Can You Drive Through a National Park without Paying the Fee?

*This is not legal advice, if a lawyer wants to spend their time pro bono to correct me, please do so*

I have significant experience being in and around National Parks, in almost all of those experiences I only ever passed through those federal properties. Over those years, I have also heard numerous reports of federal employees requiring others to pay the entrance fee of those National Parks even after people have disclosed their destination was not in the Park. My curiosity getting the better of me (I should be writing my dissertation, but I need to answer this before my brain will let it go), leads me to this path.

My legal basis for this assertion is with the structure of the Constitution and more specifically, the Court’s ruling in the Slaughterhouse Cases (1873), which in the very limited understanding of the Federal Privileges and Immunities, included a right to travel between the states. “The right to move with freedom, to choose his highway, and to be exempt from impositions, belongs to the citizen. He must have this power to move freely to perform his duties as a citizen.”(page 57) This is where I just might know enough law to get me into trouble, but let’s take this spontaneous assertion together. It is also worth recognizing the doctrine concerning the Right to Travel is not entirely clear. My contention is under my federal right to travel, I ought to be able to freely travel through the federal property without paying a fee. Mind you, there are collections of anti-government extremists known as Sovereign Citizens, who can be dangerous and are generally confused about the legitimacy of the American legal system. I am writing this in real-time, the ending TLDR conclusion may result in me being wrong. At no point am I advocating or arguing that one does not need to have a state-issued Driver’s License or current vehicle registration for this exercise.

The National Parks are governed by the National Parks Service, which is under the Department of the Interior (This link does a pretty good job of explaining the hierarchy of laws, rules, and regulations). They, like most executive branch agencies, are authorized by Congress to make rules and regulations which carry the force of law. Additionally, executive orders can “fine-tune” the laws passed by Congress to interpret the execution of such laws in a more specific (or not) manner. So the aspects of governance over National Parks are based on Federal statutory law (US Code), the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), and Executive Orders. I want to confirm, if my legal understanding/analysis is correct, that under federal law, I can freely travel through National Parks, without having to pay a fee for a pass. This is specific, I cannot stop on the federal land to park or enjoy any of the sights, this is ONLY to pass through. If my findings confirm my suspicions, to use this knowledge to avoid paying entrance fees and park use is wholly unethical and one can and ought to be fined for not paying said fees if they use the National Park without paying the proper fees.

Let me start with the Executive Orders because this will be the easiest thing to address. Of the list provides by National Parks Service, none of the executive orders would apply to my inquiry.

Next up, the Federal Law, I predict it will provide for broad authorization, and the specifics will be addressed, defined, and enforced via the Code of Federal Regulations.

54 U.S. Code § 100101 - Promotion and regulation
(2) 1978 reaffirmation.—
Congress reaffirms, declares, and directs that the promotion and regulation of the various System units shall be consistent with and founded in the purpose established by subsection (a), to the common benefit of all the people of the United States. The authorization of activities shall be construed and the protection, management, and administration of the System units shall be conducted in light of the high public value and integrity of the System and shall not be exercised in derogation of the values and purposes for which the System units have been established, except as directly and specifically provided by Congress.

In the link, one will see “System” and “System Units” are hyperlinked terms, which refers to “section 100501” for definition. This path leads us to “The System shall include any area of land and water administered by the Secretary, acting through the Director, for park, monument, historic, parkway, recreational, or other purposes.” So basically, this is the grand authorization by Congress to the Department of the Interior to do all the details. This is going way too smoothly so far, in your best Billy Mays voice, say to yourself “but wait there’s more!”

Now I am on to the fun (tedious) part! In case you did not know, the Code of Federal Regulations dwarf the US Code (federal statutes) by at least 20x, to be honest, no one actually knows. The truly fun part is this, not only does the Department of Interior get to write the rules, but they also get to enforce the rules, and interpret the rules. If you are thinking this may violate the separation of powers, then welcome to the debate concerning the Administrative State, it has been going within the Conservative legal movement for over 30 years, call it the best-kept secret in American government. At a more layperson level, this is known as the federal bureaucracy. Before I continue a rabbit trail on this broader issue, let me dive into the CFR and see what I can find.

