New Blog!

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Roanoke - Star City of the South

Roanoke's history began in the 1740s when Mark Evans and Tasker Tosh came from Pennsylvania and took up land close to the salt licks where the Indian and animal trails crossed in the center of the valley. The first village in the Roanoke Valley was called Gainsborough (1834), and soon after became known as Big Lick. Roanoke County was formed out of Botetourt County in 1838 and had a population of around 5,000. In 1852, the railroad came into the valley, but missed Big Lick. So, the town moved itself close to the tracks and took the name with it. The previous town of Big Lick became Old Lick, and, in 1874, the new center was chartered as the town of Big Lick. Seven years later, the Shenandoah Valley Railroad came into the town and Big Lick was then renamed Roanoke. The name came from the Indian word "Rawrenock", which was a name for the shell beads that were worn by the Indians and were traded regularly.

By 1882, Roanoke had become a crossroad for the railroad, which soon changed its name to Norfolk and Western Railway. Because of its rapid growth, it was chartered as the City of Roanoke in 1884. Roanoke is still a center for transportation, distribution, trade, manufacturing, health care, entertainment, recreation, attractions, and conventions, and has been awarded the title of "All-American City" on three occasions. Roanoke's population (which includes most of the surrounding cities and towns) has grown to 283,218.

Roanoke has also been named the "Festival City" because of the many festivals held here throughout the year. Some of these are Festival in the Park (which is offers a little bit of everything from concerts to sporting competitions that take place all over the city), Downtown Roanoke's Railway Festival, Henry Street Festival, Vinton's Dogwood Festival (state flower, you know), The Virginia Championship Chili Cook-off (which, sadly, I missed this year and will miss next year as well...Chase has been looking forward to this one for a long time), and the Strawberry Festival (which happens around the same time as the Chili Cook-off so you can normally get some chili and strawberry shortcake all within a short walk of each other).

My favorite part of the city is it's most visible attraction...the Mill Mountain Star. It's a 88.5-foot-high illuminated steel and concrete star that was placed high atop Mill Mountain in 1949, and is considered the World's Largest Man-made standing illuminated Star (even though those blasted Texans tried to outdo us). It uses 2000 feet of neon tubes and 17,500 watts of power. It stands there as a "symbol of the friendliness, industrial and civic progress of Roanoke". Press releases began to identify Roanoke as the "Star City of the South" because on some night you can see the star's glow for a 60-mile radius. I have come to love this star over the years (as my parents and Chase can tell you) and my signal after many long drives to Roanoke in my 14 years of being away, that I am finally home (that is, if I got in before midnight because that is when Roanoke "goes to bed" and turns off the star). Again, blogger is being picky about which pictures it wants to upload, so please check out pictures of the Star at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_Mountain_Star .

By far, the best thing in Roanoke, though, are my parents. :-) I will miss them VERY much while I am galavanting through Europe, but will try as hard as I can to return to see them at Christmas time.

Where do rocks come from?

This is a question many of us have pondered. Or, few of us...well, just Chase. Thank goodness my stepdad works at a rock quarry! He gave us the nickel tour, and we got to wear hard hats (which I look fabulous in, I must say...lol)! You can always know that anywhere you have to wear a hard hat there's going to be a good time.

We got to see where they were drilling holes for the day's 'shot'. They drop dynamite down the holes, and blow up a large section in order to excavate the stone that is freed. Large bulldozers pick up the stones and drop them into giant two-story trucks called 'eucs' which can carry up to 60-tons each. The eucs take these large stones to the 'jaw' which crushes them.

All of the crushed rock falls from the jaw onto a long conveyor which carries it out of the quarry. It falls onto a large pile. There the larges sizes of rocks are collected, and the smaller bits fall through to another conveyor. This conveyor carries the smaller rocks to another pile, where they collect and smaller pieces fall through to another conveyor and so on and so on. It goes through this NINE TIMES. Did you know there are nine sizes of rocks? Well, there are. And the most expensive rocks are the smallest. Neato! In addition to that they also use these mineral aggregates to manufacture lime, topsoil, and other various and sundry products you never imagined could be made out of crushed rocks.

Guys in big dumptrucks drive up to a pile of rocks, such as 4's, or 7's, and they fill'er up. Then they go to the scale house, where they get weighed. That's where my dad works. He weighs trucks all day long. Then those dumptrucks carry the crushed rock to places like, umm, railroads, and driveways, and umm, well I'm sure there are lots of other places that need crushed rock because that places stays busy.

