Website...

Well I've decided to just do a blog of sorts on my website, so, probably will update this from time to time but will mainly update my website. Check it out!

Jonathan's Website

Great Escape 06/07

Well I have been the worship leader for Great Escape for the past 3 years and played electric the year before that. I had been struggling with whether or not I should do GE again this year or not due to the fact that I'm hoping to graduate by next summer. After much thought I finally decided that I would not be able to put the time and energy into GE that it needed to be a successful ministry. Plus I figured it was just time to let someone else take over and see what they could do with it. So now I'm not leading. But now I am still in the band playing electric again. A guy named Blake Russell will be leading in the fall and we've become pretty good friends over the past month. I didn't pick the leader, I made sure of that. I told Bobby that I would let him know who was interested and leave it in his hands. So anyway, Blake ended up asking me if I was interested in playing electric. I said sure, I'd give it a shot. I'm pretty excited about it. I haven't gotten to play electric in a while after playing acoustic every week for so long. It's coming back to me. We've got a great band. I've purchased some new guitar effects and accessories that are fun and will be great tools. Have a pretty nice rig now. I actually just won one more pedal that will go in the empty space on my pedalboard. Got a great deal on it, as in a 1/3 of the normal price. Anyway...


Well on a much lower note, Rocky Johnson, our youth minister has found a new church near Decatur. Rocky was and still is, a great friend and mentor. Made working at the church alot more fun and just enjoyable. He will be missed. But, luckily I know a few people in the Decatur area. He and his family are actually in Decatur and I was able to stop by and see them in their new house this past weekend, so that was really nice. I'll get to see them from time to time which is great. Didn't move to some crazy place like Iowa or something. Anyway, just a man who really made an impact on my life.

Well, I hope to update this more often and have this as something my family can check from time to time to see a few things about what's going on in my life.

Soooo......

Well, I originally created this blog just so I could post things about my Moab trip, but I think I may write a little something here from time to time. Xanga is ok, but, I really don't find it all that interesting anymore. Blogspot looks cleaner to me. Anyway, not a whole lot going on this summer. Well, there is and isn't. I don't have tons to speak of, but I am keeping decently busy. Just bought a pretty sweet Dell laptop the other day. Then I bought a desk to go in my room and man, it looks good... I mean really good. heh. Always wanted an L shaped wrap around desk and it fits perfectly where I have it. Maybe I'll take a picture sometime. Trying to get things set up and more organized nicely so maybe some day I'll actually record some stuff. But maybe that's all in my head. A nice thought of "if I just get this and that done, get everything looking nice and professional, then the cool songs will just come to me and I'll be able to record them". Maybe I'm fooling myself. But hey, we'll see.

Gotten to make some new friends recently and hang out with some other people I hadn't in a while. Been doing alot of activities such as Ultimate Frisbee, Soccer, and any other random thing we've thought to do. I'd say overall this has been a pretty good summer. Although I should be taking some classes right now... I'm not... Still hoping to be out no later than next summer. Need to get by the school to talk about classes for the fall. Shooting to take 15hrs... but they may shoot me instead. Procrastination...

Well, I guess that's it for now.

Jonathan

Back in the Pizza Parlor... but...

MY BRAKES WORK! Dropped it off last night so that I could ride with a guy from California on a trail today. Got back in time to pick it up. Seems to be working just fine. Ran it through a drive-thru wash to get all the dust and sand off. Suprisingly clean for $6. It was one just like LaserWash. Anyway, Tonight was a raffle. They were raffling off some really nice things. Tools, a winch, gift certificates, XM Radios, and a few other things. I wasn't going to buy any of the tickets but at the last minute figured, what the heck, and bought 3. $10 bucks a piece. Aaaand actually ended up winning something. Won a gas/water can carrier that you can mount either on the roof or if you have a tire-carrier bumper or even inside. Just the carrier, no can. Costs $100... soooo, not too bad in my opinion...

