| On June 15, 1919, Van T. Barfoot was born in Edinburg -- probably didn'tmake much news back then. Twenty-five years later, on May 23, 1944, near Carano , Italy , Van T. Barfoot, who had enlisted in the Army in 1940, set out to flank German machine gun positions from which fire was coming down on his fellow soldiers. He advanced through a minefield, took out three enemy machine gun positions and returned with 17 prisoners of war. If that wasn't enough for a day's work, he later took on and destroyed three German tanks sent to retake the machine gun positions. That probably didn't make much news either, given the scope of the war, but it did earn Van T. Barfoot, who retired as a colonel after also serving in Korea and Vietnam , a Congressional Medal of Honor. What did make news last week was a neighborhood association's quibble with how the 90-year-old veteran chose to fly the American flag outside his suburban Virginia home. Seems the rules said a flag could be flown on a house-mounted bracket, but, for decorum, items such as Barfoot's 21-foot flagpole were unsuitable. He had been denied a permit for the pole, erected it anyway and was facing court action if he didn't take it down. Since the story made national TV, the neighborhood association has rethought its position and agreed to indulge this old hero who dwells among them. "In the time I have left I plan to continue to fly the American flag without interference," Barfoot told The Associated Press. As well he should. And if any of his neighbors still takes a notion to contest him, they might want to read his Medal of Honor citation. It indicates he's not real good at backing down. Van T. Barfoot's Medal of Honor citation: This 1944 Medal of Honor citation, listed with the National Medal of Honor Society, is for Second Lieutenant Van T. Barfoot, 157th Infantry, 45th Infantry: "For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty on 23 May 1944, near Carano , Italy . With his platoon heavily engaged during an assault against forces well entrenched on commanding ground, 2d Lt. Barfoot moved off alone upon the enemy left flank. He crawled to the proximity of 1 machinegun nest and made a direct hit on it with a hand grenade, killing 2 and wounding 3 Germans. He continued along the German defense line to another machinegun emplacement, and with his tommygun killed 2 and captured 3 soldiers. Members of another enemy machinegun crew then abandoned their position and gave themselves up to Sgt. Barfoot. Leaving the prisoners for his support squad to pick up, he proceeded to mop up positions in the immediate area, capturing more prisoners and bringing his total count to 17. Later that day, after he had reorganized his men and consolidated the newly captured ground, the enemy launched a fierce armored counterattack directly at his platoon positions. Securing a bazooka, Sgt. Barfoot took up an exposed position directly in front of 3 advancing Mark VI tanks. >From a distance of 75 yards his first shot destroyed the track of the leading tank, effectively disabling it, while the other 2 changed direction toward the flank. As the crew of the disabled tank dismounted, Sgt. Barfoot killed 3 of them with his tommygun. He continued onward into enemy terrain and destroyed a recently abandoned German fieldpiece with a demolition charge placed in the breech. While returning to his platoon position, Sgt. Barfoot, though greatly fatigued by his Herculean efforts, assisted 2 of his seriously wounded men 1,700 yards to a position of safety. Sgt. Barfoot's extraordinary heroism, demonstration of magnificent valor, and aggressive determination in the face of point blank fire are a perpetual inspiration to his fellow soldiers." If you got this email and didn't pass it on - guess what - you deserve to get your butt kicked! I sent this to you, because I didn't want to get MY butt kicked. WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE, ONLY BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE! |
Starting our journey
We left bright and early on Saturday morning and drove all the way over to eastern PA. We ended up making it all the way to the east side of PA and stayed in a Comfort Inn. The girls got to swim for a little bit, and that's all they cared about. :) The camper pulled really nice behind our SUV and we were pretty amazed at how the mountains didn't put too much strain on it. Gas mileage was atrocious the entire trip, but at least we budgeted for it and it was not an issue at all. We had to fill up every 260 miles or so, which worked out nice anyway. Oh, and Daizi (our 3 yr old) get's credit for the "quote of the vacation" after only 2 hours into our 2 week vacation when she said:"Mommy, I waaa go home."We all got a good laugh out of that one. :)
A tornado forming just ahead on the highway in PA!
The next morning we headed to Woodstock, NY and went through all the shops. The girls thought it was cool to see all the tie dye and we explained to them exactly what the Woodstock Music Festival was all about and all about what happened back in 1969 that brought all the musicians together. We tried to explain that the event drew a crowd of +500,000 people from all over the world. They did the "...woooooow" response, but I don't think they really understood what it meant. Once I was able to show them a picture of the crowd consuming a whole New York hillside, then we got the real "WOOOOW" that I was looking for. At that point they understood how many people "+500,000 people" actually looked like. :) We had a lot of fun here and got some cool souvenirs. About 1 day is all that was needed to see everything here in Woodstock. We spent about 4-5 hours going through the various shops, and that was enough for me.