After the tour we got to go to the very top rim of the quarry and watch the shot! There was a loud siren, then we saw a lot of smoke and dust and a rockslide, then we heard a kaboom! A loud, earth-shattering kaboom! We caught a picture of it, which is actually the first picture that you see.

All in all, the quarry was quite fascinating. Chase would probably like to go get a degree in geology so that he could work with my dad, but that would take another 4 years, and we've got other stuff to do.

Farewell PB Youth!!

Tonight was the final night that the youth from Project Badi are in town, and so they gave their last performance at the Bahai Center. I will definately miss them! I love you joonams!

More juicy Micah

This afternoon, Bahar and I went to visit Pooneh, Mahan, and Micah Ghiassi one last time before Chase and I leave for the Czech Republic (Pooneh and company will also be in Memphis for the month). All I can say about these pictures is #1: Check out the mother/son admiration; #2: Check out the hair!; #3: Check out me getting to enjoy the juiciness of a sleeping baby on my shoulder. He is truly a beautiful child! :-)

Project Badi in the 'Boro!!

So, tonight was the final fireside held by the 11 youth from Project Badi who have been in Murfreesboro (which is about 30 minutes from Nashville) for the past two weeks. These youth have sacrificed a full month out of there fun-filled summer to do service projects throughout Florida (Gainesville, Tampa, West Palm, and Ft. Lauderdale) and Nashville. There are a total of 55 youth who are participating in Project Badi, and who started their journey a little over three weeks ago when they traveled to West Palm, FL, to start their training. During the first week, the youth all remained together in West Palm to learn how to conduct Reading Circles, which are small tutoring circles conducted in low-income neighborhoods and are aimed at helping children with their reading skills. The children who participate are also taught such principles as love, honesty, respect, truthfulness, and many other virtues. After that first week, they all split and are sent to different regions...and we were blessed with 11 of the finest! I might be a little biased in my opinion, but oh well...I love these guys! I am sad to say that tomorrow is their last day here, and my last day to see some of the youth that I have grow to adore over the past year. They are holding a performance tomorrow night at the Bahai Center (they do skits, a rap, some puppet shows...MAJOR entertainment) and I am sure I will shed some tears. These youth are strong, radiant, and the amount of love that flows from them is something that is undeniable. They love everyone, unconditionally...and you can feel that just by being around them. THAT is hard to find. I admire them, and they are the essence of what I hope my children will be.

Who wants to be a Superhero?

Last night, Chase and I discovered what has to be the most humorous show on television...Who Wants to be a Superhero? It began with 11 people dressed in their best superhero costumes arriving at a home where they were contacted by Stan Lee who, for those of you who don't know, is the mastermind behind such superheroes as X-men, Fantastic Four, and many others. These "superheroes" must endure many tests to show that they are worthy to gain the ultimate prize...to become immortal! They will have their own comic book and movie on the SciFi channel...all from Stan Lee himself! If you have the chance to check this out, it comes on Thursday nights on the SciFi channel at 9/8C. (In case you're wondering, I do have my favorite....I am cheering for Creature and her crazy white dreads)

Sorry for the delay...

...but lots is going on here with our upcoming move to the Czech Republic! We have been working on finalizing everything and basically selling almost everything that we own! In the process of doing that, we have also had to go through a MASSIVE amount of JUNK that Chase and I both seem to have accumulated over the years. I can tell you that we have about 5 full trash bags in our living room right now, and I bagged at least 8 garbage bags full of things (mostly clothes) to take to Goodwill. Now, for me, this has been extremely freeing! I have begun to love the phrase "out with the old, in with the new"! We have even managed to sell both of our computers and, with the money we made, buy a brand new laptop which is a million times better than our computers combined. I am typing on it right now, I might add, and have developed quite a relationship with this beautiful electronic device. We continue to pray that our trip will go smoothly and that our life in Hluboka will be as amazing as we dream it will be...we hope that you will keep us in your prayers as well! God is truly leading us on a path of adventure!

We have also been blessed to have the youth from Project Badi here for the last week and a half! I am always so thrilled to see my joonams from all over the south, particularly the ones who I grew extremely close to while I was in Florida (namely Adelia and Jordan). These youth are truly amazing in every sense and I am always so inspired by their entoooosiasm (that's for Yasha) and love of the Faith. They get all the "afarins" that I can give! They were here just last night for a fireside that we hosted...but, alas, I have no pictures to show you now...I will try to fix that tomorrow. I will work on putting some pictures up from their performance this weekend as well...