The bulk of the relevant rules and regulations are found in Title 36 Chapter 1 Part 71.  In addition to the CFR, there are also the Management Policies of the National Parks System which references the Park Roads Standards. I might just be bragging about how much research I did for this... Let us begin with a look at the relevant CFR concerning the National Park entrance fees.

My prompt is only concerned with entering the National Park for the purpose of passing through. Of the three types of fees authorized in the CFR, only the Designated Entrance Fee Area (DEFA) would apply. No recreational activities or special recreation is to take place in this hypothetical. Therefore, the only potential legitimate fee would be the DEFA. As one continues reading the CFR, the designated areas are described and defined. My interest perks up at subsection 71.3. There is a helpful carveout, “(3) In no event shall any of the following, whether used singly or in any combination, be designated as facilities for which recreation use fees shall be charged: Drinking water, wayside exhibits, roads, overlook sites, visitors' centers, scenic drives, toilet facilities, picnic tables, and boat ramps.” To further solidify the position, at subsection 71.13, exemptions to the text above (71.1-71.12) include,

(b) No entrance fee shall be charged for travel by private noncommercial vehicle over any National Parkway, or any road or highway established as part of the National Federal-Aid System, which is commonly used by the public as a means of travel between two places, either or both of which are outside the Designated Entrance Fee Area; (c) No entrance fee shall be charged for travel by private noncommercial vehicle over any road or highway to any land in which such person has any property right if such land is within any Designated Entrance Fee Area.

Therefore, between 71.3 and 71.13, the CFR clearly states one can use the “roads” and “scenic drives” without having to pay the DEFA, particularly if you are traveling between two places outside of the National Park. To answer my question, “Can I travel through a National Park without paying the Entrance Fee?” Yes.

I also checked Part 7, for special instructions of the Parks I have experience with, Sequoia and Kings Canyon and recently Joshua Tree, no relevant information about my inquiry is in that section.

Welcome to Afghanistan

This certainly is a deployment; the conditions are more rustic than what I experienced in Iraq. It has taken about three days to recover/adjust to the new time zone, which is minus 11.5 hours from PST. I don't know why this country has a 0.5 mark... it just does. Then again the best part about deployments thus far have not disappointed. The food is great, my base has a number of different cafeterias, and I am greatly enjoying the European style ones. When I was in Germany there was an orange-carrot type juice generically called throughout Europe "multivitamin" juice. It was wonderful and they have it here! I am being reminded to appreciate the little things each day. Getting a couple cups of juice helps offset variables like the tight living space, cold "navy showers”, and the connection speed that ebbs and flows; I think it coincides with the number of people awake and logging on, although yesterday it was especially slow.

In keeping with the "signs you are a contractor" I am working on a "deployment beard/goatee/facial hair growth experiment", I am about a week into it and I think it is slightly more than most men's five O' Clock shadow. This will be a slight source of entertainment for now. I'll post pictures in the event I actually grow enough to be detected by pictures. I managed to make it to the gym yesterday. Needless to say I am not looking forward to the pains of getting back into my lifting regiment. The mere discomfort of getting used to the burn and daily muscle soreness that I should be expecting for the next couple of months alone should be enough motivation that I had never stopped lifting. Then again life in CA was a bit busy often to the point to allot for more than six hours of sleep was a luxury. One of the main reasons I decided to come out here was to remember the simple lifestyle, and it is.

Among the other niceties I've been trying to appreciate were the flights here. Flying a real commercial flight to Kuwait was huge; I even got economy plus seating! This is compared to the lowest bidding "commercial" aircraft we fly as active duty in which we were packed in so tight sardines would complain. That is unless you volunteer to load the baggage and then you might get to pick your seats in the event the flight is not packed to capacity. So I got to Kuwait and after some minor headaches, to the hotel. Wow, would be a short description. If that hotel wasn't a five star, I cannot fathom what is. The beachfront view from the lobby, the multiple fountains and swimming pools in what I thought was a desert country, I was in awe. I think the icing on the cake was the fresh plate of fruit waiting for me in my room. Granted it wasn't exotic fruits like dates, pistachios and other more indigenous products but fresh fruit nonetheless. My experience in Kuwait was culminated with dinner at their in house seafood restaurant. The last several months I've been eating seafood at almost every opportunity, I continued that night. I was most impressed with their "salad bar" which amongst other things I dined on: hummus, smoked salmon, smoked mackerel, oyster salad, jumbo shrimp cocktail, and assorted veggies. I think a lot of American salad bars should take notes from this place.