That night we stayed in another Comfort Inn and and the girls got to swim again. Before calling it a night, we ended up eating at a place called Ninety Nine's. It's like a bar and grill style restaurant with an amazing menu. We all loved it!! It was cheap and delicious. The kids meals were amazing and beat the "sox" off of every other kids menu that we've seen on the entire trip. Best yet, when the Boston RedSox win a game the night before, the kids eat free anyway. We ate at Ninety Nine's two times and both visits were after the Redsox won a game. :) Bonus!!
Free Firewood
Aside from the costs of the items, the place was a 5 star camp resort! They had a very friendly staff that took great pride in the campground. There were all kinds of sites for all types of camping: primitive tent, pop-up, RV's, and cabins. The bath house was immaculate as far as camping bathhouses are concerned. We've seen some doozies in our days, and this one is by far the best that we've seen. No creepy crawly's anywhere, and they were always clean. This resort also offers 3 different pools: a family pool with a slide, a kiddie pool for toddlers, and an adult pool separate from the other two for prime relaxation. There was a huge game room, free wifi, laundry, large pond with paddle boats and kayaks, a huge playground, horse shoes, basketball, volleyball, and more... I would definitely recommend this camp resort to anybody that wants to camp in Cape Cod. Again, be ready to spend some money if you plan to use any of the resources inside the campground though.
Bike Party
Napping at the campground
Writing postcards to family and friends.
Sparkler Party!!
Girls building a log cabin with twigs :)
Jazzy is in her element
Some crazy "Daizi Dance"!? :)
We did venture out in the truck around Cape Cod quite a bit. We got ourselves lost each time we did, and got turned around quite often. We would drive and drive only to be looped back around to where we started a few times. A few times we came into little harbor towns and it was need to see all the little shops and restaurants on the bay. Both of us were very surprised as to how big the peninsula actually was. On paper it looks like a 10-15 mile stretch of land, but it is actually like 75 - 80 miles long. We never did venture out to Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket Island; the boat ride was too pricey for our family of 5 and the islands were nothing more than money-traps anyway. We did go to a couple of beaches and of course we all ate some great seafood.
Beach Babes
My Happy Campers
Living our dreamOmidyar was 28 when he sat down over a long holiday weekend to write the original computer code for what eventually became an internet superbrand — the auction site eBay. - Wikipedia: Pierre OmidyarCheck out the first sketch an idea that later became Twitter: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Twttr_sketch-Dorsey-2006.jpg
Twitter began in a "daylong brainstorming session"... - Wikipedia: Twitter
In one of the harshest government condemnations of the petroleum giant to date, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said BP had blown "deadline after deadline" and had not "fulfilled the mission it was supposed to fulfill."I say push them out of the way tonight and take over. Somebody, FIX IT!
"I am angry and I am frustrated that BP has been unable to stop this oil from leaking and to stop the pollution from spreading," Salazar said at a Houston news conference. "We are 33 days into this effort, and deadline after deadline has been missed."
The federal government could resort to taking over tasks now controlled by BP, Salazar suggested. "If we find they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, we'll push them out of the way appropriately," he said. - LATimes.com
David, Ralph, Katie, Steve, Leigh, Lindsay, ?, Me
Around 8:30 or so, I was starting to get pretty tired. Don and Betty Baun were nice enough to offer their backyard to me to setup camp. I headed over there around 8:30 and got everything setup. It took me all of about 10 minutes to get everything in order, so I decided to start a fire and just chilled out for about an hour or so before calling it a night.
Once I got my tent broke down, I headed over to the cabin for some donuts and other sugary breakfast items before heading to the start finish where runners would be showing up shortly to register for the race. We did a lot of things before the runners got there, then when they started piling in, I sat next to Elizabeth and Michelle and we got runners to sign their wavers. Once the waivers were signed, Kim and Betty would hand them their race packets. We moved through the line pretty quickly. I saw a lot of familiar faces at check in and had a great time.
Moments before the 50k start
When it was about time to get started, Rob got up on his truck and gave the rules of the race. He introduced all the sponsors and explained some of the tricky parts of the race. Once he had briefed everybody on the course, Don Baun got up and had some words to say. Don asked everybody to keep their eyes open and really enjoy the beauty of the course. He is so right, sometimes people get caught up in the race itself that they don't see the actual beauty of the forest. Don gave a few good words of advise and then counted down the runners for the race. Off they went, the 50k runners were moving through the course! The 25k runners would start their race in 30 minutes. Therefore, we hung around for a while and then sent them on their way at 8:30.
