February Flyin!

Cody texted me this morning to point out the fortuitous forecast today: Sunny, 45 degrees, and moderate pre-frontal winds! After getting the afternoon off, we quickly hatched a plan to meet at the LZ and head for launch.


It's been a mild winter, but there have been a couple of storms since our January flights making launch less accessible. After evaluating the conditions, we decided it was worth the extra work to get us and our gliders to launch.


On launch, we were greeted with strong but steady 20+ mph winds, straight into launch, with a slight Westerly component. Cody "threw me off" first, and soon joined me in the narrow lift band, where some nice off-season thermals quickly lifted us 300-400' over launch.


We both looked for the right opportunity to bench up to the upper mountains. After about 20 minutes, Cody found the thermal that allowed him to drift back to the face and climb the mountain!


I made 7 or 8 attempts, but my lower performance single-surfaced wing yielding less of a glide range, combined with my conservative nature, always sent me back out front over launch. Eventually I found myself 100' off the deck over the LZ considering my landing approach. I found a nice elevator over the lower PG launch, and was able to climb out back over launch.


I found another thermal that took me high enough to drift back to the lower flanks of the upper peak, but the lift was not there. Attempting the glide back out from there appeared a bit dicey, so after an hour and a half of fun, I flew over the back with about 30' clearance and landed nicely on the lee side.


This choice resulted in a longer walk back to our vehicles, but the beautiful February airtime was all worth it! Good flyin' with ya, Cody!

The friendly skies of Cache Valley

Today's forecast was not good for hang gliding, but I still got just over an hour of airtime!


My neighbor, Greg has a homebuilt 2000 Kitfox. It has a 100 hp two-stroke engine, allowing it to climb easily and cruise nicely at about 80-90 knots.


We buzzed Short Divide launch, then flew past Gunsight Peak. The stick/flaperons & elevator and footpedal/rudder controls are quite responsive, requiring minimal control input.


We flew around the valley for about an hour, spotted two young bald eagles, cruised low over numerous waterways, then banked it up over our neighborhood, before heading back to the airport.

With the birds I'll share...

It has been over 5 months since my last flight, and just over 5 years since my last January flight. The road to launch is usually snowed in, and the valleys are usually socked-in with inversions and near zero temperatures. This has been an unseasonably warm, dry winter, and yesterday Cody & I took advantage of a favorable forecast to bag an hour and a half of rare January airtime!

(Matt S. on Vimeo)
Conditions on launch were sunny, about 45 degrees, with a smooth 20 mph breeze coming straight into launch. After launching, we explored the narrow lift band, and took turns finding the tops of the regular soft-edged thermals. The lift seemed to top out about 300 feet over launch, not quite high enough to allow us to bench up. Although we did not have any record-setting climbs, it was a great January gift, getting 2012 off to a great start!

Elder Shoemaker - the Younger...

After studying and working hard through a year at USU, our oldest son, Joshua, took a leap of faith and decided to submit his "papers" to serve a full-time LDS mission.


Keri and I have always prepared and encouraged our boys to serve, but ultimately the choice is still theirs.


On June 16th, 2011 he received his call, signed by the prophet, President Thomas S. Monson! It arrived during our annual "Cousins' Camp" family reunion, which was being held in Ovid, Idaho, near Bear Lake. I had to work until Thursday, so I brought the sealed envelope with me to the reunion.


On Friday, June 17th, we all gathered together, along with two local missionaries serving in the Montpelier area, to watch, on the edge of our seats, as Josh opened and read the call!


He kept himself and all of us in suspense, by only revealing one line of the letter at a time, reading slowly, word by word. He finally came to the part which said, "You are assigned to labor in the Belgium/Netherlands Mission," where he would be speaking Dutch! Cousin's were screaming, Mom & grandparents were crying, dad was filming, Josh had an ear to ear grin as the reality of the surreal moment began to sink in.


There was great rejoicing in Ovid, and no doubt, beyond!


Josh spent the next three months working, to save (and spend) some money, and preparing spiritually for the "Best Two Years" of his life, scheduled to begin September 21st as he entered the MTC. During these three months, Keri spent hours and hours helping fill out paperwork, including passport and visa applications, doctor and dentist sign-off's, FBI clearance, letter of Apostille, etc, etc.. Time is of the essence, as some of these applications cannot be submitted until a previous application returns! It is no wonder that many missionaries do not have their passport and visa finalized until after weeks in the MTC - sometimes not until a day or two before departure.

Keri also helped work our way down a long checklist of clothing and supplies required for each missionary, while at the same time, making plans for Josh, er Elder Shoemaker's farewell. Josh was progressing well with his spiritual preparations, but some days he seemed to hang on to his teen-ager mentality a bit too much. Keri and I exercised great patience and faith, as we put our trust in God to help successfully get Josh to the MTC!


Weeks and months of preparations culminated as the farewell and reception came off nicely, and we made plans to drive down to the MTC, on September 21st.


The whole family drove down, where we shared a nice lunch at the Orem Spaghetti Factory.


We were a bit early, so we waited near the temple until the appointed arrival time.


We drove through the gate, and I'm sure that, by this point, Keri was more nervous than Josh!


We were greeted by sidewalks lined with friendly missionaries waving as we drove ahead to our assigned stop.


We arrived and were immediately met by elders who allowed for a very quick good-bye.


They then whisked Elder Shoemaker and his luggage away to his MTC home! Although we missed him already, Keri and I breathed a huge sigh of relief that he was now in the Lord's hands, and embarking on two years of life-changing service.