On one of the legs of flight I happened to sit next to a brother in Christ from New York, I think his name was Mark. It was a great opportunity to encourage one another. An especially encouraging story about what God has been doing in this place. A man from India or Nepal, I can't remember exactly where but it was an unreached area, whom Mark helped get a job. By God's providence he was sent to a location which another brother, Robert, was located, it was there that he received the Gospel and became a Christ Follower. Sometime after that work location, he was transferred to the base where Mark was located. Upon seeing one another again, Mark started discipling the new believer. They have been going strong for a month now. The probability that they would see one another again, let alone be given the time and opportunity to disciple is the kind that can only be accomplished by God's plan.

I can't help but wonder what opportunities I might have. I will not have much if any contact with non-Americans. From what I have gathered thus far, no one on my team appear to be active Christ followers. I've been in this spiritual atmosphere before, that was two years in Germany, but I question how much I properly assessed this as a real possibility. So often I reminisce about the almost constant fellowship I enjoyed in Iraq, not fully considering what it would be like here. Only God knows and time will tell. I pray that this will be a beneficial time of learning both through my studies and the life lessons I learn.

Epilogue: This was the most difficult period of my life. There were several rotations of active duty and contractor team members, no one exhibited more than nominal faith at best. There was also one crew that was hostile to any kind of discussion that was in the least bit philosophical or existential. I should probably write about the reintegration after this, that was an important life chapter...

London Photo Blog

    I think you have all noticed that I recently went to London this last Memorial Day weekend. It was great, well for the most part. I noticed whenever I get back from a trip I have kind of a giddy feeling about other cultures. I get a sense of experience that cannot be taught or read about, it is a great feeling. I try to encourage others to travel as much as possible but alas it is not as easy as one would hope or think, well to travel properly in my opinion (pre-arranged room, travel, food ect.)
    I'll start with the bad stuff that happened first before I get on another tirade about how great it was. When I visited Jonathan last 4th of July I flew Ryan Air without much of an issue. It was more miscommunication that was solved in a few hours rather painlessly. I wish it were so this time. On the return back we all took the train to get to the airport. Well, as the powers beyond us would have it the train was delayed for 3 hours causing us to miss our flight. Once we got to the airport and reported the issue with the hundreds of other people in similar situation our solutions we less than appealing. In order to get on the waiting list for the next available flight back to Germany they had a 50 pound service charge (that is roughly 100 USD) per ticket. Out of options we had to do that, luckily we got on the flight and all was well. Adding 100USD to the tail end of a trip is not the best note to end an awesome vacation though. I will never fly Ryan Air again, by choice.
    Rewind back to the beginning of the weekend now. Myles and Kelly picked me on the "sheim" (my affectionate nickname for my post). Fast forward from all the driving and details like that we got to England without incident. Once we got our lodgings settled we hit the city. Between the underground and walking we got around just fine. The adjustment to the pound was a difficult one. First being reminded how much our own currency sucks, and second the fact that everything costs at least 2x as much because of the difference. Everything seem to be appropriately priced if there were no currency difference it would all be the same cost as stateside, oh how that would've been a great IF... The only way I could justify the costs was a cross between convincing myself it was like a dollar to them and I am on vacation.
So getting on with the photoblog part.

Famous Big Ben, yea it's big.

This looked cool, it is the Admiralty Arch

Buckingham Palace, the home of the Queen, but she wasn't home when I visited. I didn't try to go check though...

Those famous palace guards, I wonder if they actually get loaded weapons, I am pretty sure that is an SA-80 they are packing.

Double decker bus, yea, no longer in official London service but there is tour buses EVERYWHERE.

Enough said, the ribs were yummy, it was cool to see all the memorabilia. I think it was mostly Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton.

It is a London Bobbie at the airport, I was really hoping to get a picture of her co-worker that is not pictured cause he had a nice looking rifle but he asked not to be pictured.

I would've taken a picture of the actual bridge but it is nothing special just a standard concrete bridge...

A piece of the real Roman Wall, it is a fascinating piece of history to trace back to the roots of the nation/culture.

