Snowed In

We must have brought the snow and ice with us from Ohio, because not long after we got home it hit us here in NC.  The news was reporting that it could be an ice storm and to prepare for power outages.  The day this big storm was suppose to hit, the morning was gray and cold, but dry as a bone.  I ran all over town doing all the errands I could, including stocking up on water and supplies, just in case we did have power outages.  Hard to believe the storm was really coming, especially the amount that was being reported, when not one drop of moisture was in the air.  Then while Chris and I were having lunch, it suddenly started.  Little white balls of frozen rain pounding the sidewalks and parking lot right before our eyes.  And they weren't melting.  Within just a few minutes, the ground was covered in white and it became clear that this storm really was making its appearance.  Still having one more errand to do, Chris and I had to drive to Gibsonville, thinking we had plenty of time to make it back.  It came down so hard, and the ice building up on the roads was quickly becoming hazardous.  I have a button near the gear shift of my Volvo, with a W on it.  I knew it had something to do with driving in these kids of conditions, but I couldn't remember what it did and how to exactly to use it!  I had to pull over and get out my owner's manual.  Turns out this is used in slippery conditions when you need less tork so your tires don't spin out.  While in park, shift to drive and press the button, and it starts the car in 3rd gear.  It worked like a charm! My last stop was the grocery store for just a few straggling supplies, and in the 10 minuets it took me to get there from Gibsonville the parking lot was so icy I slid a little turning in.  Chris got stuck on the road trying to get back to work, but eventually we both made it back home with only minimal slippage on the road.  (thank God for that W button!)

The road from Gibsonville, only minutes after it started coming down

I spend a magical afternoon cooking up some yummy food we could eat on the next few days, while watching the snow come down outside my kitchen window.  It was mesmerizing watching the little white balls turn into fluffy, floating flakes.  Our backyard was transformed from a brown and winter-dead look to a fairytale winter wonderland!

Watching the ground slowly cover

Soo put her face into the sky and blinked the flakes away as they fell

Cody ankle deep in the drift

Chris finally made it home after hours and hours on the road

The next morning, when it was all said and done

Our road - we didn't want to drive on!

Our tiny little back porch, barely visible

I wanted to do all the fun things you're suppose to do in the snow! The almost inch of ice on top of the snow made sledding fun, but really hard to build a snow man!

Overall, we only got stuck in the house for two days before the roads were cleared and melting.  Our power never went out, so we will store all my stock-piled water in the basement for next time.  I'm sure winter is over and spring will be peeking around the corner, but already I can't wait for next year's winter adventures!

OH/KY Road Trip

Several months ago Chris found out there was going to be a big debate at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, which is right near Cincinnati, OH.  We both decided it would be an interesting event, so we planned a vacation there, thinking we could also explore the area.  Sadly, we were so disappointed to find out that tickets for the debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye sold out about two minuets after they had gone on sale.  Our hotel already booked, we were committed.  It would be fine anyway, since the debate would be streamed live over the internet and we could still watch it.

Saturday, February 1
Travel day. It took us about 7-8 hours driving to get to our hotel in Cincinnati.  Along the way throughout Virginia and West Virginia, I was constantly amazed at the frozen water falls coming out of the mountains.

Upon arrival, I was initially really disappointed that while the Holiday Inn was near the Ohio River, it was completely blocked from view by a giant burm right outside our window.  Not to mention being nearby to the railroad and very nearly under a bridge.  But I guess when you are getting a heavily discounted rate, you shouldn't expect too much!

That evening, we took a trolly from our hotel to Newport on the Levee, a mall area by the river.  It was so cold, but very beautiful at night.

Sunday, February 2
We weren't all the rested after being kept awake by the rattle and clang of the near by train.  Of course it had nothing at all to do either, with the fact that we had to try White Castle, just across the street from our hotel, as we walked back from the trolly stop!  Planning our activities for the day, we didn't factor in the timing very well, and missed our opportunity to tour the Mega Caverns in Louisville, KY.   We didn't realize our mistake until we were already down the road a bit, so we had to scratch that plan and do something different.  I decided to take the scenic tour back to Cincinnati.

Along the way back, we stopped to see the Ohio River

In rearranging our day, we decided to check out the aquarium we had seen the day before at Newport on the Levee.  Of course, we can't go to a new city and not check out their aquarium!

Newport on the Levee

That evening we found a highly rated Asian fusion restaurant we decided to try.  We drove up a long hill, and could see the whole city behind us. At the top was our street, and it was filled all sorts of yummy looking places to eat.  Eventually we found what we were looking for and parking along the street.  Tea and Bowl was delicious!

My introduction to bubble tea.. yummy!

The hot and sour soup was our favorite dish - perfect on such a cold night

Monday, February 3
We were trying to connect with our friends Ciara and Blane, who live a couple hours from Cincinnati.    Our plans were a little up in the air, so we decided to go ahead and see the Creation Museum while we were waiting for them.  We didn't see much that first visit, but we did get to hear a fantastic lecture by Dr. Tommy Mitchell: "Is Genesis Relevant in Today's World?" It was fantastic!

The little we saw of the front foyer in the Creation Museum

Then it was off to lunch with Ciara and Blane.  We had a nice visit, and then headed back to the hotel.  There were reports of a storm coming in, but luckily it didn't hit until later that night.

