I'm talking about a place where it's warm... a place where the beer flows like wine... a place where the women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano... I'm talking about a little place called... ESTES PARK, COLORADO.

So tomorrow we hit the road before the sun does for the long-anticipated adventure to the Rockies. There are several things about this that I am really looking forward to:

1. Having quality time with some quality friends. This is an awesome group, although a bit frenetic at times. This week will either finding us becoming an even closer "family," or murdering each other and hiding the bodies.


2. Having quality time with some old friends. We were given the opportunity to stay at Estes Park, which is really close to Ft. Collins, where David and Sarah Greer, two of the most amazing people I know, now live. They were two people who became an indespensable part of my life in Alabama, and who taught me many lessons about powerful love for God and love for each other. Some other friends from Alabama will be arriving there on Friday and Saturday, so hopefully I'll at least get to see them as well.


3. A change of scenery. Don't get me wrong, Abilene is a good place, but there is a whole lot of nothing to look at here. You have to really appreciate the people in a place like this. The snow-capped vistas of the Rocky Mountain National Park will be a welcome sight. I'll have my new Kodak in hand as well.


4. A week of not stressing. This is going to be the hardest one to acheive, because it will be completely a matter of will power, because my work load right now makes doing something like going to Colorado for a week look like academic suicide. But it will all work out. It always does.

It's great to be blessed with a life that allows me to do things like this. I constantly am reminded of the incredible circumstances I am consistently placed within, and the blessings of that. God has allowed me into a life that includes things like this, and, even though this next week is just a vacation, I want to use it to the praise of God. I'm sure the awesomeness of the Rockies will help inspire those kinds of thoughts.