St Paul's Cathedral ummm it is famous and cool looking.

Yea the Tower Bridge, I wish we went inside those.

Another one of London's main sites Trafalgar Square

Henry VIII armor, it was cool and shiny. Really hard to get a well lighted angle so the picture would come out. The groin protection thingy is rather interesting, I wonder what was the purpose of that...
 

This is huge, it is Wellington Arch it was one of those monuments that one takes a breath of awe for.

WWI Memorial, Honor the Fallen

I guess some really famous royals got married & coronated here.

 

This is known as the White Tower, the Yeoman Warder Dave was an awesome tour guide, the requirements to be one is scary, they need to be a Senior NCO with 22+ years of service and a medal only received after 18 years of no blemishes on their record.
    Well that is all the pictures I wanted to post. The vast majority of the pictures are more the kind you can look up. The lasting impression of London is a certain kind of appreciation. I find it inspiring how there are so many monuments and memorials to their past. The first day I was snapping at everything in sight, as the weekend went on it was apparent my camera didn't have sufficient memory (512mb) to capture every monument to the heroes and honored of the past.
    I see much that we can learn from such a city. I don't know if the culture truly believes or exhibits this but the structures throughout the city certainly do. Honor their past, I suppose it is easier for a country to do so with such a long and rich past, unlike ours. I haven't been touring on the East Coast to see our monuments and memorials to our past. I doubt it can or will be as inspiring as my travels from this weekend. I am stirred and left wondering what would it be like if I lived in such a place that I couldn't walk a mile and not pass 3 separate structures honoring the past?
    How do we honor our fallen? I remember reading about the WWII memorial when it was commissioned to be built. In the article it said that the average age of the sponsors reflected that is was the WWII veterans funding their own memorial. Is it just me or is there something wrong with that? One of the statues in Trafalgar Square, it was of Sir Charles James Napier has inscribed on it "erected by public subscription the most numerous contributors being private soldiers". I think it is fair to process that those were soldiers that served under him. What kind of leader was he that his own soldiers paid to have a memorial for him? Something that rings home in my world. I have had commanders on different spectrums of leadership style and method. To have one that the soldiers would initiate a memorial for, that is something to aspire for any leader.
    It was an great trip, despite the downfalls and costs. The experience gained is a small price to pay for something that reduces some electronic numbers in an account that represents cloth and digital signals we use to determine a person's wealth. Hardly what I would prescribe as being wealth.

Slovakia Service Project 2007

I am still in the awestruck having gotten back so recently. I do want to write this while it is still so fresh in my mind. I had the privilege to spend this last week in Slovakia. The short version, I spent a week hanging out with some high school guys while building a playground and playing with some Slovakian children.

I refrain from speaking of this as a mission trip for the same reasons I mentioned in Prague Mission. Where do I start? Wow, to be in the presence of God’s creation, to be actively doing his work, it is so refreshing and recharging. To scream “Alive” at the top of my lungs is still an understatement.

Let’s start from the beginning. That goes back to November or so when I was working with Club Beyond, that is the military youth ministry, on post. Fast forward to the more recent months, where I have been very much so out of the loop what has been happening in Club Beyond. Most of the activities are on a different post, thus I am unable to attend and/or the meetings occur during duty hours.

It was I think in February that I got curious about what was happening with Club on Illesheim, so I shot and email over to the community directors. I mentioned Slovakia and at the time I was not needed, that was a bit of a downer but I am very used to bad news. About a week later it turned out that they did need me. The approvals went through and voila, I was going.

We left around midnight on Easter for a 15-18 hour bus ride (depending on how you count it), not a big deal. Being a choir tour veteran I have spent many a Spring Break on a bus. I was introduced with my four guys and Cotton, the other male leader. So yea, sleep on a bus, especially on the way over is usually something to be desired. After we get to the “village” it was a small camp that turned out to have communities from all over Europe of Club Beyond and Malachi (the other youth ministry program). I think there was between 700-1000 military teens altogether. We were split up according to work sites, which I could not spell my work site. The only thing it rhymed with would sound obscene.

Once we all got settled in our rooms, the first day it was just hanging out. There was an artificial soccer field next to the cabins and a basketball/volleyball court on the camp as well. The first day was the only one we had more than a couple hours of free time. After dinner we’d get on the buses to go to Club (youth group meeting). Then we’d bus back to the cabins for cabin time and sleep.

