Michael Johnson: How I Spent My Summer Vacation!

A few days ago I completed my final (I hope) trip of the summer, driving from Nashville to Provo. It was an experience, to say the least, and I'd like to share some of the insight I gained as I travelled through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and finally, Utah.

In Kentucky, you can get a chicken biscuit and biscuits and gravy at McDonald's for breakfast.

In Illinois, there are very hefty fines and 14 yr. prison sentences for hitting road constuction workers.

St. Louis, Missouri is pretty cool, but the people at the McDonald's where we ate lunch were really, really scary.

Missouri takes a really long time to drive through.

Iowa was cool, but we were only there for less than an hour.

Every small town in Nebraska has a Super 8 Motel and a WalMart. We wanted to spend the night in Lincoln, but there was no place to turn around on the freeway, so we went on to Seward, Nebraska. Seward has a Super 8 and a WalMart.

Chayenne, Wyoming is almost as scary as the McDonald's in St. Louis. Come to think of it, Evanston, Wyoming was pretty dang scary, too...at least the truck stop we stopped at.

Don't plan a road trip thinking that everything will go smoothly. Everything went well for us until we made it to the Wyoming/Utah border, where traffic came to a screeching hault for two hours. We were so close to home, but weren't moving at all.

I'm thankful for Mountain Dew, Diet Pepsi Max, and Dr. Pepper, without which I couldn't have survived the drive.

I'm also thankful for the many landmarks I saw as I crossed the plains:

The Museum of American Quilters' Society

The St. Louis Archway

The Mississippi River

The Missouri River

The Platte River (that we crossed at least 19 times)

Cabela's world headquarters

...and so many other things I can't even think of.

I love Middle America.

So, here's a quick recap of this summer's trips:

Salt Lake, to Dallas, to Miami, to San Pedro Sula, Tela, Copan, Tegucigalpa, Choluteca, Danli, and Tegucigalpa (again), Honduras, to Miami, to Nashville, to Chicago, to Salt Lake.

Salt Lake, to San Diego, to Placentia, to Salt Lake.

Salt Lake, to Placentia, to San Diego, to Salt Lake.

Salt Lake, to Pheonix, to Nashville, to Kentucky, to Illinois, to Missouri, to Iowa, to Nebraska, to Wyoming, to Salt Lake, to Provo.

You figure out the milage...

I guess I'm ready for school to start again.

The Many Faces of Robyn!

So, it's not technically Robyn's birthday anymore, but I guess I should still pay homage to my older sister, and dedicate a blog to her. So, to all you out there in blogdom, this is a sampler of why I love my sister Robyn. Kimberly did her's with numbers, so in my constant striving for originality I'm gonna do mine with letters.


A. When Robyn was a teenager and starting college, she never excluded me from being friends with her friends. In high school, she even let me sit in her room while she talked to Nir on the phone.

B. Robyn has a really cute son, who often makes the same facial expressions as his mom when they pose together in pictures. This picture is a bad example.

C. She's not embarrassed of her buck teeth. Okay, those aren't real, but she does have a good sense of humor, and being around her helps us all to laugh a little more.

D. Robyn doesn't mind being in my stupid self-portraits.

She's always been a great sister. In high school and college I was able to follow in her footsteps and feel proud for what I was doing. If she hadn't gotten 100% attendance in seminary, I wouldn't have made 99.9999% (I missed one morning 'cause I had to set up for an assembly, which apparently wasn't a good enough excuse for an excused absence...). After watching Robyn serve a mission, it was a lot easier for me to swallow the idea of being a missionary myself.

Robyn, you'll always be an example to me, and I'll be fine if I can be half as good as you are! Keep blazing trails. I love you, happy birthday!