The Changing Tides of Life

I have officially completed the first week of my last semester of coursework in graduate school. 

I will be going down to Georgia for the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Chickamauga from September 13-23. 

I will no longer be working in my current position with the Park Service after May of next year. 

I could not have made any of these statements with any degree of certainly until a few days ago. Quite a lot has changed in the last couple of weeks...

Earlier this summer it appeared that I had stumbled onto a way in which I could not only be promoted to a higher grade level in the Park Service, but also be converted into what is known as a "Term" position. I still wouldn't be permanent, but it would be notably closer and would qualify for health insurance. I determined that in order for this to happen I would have to finish graduate school this school year, and consequently set out to find a way to do precisely that. 

After meeting with my graduate advisor and discussing different options, I decided to take three classes this semester to allow me to focus on doing a research seminar and internship next semester. I was able to find a way to use my position with the Park Service as a launching point for an internship, which will give me credit without me having to do nearly as much additional work. I also found out that, as luck would have it, the topic for the spring research seminar is.... The Civil War! And the professor leading it is the guy I took a class on the Civil War from last semester. So that really is perfect. It should allow me to work on a project that I am really interested in and I will be able to focus on that without having to do other papers and coursework at the same time.

Thus I have found myself taking three graduate courses simultaneously while also working full time. We will see how well I survive the venture when I (hopefully) reach the end of the semester! 

One additional benefit of taking three classes this semester is that I am considered to be a full time student, which means I can now use the recreational facilities on campus. This past Monday I went out to the aquatic center on campus and swam 1000 yards in the pool before work. It was really fun as I haven't swam laps like that in ages.I don't know how much I will be able to take advantage of it with how much else I will have to do, but it is nice to have the option!

If all goes according to plan I will complete all requirements to graduate in May of 2014. 

Even as I began the semester and put this plan in motion I was finally able to sit down with my supervisor and the two people at Manassas who have control over the hiring and budget issues and talk about my situation and the possibilities of promoting me to a higher grade level. We had been trying to arrange this meeting for quite a while, but with various scheduling issues and in order to give them time to find out more specific information, it hadn't happened. 

I went into the meeting expecting to get confirmation on my plan to convert me into a term position when I graduate in May. Instead I found out that it is not possible after all. 

It is exceedingly frustrating and disappointing, especially after I had designed this whole plan with the expectation of that conversion happening. But the bottom line is that I can't do anything about it. 

So where that leaves me is that, instead of being promoted, I will lose this position the day after I graduate. I cannot work in my current position unless I am a student and I can't be converted into another position in this office, so come May 18 (the official graduation day or GMU so consequently my last day of eligibility as a student) I will lose this job. 

While that is obviously problematic, I do also get four months of non-competitive eligibility for any open position in the federal government after I graduate. This means that I can be picked up without having to compete for any open position anywhere for four months. That four months starts the day after I graduate. 

My plan is to do anything I can to utilize this four month window (May-September 2014) to get hired into a different position, ideally one that is permanent.

My career with the Park Service has been a risk and journey into the unknown from the beginning. It has worked out through God's abundant provision so far. Every time I needed a new position, something came along. So we are just going to have to trust that that will happen again once May hits. 

Speaking of God's provision, there is also good news about Alison to report. On Tuesday (September 3) she will begin an internship  with a non-profit that does work with international and national justice and human rights. The work is 20-25 hours a week, and mostly done remotely whenever she has time. So at long last, she will get to do something she is actually interested in that isn't just starbucks. She will remain at starbucks (for now still working as she has been, about 35-38 hours a week) and do this as additional work. That way we still have her starbucks income and health insurance, plus an additional monthly stipend for the internship. 

So literally on the heels of finding out that I would not be promoted and would not be able to get health insurance, we found out that she will have the opportunity to do work she cares about and we will get a little extra money as well. 