A typical day I’d get up around 0630, make breakfast for myself and the guys, get to the leader’s meeting. The meeting was about 30 minutes. From there gather all the things and make sure everyone was on the bus. We’d get to the site work all day and get back to the camp around 1630ish. Construction wasn’t the only thing we worked on, we also did VBS for the little kids, our students would lead Club for the Slovakian middle schoolers and we played with the kids sporadically throughout the days. That is all the basic what’s I can think of so you can get an idea of what I got to do.

The band at the evening Club meetings was 330 Plan, who happened to share the common bond of Hume with me. That connection was a nice reminder of great cloud of witnesses there are, especially when I was not expecting it. I had a nice little chat with them Saturday night to catch up on a little bit of what I have been missing back in California and in Hume. How I long to return there soon. By the way, I am about 95% certain I am reenlisting for 2 years (I am really only adding 3-4 months of time to my contract) this month. I am reenlisting to better set myself up for a transition into the civilian life.

There were some fine differences that I found interesting about this mission. I think in many ways it was much better than any camp I have been to before. The emphasis to live out Christ’s love to the Slovakian children while living the same love to our students was encouraging. On the humanitarian level, this project was incredible and made a difference in several towns. It was like mixing a short term mission with summer camp. I hope to find programs like that stateside to encourage people to support.

As far as the camp talks/sermons they were good, I had that sense of inclusiveness that is one of those sticky parts about gov’t sponsored ministry sorta… In order for Club Beyond to operate on military posts the leadership cannot discourage anyone’s current faith no matter what it may be. One of the humorous moments, I was talking with one of my guys, based on a guess of what the lessons would be like, and I called every single one. For those Hume veterans out there I think you know what I mean: Introduction to theme, Present Gospel, Purity or something of those sorts, Rededication, How to stay with it as the rough theme of each night’s message.

One of my thoughts concerning the method of teaching was how it correlated to non-Christian students in the course of a week. It seemed outdated or inappropriate for our current culture. For a truly evangelistic theme camp there are major places of the mind that I think contributes too many people getting the mountain top experience and then sliding down often as much as they climbed up in the following weeks upon experiencing God.

My first objection is to present the Gospel so early. The leaders should be living it throughout the week, at day two the leader and the students are still building trust and getting to know them. There are certain philosophical factors that I think are important to address before getting to the Gospel at such a place that it can be readily accepted. This is exemplified by the order in which most apologetic books address faith. I think the order in which the Gospel ought to be presented in terms of sermons/talks should be something like: Existence of Truth and Absolutes must be established; Showing how it is possible to know the Truth; The Bible is the Word of God; Then present the Gospel. I explain deeper why I think it is so important in Semantics or More.

I think under the current scheme of messages there is an oversight on the part of the mind. Given the course of a week a person’s heart in that environment can change drastically, however, I think that for it to be real it must also resonate in the mind, because like all matters of the heart emotions can be unpredictable and erratic. I do not think that is a healthy foundation for faith. The heart is often what starts to move people towards action. I think it is the mind that continues that action when the heart gets discouraged. This leads me to my second objection.

I was very pleased to find out there were no altar calls and there was not going to be one in the duration of the week. I know it sounds awfully anti-evangelistic to but opposed to altar calls but allow me to explain my reservations. I think it is best put forth with this event.

When I was working at Hume, Chris Brown was speaking. I have never heard a speaker with such talent for making scripture come alive the way he does. If you are interested here and here for sermons archives. Anyways, on the Gospel decision night, he spoke on the Prodigal Son. Upon closing the message he ended it with a prayer and invited students to stay and pray in the chapel and just “do business with God.” I had never seen such a high percentage of students stay, I can say with confidence easily 800 of the 1000 students in that chapel stayed that night.

The next day at a staff bible study he mentioned that he’d received complaints from counselors for leaving them hanging and not presenting the gospel or having an altar call. He responded with “At the place I had them, I could’ve prayed to the Easter Bunny and they’d have done it.” To phrase it in such a way, to show the care and concern not for a prayer but a true decision spoke worlds to me. Christianity is not a business, too often we forget that and measure success in the church with commitment cards or attendance increases. I have been to too many camps and choir tours to lead more students to a prayer when they don’t understand the gravity of.