Sooooo, since it is way too early in the morning and WAY past my bedtime...I must say goodbye. Goodbye.

Wedding Pictures!

I am not going to write...I will just put the pictures up! Enjoy!

Welcome to the world Micah Ghiassi!

We are extremely excited to welcome the newest addition to the world, Micah Ghiassi! This beautiful baby blessed the lives of our wonderful friends Pooneh and Mahan Ghiassi on June 19th at 5:04pm, weighing in at 8 pounds 4 ounces. Check out the hair on that boy!

Czech Republic, here we come!

Chase and I just found out recently that we have been accepted to come and work at Townshend International School in Hluboka, Czech Republic!! Chase will be working as the Biology/Chemistry teacher and I will be teaching Kindergarten! We are still working on Visas, passports, and such, so we would love any prayers that you can send our way! We are both soooooo excited! Check out Townshend at www.townshend.cz. :-)

Yes, we're back!

So, yeah, I forgot to post that we actually made it back to Tennessee! After our car trouble (which ended up being the radials being blown in one of our tires) we got it fixed and headed back home. We made it through New Mexico and halfway through the Northern part of Texas and then the other tire gave out. So there we are, in the middle of nowhere Texas and no tire shops anywhere around. Luckily, the Jimmy had a spare tire that was another new tire. So, we changed the tire (with some mighty fine teamwork, I must add) and drove home. All in all, we visited a total of 10 states and an equal amount of National Monuments and National Parks! What did we learn? Well, let me give a few examples:

1. We don't like Kansas!!! (I don't know how much I can emphasize that)
2. Don't try to "make it to the next gas station" while driving through Kansas (especially on Sunday).
3. Get your brakes fixed WELL in advance if you plan to visit any state and do off-roading.
4. We LOVE Colorado!!
5. Bears will look in your car windows during the night.
6. Rest stops in Texas don't include bathrooms.
7. Arizona and New Mexico look alot alike.
8. Don't try to make it through a National Park in an hour.
9. Bahai Institutes are typically very hard to find.
10. Couples should DEFINATELY travel cross-country together at some point in their lives!!

Razing Arizona

DAY 6 - Today (Wednesday) would be our most accomplished day yet! We awoke this morning in the beauty of the Mesa Verde National Park and decided that we had seen quite enough cliffdwellings, so we packed up and headed out of Colorado into Navajo Nation. Soon we found ourselves at Four Corners Monument, where the corners of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, meet...and for a meer $3 you can stand in four states at the same time!!! Yeah, it was cool...but not as cool as standing in five states at the same time!

Next, we moved south to Chinle, Arizona, gateway to the Canyon de Chelley. Chase had been here before a while ago with his mother, so he made quite the excellent tour guide! Canyon de Chelley features Spider Rock, home to the Navajo deity Spider Woman, who taught the Navajo how to weave.

And thank God she did, because at our next stop, we saw local Navajo women weaving ornate rugs by hand. This was at the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site. This was the central hub of trade for local Native American crafts. It served to both exploit Indian handiwork, as well as spread their culture across America. We missed the last tour by 7 minutes, so Chase had to act as a fill in tour guide.

We raced southward towards the Petrified Forest National Park and Painted Desert, in hopes that we would make it there before it closed. Luckily, we arrived at 6pm and the park closed at 7pm (and we got 3 stamps in our passport for this one folks!). For those of you who are planning to visit a National Park...don't attempt to do it in an hour! We found ourselves racing with another young couple (obviously of the tree-hugging persuasion) to each point of the Park. Though this provided for much entertainment, we found ourselves rushing to take pictures...sometimes even just jumping out of the car, running to the overlook, taking some quick pictures, and running back to the car. This is NOT recommended! We missed the best part of the Park by 5 minutes, and left the Park feeling defeated. Better luck next time.

Apparently, Jimmy was sad about it too, because as we were driving away from the Park, he began to shake. Shake like Jimmy hasn't shaken before. He shook so bad, that we are stuck here in a $30 motel in Holbrook, Arizona, until we can have him checked out in the morning. Prayers for tests and difficulties? I think so....

Overall, it was a good day...we hit 4 NATIONAL POINTS OF INTEREST!!

