First Few Days in Istanbul

We arrived in Istanbul safely on Sat. afternoon. With sleeping only about 1 hour total on the flights here I am still trying to recover, but after a good long sleep last night and a quick nap today I am feeling pretty good. On Sat. afternoon I went for a quick 20 minute run before dinner in a nice forested park by the apt. I ran hill sprints and did pull-ups. After dinner we hiked up to the 2nd highest point in Istanbul for a great view of the city. Yesterday we went to church in the Netherlands (in their embassy). After church we went to a Flying Flugtag event by Red Bull where they pushed these huge winged contraptions on wheels off a pier into the water. It was pretty funny. Only a few "flew" more than a few feet. There were over 100,000 people there watching. We put our bikes together last night and went for a quick test ride around town before my friend Emily Prien came over and went to dinner with us. We ate at this nice Turkish cafe where our friend Phillip (we are staying at the apt where he and his wife live) knows the owner and employees and is great friends with them. The owner talked with us the entire time and made jokes (in Turkish). We had a great time and ate a lot (I was staaaarrrving!). Tomorrow we begin our Tour de Turkey with an 80 mile bike ride out of Istanbul. Please pray for our safety as Istanbul is full of narrow, steep streets that curve a lot with tons of traffic and aggressive drivers who don't stop for anything. Some videos of the Flugtag are on my Facebook page as well as some pics from the town that my teammate Tim posted.

Spring Time in Montana...More Snowstorms, Blizzards, and 60 MPH Winds

3/21-4/9

I'll have to think hard to remember all the things that have happened over the last few weeks. So here it is:

I finished up my last week of teaching Boot Camp, so now I'll have more time to devote to running, biking, and other miscellaneous activities, such as disc golf, ultimate frisbee, soccer, football, basketball, and spending time with friends and the youth from church. I really need to get on my bike more to get my legs ready for the 700 miles I'm doing in Turkey in about a month and a half. Also have a lot of tough running races coming up this summer (I have a race planned of at least 1/2 marathon distance planned for every weekend from the time I get back from Turkey in mid June through mid August). The Rez Runners training program is going great! We are up to about 10 or so members that join us, plus several others who can't come but do the workouts on their own. It's a really great thing seeing all these people getting active and enjoying the outdoors and fellowship! We got a special permit to shoot some wild game to serve at our Diabetic meals so my bosses and I went hunting one day. The only deer we saw were when we were off the Rez, but we did have fun driving in the snow and getting seriously stuck a couple times. We took a second trip out another day and this time there were 5 of us. We saw a coyote, got stuck some more and completely covered in mud trying to push the vehicle out, and then finally saw some deer. For this hunting trip I had on my camo jacket, snow boots, bandana, huntin' face paint (made from mud I found on the ground), and had my bosses 337 rifle in hand. I was the first to spot the deer grazing on the top of the hill. The 3 deer froze when they saw us but were not afraid because they knew it wasn't hunting season. They were probably pretty shocked when they heard the loud BOOM and saw their friend start to gush blood. After the first shot the jumped a little and the one I had aimed at disappeared so I thought I had missed. So, I prepped the gun and shot the next one, this time sending it flailing as it rolled down the hill towards us before it finally skidded to a stop. I was victorious in my first deer kill! We walked up the hill and checked out my excellent shot right near the heart. Then I continued to the top of the hill to check on my first shot. Sure enough the other deer was lying there with legs twitching as it bled ferociously from the death shot through the neck. We cut the deer’s neck to put it out of pain and then gutted the two deer (my first time for that as well). So, by now I was covered in mud and blood, which made for an interesting conversation with the other employees at the clinic as I walked through. The processing place we took the deer to was over an hour away and was a scary looking house out in the middle of the boonies. There were three of us in the car, but were a bit scared we might get processed along with the deer. Inside the little shop the walls were covered in antlers and racks from various animals and there were large bloody unidentifiable carcasses and slabs of meat hanging around.

The last weekend in March brought forth some nice weather with temps up in the 40s. Saturday I went running all around town and then played some disc golf with Heidi. Next we went to the local high school to watch their “Grand March” for prom. This is where all the couples walk out on to the gym floor (where prom is) and as their names are announced everyone in the stands takes lots of pictures of them. After a couple hours of this their prom finally starts. Sunday I went to church, ate lunch with Heidi’s family, and spent the afternoon playing ultimate Frisbee, football, soccer, duck duck goose, and other games with some of the kids from the church.