I would much rather have some deep conversations with students throughout the night (and sometimes early morning as this last week proved) so that they can understand what Christianity is before they commit their lives to it. I think waiting for such decisions is more beneficial to the student also. If and when the decision happens they know what they are getting into. On the eternal scale I think there is more clarity too. They won’t have a question in their mind about some prayer they said some years ago at some camp. To high schoolers I try my best to mentally challenge them for the college/adult world they are soon to enter. One of the ways of doing that is helping them define themselves and their faith. The last thing I want to do is send someone on their way more confused about Christianity or what they believe than when I started.

One thing I learned from this week about youth ministry was patience. When I entered the week I had the mindset that I had one week to forever change their lives, either introduce them to Christ or get them to a mature place in their faith that they can live bold lives. At the leader meeting it was never under emphasized that often the fruits of youth ministry frequently are not seen for years to come, if we ever do get to see them.  As a youth leader I need to be satisfied with doing the most I can do for the time I have with them. I cannot rush them in their spiritual journey and my success or failure is not dependent on what happens in the course of the week. It is also an issue of trust and humility on my part to let God do his thing. It is not I that move the hearts and minds of the students but the Spirit working through me.

All in all it was a week I could not have asked anything more from. I am so recharged and encouraged by this last week it is indescribable. Having such fellowship with other believers is something I miss all too often. There were several times I was strongly lamenting returning back to the barracks in spiritual isolation again. To be able to remove my walls for a week only reminds me of where I am and what I am constantly doing. For those of you praying for me at home I thank you.

Prague Mission

I suppose this has been on the to-do list, it has been a week since I got back from last weekend in Prague, Czech Republic. I got to go with the Chapel-on-post from the 16th-20th. A couple of things I wanted to rant/notate before I told you all (y'all is not an English word). First thing that has come to my mind is the idea and strange reference we make to missions as mission trips. This is probably an issue of semantics but let's see where it goes.

Something the Army has indoctrinated into me is what a mission is. Everything has a mission, no matter where it is or what it is, the objective is to complete the mission. I really do mean a mission can be any and everything, it defined from everywhere from "Take that hill!" the infantry would be more likely to hear but it also includes such orders as "clean the latrine" or " rake those leaves". So in my atmosphere and experience of mission being an active noun I find it odd that so often the church speaks of mission trips. Common vernacular tends to see trip as some form of vacation that includes traveling to an unfamiliar area for a hopefully good time. When I hear "trip" in my mind (in the context of travel, not one's impact upon a hard surface) it is something of leisure and relaxation.

As you might see where this is going the term "mission trip" is a rather incompatible mix if the goal is evangelism. I am not saying that a mission should not contain some fun and enjoyment but the tone of leisure or relaxation should be far from the goals or highlights that are associated with a trip. In addition, from the many missions trips that I have seen return from and report the activities it seems much more fitting that the goals and activities accomplished were on the eternal level than that of R&R. I suppose the only reason it is deemed appropriate to include "trip" in the title of the event is to establish that traveling had occurred.

Okay, so the mission, first of all I am convinced that it was by divine intervention that I got to go due to my PT performance earlier in the week. In addition to the not-so-good status that was bestowed upon me, my permission slip (known as a DA 31) which clears me to go had been approved in less than 24 hours. For normal activities to be cleared by a DA 31 of that magnitude it is expected to be turned in 2 weeks prior to the departure. So by the time I got the green light I stuffed my bag and was already pumped for the journey I was to embark.

I carpooled with the Chaplain and his family, it was about 4.5 hours, I don't remember that much of it because I slept the last half of it. Gotta love those choir tours buses. If you can sleep on Bus 3 you can sleep anywhere. Anyways we arrived with very little of an idea of what we would be doing. I had no idea what kind of accommodations we would have; I was expecting a small hostel or something of that sort. We were working with a family of long term missionaries that have been working in Praha (how it is pronounced in Czech) for the last 6 years. We arrived at a rather nice hotel; I believe the brochure said it was 4-star.

I roomed with the chaplain's assistant, the only other enlisted person on the mission. The room was spacious enough and quite comfy. We ate breakfast and dinner at the hotel for simplicity. Aside from the Chaplain, all the others were service member wives and children. Enough of the children were at the picky phase that going out for food was deemed too taxing for the group.