In a few weeks I will go down to Georgia for what will now be my last major Civil War 150th event. I will go to the 150th of the Gettysburg Address in November, and there will be a few other small events, but with me losing the position in May, this will be my final multi-day event.

Thus, even as new horizons are opening, old ones are beginning to close. We know that these next nine months will be a time of transition. It remains to be seen where that transition will takes us.

A Western Escape

The thought of "going on vacation" doesn't usually inspire images of returning home, but for Alison and I this summer that is precisely what it meant. Or at least it meant returning to each of our state's of origin to spend time with our families. For some time now we have been aware of two facts about our life together: we had never been west together in the summer and both of us had a significant piece of our before-married life that the other had never experienced. For Alison it was spending time in Lake Tahoe. For me it was Camp Meeting.

For the first 25 years of my life I never missed (the Arizona District of the Nazarene Church) Camp Meeting. Since I started working for the National Park Service in 2009, however, I had not been able to go. Thus Alison had never experienced something that played a key role in my childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood.

Alison's family owns a cabin above Lake Tahoe in California. I had been to Tahoe in the winter to go skiing when I lived in Oroville and visited the cabin with Alison and her family over Christmas in 2010 and again very briefly to go skiing the following March. I had not ever seen the lake or area in the summer, however, something which she wished to rectify.

As we looked at our calendar and responsibilities for 2013 we concluded that this summer offered an opportunity to not only do something about changing the circumstances described above, but also to spend time with both of our families, something we would otherwise have been unable to do until the fall. So we committed to focusing all of our vacation time, money, and effort on going west and returning home during the summer.

As plans developed the visit became even more important as it offered the additional opportunities of celebrating my Dad's 60th birthday and seeing our new nephew, born to Alison's sister Melanie last December, while we were in California.

The shenanigans began with a 60th birthday celebration for my Dad which took place on Kristen's 27th birthday at my Dad's house in Glendale. The weather was actually quite nice (for mid-July) and we enjoyed a dip in the pool before the party officially began. In addition to partaking of tasty Mexican food and cake we also played games in which we had to guess how my Dad and Kristen answered questions about themselves and guess trivia about the decades in which they were born. We also, naturally, took a series of ridiculous pictures with the aid of all manor of silly costumes and props. This is one of the highlights.

The day after the party we headed north to Prescott for Camp Meeting. Before camp officially began Alison and I went up to Flagstaff to visit my good friend Brian, his wife Andrea, and their new daughter Charlotte, born only three weeks earlier. Camp itself was filled with lots of tasty food, church services, and games including cranium, guillotine, squabble, and of course the ever-present pit and rook. We also had a couple of epic night ultimate frisbee matches complete with a light-up frisbee and glowsticks to identify who was on which team. This photo captures what we looked like after such a match.

Camp would not have been complete without some ridiculous family photos, which we captured on the final day. This one, with the addition of a few props, is a particular favorite.

From Arizona we flew to Salt Lake City and then to Reno, Nevada, where Alison's Dad picked us up at the airport and took us out to Lake Tahoe. It was quite late when we arrived so I didn't fully appreciate the difference between winter and summer until the next morning when I could actually see outside. It is certainly a very different place! The picture below includes the immediate family and Bart (the Scottie) sitting in front of the cabin. As you can see the view is pretty spectacular!

We didn't get to out on the lake, but we definitely enjoyed walking along its shore, driving all the way around the lake, playing mini golf, and spending time in and around the cabin and Tahoe City. Among the highlights of the trip was the Living History Day at Sugar Pine Point State Park, which included a tour of the Ehrman Mansion and a picnic down by the water. We also had plenty of time to enjoy the company of baby Noah, who was seven months old during the visit.

Now it is back to the grindstone of work and real life, but at least I still have a couple more weeks before school begins again! This is going to be a tough semester, so the break and time spent away with family in cooler climes was welcome indeed. 

For more details and a lot more pictures of the entire trip, take a look at This Album.