The next week included lots of running and some rock climbing. On Thursday April 1 I ran about 6 miles during my workout time at work, then after work I ran a warm-up mile to the start of a fun-run fundraiser for a cross-country kid from the Rez. First I ran the one-mile race and won it (and for the next two weeks people kept telling me they saw my picture from this race in the local newspaper). Then I decided to run the one-mile course again while I waited for the 3-mile race to start. After winning the 3-mile race I went back and run another couple miles to cool down and look for other runners who apparently got lost. The next day I woke up early and ran about 8 miles towards work until Heidi picked me up and took me the rest of the way (she works at the clinic too). During our running club I ran another 5 or so miles. Saturday was fairly warm with a strong 40 mph wind. I rode my bike 17 miles out to Emily’s farm and after a couple refreshing smoothies, some blueberries, and some raw coconut cream I was ready for a run! Emily rode her bike while I ran as we headed off toward the beautiful Bear Paw Mountains. The strong wind made the run pretty tiring and I even got hit in the leg by some speedy sage-brush. We ended up going a total of 12.5 miles. When we got back Heidi came over and enjoyed a delicious family dinner. Easter Sunday I woke up early and went for about a 5 mile run with lots of sprints. After church I spent the afternoon with Emily’s family at her grandparent’s house doing an Easter Egg Hunt and eating lunch since I didn’t have any family to spend the holiday with. Our church had an Easter Service out at the Rez that afternoon and I rode in a limo (driven by a guy from church) out there with several of the kids and other people from church. It was my first time riding in a limo.

Wed. of the next week I drove to Missoula, MT for a Cardiovascular Summit Conference. This town is the cold northern mountain town version of Austin, TX. People ride bikes EVERYWHERE there. And 90% of them have some kind of rack with bags or a basket on them. There are lots of different kinds of bikes and some crazy custom ones. It’s a very eclectic town, lots of hippies, homeless people, organic healthy people, runners, triathletes, community gardens, rivers, beautiful mountains, and the University of Montana, which is the school that beat SFA this year in football playoffs. They are REALLY good and have won nationals several times. My first morning there I took a self guided tour around the campus, talked them into letting look around their Rec Center, and hiked/ran up a mountain behind the campus that has a giant 300 ft. M on the side. Then I met up with some community gardeners who took my boss and me around town to look at gardens, the health food store, and the local co-op. A doctorate of nutrition professor there (who is helping us start the community garden at Rocky Boy and get a grant) met up with us as well at the gardens. She is an incredibly helpful and friendly lady, and very smart. The next couple days I spent at the conference during the day and went running at night. Saturday morning I met up with the local running club at the only running store in town and went on a nice 10-mile trail run. Then I ran on over to the University and watched a friend do a triathlon there. This was the first race I have ever watched. It really made me antsy to jump in the pool and start going. I headed back home after the race and drove through some spectacular scenery, past big horned sheep grazing on the side of a mountain, by deer and antelope on the side of the road, and even some turkey. Sunday I played disc golf with Heidi, Emily, and Emily’s sister in Havre, and we met up with a guy from the church as well.

The week of the 12^th consisted of more running, doing a cooking class at the Rez where we taught them how to cook spaghetti squash with venison, baked sweet potato fries, garlicky green beans, and roasted asparagus….delicious! Wed we had a huge snowstorm hit the Rez. We got about 3 feet of snow in one day and the clinic had to close down early because we lost electricity. Thursday was just as bad but we stayed open and I even taught a Diabetes Class and cooked lunch for about 10 people. Saturday I biked out to Emily’s farm again and then we played ultimate Frisbee with a big group of people back in town. It made my entire week! I had been craving some good ultimate. After that Emily, Heidi, and I went geocaching around town in the dark. Good stuff. Sunday after church we went geocaching again and walked all over town looking for the coordinates.