Anyways, the first night we just settled in and hit the mall for dinner, we arrived around 2000. I got some Thai fast food that was pretty decent, better than any German attempts of Asian cuisine so far. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to get to bed and be ready for the first day. I woke up early to do some PT in the gym at the hotel (it was small but I managed), I figured if I kept up with PT it couldn't hurt. The typical European breakfast is a cold cut sandwich. Oh yea, Europeans don't really use condiments on their sandwiches. You might find mayo and ketchup but as a whole it is bread, veggies, meat and cheese. The pastries are much less sweet than American pastries. I like it, there is less guilt.

First we got travel passes; they were 3-day passes for any form of public transport (bus, tram, train, taxi). From there we traveled to the current area that the missionaries were praying for. They have been progressively praying for every street in the city, and it is a big city. Bryan and I (the chaplain's assistant) teamed up for one area while the others also broke up and covered designated areas. As we walked through the residential complexes I was reminded of pictures from the Romania missions I have seen, the housing complexes were very simple and depressing to look at. Some of them were painted in very bright colors for some form of color. The stamp of communism is still very much on the city. We walked throughout the area; I'd say covered 6-8 blocks and stopped to pray at every complex.  For the most part there were not many people around. At one building an older lady attempted to talk to us. She asked what we were doing and being that we didn't know any Czech we tried the best we could. She spoke a little English and we told her we were praying. I think she asked if we were afraid. We weren't sure if she asked that because we were praying out in the open or if we were scared in that neighborhood. We continued through the neighborhood until the rendezvous time at the cafe. From there we went to the park where the children were occupied. We shared the prayer walk experiences then went back to the cafe for lunch. I had my first pepperoni and tuna pizza, it was... interesting. We all headed back to the hotel; once we got there Bryan and I were released for the day until dinner, which gave us roughly four hours. Everyone else stayed back for nap time.

We took the public transport to the main tourist square area, and walked about the area to scope out some of the sites. At the head was a museum; along the main street were statues and pieces of art. At some point we stopped at a store so Bryan could get some new shoes. We spent all our time that day scoping out the area and just taking pictures of architecture and exhibits. We made a big loop in our walking path until our time was up. I scoped out the museum hours and prices for future reference. We got back a little early for dinner. After dinner everyone headed out to one of the other notable tourist areas. From a distance we could see Prague Castle and a magnificent gothic cathedral. We walked along the river to the Charles Bridge (bridge used in Mission Impossible and the same river as seen in XXX, oh yea those racks that he held onto at the end of the movie, those are for night lights on the bridge). It was definitely a place we had to return to during the day for some more pictures. I took a little more than 100+ pictures each day.

The second day began rather similar to the first, after all the walking I was much more in favor of extending my hours of hibernation, no PT for day 2. We took a short bus to a small shopping center nearby the missionaries house. Our objective was to give away New Testaments in Czech, we were taught simple phrases to attempt to communicate with the people. It was limited to "Good Day", "For you", and "free". We were all in about a 1/4 mile area at different access points throughout the shopping center to offer. It was very difficult to give away the bibles. For me it seemed especially difficult being that I was not as Caucasian in skin tone as the others. Aside from being a foreigner, being non-white or European I consistently had a clear sense of being watched more carefully. Often I would walk near people and they would do the "shift the eyes and walk to the right or left" as I approached. In the duration I did get a bit of a small sit down conversation with a man that was on a bench drinking. He spoke a little English; I was able to give him a bible. We tried to talk but my Czech and his English were so limited it wasn't really possible. He told me where his grandfather lived; I think he was staying with him. It took us around 2.5 hours to pass out I think 35 or so bibles between the 5 of us that were out there. For lunch we went to McDonald's (I am certain I have been to more McDonald's in Europe than I have in the US in the recent 5 years), I think we did it for the simplicity of the kids.