The Fruition of a TwentyYear Dream

It is appropriate that this is the 150th post on this blog, as it reflects both the zenith of the Civil War Sesquicentennial and a twenty year dream come true for me. 

In 1993 the United States commemorated the 130th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. At that time I was ten years old and living in Phoenix, Arizona, about as far away from the battlefield as you can get. Yet I was captivated by what I saw on tv and wished I could be there. Knowing that was not possible, I concluded that if they were making that big a deal out of the 130th anniversary, the time I would really want to be there would be for the 150th. That summer I determined that, no matter where I was living or what I was doing in life, I wanted to be present on the Gettysburg battlefield from July 1-3, 2013.

That same year Ron Maxwell and Ted Turner produced the film "Gettysburg," an account of the battle based on the largely unknown book "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara. The film propelled the book to the bestseller list and drew a great deal of attention to the battlefield, particularity to the fighting that took place on and around Little Round Top on the Second Day. In the years that followed the previously unregarded Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain became a common name associated with the story of Gettysburg. Like many others, my interest was piqued by his story and I made a point to learn more about the professor turned infantry officer.  

Any time I have been on the Gettysburg battlefield I have paid a visit to Little Round Top where a monument to the 20th Maine (Chamberlain's regiment) marks the left flank of the Union position. When I worked on the National Mall I did several first person living history programs as Chamberlain.

Last fall when Alison and I were traveling through New England, I insisted we stop in Brunswick so that I could see Chamberlain's house on the edge of Bowdoin College and visit his final resting place nearby. A few years ago I was given a shirt for Christmas that is emblazoned with Chamberlain's silhouette and the words "Joshua Chamberlain is my homeboy." I think it is safe to say that I am, indeed, a fan of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. 

When I was living in Oroville and started thinking about working for the Park Service, the first thing I did was to go out to Gettysburg to talk to one of the rangers there about how to go about doing it. Gettysburg is, without question, on my short list of top parks I would love to work at.

I have greatly enjoyed each of my experiences serving as a part of the Civil War Sesquicentennial Interpretive Media Team, but the one battle that I was most looking forward to was unquestionably Gettysburg. It is very difficult to get a job at Gettysburg, and the chance to work there in any capacity was a pleasure I was very much looking forward to. Last November I had the opportunity to be a part of the 149th anniversary of the dedication of the National Cemetery and meet Steven Spielberg, which was pretty special. 
But to be there for the 150th anniversary had an even deeper significance. It was, quite literally, the realization of a twenty year dream.


My primary job at Gettysburg, like at all the events I have worked, was to provide coverage of the commemorative events via social media outlets for those who could not be there in person. It is exactly the sort of thing I would have loved as a ten year old, following the 130th commemoration from across the country. In addition to its scope and scale, Gettysburg would also be different because I would be focused exclusively on video rather than on photography. This was an exciting prospect, as I greatly enjoy the creative opportunities that video provides, but it was strange to not be a part of the photography process after being at the center of it in so many other instances.

Our experience began with a Planning Visit on June 20 to gather the team together so we could both familiarize ourselves with details of the battlefield, and also strategically plan how we would attempt to capture particular elements of the commemoration. Jason and I returned on June 25 to get some initial B-roll video and to interview various park staff so that I could use clips of what they said in the production of videos during the event. All of that was merely a prelude, however, to the event itself, which officially began for us on Saturday, June 29.

That first day I checked another personal goal off the list, which was to photograph and capture timelapse of a spectacular sunset from Little Round Top. It turned out to be the most dramatic sunset of the commemoration, so I was glad I seized the opportunity. Since we were going to be out at Little Round Top for sunset anyway, and programs had not yet started in earnest, I asked the other guy that was doing video with me if he could film a short interview with me telling my story (as relayed above) by the 20th Maine Monument.

