On the Road Again

I swear this is a true story.

Last night, I was shopping at Wal-Mart to get supplies for my family's upcoming trip. Suddenly, I heard the following message come over the public address system:

"Immanuel Kant. Immanuel Kant. Please meet your party up front at the checkout area. Paging Immanuel Kant."

Now, I think I can say without reservation that this was the first time I'd ever heard an 18th century German philosopher paged in Wal-Mart. Did Manny get separated from his "Back From the Grave" bus tour group? Of course, some wisenheimer was behind it all, probably some straight-faced philosophy major from Baylor. The poor checkout lady no doubt was unaware that the man she was paging had been dead more than 200 years.

I mentioned that I was shopping for another trip, and it's true. The Muley family is hitting the road again, this time to New Braunfels and San Antonio. Every year, we and another family from our church make a daylong visit to Schlitterbahn, often voted the nation's best water park. It's an incredible place, with spring-fed water coursing through 65 acres into every imaginable type of chute, waterfall, slide, river and whatnot. When I say we'll make a daylong visit, I mean it. We arrive when they open the doors, and we're some of the last prune-skinned people to leave. The kids love it, and even though it's Texas in August, it's okay because you're in cool water most of the time. And I love it because I get to show off my latest additions of flab and fish-white skin to lots of tanned, lean people with tattoos.

Actually, that's one of the reasons I love Schlitterbahn. It's like visiting a walking museum of post-modernist art, as every other person is copiously tattooed. Since people have very little clothing covering their bodies, these tattoos are shown off in their full glory, not hidden underneath 9-to-5 work attire. Some of the tattoos are quite elaborate, and fairly insane. If you've ever wanted to see a green dragon breaking out of an egg and devouring a Harley Davidson, you can see it or something like it on someone's back at Schlitterbahn. It's an eye-opener for sure, but I enjoy it. I mean, they want people to look at them, right? So I look.

Suffice to say that I will be taking a vacation from blogging until this Saturday or Sunday, unless I can squeeze in an audio post or two. We'll see.

One of the neatest things about the trip is that there's a small chance I might be able to meet my first blogger in person! Stacy from Not a Desperate Housewife will be down in San Antonio with her family the same time we are going. They're hitting Schlitterbahn as well, albeit on different days, but there's a chance our families might be cruising the San Antonio Riverwalk at the same time, so we'll see if we run into each other. I hope so.

Quote of the day:

"God's ability to perform is far beyond our prayers -- even our greatest prayers! I have recently been thinking of some of the requests I have made of Him innumerable times in my prayers. And what have I requested? I have asked for a cupful, while He owns the entire ocean! I have asked for one simple ray of light, while He holds the sun! My best asking falls immeasurably short of my Father's ability to give, which is far beyond what we could ever ask."

--John Henry Jowett