Ha ha.... Tonka...

Since about the middle of spring this year I had been intending to do a brief solo backpacking trip, and I just never did it. Cindy and I had a great trip, about which I've written here. But a couple of weeks ago I finally did it. Nothing too spectacular - there's a state park just over an hour away with a seven-mile backpacking trail, and that's where I went. Part of the reason I chose this location was that the name of the place is Ha Ha Tonka State Park. But when I got there, I found that I had underestimated the place.

I arrived just after dark, picked up a trail map and started hiking. After a bit I turned off my flashlight and decided there was enough moonlight to leave it off. It was dreamy and a bit surreal - and I had one of the coolest prayer times I can remember. I hiked about two miles, found a likely spot just under the crest of a ridge and set up my tent there. It rained slightly and dipped below freezing for a bit during the night, so I had a layer of moisture on my tent in the morning that prevented my seeing much outside the little window. As the sun came up, I could hear rifle shots echoing through a hundred draws and valleys around me - a reminder that youth rifle season started that morning in Missouri. An understandably nervous buck approached my tent snorting; I gave a polite "ahem," and I could hear his hoofbeats retreating. I was glad he chose that course of action instead of one similar to the deer-convertible incident in Tommy Boy. I lay there enjoying the sound of the wind for a while, then got up and unzipped the tent flap. I was astonished at the view. I had unknowingly picked one of the best places on the trail to set up my tent. From my ridge top there was a glimpse of the Lake of the Ozarks in one direction, a corduroy series of increasingly blue ridges in another, and the burnt-out ruins of a nineteenth-century castle (built by an early Kansas City business baron) in another. The rest of the trail was caffeine to the soul as well. It was a gift.

The trip was exactly what I needed for several reasons, most of which are none of your business. (And no, Cindy and I aren't having marital difficulties, for those of you whose nature leads you to fear the worst.) God apparently knew I needed that appointment with Him, too. The counseling issues I've been dealing with since are way over my head, but I haven't drowned yet. I guess in that way you could say the Holy Spirit is a bit like a scuba mask... that's probably not a simile destined for mass publication, eh?

I liked it so much I went back the following weekend with my brother-in-law Kevin Carlson. It was great again. And the next day when we were driving through Camdenton, the local Dairy Queen was having a "customer appreciation day," during which everything was 50% off. We... ate a lot of Dairy Queen food. Kevin wondered aloud if heaven would be like a Dairy Queen on customer appreciation day. I think he might be onto something there, except that heaven will add Henry Weinhard's Root Beer and an extensive steak menu.

In other news, one of the other churches in El Do this week got my weekly "Worst Church Sign in Town" award. Taking the honors was a sign that read, "Be thankful for what you have, not what you don't."