Although this footage didn't make it into one of the videos I produced, it was still very meaningful to me to have the opportunity to record it. It was quite difficult to film actually, because people kept coming up and asking questions. I was a ranger wearing a flat hat, standing by the 20th Maine Memorial on Little Round Top, so people naturally assumed I could tell them what they wanted to know. Luckily, almost without exception, I could. By the time we were finished I had given at least four informal interpretive programs about Chamberlain, the 20th Maine, Little Round Top, and the fighting on July 2 and answered countless additional questions. It was a special moment for me. Even if I never set foot in Gettysburg in uniform again, I can now say that I have interpreted the battle where it occurred as a Park Ranger.

June 30 began with a beautiful parallel of the night before, with a glorious sunrise over the battlefield. Although I went out for sunrise two more times over the next three days, the most impressive was unquestionably the morning of June 30. Gettysburg is a truly beautiful and tranquil place in the early morning.





Later that morning we had an all employee meeting which included an address by none other than Jon Jarvis, the Director of the entire National Park Service. Since this was potentially the only time our entire team would be in one place I had already planned to take a group picture following the meeting. On a whim, as we gathered for this picture, I asked Jason if it would be appropriate to ask the Director to be in the picture with us. What you see below is the result: the Gettysburg 150 social media team along with Director Jarvis, the Northeast Regional Director, and the Superintendent of Gettysburg with Little Round Top behind us.

The rest of the commemoration passed in a blur as I ran from one event to the next or sat in the office with headphones on editing video. My fellow videographer and I were able to produce a separate recap video for each of the five primary days of the commemoration even as the events were taking place. Anyone who has edited and produced video knows this is no small feat! Those five videos, along with a special video for the Pickett's Charge program can be found on the Gettysburg YouTube Page. All of the footage you see in these videos was filmed by either myself or Michael (the other videographer) and he and I worked together to edit the six videos below.

June 30 - The Eve of Battle

In this video you see timelapse of the sunrise that I described above as well as of the opening program that occurred the evening of the 30th. You also see and hear footage that I filmed of various different speakers including Director Jarvis and Doris Kearns Goodwin. Alison came up to the battlefield that afternoon and attended that program as well as several the next day. It was very fun to have her be there as a part of the events along with me.

July 1 - The First Day

July 1 began with a program about the last march of the Iron Brigade, as they entered into the fighting when the battle began in earnest that morning. It was one of the most impressive programs I have ever seen as living historians dressed as members of the Iron Brigade led the way as nearly 1,000 people streamed across the fields of Gettysburg. I was sprinting through the fields trying to get one shot after another with Alison right beside me. She stayed with me despite being attired in shorts and sandals, which was most impressive. Unfortunately it also meant that she exposed herself to poison ivy, which she has been dealing with for this past week!

July 2 - The Second Day

On July 2 I followed in the footsteps of the Confederate advance in two separate programs, both of which are featured in this video ("In the footsteps of Captain Johnston" and "The Valley of Death). I also managed to capture some memorable footage of Confederate living history demonstrations, which is likewise featured in the video.

July 3 -The Final Day

The highlight of the third day, and really of the commemoration, was Pickett's charge. More than 15,000 visitors followed in the footsteps of the 12,500 man charge, crossing the same fields along the same paths taken by the nine brigades that made the charge on July 3. It was an impressive sight, and all told roughly 40,000 people were present for the program, making it by far the largest of the sesquicentennial. You can see additional footage of the program in the Pickett's Charge Program video as well.

July 4 -The Aftermath

Among the programs focused on the aftermath of battle was a fascinating presentation about the dead, given on the Rose Farm with 3D pictures and glasses to help visitors more fully appreciate the experience. Even I donned the glasses as I filmed the program.

Being a part of the 150th anniversary of Gettysburg was, without a doubt, one of the high points of my Park Service career. It was an honor and privilege to help tell the story of what happened there so many years ago. It was a dream come true and the fruition of 20 years of learning and study. It was an experience I will carry with me for the rest of my life.