Well, afraid I can't post any pictures sense I'm not on my computer. Pretty frusterating. But oh well. Definitely has been nice having the 2GB memory stick. Plenty of room for taking pictures at 5MP. I've taken quite a few and will have quite a time sorting through them. Took a good bit of video but didn't really get as much as I thought I would... of course, I did miss a couple of days of wheeling. My in car video mount didn't work as well as I thought it would. Bounced around alot more than I expected. So, people may get a little sea sick watching the footage. Will try to edit something out of it. Oh, and I should have clarified, Mike, the river in the pictures below is the Colorado River. The Green River and Colorado River meet in one of the canyon areas around here and the Colorado continues.

I believe that I'll be leaving in the morning. There are some guys from Lubbock who are heading out pretty early and heading to Albuquerque where they have some family. They've offered for me to stay with them, but we'll see. I may just see how I feel at that point because they're talking about leaving around 6am and it's around 6hrs to Albuquerque. So, may try to make it a bit farther so I don't have to drive so much in one day. Find an inexpensive hotel along the way. But like I said, we'll see. The guys from Houston are probably leaving after tomorrows run, but... I just don't really feel like chancing breaking something at this point. I've already spent a bit just fixing the stupid brake issue and don't want to spend more time and money to fix something that would probably be more expensive. Plus, I'm just ready to head back to Nac. I've really really enjoyed this trip and would like to think that I could do more to my truck and come back in a year or 2 and do alot more and enjoy it even more and maybe even bring somebody with me. But, time will tell. This will most likely be my last post from Moab. I plan to be back sometime Saturday with tons of pictures, so, once I'm back with a faster connection I can add alot more to this. Of course it may just be easier to tell yall in person. But for the people not in Nac, I will do my best to summarize the trip well through this page. Again, thank you all for your prayers and e-mails, etc. Please continue to pray that nothing brakes on the way home and I can get home smoothly and safely... See yall soon!

Jon

Hiking around Moab...

Well first off, this is what my cabin looks like on the inside. Used the fisheye lens so you could actually see more of it. Not too bad. Works for me. And yes, the PC is sitting on the top bunk so I can get a better signal.


Hard to see in this picture, but this is a wide shot of the Portal RV Park with my cabin on the left side. If you click on it you can probably see it better. Anyway, that is the view I get to see in the morning. Not too shabby.
One of the Moab signs. It's been plastered with random stickers. A little suprised they haven't changed it out. But I guess once they do it will just get stickered again.


Here is a look down one of the sidewalks. Plenty of little shops and stores to go in and check out. Some nice eating places as well. It really kinda reminds me of The Drag in Austin. If you look close you can actually see me in this picture...



And yes, gas is a bit more expensive here. Was glad that I was walking and not wasting gas today. Although I do have a pretty nice tan now. Of course, my left side is darker than the right due to driving with my arm out of the window mainly while offroading... trying to watch where my wheels are going to go. Pretty neat to be able to just go down the street and look up to see these mountains and rocks all around you. Thanks to everyone for the birthday calls and messages! I really appriciate it! Is a bit weird being away from everyone on my birthday. I look forward to being back in Nac. See yall soon!

Just another day in Moab...

Well I got the parts in this morning, so that's good. Went back by a shop this morning to talk to them about maybe installing the parts for me. They don't have time today, but will tomorrow. So, they gave me a price that didn't seem bad. So, I'd rather just drop it off with them in the morning and get it back by noon instead of having to bug some of the guys here to death to help me install the stuff. I know I said that I was sure they'd help me, but tonight is the do your own thing night and I think that alot of the guys have things planned. So, anyway, should be back in order by noon tomorrow. The trails they were taking today were kinda iffy for me anyway.

Well, didn't bump into anyone this morning who was going out to do anything, so, I'll figure out a way to entertain myself. I think I'm probably just going to pack a backpack and go take some pictures. Don't worry, not going off into the mountains or anything, at least nothing to where I'd have a chance to get lost. I'll have my GPS though. Yeah, Mike, you'd love to come up here and backpack or MTN. Bike. Those guys are everywhere. Would be cool to have a bike today. The pizza was pretty good last night. Plus the fact that it was free. They had one pizza that had a cheese that seemed to have a Chalula type sauce mixed into it then had some chicken mixed in... man.. it was good.