4/19-4/25

Although the ground at the Rez was still slightly wet, we were finally able to get a spot of land for our community garden and have it roto-tilled. We had a couple other places picked out that we liked and had even staked one out the week prior so they would know where to till it, but we had to change spots last minute. It looked small at first compared to our other spots, but turned out to be the perfect size and location. It’s about 100 by 100 ft. Tuesday we had a master gardener come and lead a gardening workshop. She taught us the basics of gardening and we spent about 4 hours grooming the ground and planting seeds. With 15 of us working hard we got about ¼ of the plot ready for growing. After work on Wed. Emily picked Heidi and I up at the Rez and we drove to Great Falls. We hung out, went to the health food store, ate, and then they dropped me off at the hotel. Early Thurs. morning I got on the plane and headed to Nashville, via Denver. On the plane ride to Denver I sat next to a nice lady who works at the Mayo Clinic and is also a runner. My plane from Denver to Nashville was full of runners for the marathon, including a guy who works for Pearl Izumi. I also met a lady who is an RD, CDE in Washington and works with Diabetics there. She was running the half-marathon.

When I finally arrived in Nashville I was picked up by two Ride:Wellers, Deb Go and Erin Morris. Erin is from Nashville so she dropped Deb and I off at the hotel and headed to work. We waited for the rest of the Ride:Well gang at the hotel. About an hour later they started trickling in…and the party was on!!! There were 11 of us from the ’09 tour and we met up with two from the ’08 tour. We dropped off our luggage in our rooms and headed to the race expo, where we picked up our race bibs, took some great pictures, got some free socks and a free shirt from the Pearl Izumi guy, did some yoga, and talked with my friend Tara Stiles, the yoga master. After the expo we walked around the town and ate some dinner. Friday we had a nice breakfast on the outside patio together and relaxed at the hotel that morning while a couple people finished up some homework. After a quick trip back to the expo to pick up another race packet, we went to the park to relax and throw around the Frisbee. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to get some good sleep before the race.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early at 4 am, ate breakfast, and headed to the race. Cody, Drew, Lisa Rudzik, Bethany, and I did some warming up together, hit up the port-a-potties, and then split off into our corrals. I was in the first corral and they ended up starting my corral 15 minutes early at 6:45 am because severe storms and tornados were expected to come in later in the morning. Throughout the entire race my calves were tight and sore. I ended up running the first half about 5 minutes slower than I wanted because I got distracted talking with a guy. So, the second half I just decided to go all out and ended up running it about 10 minutes faster than the first half and was passing tons of people, which is always fun. Despite the calf pain I ended up setting a new personal record of 3:03:30 and beat the rain. After I finished I immediately headed over to the 20-mile mark to wait for Cody and run the rest with him. Well, pretty soon the freezing rain started pouring and officials decided to shut the marathon course short and make them finish with only 21 miles. After standing there for about 45 minutes I figured Cody must have already passed so I walked toward the finish line. After waiting there for a while with my cape wrapped around me to stay warm, I decided to find some shelter to get out of the cold rain. So after I walked all over the place looking for the rest of the team, I huddled under a small overhang and waited. After a couple long hours Drew finally found me. I went with him to where Lisa was and then we finally got ahold of the rest of the gang. They were all under a huge pavilion looking warm and eating lots of food. I was still soaking wet, freezing, and starving, but at least I found my friends. Cody had survived the race after sneaking past the barricades to finish the marathon. We piled in the cars and headed to the hotel for showers. After getting warm and clean we went to Erin Morris’ parent’s house for a wonderful lunch. We ended up sitting on the back porch and talking for the next 6 hours as we watched the rain come down and waited for the tornados to come that we were being warned about. Luckily, the tornados never came and we had a great relaxing evening talking, eating, and playing games.

Sunday we went to Erin’s gigantic beautiful church out in the country. After lunch we said our goodbyes as everyone except Deb, Erin, and I left to drive back home. The three of us went walking around Nashville and then headed to the park for a couple hours where we geocached, flew a kite, played on a spring loaded see-saw, and watched little kids play. We then headed back to Erin’s house to help make dinner.

4/26-5/1 (My Birthday!!!!!)

Monday morning Deb and Erin took me to the airport. Deb left later that afternoon. After leaving Nashville I caught a plane in Denver and landed in Albuquerque, NM. On the plane to Denver I sat next to the same guy I sat next to when I flew from Denver to Nashville last Thurs. Crazy!!! He was a nice fellow from a small town near Great Falls, MT. Stayed at a hotel in Alb with a sweet workout room, pool, and hot tub. The conference I was attending for Indian Health Services was held at our hotel. Had a nice week attending lectures on Diabetes and other health topics, meeting people from all over the country, running around scenic Alb, and spending a lot of time in the weight room and pool. It was a nice relaxing week.