For more of the pictures I took of the commemoration check out This Album of My Favorites. You can also see many of my pictures featured in This Final Album on the Gettysburg Facebook Page that I put together.

Since returning from the commemoration I have dedicated nearly every moment to producing a final video for the entire commemoration. I finished it this morning, only hours before departing for Phoenix. You can view that video on the Gettysburg YouTube Page or directly at This Link.

I can think of no better way to conclude than with the words that Joshua Chamberlain spoke at the dedication of the 20th Maine Monument on October 3, 1889:

"In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear, but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls...And reverent men and women from afar and generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field to ponder and dream; and lo, the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom, and the power of the vision pass into their souls." 

Summer is for Camping, Concerts, and Baseball

Summer. The word conjures images of rest, relaxation, and time to recharge. Or at least it does when you are a kid. :) For me it also brings to mind civil war battlefield anniversaries (thus far during the past two summers I have photographed commemorative events at Richmond, Second Manassas, Harpers Ferry, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Vicksburg), never more so than at present when I just returned from spending the last week in Gettysburg, PA helping to document the commemoration of the largest, most costly, and most well known battle of the war. For me this was, quite literally, a dream come true, but that is a story for a later post. :) This one is about the other activities of summer.

My Mom recently sent a text message reminding me that 23 years ago, on one of the hottest days ever recorded in Phoenix, we went to watch the circus animals unload from the train when it was 122 degrees outside. Thankfully the temperatures in Virginia do not reach that height, but with the humidity, the experience can easily be just as miserable. I personally find the humidity to be far more intolerable than the dry Arizona heat and it can be challenging to find summer activities that can be safely done outdoors.

One of the best options is to go camping in the mountains, something I have succeeded in doing all three of my previous summers in the area. This year, we had recently discovered that some good friends of ours had never been tent camping and had not yet had the pleasure of visiting our beloved Shenandoah National Park. Thus we were presented with a perfect excuse for a Weekend Camping Excursion into the Mountains.

As it turned out, a large storm reminiscent of last year's derecho rolled in the day before we departed, which was an ideal scenario in which to begin a camping trip. The result of the storm's passage was near perfect weather for the entire weekend and a notable lack of bugs, which can be quite noisome in June. The weekend was everything we hoped for, complete with grilling a pork tenderloin, roasting marshmallows over a campfire, hiking to waterfalls, blackberry shakes, and blackberry ice cream.

No summer would be complete without baseball and we have tried to take advantage of our proximity to the Washington Nationals to catch games whenever we can. These past couple of weeks included series with the Colorado Rockies, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the San Diego Padres. We were able to get to at least one game in each series, and I went to one of the Rockies games on my own (Alison had to work) in order to get a free tote bag. :) We generally sit in the $5 nosebleed seats, which is still fun and provides a nice overview of the game. A few weeks ago Alison came across a Groupon deal for the Padres game on July 5 that included seats on the 3rd base line and $10 in credit at any concession stand. It was too good to pass up, so we used money I had received from my birthday to snag four tickets so that we could attend with two friends as well.

The bummer about it was that the game was the same day that I returned from Gettysburg, so I was 
pretty wiped out, but it was still a lot of fun to be so much closer to the game. It was also great to enjoy an italian sausage and Ben's Half Smoke without actually having to pay for them!

On June 23 the largest full moon of the year, the "Supermoon" made its presence known. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try and photograph it so Alison and I positioned ourselves near the Iwo Jima Memorial in hopes of catching the moon as it rose over the city. It turned out that the cloud cover was so heavy that the horizon was completely obscured and we didn't have near the dramatic moon viewing opportunity that I had hoped, but we were still able to capture some Impressive Shots of the Memorial with the Moon Behind it.