After two months of intensive language (Dutch) and spiritual training with his MTC companion, Elder Wright, Elder Shoemaker boarded a plane and was on his way to Europe on a 10-hour flight! Keri and I were able to speak with him during his layover in Portland, then we tracked his intercontinental flight on the internet.


The very next day, President and Sister Brubaker had already posted a picture of Elder Shoemaker, showing him safely at the mission home!


Elder Shoemaker received his first assignment, in a "quaint" little apartment, serving with Elder Schulte, in the city of Gent. I told Keri that I had predicted his first companion, because I found the mission 'blog maintained by his parents in Indiana and showed it to Keri, two days before we found out who his first companion would be!

Josh struggled a bit the first week, battling a nasty cough and cold - not to mention a bit of culture shock. From all that we can gather, Elder Schulte has been a great trainer for Josh, no doubt drawing from his own experience to help Elder Shoemaker adjust to mission life in a totally foreign land. The members in their area are also very helpful and supportive of the missionaries! In Gent, the primary language is Flemish, somewhat related to Dutch, but still very different. Fortunately, they found opportunities to speak and even teach in Dutch, and of course, some in English.

You can follow Elder Shoemaker's letters and adventures on Elder Shoemaker's Mission Blog which we have set up and which Keri updates regularly!


*(Click "Play" then click "Pause" to allow the video to fully load first, to avoid buffering delays.)
I just felt a need to update this 'blog, since we just had the awesome opportunity to video chat with him on Christmas morning for 40 minutes! Here is a video which I edited together, including some from that video call.


We experience blessings daily from Elder Shoemaker's service. His service has a great influence in the lives of many, including our extended family here in the States.


We know that he is being watched over, and pray that he will be an instrument of service in God's hands, to not only build himself, but bless the lives of countless people in his mission.

St George!

We took a quick family trip to southern Utah for the 35th St George Marathon - basically from one end of Utah down to the other!
With the hot forecast in Utah's Dixie, we got a rental car for the trip, as our van seems to have "issues" on long, hot drives.


The only rental car in the class we reserved was a new Nissan Cube - it is a funky square car, which gets plenty of looks on the freeway.


It drove fairly nice & got good gas mileage - but I wouldn't buy one.

The hotel reservation I had for a non-smoking room with two beds turned out to be one bed in a smoking room!! So we found an overpriced room that marginally worked at a dive hotel on the Boulevard. At least they had cable and AC, but the old AC unit woke us up all night, and the Wi-Fi only worked if you were standing outside your room.
But we were not there for the hotel - so we tolerated it for one night, and focused on the race. The pre-race expo and dinner were nice. We drove around town a bit, and then watched BYU beat USU before going to bed.
It was warm already at 4 am when I walked 5 blocks from our hotel to the finish area, where I boarded a bus and was shuttled to the start line, along with about 6,000 other runners. The whole event is a logistical marvel, as it has become the 15th largest marathon in the country, with runners from all over the world.

The start line, about 2,000+ feet in elevation higher, was cooler - maybe in the low 50's. I relaxed, prepared and waited in the pre-dawn light over an hour for the 6:45 start time.
After the national anthem, the wheelchair racers started, then 5 minutes later, the runners gun went off, and the stationary mass of people slowly gained momentum and eventually crossed the chip-timed start line close to running speed.


As the sun came up, the beauty of the mountains meeting the red rock desert was revealed, only to be interrupted by the notorious mile and a half "Veyo hill" between miles 7-9. I backed off my pace and cleared the hill just fine, then picked it back up on some gentle rollers prior to the big descents.
I crossed the halfway point at 1:45, just as I had planned. I wanted to run a reverse split, slightly faster second half, to come in at 3:30, or even 3:25. By now there was a noticeable breeze in our face - not noticeably debilitating, but just enough that you realized some relief by drafting a bit behind another runner, as long as their pace matched yours.


As the course dropped past beautiful Snow Canyon, and then into St George, the valley heat came up to meet us. I had hydrated well at every aid station from the start, consumed over 200 calories per hour, but the heat took its toll on many runners. For some it hastened the dreaded Wall, resulting in long stretches of walking. For me it just meant a headache, some minor tightness or cramping in my calves, and my pace slowed from a 7:45 to about an 8:10.

There are many hand made posters and signs along the way for encouragement and humor. I wish I could remember them all - such as, "Toenails are overrated", or "Pain is temporary, pride is forever", or "Kia Kaha", or "Run, Forrest, Run",


or this silly one around mile 26, where the course runs right by a mortuary!

So I distracted myself by reading signs and watching spectators in attempts to ignore the late race discomfort, stretched as needed, dumped water on my head every mile, and just forced my legs to "bring it on home".


I was very happy to see Keri, the boys and Clobber at the finish chute, as I crossed the line with a 3:33:36!


I took a half hour to re-hydrate, eat & recover, then joined the fam as we cheered other friends on at the finish - such as a friend who used to be in our ward,


our neighbor couple (first-timers)


and Landon's 15 year old friend, Mason (first timer!!).

It was an awesome event, course and atmosphere, involving hundreds, if not thousands of community volunteers.
We listened to conference as we drove home, glad to be back in our own beds.
My legs and body are a bit sore and tired today, but I am getting around fine with no apparent injury or pain :-) Thanks for the fun trip!

More Hang Doggin'

Clobber & I took advantage of a respectable soaring forecast combined with a warm southwest breeze to get some Saturday afternoon airtime!


All three of us had nice flights of around 2 hours!