So today’s my birthday and Kimberly completely surprised with a wonderful gift. She set up childcare and took me on a surprise “date.” After we finished breaking down and putting away church, dropping the kids off, and grabbing a quick bite for lunch we found ourselves at the Frederick airport.

She had arranged for me to take my first flying lesson (and only lesson

unless we can come up with $8,000). The lesson began with pre-flight training. We went around the plane and checked everything from the air pressure of the tires, to fuel levels, to instruments and various buttons and gadgets.

I learned how to “taxi” the plane to the runway, and the flight instructor actually let me take off, and (almost)

land the plane. Kimberly screamed when we felt the feeling of actual flight upon takeoff. She told me later that she couldn’t see who was actually flying – all she could see were my hands on the yoke. We flew around the Frederick area but to be honest I didn’t do much sight seeing. I was focused on about five things at once (keeping the nose and wings lined up correctly to the horizon, controlling the thrust, and watching for other planes in the area . . .etc. We saw our old town home in Spring Ridge and the Lake Linganore Lake.

It was the coolest thing that I have done in along time – thank you Kimberly (and kids) for a great birthday.

PS-if you are going to take your first flight lesson . . . don’t wear flip-flops.

Never put the words “uneventful” in a blog/facebook entry before the trip is completely over. On the way back from vacation one hour south of Roanoke, VA (where my wife and her family are from) the van began to spew red liquid, smoke, and would go no further than the gas station we limped into.

The van had begun to make some funny noises that to the untrained mechanics ear sounded “a little funny” but nothing to be concerned about – boy were we wrong. We went into the gas station and asked if a mechanic’s shop was close by and within 20 minutes there was an elderly gentlemen looking under our hood. His news was not good and the quote he gave was $1,500.

We opted to pay him $200 to tow us to Roanoke, VA for Kimberly’s uncle David (aka “Hoo Pop”) gracefully agreed to help us. This kind man also saw our family of six and figured very quickly that we were not all going to climb into his tow truck. So he graciously and without charge offered to let us borrow his brand new extended cab (which I drove) to lead him to Salem, VA where David’s shop is located.

“We”[1] originally thought it was simply low transmission fluid levels, but after changing it and filling it back up as we headed back the next afternoon it began to spew fluid and smoke again. So we headed back to Roanoke and spent the night. David ended up completely pulling out the entire transmission, fixing a leaking “grey seal” and “overdrive belt” located inside.[2] I needed to go back home to work, and Kimberly and the kids stayed for several days until the work was completed (a total of eight days).

Our family is so thankful to God for getting us all back together in one piece and not having to take out a second mortgage on the house to fix Ole’ Blue. Also, we are thankful for family that came to our rescue. David took eight days from his summer vacation to fix our car and we are so thankful for this gracious act of love towards our family.

So the uneventful vacation became eventful — but what would vacation be if it were only calm, relaxing, and peaceful.