When I arrived back in Great Falls, MT Emily picked me up at the airport and we went to a local health store/café where we ate lunch with her friend Shannon. I had a delicious portabella salad with a bowl of yummy African sweet potato soup. Shannon lives in Great Falls and is kind of a rock star around the area. She is a news anchor for the morning show of the local news station. She even does some traveling to do on-site shows! After lunch the three of us went to see Ryan’s Dam which has a really cool bridge going to an island (that was, unfortunately, closed till Mother’s Day). We took a bunch of sweet pictures, climbed on things, sang songs and danced to the sweet tunes of High School Musical, climbed up a semi-cliff, and threw rocks in the river. It was great fun! Then I dropped Emily and Shannon off and drove two hours back to my pad in Havre.

Saturday, May 1 was my 27^th birthday so I enjoyed sleeping in a bit with intermittent birthday texts and phone calls. After breakfast I decided to celebrate my 27 years of life by doing 27 sets of: 10 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 27 body-weight squats, 27 crunches, 10 dumbbell curls on each arm with 20 pound dumbbells, and 10 single-arm kettlebell swings on each arm with a 50 pound kettlebell. I also drank 27 glasses of water. Emily and Heidi came over that night to make me dinner. They sprang through my door singing and cheering and wearing Happy Birthday cone hats, bound and determined to make this the best birthday ever. They also had in hand a poster they made for me that had pictures of all our adventures together the last three months with reasons for why they think I’m cool and let me hang out with them. It was spectacular! They also made me a really cool book for all my races this summer.Each race has a mix cd for the drive to the race, a note to read the morning of the race, a page to write my thoughts about the race, and a page for pictures.There were even a few maps of the races.Such a wonderful present from such wonderful friends!While they made me dinner we listed to HSM songs and Matt Kearney, which they downloaded just for the night! For dinner we had raw coconut kale tacos with a kale leaf as the taco shell stuffed with homemade salsa, fresh coconut chunks, guacamole, and macadamia nut mock cheese. We also had organic steak and baked sweet potato fries. For dessert we had healthy pumpkin pie made with almond meal/coconut crust, raw honey, and organic pumpkin filling. After dinner we watched HSM 2 while I finished my workout. I finished the night by praying for 27+ people. It was the best birthday I have had in a looooong time.

March 8-21, 2010

Another couple weeks in the books...

Monday started out crazy as usual. I ride the transit bus to work and it's becoming increasingly popular. It's a shorter 15 passenger bus and on Monday morning it was stuffed full. As we were leaving a parent with 3 kids drove up wanting a ride to school because they were late and had missed their bus. During my workout hour at work I decided I wanted to run up the mountain on the back side of the clinic. Just a couple weeks ago I snowshoed to the top of it. So, I headed over the same way as before, trudging through the mid-calf deep melting snow getting my shoes and socks wet. On one particular step I felt my foot get especially wet but didn't think much of it. The next step I found myself standing in freezing cold water up to my waist. Apparently under the snow here was a creek. And since it was a nice day out in the low 40's I was wearing only my running shorts and a sleeveless shirt. So I climbed out of the creek and decided to find another way across. After trudging back and forth along the creek bank through snow and thorns and finding no way across, I decided to just run the mountain on the front side of the clinic. It was a nice run with a beautiful view of the rez at top. My shoes are still drying from this adventure....

Monday night I attended a vegetarian cooking class/seminar on sucrose, fructose, and high-fructose corn syrup and the horrible damage HFCS causes, including being a main factor in the global obesity epidemic. To watch the seminar online go to you tube and search for "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" by Robert H. Lustig. I highly recommend everyone watch it.

Tuesday I run up 4 more mountain tops on the Rez during the day, and as soon as I got home I ran to the college and rock climbed for about an hour, ran back to the apt., and then hung out with Heidi, Emily, and Emily's brother and sister at Emily's house. Wed. I ran up the same mountains, except I had a dog run with me. After work I taught boot camp and then went to The Bridge, which is a building where the youth from 5th Avenue Christian Church meet. I hung out with the kids from the church and played a game called Smash Face. It's way fun and involves spiking a volleyball as hard as possible into other people. The kids love it.

Thursday I taught our Learning About Diabetes Series (LADS) class and cooked lunch for the class. We made baked sweet potato fries, kale chips, veggie quesadillas, hummus, and salad. They loved the food and the class. Thursday night I went running and hung out with Heidi, Emily, and her sis and bro again. Friday after work I ran up to the church and hung out at the big youth rally they were having.