Tuesday, February 4
We were in quite a pickle.  We had re-scheduled our tickets to see the Mega Caverns for today, but since our visit with Ciara and Blane went longer than we expected, we weren't able to get back to the Creation Museum the previous day.  Our museum tickets were good for two consecutive days, so we hoped our tour of the Mega Caverns would be over in enough time to get back to the museum.  Our drive to Louisville, KY took about an hour! The Mega Caverns weren't exactly what we expected either.  It was actually an old quarry, completely man made! We toured the inside of the caverns, and heard all about the underground storage there, which is how they use the facility now.

Entrance to the cavern, which is all underneath the city of Louisville

More of the beautiful frozen water falls

After our tour, we raced back to Petersburg to finish the rest of the Creation Museum.  We were not disappointed by that! It was so amazing, like the Bible came to life right before your eyes.

We brought dinner back to the hotel with us, and later that night we streamed the debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye in our hotel room.  (see previous post about my thoughts on the debate).

Wednesday, February 5
Our vacation over, we prepared to head back home.  During the night, the ice storm they had been predicting finally hit.  Our car was encased in ice, and the roads were still being cleared by the snow plows.

The slippery roads were a little scary, but the ice was so beautiful. I had never before seen plants encased in ice the way they were that morning.  I made Chris pull over at a rest stop so I could take some pictures of the winter ice covering everything around us.

Chris waiting in the car while I get photos of all the ice

The road home was actually pretty treacherous.  Traffic was slow, and we creeped along some parts of the frozen highway at 40 MPH.  When we'd hit a bump, there would be this rattling sound.  I kept telling Chris I thought the back hatch hadn't gotten closed all the way.  He said he thought it was that huge sheet of frozen snow on our roof, so I opened up the inside slide of the sunroof to see it.  Sure enough, the block of icy snow on top was sliding forward and backward each time we hit a bump.  I told Chris I was concerned, because it looked like it was sliding off the front of the car.  Just at that moment, someone in front braked and we had to follow suite.  The timing couldn't have been better, because I happened to be watching and warning Chris just as all that snow slid forward off the roof and right on our windshield.  The thick block of white completely cut off our visibility just as we were approaching a merging highway.  Chris was able to pull over into the V between our lane and the merging lane on the right.  He couldn't get out as cars were zooming past on his side, so I put on my hat and gloves and was throwing chunks of ice off our windshield.  Thank God He was watching out for us; if we had been going any faster or not have seen it happening, it could have caused major problems.  As it was, we got right back on the road no worse for the wear.

We made it home safely, even if much later than anticipated.  Looking forward to going back to Petersburg KY again when the Creation Museum finishes building an exact replica of Noah's Ark!

Thoughts on a very interesting dialouge

The impetus for our trip here to Cincinnati OH was a debate happening at the Creation Museum between Bill Nye and Ken Ham.  As the founder of the amazing Creation Museum just over the border in Kentucky,  of course Ken Ham asserts his belief in a God who intelligently designed our world and universe.  As a mainstream scientist who believes in the big bang theory, Bill Nye was there to "represent" the "normal", more "legitimate" belief that we all pooffed into existence out of nothing.  

The first half of the debate was a bit frustrating to me.  Each man had copious amounts of time to lay down the basis for their arguments in succession, but instead Ken seemed more bent on using the time as an evangelical outreach and Bill was overly, zealot-like in his effort to use the platform to demean and marginalize anyone who has a creationist belief and would dare to call themselves a scientist.  In addition Bill was almost embarrassingly "concerned" that our future as a nation is put in grave jeopardy by people "indoctrinating" a generation that had in his estimation stopped looking for answers.  For if your conclusion to the ultimate question, "where did we come from?" ends in God, then you stop looking for the "right" answer and therefore scientific discoveries will no longer be made and our nation will fall behind the rest of the world who IS searching for the "right" answer.  (he was fervent in his multiple pleas to the "voters and taxpayers" to "please understand what he was saying.")

By far the most interesting format was the question and answer period, but by then most of the time was chewed up by long orations and not all that many questions were addressed.  In addition, I was left feeling a little bereft that audience members could ask the questions when what I really wanted was for each debater to pose specific questions to each other that they would have to answer.  During the long orations there were many questions they had for each other, but so many so at one time that it was impossible for the other to directly answer.  

Obviously I whole-heartedly believe in creation and am ultimately relieved that answers to these difficult and expansive questions are out there.   Looking at this neutrally though, it's hard to declare a "winner" of this debate for a couple of reasons.  The most important reason being, each man rejected out of hand before even starting this dialogue the basis for the other's reasons they believe what they believe.  For example Nye rejects the possibility of a God creator, and the dismissal of that idea inherently throws out anything else that can be said to support it.  Conversly, Ham maintains that the universe can't adequately be aged given the flawed scientific method used to determine such.  He says that there are hundreds of different methods in how to determine the age of the earth, but that all of them in effect are based at some point on information that is "inferred", or assumed, and that therefore makes the process unreliable.  While that is a good point, Ham didn't have enough time to adequately explain what he means by that and therefore in my opinion couldn't "win" that argument.  

In the end, while I can't neutrally look at this and say one or the other "won" the argument of creation vs. big bang, I can say that Nye on several occasions had to answer with "I don't know."  While he was able to wrap that in neat and shiny packing with a big, distracting bow on top, ultimately that's all it was: distracting us from the fact that he couldn't provide an explanation within his scientific knowledge.  Ken Ham did.  Ham was eloquent time and time again when Nye would end with, he didn't know, but: "that was the beauty and excitement of the possibility of discovery", Ken would say, "There is this book I know of... "

And that book does have the answers.