Here There be Dragons, Part I: "Wonderfully UnWholesome Climes"

 Just got back from a trip to the East Indies with my buddy Hank.  In Java, we met up with Hank's friend, Bryan, an ex-pat who teaches English when he's not playing gamelan music.  Everywhere we went, people wanted to take our picture.  I'm not sure if it's just cause we were bule (foreigner, also: albino) or because I was travelling with "Mr. Harry Potter."

"An Abomination of Desolation"

...is how Father Hubbard described the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes when he first explored the area.  I finally made it out there on a trip with our dispatcher Ryan (aka "Radio".)

What Second Commandment?

This cross outside Groom, Texas, stands at 190 feet and is claimed to be the largest in the Western Hemisphere.  Because of the panhandle's dead flat landscape, you can see it for over twenty miles away.

The Floodgates of Heaven Open

We got about three inches of rain in a twenty-four hour period last week.  The annual average is eleven.

Holy Mother of God, That's a Big Statue

Triple A notes that at 180 tons, this is one of the larger Marian statues in the United States. I said a prayer for safe passage and of thanksgiving that I was finally off of I-80.