Summer ‘10
Well, I’m not actually going
fishin’ since I don’t fish—I’m just shifting schedule
for the summer. I take the summer off from writing the Tuesday Column because
it gives my readers a rest and gives me one too.
So, as usual, I write a
final column of the school year the Tuesday before graduation. This week’s
column completes the 15th year of the “Tuesday Column’s” presence on
the Internet. Before the Internet was popular this column was monthly, starting
in 1981—then it was called the “Cadre Memo.”
Before that… well, never mind.
As for my
summer, here’s what I’m up to this year…..
Meetings, writing, preparing, gardening. I’ll
be winding up my leadership class in IWU’s new
seminary in a few weeks and simultaneously planting my garden which has doubled
in size this year—not because I need more tomatoes but because I live next to a
nursing home and the residents love picking fresh stuff from “our” garden. My denomination
is holding a big symposium June 4-5 and I’ve got some chapters of a textbook
I’ve got to finish up along with some other new writing and prepare for next
year’s courses. But these are not items of great interest to most readers—you
would rather hear about hiking and biking.
Backpacking. I’ll be doing a bit of private backpacking this summer. I no longer hike
with students (they go too fast) but I still get some secret solo walking in.
I’ll probably do a quick warm-up hike of the Knobstone Trail in May. I’ve done that trail a dozen
times but it is always new (and always hard on my knees). Of course I always
secretly visit my first love—the Appalachian
Trail—and I shall again this summer. I’ve done the AT once and a half time
but always get restored when I return. I don’t announce those dates or
locations or it wouldn’t be secret any more.
Bicycling the Divide. My recent vacation interest is bicycling. I’ve logged
a couple thousand miles since last summer and am starting to gets serious about
it. In early June I’m heading off with my best friend, Biology professor Burt
Webb, to ride down the Continental Divide… we’ll be starting in Rawlins,
Wyoming and headed south down the Divide through Colorado—we’ll see how near
New Mexico we get in a few weeks. I’d like to finish the Great Divide
Route in four summers—maybe quicker. We’re both riding Salsa Fargos,
which is a dream of an off-road bike specifically designed for the Great
Divide. This is a high route so I’m a little worried about attitude challenges
and all the climbing.
Bicycling the Erie Canal. For a family vacation in July, Sharon and I plan to
bicycle the Erie
Canal from Buffalo to Albany, NY.
Here we can stay in motels and B&Bs so it
will be my luxury vacation of the summer. Last summer we rode the C&O/GAP
route from Washington DC to Pittsburg and we loved it so we are trying another
canal for this summer’s vacation.
-------------------------------------------
See you again next fall. The Tuesday
Column will return next fall—by the first week of school. I’ve got some great
ideas for columns then, plus we’ll be regularly releasing audio files for ipod listening to the old Strategetics models from 30 years
ago. While some of these old concepts are now out of date, many are still as
true as they were in the early 1980’s.
If you’d like to be reminded
when the Tuesday Column returns just send
an email here saying in the subject line the word “REMIND.”
During
the summer, click here to comment or
read comments
Keith Drury April 27, 2010