I spent last weekend running over the Grand
Targhee ski area in Wyoming’s Tetons.
It was the Ragnar Trail Relay where
competitors from teams of eight alternate running
three mountain loops until each member had finished
all three.
The green loop was 3.5 miles and climbed 350
feet.
The yellow loop was just over five miles and
ascended 750 feet.
The red loop was a seven mile beast.
In 3.5 miles it climbed 2,020 feet to top out
above tree-line at 9,920 feet.
This is a slope so steep it has difficulty
holding snow, which is why God has blessed this ski
area with an average annual snowfall of 500 inches.
Only He can overwhelm the laws of gravity.
As the race takes 24 to 28 hours
to complete, we set up a comfortable base camp with
all the amenities of home…if your home were a wall
tent. To
make a patriotic point, once the tent, cots and
stove were in place, we drove a pipe in the ground
and proudly raised the colors of our great nation.
We were the first of nearly one hundred tents
and we chose a treeless knob to be visible to
teammates arriving well after dark Thursday evening.
For two days, everyone passing the designated
camping area could not do so without seeing our wall
tent and flag.
Friday afternoon several of us
were recovering at camp while waiting for Paul to
complete the challenging red loop.
Our American flag was flapping in the stiff
breeze and the western sun beamed a brilliant cross
through the stars on the blue background.
With it being two days before Patriot’s Day,
I have never been more proud to call myself an
American.
This brings me to my point.
The best way to negate the Colin
Kaepernick hoopla is to overwhelm the haters with
the stars of stripes.
If everyone flies Old Glory at every
opportunity, ungrateful Americans will waste their
lives sitting in protest while the rest of us
flourish with the bounty of freedom.
God has truly blessed me because I was born
an American.
You too?
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