s just say it was not the most fun driving I have ever had. Though it was amazingly beautiful! By the time I got to Santa Fe I was thoroughly exhausted, so check in at my Harvest host site and enjoyed a New Mexico tradition of a Green Chili Cheeseburger and went to sleep!  The next day I headed to Abiquiu for the Art Retreat.

​So It has been a few weeks since I have posted, and sorry the last few weeks have been a bit of a departure from my sabbatical with a family time and then going back to work for two weeks with General Assembly. That is not to say that interesting things didn’t happen so I will pick up with a couple posts. The first we’ll call Family Time in Colorado and the second The PCUSA General Assembly.

​After leaving Wyoming I headed to Colorado. I honestly do not know when Colorado became a big thing in my family but the only long distance family vacations I remember as a kid were either Colorado or visiting my grandparents in Albuquerque, otherwise it was somewhere in Illinois, Iowa, or Wisconsin. I understand the draw for my family and the easy access to hiking and the outdoors and the reality that with so much unspoiled nature every time you go back to the same place it can be completely different. So it was fun to meet up with them and eventually my middle brother Steve for a week.  
 
For my first three days in Colorado was in the eastern foothills first in Ft. Collins, then two suburbs of Denver. During that part of the trip I made it to Estes Park and Golden a couple fun small towns as I bopped around to the breweries I was staying at through Harvest Host. On Wednesday I met up with my parents in Breckenridge, maybe my favorite town in Colorado, and then I made my way for two nights to the Central City KOA. Though the trek from Breckenridge to Central City was not the most fun ride as my phone said I 70 was closed and gave me an alternate route that took me a road that was so high people were still skiing at the resort there.
 
While the next few days were really uneventful, It was so nice to have time to be with the family and tour through so many memories and create some new ones.

​Every once in a while, I don’t think things through and just go with my gut. When I volunteered to be a Commissioner for GA I booked a site at Sylvan Lake thinking it would be a good place to sit though meetings with beautiful scenery and nothing to bother me and I was absolutely right. Looking back though it was one of my crazier choices on the trip as it was the only time I really needed electricity and stable internet and nether were available there. Thankfully, I only had to drive into town once for a gas refill to generate power and my starlink worked like a charm! So I lucked out. I was also glad for the lack of distractions as my committee assignment on Polity was pretty intense.

​Leaving Sylvan Lake I had booked a site for the week at a KOA that was in downtown Salt Lake City. I was a bit worried about staying there as I knew the realities of being a commissioner and already being tiered from the week before I took my time getting there, but once there I was amazed at this campsite. They had everything I needed and even though it was hot, the shady campsite kept everything nice a cool. The also had a really nice dog park for Joy with a free dog wash, imagine that!!!
 
After getting things set up I went out on the town exploring what Salt Lake City had to offer which was a lot more then I was thinking!  One of the first things I found out after getting the lay of the land was that it was Pride Weekend in Salt Lake City.  This was a real treat since it ended up being one of the most unique and welcoming pride events I have ever seen. They even had a place for neurodivergent people to enjoy the festivities. Though it was heartbreaking to hear the stories of families and individuals who have to fight for the very basic human dignities in their communities.
 
The in person GA started with a mixer which was great to meet the people we were on our committees with in person and learn about what our churches agencies have been up to which honestly was not too different from when I was at GA 8 Years ago with the exception of the merger of the GA with the Mission Agency. 
 
Sunday started for most with church, I took advantage of a day to sleep in so I did eventually making my way back to the pride festival before the plenary started for the day.  Plenary’s are the individual sessions of GA. We had two Sunday which mostly consisted of learning the systems and eventually voting in the new Moderators.  It was interesting that of the moderator choices, one duo was definitely rooted in the church as an institution and the others were looking for a more prophetic voice. Though politically I doubt they were far apart the commissioners voted overwhelmingly for the institutional candidates. 
 
This became a theme throughout the assembly as many of the decisions made were done based on the survival of the denomination over being bold to the truths of this world. I think the funniest thing was how hard it was for many to follow what was going on. This was happening so much I was basically holding a polity class in the back for the people around me so they could follow along.  In the end there were a few thing I learned that shocked me, like the fact that some churches would make pastors sign an NDA in order to get severance and that the organization in the denomination that caries out social justice through investing was making a lot of progress with the big oil companies to change practices and help the communities they are in.  It also surprised me that the denomination is still not quite sure how it feels about LGBTQ people.  This is a complicated statement because the actions would say something else but the move of lobbyist and the ease of how people were swayed to an argument of “traditional values” really shows how much work is still needed to be done.
 
Though the most frustrating thing is the things we are doing around Child protection, boundaries, and Clergy Ethics.  Yet again more rules were brought but, at least for the ones that had come before polity, the rules being brought are not really helpful and often could cause more problems. One in particular was that a presbytery  was seeking guidance on the mandatory boundary training and if a presbytery could give a waver for a pastor who was otherwise incapacitated. This sparked a long-heated discussion to which I really wanted to get up and say, “Is it really appropriate to have someone with Alzheimer’s sit through a mandatory training” I could only imagine my grandfather in his latter days doing that.  It is very evident that the denomination really needs to stop adding things to the book of order until the come up with a comprehensive approach and not one that it solely left to the presbyteries, many of whom don’t have the best resources to make that happen which is why those presbyteries seem to keep trying to solve the problem through legislation.
 
All that being said it was a great time. It was fun to be there with Sebastian and Rosalina and it was great to catch up with old friend and meet some new ones.
 
From GA, since I seem to not have had enough of Presbyterians, I decided to head to Ghost Ranch for a week of Art and relaxation, hopefully I post about that on Sunday or Monday.  That’s also partly why this is so late getting posted.