From there Bryan and I were released, we got directions from Steve, one of the missionaries, on which tram to take to get to the cathedral. Once we got on we were riding the tram for probably close to an hour. Once we got to the castle we did the tourist thing of walking around, seeing the sights and taking a picture of everything in sight. We toured the Cathedral, caught the changing of the guards. It is interesting to watch military drills now. Bryan and I were noting how much it would not be fun to have to stand at attention like they do in the dress uniform. After we toured the castle, which happened to be one of the world's largest castles, we realized that we did not get directions on how to get back. We got back on the tram and got off on what I thought was familiar to where we were the night before for the train stop. We wandered around for a little while and quickly found the train stop. Once we got oriented we rushed back to Charles Bridge to get some daylight photos of the sights from the night before. We got back to dinner right on time. The public transport is very easy to learn and use.

I was rather glad we had relaxed the night before cause little to my knowledge Saturday was a tiring day. I didn't know what we were doing that morning so I did do some PT. The objective for Saturday was to meet some teenagers that attended a camp the missionaries put on and play with them. Not a difficult thing to do, I wish I had packed some athletic wear. The others for the most part picnicked in the park; the underlying objective was to get the residents comfortable with our presence. I got in on 3 basketball games. After the first one I was very tired. We played with Roman; I want to say he was around 12. Steve was teaching him how to play as we went along. After a short breather a couple more teenagers showed up. Thomas and Martin looked to be in the 17-18 range. By the end of the second game, I was exhausted. We weren't really keeping track of time we just kept playing till we were all too tired or thirsty that a 10-second break couldn't recharge us. We had lunch in the park, after a good hour of rest and rehydration we played another game. It was a bit shorter than the last one, but I was still exhausted. My team lost every game, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t on purpose.

We headed back to the hotel after another stop at McDonald's. Once released Bryan and I hurried to get to the museum. We both expected it to be a museum about Czech history or Praha. It turned out to be a natural history museum. It was still cool I got lots of pictures of fossils and the sort. I kind of chuckled cause in the main lobby area there were a couple displays of trilobites, so I carefully took pictures of each one. As we toured the other section they had an entire room it seemed devoted to trilobite fossils. I got a picture of a stuffed Dodo too. When we got to the mineral displays I was a rock nerd in paradise. I tried to take a picture of every display area but the time crunch made me hurry through it a bit more. We cleared the museum and got back for dinner fashionably late, the one time that everyone else was on time. Being that it was the last night, the last objectives I wanted to see was the torture museum and I wanted to get a souvenir.

We did manage to get to the torture museum, it was rather unimpressive. I was really bummed that no cameras were allowed. At the museum and cathedral there was a sticker you needed to buy to take pictures. There were a couple of interesting exhibits but as a whole it was rather tame things like chastity belts, stocks. Granted there were a couple of interesting stretching and spiky chairs to encourage people to confess their transgressions. I found it rather pitiful that the sense of justice at the time was to accuse and torture until they confess, then execute. With the methods and apparatuses that they used it seemed that their "interrogation" methods could prompt someone to confess to anything. Below the torture museum we found a long walkway of souvenir shops. I got a figurine of the cathedral to use up the rest of my Czech currency. Then I saw a small shop with some knights. A goal I inadvertently made is that with every country I visit to find a knight figurine with a sword. Well, so far so good, but I was rather reluctant to get the one in Czech because compared to the ones I got in Venice it was a simple casting. It does look cool though.

Sunday morning we went to a Baptist Church, the service was in Czech so I dove into some scripture. The hymns were very difficult to try to sing to because there are so many symbols on their alphabet that the pronunciation was difficult to guess. I caught some tidbits of the translator but he was speaking so quietly as to not disturb those around us that it was very difficult to hear. One of the church members returned from a conference in Texas and had words of encouragement for the congregation. When we got back on the road I was DJing with Cody (the chaplain). He had some complications the night before that lead to little sleep. I can't remember if I did sleep on the way back, chances are pretty good that I did. I was disappointed that I didn't get a customs stamp or anything on my passport. Venice didn't have me pass through customs either. After getting back to base and unloading the gear I quickly tossed my stuff in my room and rushed to the movie theater for Pirates 2. I was up late that night doing laundry from Monday. I suppose it is rather normal but it seemed like EVERYONE was doing their laundry that night... I ended up kinda drying my uniform and waking up in the middle of the night to hang it up. Despite whatever weekend stresses I had the experience it was easily worth it. It has been since summer 02 since I got to be part of a foreign mission. I look forward to the next one.

Epilogue: At present, I have lost the pictures from this adventure. :(