Figured I'd just post a few more pictures from yesterday.

A nice day of riding... not driving...

Well, I stopped by a parts store to talk to them about parts and we'll see what they get me tomorrow morning. From what I understand, most people think that the caliper must have frozen, quite possibly at some point on the trail(most likely at a particular spot at which I will show you later) and just ground my brake pad in to the rotor and killed it. So, that makes me feel better that maybe it was something that I couldn't have necessarily prevented before leaving on the trip. Because I don't feel that I ride my brakes hard under normal conditions. But on these trails... they get a HUGE workout. Just got stuck from heating up and going through water crossing... never the less, it's something that has to be fixed before I head home. And will get fixed. Plenty of great and knowledgeable guys here that can and will help me out.

So, with no chance of wheeling, and having missed the 8am caravan out(not because I overslept but because I was at the shops and part stores till after it was too late), I bumped into a guy and his dad that we had met up with in Amarillo from Florida. Cool guys. Bumped into them at Burger King when I was getting breakfast. I was just going to hang around Moab and check things out (which doesn't take too long). These guys were planning a trip to CanyonLands National Park and invited me to ride along. We had a great time. Got along great. Saw alot of neat sights and did a little offroading through the park. Went down some switchbacks and right up next to cliffs and canyons(hence the name...). Saw some Indian writings. Just got back around 5pm. Long day out.

And yes, yesterday was the hardest offroading I have ever done.

Here is the hardest thing I have ever had to do. There was no bypass around this...

Look so so? Maybe not too bad? Check out this picture of the guy who went before me from a better angle...

There was a good size drop off to the passenger side about a foot... maaaaybe 2 foot from where the tires land. (pictures don't do it justice) And when I say "land".. I mean you just about, no no, you definitely nose dive the front down, the slooooowly pull forward and let the back drop down. No damage though.. well... except probably the brakes. Except that I didn't notice any problem till a good ways down the trail. Anyway, so, that's the most exciting offroad obstacle to date. Anyway, another shot with me in it. Well I've got to go grab some supper. Nissan is buying us all "Zak's Pizza". The guys I rode with today said they ate there last night and probably would be finding something different tonight... so... we'll see if it's any good.

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Will try to call later...

So close... yet so far...

So, let's all think together... What's something else one should check before going on a trip? What's something you should definitely get checked especially before going offroading? What did I forget to check? My brakes... Everything was going well. We were on a very long and pretty challenging trail (at least for me). Went down quite a few big drop offs and up some big ledges. Made everything I tried. We were less than a mile from the end of the trail when I noticed my Xterra wasn't sounding right. It had a vibrating feeling and was creaking a bit. First I thought it was just sand in the brakes or something. But I finally got out and we got to looking and long story short, found that I had worn my front passenger side brake pad down to nothing... yeah... Luckily I wheel with guys that can fix just about anything or at least get you off the trails. So, running with 3 brakes right now. We're having a Nissan Repair Clinic tonight... great timing... Will talk to some guys tonight on what all I need to do. At least this happend before I went on Lions Back... might not have been the best thing in the world... Have a feeling I may not be doing it at all now.

On a lighter note. I thought it was going to pour on us when we were at a high point on the mountain but it just dripped a little bit. Nothing bad. The rest of the run was great. Saw more incredible scenery and got to drive some fun trails. This is a picture well before my brake problems. I know some other guys got some great action shots of me that I'll be getting later.
Finally, here is my cabin. At least at outside shot. Will take inside shots later. Have to go to the repair clinic soon... The winds are starting to get pretty crazy here. The inside of my Xterra will need alot of cleaning once I get back... there is a fine, and in other places THICK layer of sand all over the dash and everywhere else...