Saturday was a busy day. First, I woke up super early to drive a group of Diabetics from the Rez to Great Falls (2 Hours away) to run in a St. Patty's Day Dash. It was a lot of fun and I got 3rd place overall in the 4 mile race. After lunch we drove back to the rez and I played basketball for about an hour, went hiking in the Bear Paw Mountains, and then went to the youth rally and played on inflatable games all night. They had a bungee run and a huge boxing ring where 6-10 of us would be inside with jousting sticks and boxing gloves and just pumble each other. It was quite the fun and exhausting time. Sunday I went to church, rode my bike, and went ice skating.

Highlights from the next week include: Boot camp, Seeing the Rez with most of the snow melted (it looks completely different, but still very beautiful!), starting the 1/2marathon training program at the Rez, hosting a salad luncheon for the clinic called Big Green Salad Day, playing football and soccer, running around Havre seeing a completely different town now that most of the snow is melting. As I ran from the gym to the youth group at The Bridge Wed. night I several four-wheelers zooming around on all the grass and dirt hills, found some horshoe pits, saw kids playing basketball on a couple outdoor courts, found some baseball fields, saw a kid hitting golf balls from his house into a cemetary, and found some cool running trails. Had fun with the youth learning about God, playing foosball, and playing more Smash Face. Thursday entailed cooking and teaching for the LADS class again. Friday was cold, icy, and snowy so I played basketball with the locals during my workout break. After work Heidi, Emily, and I hung out at the Manuel family's house. They have 5 really fun kids and tons of cattle. They took me driving around their land where the cows are kept and we looked for newly born calves (this is calving season). Then we ate a delicious meal of halibut and salmon caught in Alaska, a great salad, and pesto pasta. Dessert was a raw banana cacoa ice cream type dish with dandelion coffee (not really coffee...it's made out of roasted dandelion root- they say it's a good replacement for people trying to quit drinking coffee). Oh, and this family is very health conscious as they make lots of raw dishes, eat mainly organic foods, raise organic, free range cattle, and grow organic veggies. They also home school. I played drums, guitar, battleship, and knee hockey with the kids and then we all played some game called Last Word (I think). We had tons of fun and stayed up late. Saturday morning we woke up early and Emily, Heidi, and I drove up to Canada and went cross-country skiing. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the trail. We skied for about 2 hours 45 minutes up and down huge hills. Sunday included running up and down hills and around town followed by church, more running, watching some March Madness, and catching up with old friends via the cellular.

All in all it was a fun-filled, exciting week!

Don't forget to check out ventureexpeditions.org to donate towards my mission trip in Turkey this summer. Thanks.

Staying Busy....Having Fun... 3/8/10

Many people ask me what I do up here, so here's a brief summary of the last two weeks.