The next evening, on June 24, Alison and I joined a sold out crowd to see Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers perform at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts.Ever since we heard them perform "Me and Paul Revere" (the story of Paul Revere's ride told from the perspective of his horse) during the Capitol Fourth concert two years ago, we have both been fans of their music. We actually walked down the aisle to one of their songs and danced to another at our wedding. We had oft commented that it would be fun to see them live and when we found out they were coming to Wolf Trap it seemed like the perfect opportunity. Alison gave me tickets to the show during our Weekend Retreat to Cape May and we enjoyed a lovely evening in reasonably tolerable summer weather.

Thus far, despite the humidity, our summer has been a good one!

An Unexpected Birthday

As you may recall from my Previous Post, I spent my 30th birthday working at the 150th anniversary commemoration of the Siege of Vicksburg in Mississippi. It was a unique and exciting way to spend my birthday, but also did not seem at all like my birthday, and it was hard to be away from everyone I love. Knowing this would be true, and since turning 30 is supposed to be a bigger deal than most birthdays, my loving wife had conspired behind the scenes to make my birthday something special and memorable, even if it had to be celebrated after the fact. With a combination of special activities I knew about and a few surprises she succeeded in making doing precisely that.

The first surprise I encountered actually had nothing to do with my birthday, but just so happened to coincide with my return home. The day before I got back Alison was approached by our landlords (who live in the big house above our basement apartment) and asked if we would be willing to foster a couple of kittens and their mother who were slated for termination if they could not find someone to host them for the next few days. Being the animal lover she is, and having wanted a cat since we got married, she couldn't turn down the opportunity. She did warn me ahead of time, but it was still rather unusual to return home to find three additional houseguests!

As it turned out we ended up keeping the kitties longer and actually still have them nearly a month later. They are quite entertaining, though they also have a talent for finding mischief cooped up in our little apartment! So if anyone is in the market for some calico cats we have three available options...
 

After meeting our new roommates I proceeded to open presents which had accumulated in my absence. In addition to more sophisticated items (like books and movies and national park service paraphernalia) I also received a couple of more lighthearted contributions to mark my transition into my thirties including dart guns and a card game called "Guillotine." In the latter players compete to behead the most valuable characters (like King Louis, Marie Antoinette, and the Cardinal) while avoiding beheading the hero of the people, martyrs, and innocent victims. It is quite entertaining. :)

A couple of days later we joined friends at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts for a performance of "The
Mikado," a classic Gilbert and Sullivan masterpiece of humor and oddities. As a result, our newest pet names for each other are "Yum Yum" and "Nanki-Poo."


The next day Alison had arranged for several friends to come over after church for lunch and cupcakes, which she managed to make in our toaster oven (since we do not have a normal sized one and thus cannot bake as a general rule). It was here that she presented me with two other special gifts to mark my 30th birthday. The first was a photo book documenting each of my four positions with the National Park Service and the second was a scrapbook of writing and photographs from friends and family. She had collected pictures, memories, prayers, blessings, and other contributions from people for weeks before my birthday and while I was busy in Mississippi she compiled them all together into a special scrapbook.

So what had at first appeared to be a birthday lost amidst the sesquicentennial of the Civil War turned out to be one of the more memorable ones. Having a wife is a pretty good deal. :)

Defending the Mississippi: Remembering the Siege and Battle of Vicksburg

Despite the early hour I was quite comfortable in a short sleeved shirt. In fact, it was actually near-perfect weather, which only added to the serene and cathartic predawn atmosphere. It was an unusual way for most people to begin their 30th birthday, but for me, setting up cameras to film and photograph the soon to be rising sun over Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi really wasn't that strange. Given that I had to be away from my wife and any other family and friends and spend my 30th birthday working, I felt blessed indeed to begin my day in such a beautiful setting. I would have loved being in Vicksburg for the park's commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the famous siege no matter what, and I always enjoy watching the sun rise, but there was something special about that morning. Perhaps it was the knowledge that I was getting paid overtime for every minute I spent out in the field on my birthday (that certainly didn't hurt), but I think there was something more. National parks are all about connecting to the resource and as I watched the sun rise on May 25, 2013 Vicksburg and I experienced a significant connection.