Don Baun
After the 25k runners left, I took Fred (he's a beat up pylon) to the Covered Bridge, and met up with the other aid station volunteers. The theme this year for the covered bridge aid station was M*A*S*H. So we all wore our finest camo's.
50k front runners at the start
D'Lyn and Luca
Congratulations to Rob, all the 50k and 25k runners, and a great job to all volunteers. This was an amazing experience for me and I look forward to doing it again next year. It was nice to be on the other side of the race for once. Most all runners (with the exception of a few) were very appreciative and friendly to all of us. This experience gave me a whole new appreciation as to what the volunteers do before, during, and after these ultra races.
Rob Powell (Forget the PR Race Director)
Hickory Ridge was right around the 6 mile marker, and we saw where the other runners had setup water for their rolling aid station. We both had enough water and gels to last us, so we just pushed on through. Nothing too adventurous happened through here. The sun was out and the other runners would be starting their race very soon. We had some beautiful scenery that kept us occupied through this section of the Orange loop, and we just enjoyed the quiet forest. Plus, there were some very nice downhills coming up soon and then we would be at the Covered Bridge.
For once I wasn't looking forward to climbing the cool root system at Little Lyon Falls. It's my absolute favorite part of the Purple loop, but I knew that I was going to have to really flex my right foot to make it up the root system, and I wasn't sure how that was going to feel... As we approached it, I just went for it and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was a lot of fun, like it always is. :)
It's a muddy horse path that winds through the woods, brings you close to a beautiful lake, sling shots you around the Lodge, and then puts you back on the same muddy horse path back to the Purple loop. It wasn't bad at all, actually and I really enjoyed it. I remember last year, it had just rained or something and there was no escaping the mud. However this time, it was not as muddy, but enough to remind me how funny it was last year. :)
This section was mostly up hill to the Fire Tower. There isn't anything really technical about it, other than the fact that it's mostly uphill. There's a nice flat section at the beginning, but then it gets pretty grueling as the hills get longer and steeper. We made it to the Fire Tower around 12:15 PM and the sun was right above us. It turned out to be a beautiful day, and we were past half way done with this race.
I spoke with Rob two days earlier on the phone, as this section was a little sketchy to me, and even after he explained it to me, I still screwed it up. We went one way for about 1/4 mile, then turned around and headed back, only to screw it up again and went an even different different left!! The good news is that I was "somewhat" familiar with where we were, so we just improvised to get back onto the Red Loop.
He told me that Rob and the others were right behind me and should be coming up any minute. About 1/2 mile later we had made it back to the Covered Bridge for our last time. Dan was already there waiting on me, and so was the "rolling aid station" that Rob had told me about. Some of the girls at the aid station noticed my VFFs and it turned into a discussion. I basically told them that it's one of the dumbest things I've ever done. :) As we were leaving the aid station, I knew that the next section was going to be very slow for me. But, make note that I was still smiling, and was determined to finish this thing:
The last leg of this race was very hard. Each step seemed to get more and more painful. Dan and I walked together for a while, but I could tell that I was slowing him down. I would try to do a "shuffle jog" but whenever my foot got turned just a little bit, it sent a sharp shooting pain up my shin. Not only that but both feet were severely bruised on the bottoms. The brusing wasn't so bad because they were (border-line) numb by this point. However the shin pain was almost unbearable. I truly believe that had I gotten on all fours and crawled I would have finished faster, but I just hobbled along and paid close attention to every root and rock on the trail so that I wouldn't touch it with my right foot.
This kind of brought me down a bit, beings how I got a 2 hour head start of everybody else. I knew that Dan had already finished too, because I was less than a mile from the finish line, and he left me maybe half an hour ago. I sat down for a few minutes on a big log and let my feet have a break. After about 3 minutes of relaxation, I decided to just get it over with. I stood back up and started hobbling up the hill again. Almost there!! The closer I got to the finish line the higher my spirits got. I knew that all my buddies would be there and best of all, I could finally sit down and relax. :)9 hours, 43 minutes, and 32 seconds!
By far my slowest race, ever! Honestly though, all of that pain and all those bad thoughts went away once I saw the shelter with the other racers sitting and enjoying the post race meal. Once I finished, I got some food and sat down for some ice cold refreshments and "hot off the grill" barbecue ribs!! Rob gave us all our belt buckles and t-shirts, and congratulated us on a successful race.