These last couple of weeks have been crazy busy and oh so fun! On Monday March 1st I taught my first boot camp and it went great! Tues I rock climbed for 1.5 hours and went to a gathering of small groups from a church where my two newest adventure buddies Emily and Heidi presented on their mission trip to Ethiopia and Heidi talked about he future life in Papa New Guinea. The owners of the host home were so fun! They made authentic Ethiopian food and even let me try some raw foods they made. The wife is a natural health enthusiast with a certification in holistic nutrition and loves raw food. They raise their own organic cattle and garden. Wed. I ran about 5.5 miles on the reservation and taught another boot camp, and I met a cyclist at the gym who wants to bike with me when it gets warmer. Thurs I ran another 5.5 miles at the rez, made delicious hummus for everyone at work, and got offered the position of District Eagle Board Executive for the scouts by the District Senior Executive of Boy Scouts here. Montana wants me to do everything! It was a very busy weekend: Friday I went snowshoeing with my friend Emily, watched a beautiful sunset over the Bear Paw Mountains and ate a delicious raw dinner with those 2 very cool Montanans Emily and Heidi, then went to the Havre High School hockey game. Sat I ran 11 miles with the other RD in town and her husband and daughter, then hung out with E and H again, bought used ice skates for $4 at thrift store and went around the Bear Paw Mts. taking pics and trying to find a lake to skate on. We saw some people ice fishing but couldn't find a good place to skate, then our car got stuck and we had to get some nice people driving by to help us push it out. For dinner I made super garlicky (5 cloves) asparagus soup and salad for the 3 of us before we headed to the hockey game that night. Sunday I went to church with Heidi and Emily. While they were in their “meeting” I went home and ate lunch. Then I picked up Emily at the church and took her to her house. She lives about 20 miles from town out in the country on a farm. Her family grows organic wheat and peas. How cool is that??? One of her brothers took me and another guy around and let us play on the big farm equipment like tractors, combines, and huge trucks. Then we went four-wheeling in the mud. While the boys were out playing in the cold, the girls (Emily and her sister and a girl named Chloe) were inside baking fresh bread from the family's home grown orgnaic wheat “kernels.” They ground them up right there on the spot and made some healthy bread using raw honey. Sooooo good! After snacking on the yummy warm bread and playing a card game called Pounce, we sat down at the dinner table for a nice family meal of zucchini soup. Then all us youngsters rushed out and headed to town. We picked up Heidi on the way and went ice skating!!! It was packed! We had a blast and I crashed hard once as I superman dove on the ice sliding a good 5 feet when racing Emily’s sister Liz. Monday rolled around again, but I don’t mind. It just means the start of another incredible adventuresome week in the Hi-Line of Montana. It seems something crazy is always happening up here. This day during my workout hour at work I ran for about 20 minutes, jump-roped, and then swam in our newly fixed pool. After work I taught boot-camp class again and had tons o' fun. Tuesday brought forth more adventures. I was out running on the rez and decided to try and find a trail going up the mountain. Well, I couldn’t find a trail so I decided to just run through the snow up to one of the peaks. Woah man does that burn your legs running up hill in knee deep snow in running shoes! Not to mention your feet get soaked. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to run down and over to the next peak I saw. Then I kept wondering what was beyond the next hill so I kept running. On one of the down-hills I came across a dirt road which was apparently used for horses because I slid on the snow and fell on to a big pile of horse manure. I was having so much fun though that I didn’t even care. As I ran through more snow all of the nastiness came off and I was pretty clean by the time I got back to gym... still took a shower though. Tuesday night is rock-climbing night and so I decided to run there this time. Well, I got there and it was locked. Apparently the whole gym at the college was closed for the MSU-Northern basketball playoff game that night. So I watched the game ( MSU-N won) and then hung out for a while. Wed. I taught boot camp and had a blast as we did jump-roping and other cool stuff. Thursday the boys basketball team from the high school on the rez, The Rocky Boy Northern Stars, were playing in the state playoffs in Great Falls, about 2 hours away, so most of the rez was emptying out as people headed to the game. They are crazy about basketball up here. So, since most of the clinic was getting pretty empty, we cut the day short and headed out to Great Falls as well. We had scheduled a meeting there for Friday morning. After cruising around the town trying to learn my way around I went for a nice hour long run and then hit the weight room in the hotel. Friday morning we had our meeting, then went to a great health food store, had a picnic by a river and fish hatchery, and watched the boys when the semi-final game to clinch a place in the championship. Saturday we went on a diabetic adolescent ski trip. It was a blast. I used snow-blades (really short skis with no poles) and hit lots of jumps, moguls, and black diamonds. That night we watched the Rocky Boy Stars battle their way through a tough game. They trailed most of the game but fought hard in the last 4 minutes to take the lead and win 58-49. The arena was packed with people from theRez and it was booming loud. They were chanting and throwing confetti and dancing. It was so fun. Sunday night I went ice-skating again. It’s so fun! My stopping needs some work though. I tried skating really fast and then doing a “hockey stop” (where you stop by turning the skates sideways). Well, I didn’t exactly stop... I just slid along the ground as my skates slid out from under me and I took out 2 of my friends who were standing along the wall. It was hilarious. And now another week of crazy fun and adventures begins!

First Few Weeks In Montana - 2/17/2010

Hi friends!

Many of you may or may not know that I recently moved up to Havre, Montana. It is a small town of around 10,000 folks located about 45 miles south of Canada. I am working on Rocky Boy Indian Reservation doing nutrition counseling, primarily with Diabetics. I teach group classes and prepare Diabetic friendly meals. Last week for breakfast we had green smoothies (with spinach and fruit) and boiled eggs. Every single patient loved it and my supervisor even got her kids to try it a they beg for her to make them one every day! It's really great here and everyone is very friendly. Montana is absolutely beautiful and is currently covered in a thick coat of white fuzz. The rez is huge with lots of mountains, wild game to hunt, a fitness center I use every day, and even a ski resort, which I've already used 4 times. It is small but very cheap and never any lines. I even bought a used snowboard and boats from a friend last weekend. My town is one of the coldest in the state with lots of snow and cold weather often below zero. Last week it was 22 below zero with a windchill of negative 40. After forgetting my jacket one day when the windchill was negative 30 I learned quickly to always make sure I have a heavy coat, hat, and gloves. I ride a free transit bus to work (which is about 30 miles away) most of the time.