I had ended the previous evening by photographing the full moon as it rose over the battlefield, and despite the few hours of sleep in between, I had decided it was worth getting up early the next morning to try and catch the moon as it set and the sun as it rose. It turned out that it was too overcast where the moon was setting, but as I drove toward Fort Garrott (a favorite spot in the park, if for no other reason than the noteworthy similarity in name), I knew the sunrise was going to be something special. I had been out two days earlier with a similar purpose and captured some beautiful pictures and video and it was easy to tell that I would be able to do so again.

This Photo Album on the Vicksburg facebook page was the last one I posted. It is made up entirely of shots that I captured of the moon rise on May 24 and the sunrise the morning of May 25.

I also filmed and edited this Video of the Sunrise that same morning. In it you see 45 minutes of video sped up x 4500. It was the first time I had ever tried anything of this nature, and I thought it turned out pretty well.

The trip to Vicksburg was a unique one in many ways. to begin with, we flew instead of driving, which brought with it a whole host of new concerns and complications. We did manage to arrive in one piece with all of our luggage despite having to fly to Orlando in order to switch planes to fly to Jackson, Mississippi. I really wasn't sure what to expect when we got to Vicksburg. I knew very little about the park and did not have especially high expectations for what it would have to offer.

Thus I was genuinely amazed when we arrived and discovered that Vicksburg is truly an unknown gem of the National Park System. It is a stunningly beautiful park that encompasses much more land than I expected. To give you some perspective, the tour road through the park is sixteen miles long. The park has more than 1500 monuments and markers, more than any other battlefield, including Gettysburg. There are, quite literally, photographic opportunities around every corner.

Vicksburg also had a much more low-key schedule than many of the events I have covered and we were there for nine days, which gave us ample opportunity to take advantage of unique photographic and video opportunities much more so than we have at other events. 

I did a lot more video work at Vicksburg, and consequently took far fewer pictures. It was a lot of fun to get to do video again though, something I haven't done since living in Oroville. I am continuing to work on several more videos concerning different elements of the event, but here are four of the videos that one of the other member of our team and I put together so far:

Placement of Flags in the National Cemetery


In Honor of Memorial Day


Artillery Thank You


Portraits of Vicksburg


It was a fun and interesting week filled with memorable scenes and moments. Those moments began even before we set foot in the park itself. I knew we were staying in a hotel, and I figured that would mean sharing a room with one of the other rangers. I was quite surprised upon checking in to discover that I had, not only my own room, but a suite all to myself for the duration of our stay. It was, without question, the nicest accommodation I have experienced thus far!

Another gem of Vicksburg is the U.S.S. Cairo, an old Union ironclad that was pulled from where it had sank in the Yazoo River and put on display in the park. We had a lot of fun photographing and videoing the ship and came away with some special images, including these two, in which I appear in the pilot house of the ship.

We also had a chance to see the mighty Mississippi River in all its glory, which immediately made it clear why Vicksburg was so important to the Confederacy.

Special guests for the weekend included Doug and camels Richard and Abraham of the Texas Camel Corps to represent Douglas the Camel, the famous Mascot of the 43rd Mississippi at Vicksburg.

Among the interesting people I met and photographed were the Governor of Iowa and former Governor (Haley Barbour) of Mississippi. We additionally convinced country music star Trace Adkins to pose by the Louisiana State Memorial for us (you may have noticed him in the Portraits of Vicksburg video), since his ancestor was a member of the 22nd Louisiana Infantry.

It was a memorable week and stands out as a highlight of my Park Service career thus far. Now we are only a few weeks away from Gettysburg!

For more images of the commemoration take a look at this album of Vicksburg Pictures.