The "Green Table"

DAY 5 - We awoke after a fantastic night of sleep in Ouray, mailed our postcards from the small little post office, and headed out of town toward Mesa Verde National Park. What we didn't realize, is that the road out of town has some of the most amazing views that we have seen during this entire trip (we now realize why they call it the Switzerland of the US). We have included a picture that we took when we were leaving Ouray to give you an idea of the grandeur of the mountains in this area of the country. Also, we have included some other pictures that we just thought were gorgeous!

We thought that we would take a shortcut over to Telluride by taking a little road called Ophir Pass...I mean, we had taken one of these back roads before, why couldn't we take this one? Well, we realized very quickly WHY we couldn't take this pass. Actually, we probably could have, but as Chase put it ever so bluntly, "I don't want to die today". And so, we didn't take Ophir Pass.

After a beautiful trip through the last part of the snow capped mountains of Colorado, we arrived at Mesa Verde National Park. We both loved this park! The cliffdwellings were absolutely gorgeous, and the scenery here is breathtaking (we have included pictures so you can see what we mean). We watched the sunset together (our first time to do that together) at Park Point and then decided to head down to the campsite to set up camp and get some rest. Believe it or not, we have been getting to bed by 10pm for almost this entire trip!

A day full of sites and adventures!

DAY 4 - We awoke Monday morning to a beautiful Colorado morning in Buena Vista (see picture). A gorgeous sunrise at 6am, a cool 40 degrees, a bear paw print on our window...that's right, A BEAR PAW PRINT ON OUR WINDOW!!! We quickly realized that a thin sheet of glass was all that kept us warm and safe in Hotel Jimmy and seperated us from being ripped apart by a bear. Hmmm...how about some morning prayers? I think so....

We fueled up, got some coffee and headed up Cottonwood Pass on our way out of Buena Vista and heading toward the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. As we ascend the mountain, we watch the temperature drop until it finally bottoms out at a crisp 24 degrees!! (You may wonder how we see the temp drop, but the Jimmy has a digital thermometer) Now, remember, we started at 45 degrees...and it was 90 degrees in Kansas...so we have seen a temperature change of about 66 degrees in less than two days. We are 2 miles above sea level and there is 6 feet of ice and snow on either side of the road. (See picture of Jenn on top of snow) At the very top of the mountain we realize that we are at the Continental Divide! On one side of us, all the ice that melts flows into the Pacific, and on the other, it flows into the Atlantic.

Marj had told us about the road that were marked "unpaved roads" and "other roads" on the map...but we had yet to experience those. Now was the time. As we stood there looking out over God's beauty, we also looked down a dirt road that had no railings and could easily lead to disaster if you are not too careful. More prayers? You got it! We headed down this road and tested out the brakes quite a bit (I think maybe we finally broke them in...hahaha). Jenn enjoyed the breathtaking scenery as Chase white-knuckled the steering wheel and listened to her descriptions of the surroundings. We have included some pictures of those surroundings as well...

After our harrowing adventuring down the mountain, which ended up taking us 90 minutes to go about 20 miles, we arrived at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Ahhh, our first use of the National Parks Pass (which got us in free) and the second stamp in our passport! Yeah, we are nerds. This natural wonder was formed over 2 million years ago by a volcanic eruption that met with the Gunnison river. Because of its hard igneous rock and slow moving water, it takes close to a century for it to erode just one inch! We peered into the gaping chasm many, many times and discovered that once you've seen one part of the Black Canyon, you have seen it all. There are only so many pegmatite dikes that one can stand. :-) One thing that did catch our eye, though, are the lunatics that decided that they wanted to spend their Memorial Day weekend trying to climb up the sheer face of this canyon. Thanks to our Mennonite friends with the binoculars, we were able to get a good look at a couple of these people, who apparently sleep on those rocks as well.

We left the Black Canyon and headed 30 miles Southwest to a little town called Ouray. This is Jenn's favorite place in Colorado! We took a break from Hotel Jimmy and decided to stay at the wonderful Ouray Hotel which is managed by the same cool guy that was here 5 years before when Jenn visited named Dale. Google it, check it out, it's a cute little place to stay and it's not expensive at all! We walked up and down the main street and stopped to have ourselves a free-range organic hamburger and a buffalo burger (we had to get one while we could you know) at the Goldbelt and then got some fudge at the Ouray Candy Shop. We went back to the hotel and spent the night writing out our postcards, typing up these blog entries, and just resting up for the final leg of our trip.