My apt. is Huuuuuge! It's really nice. Two bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, and a giant living room/exercise room complete with dumbells, kettlebells, weight bench, golf clubs, pull-up bar, bicycles and trainers, radio, and treadmill. The people before me left a pool table, treadmill, weight bench, couch, and dart board. I also have an outside balcony overlooking an alley behind me where I will hang a hammock this summer and I have access to the roof. I live downtwon on the 2nd story above a radioshack that is next to the movie theater and a hardware store. I'm in walking distance of pretty much everything in town, and for everything that's not in walking distance, I just run there.

I am slowly starting to make more friends outside of work. Next week I will begin teaching a boot camp class at a fitness center in town. There is a small college in town (Montana State University North) that has a disc golf course, a small weight room and gym, and a open once a week. I went last night and climbed for an hour straight until I had no grip left and it hurt to even open the handle on my car door. After climbing I headed to a young adult group from one of the churches in town. They have a really nice setup in a building with raqcuetball, air hockey, ping pong, Wii, Guitar hero, pool table, homemade dinner, carpet ball (bet you've never heard of that one), and a giant projector screen that we're going to watch the olympics on Sat. night after the college regional wrestling tournament.

Other fun things I've been busy with: My friend Cody (who rode his bicycle across the country with me last summer) moved to MT in Dec and lives about 4.5 hours south of me. He came up to visit and we went snowshoeing (super fun!), participated in a tribal round dance to celebrate the 50th anniversary of some couple we didn't know but welcomed us, played "stick game"....which we never co played basketball, and went skiing. I've gone running a few times at night when it's above zero degrees and can't wait till it gets warmer. Someone gave me some cool rubber things with metal spikes that go on your shoes to keep your from sliding on the ice. They've been a life saver. Last Sunday I went to a fundraiser for a chapel that had Chuck and Loraine Buck (owners of Buck Knives) as the speakers. They told the story of how the business got started and their personal testimony as a couple. It was good. Last weekend I drove to Billings for a work conference, shopped at a co-op and loaded up on organic veggies since we have very few in Havre, and watched the high school state wrestling tournament (where Havre won their fourth straight state title). Then I went to Livingston to visit Cody again, drove to Bozeman where I bought my snowboard and boots, shopped at another food co-op, and connected with a UNT BYX (Brothers Under Ch I headed back to Havre and drove through some of the most beautiful scenery I've seen in the US.

Things coming up:

My head boss lives on the rez and offered to take me fly fishing, elk, deer, and antelope hunting, maybe bird hunting, and horseback riding up in the mountains on his horses.

I'm taking some of my diabetic patients to a fun run/walk in March for St. Patty's Day and planning a community garden for this summer. We are also planning a 4 day diabetic retreat at some cabins.

I'm running the Nashville Rock N Roll Marathon in April.

This summer I am doing a mission/biking trip with Venture Expeditions (who puts on Ride:Well). We are going to bike around Turkey for 3 weeks and help a church there that has a big ministry with refugees from Iran and several other countries trying to get into Europe. The leader of the trip was one of the leaders from Ride:Well last summer. There are only 3 of us going and we are all really excited! The trip will be at the end of May and last till the middle of June. I have to raise about $4,000 before the start of the trip.

After that I will be working, training for more races this summer, running and biking all over the mountains of the rez, visiting the nearby lake to ski/wakeboard, etc, and lots of camping. The reservation has a big Pow-Wow this summer which is supposed to be incredible! I look forward to learning more about the culture and traditions here and hopefully changing people's lives.

To see pictures of Montana look at my albums on: http://s763.photobucket.com/home/Batmanrunning/index I will be updating it with more pics and videos periodically.

Also, if you want to learn more about my biking trip through Turkey and/or are interested in donating, please let me know and I will send you my support letter.

Serving Him,
-Brian Elliott

PS. Add carrot juice to your gasoline for Beta mileage!!! Hahahhaha. (This is a joke by the way...don't really try it)