Rocket Propelled Surfing in the Potomac

Suddenly I was airborne, flying through the air as inexorably as if I had been launched from a rocket. Only a moment before I had been leaning forward, throwing all my strength into each pass of the paddle through the water as I sat perched on the front right corner of the raft. Now as I rapidly changed trajectory and plummeted down toward the water once again, my view of the sky was interrupted  by the visage of the man who had so recently been seated as my counterpart on the opposite side of the raft. Even as I hit the water I watched as he tumbled over me to land even further away from the raft, which I now saw was beginning to settle back to normal after being relieved of the weight that no longer rested on its prow.

As I struggled to turn myself to point my feet downstream to better defend myself against other potential hazards in the river I saw that my fellow frontman and I were not the only members of the boat to lose our place. Our guide too was in the water, having been thrown from his seat as the raft bucked in the swell. We later found out that, though he frequently guides trips on multiple rivers, this was the first time he had been knocked out of a boat in nearly two years.

We were quite the sight for the other boats, with all three guys in the water and only the two girls remaining in the newly restabilized raft!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to the beginning of the story...

Last year, for my 29th birthday, Alison gave me a voucher for the two of us to go white water rafting on the Potomac River. Until the moment that I opened that package I didn't even know you could go white water rafting on the Potomac River!

I was immediately skeptical about the quality of rafting experience that could be had on the Potomac, but it seemed like they wouldn't have much success as a company if there wasn't something of interest on the route, and it promised to be an interesting adventure.

The problem was that the Potomac only has conditions ideal for rafting for about six weeks in the spring and another month or so in the fall and at the end of May we were already at the tale end of the spring season. We were not able to take advantage of the opportunity in the fall, which meant that the vouchers remained on the shelf  until early April when we sat down to plan out our activities for the coming summer.

I also had a voucher for a whale watching trip in Cape May, NJ that Alison had given me for our anniversary in January and we determined that our only options to take advantage of these two vouchers was to sandwhich them between my two big Civil War Sesquicentennial commemorations at Chancellorsville, at the beginning of May, and Vicksburg, at the end.

We accordingly scheduled a trip to Cape May over Mother's Day weekend and a white water rafting trip on May 18.

Thus we arrived on the banks of the Potomac just south of Great Falls and soon found ourselves in a raft along with another couple we had just met and a guide who we quickly observed was the most rambunctious and unorthodox of the four possible options. He had me and the other guy position ourselves up front with our wives sitting behind us while he steered from the back. This arrangement allowed us to best take advantage of our power and versatility to maximize our ride through the rapids.

By white water rafting standards the six miles we traveled was pretty tame, with none of the rapids higher than a class three or lasting very long, but with Jesse at the helm we were consistently successful in cutting out of the rapids just before they ended and paddling back upriver in an eddy in order to travel down the same section of rapids again. In this way it seemed like there were a good deal more in the way of rapids than there really were.

We stopped for lunch and found that between the four rafts in our party the guides had stowed two small fold out tables, a table cloth, cutting boards, knives, lemonade, and a spread that included gigantic strawberries, melons, pineapple, hummus, chips & salsa, multiple varieties of cheese, and summer sausage. It was a veritable plethora of food that I would never have expected to encounter on a trip down the river!

The second half of the trip was marked by trying to find the most exciting routes through each of the rapids and attempts to "surf" some of the larger holes we came to. We had one especially successful run in which we "surfed" a hole for about four minutes before being pushed out.  It was in pursuit of a similar experience that we came to a particularly turbulent patch of water around a rock that Jesse had never gone over before. He asked us if we wanted to try and we soon charged forward at full speed.

It turned out that the rock and the drop off of it were both significantly larger than expected and the water exerted a domineering force upon the raft that resulted in the scene with which we began.

The remainder of the trip passed without further incident and the rocket propelled surfing quickly emerged as the highlight of the experience.