Toto...We're Not in Kansas Anymore!!

DAY 3 - Much to our dismay, we wake up and realize that we are still not out of Kansas. There is no one at the rest stop except the boy who replenishes the four single-ply toilet paper rolls in each bathroom at the rest area, who we realize is passing his time by playing Gameboy and staring at us. As we leave, Chase remarks "I think we need gas", which is a phrase that can bring an intense amount of fear as you are driving through Kansas. As we have been told, EVERYTHING in Kansas is closed on Sunday...it's Sunday folks. Gas stations are closed. Oops. As Jenn begins to pray (there has never been a better time for Remover of Difficulties), we see a sign for 24 hour gas! Woooo hooooo! WE DO GET TO LEAVE KANSAS!!! Not so fast...we have to make it there. And we do, but not before the car stops right off the interstate! Luckily, it started once again and we made it to the pump...fueled up and high-tailed it out of Kansas, never to return again!

Eastern Colorado is a pretty flat place, but still is much more beautiful than Kansas (or maybe it's just because we hate Kansas...have we said that already?). Finally, we see Pike's Peak in the distance (see picture attached at the top)! Colorado Springs is close! If you haven't been to Colorado Springs, it is a great combination of nature and city and the weather is gorgeous.

Hmmm...Colorado Springs...we won't even go into what events unfolded in this city, but we will tell you a few things:
1. The people at the K-Mart on Palmer Park Road are very friendly.
2. If you need to know where Wal-Mart, K-Mart, or Safeway are...just ask us.
3. If Baja Burrito and Taco Bell had a baby, it would be called Del Taco!
4. Don't be fooled..."Kryptonite" Doritos are only Guacamole Doritos with Superman on the bag!
5. New brakes take anywhere from 300 to 1000 miles to get broken in...

After a lovely stay, we left Colorado Springs, and headed towards Buena Vista. The scenery was breathtaking as we left the city. So breathtaking, that we turned the radio off and haven't turned it back on since so that we can fully enjoy being in amazing Colorado country! As we made our way towards Buena Vista, the temperature dropped approximately 20 degrees in a matter of miles! As seen in the picture attached...Chase quickly realized that his t-shirt and shorts would no longer be sufficient.

That night, after dinner at Jan's Family Restaurant in Buena Vista, we found the last available spot at the KOA Campground and bunked, yet again, at Hotel Jimmy.

Chase's question of the day: "Why is it KOA? Shouldn't it be COA? Free breakfast at the Kampground's Kook Korner? Is this place owned by the Ku Klux Klan or something?"

Gateway to the West

DAY 2 - After our not-so-restful night in Hotel Jimmy, we traveled to the beautiful city of St. Louis. Even though it was extremely HOT (90 degrees to be exact), we ended up spending a good amount of time walking around and taking some fun pictures at the Gateway Arch. With the help of a Park Ranger, we found that we could just walk to the Old Courthouse and not have to stand in a huge line just to go to the gift shop. This was no ordinary Courthouse...this was the Old Courthouse where Dred Scott was tried! We had a little bit of fun talking to the gift shop staff and finally acquired what Chase had been longing for...our NATIONAL PARKS PASS!!! This little baby is going to be our ticket to alot of wonderful sites as we make our way out west. We also acquired a National Parks Passport where we can stamp our passport as we visit all the different parks!

We then began our journey through Missouri, and were looking forward to a barbecue dinner in Kansas City! Little did we know, that THIS is where things would begin to get interesting...

WE MADE IT TO KANSAS CITY...WAIT, WE DROVE THROUGH KANSAS CITY!!! Enough said....

Next stop, Topeka...surely there will be a place there where we can get some good 'ol Kansas barbecue. For those of you who have been to Kansas, you probably know that this was NOT the case. We drove through the desolate streets of downtown Topeka (keep in mind, this is Saturday evening) wondering if zombies had come in and devoured the entire population of this sad little town. So, instead of barbecue, we settled for the ONLY OPEN RESTAURANT IN TOPEKA AT 6:00PM ON SATURDAY...Pepe & Chela's Mexican Fiesta, where we saw not one Mexican employee.

I will say one last thing...we hate Kansas. We never want to go back. They don't even have maps to give away. Sunflower state? We saw not ONE sunflower...except on signs.

Unfortunately, we could not get out of Kansas that night and had to spend the night once again in Hotel Jimmy at a rest area as desolate as the rest of the state.