I wasn’t disappointed by the weather. Sunny with broken clouds provided a bright, magnificent day – so much sun that I got burnt (forgot the sunscreen!).  I didn’t spend too much time at the static exhibits since I arrived at the show just as the aerial portion was just beginning – a Czech built Albatross was flying as I entered the grounds.

Highlights of the show

I usually go to air shows for the rip and tear of the air as jet aircraft scream by and I wasn’t disappointed by this show.  I  really enjoyed the Navy/Marine heritage flight.  The F-18 put on quite an individual show.  At the end of the F-18 show, the two aircraft paired up while in flight and did  several fly-bys in front of the crowd.  In all of the shows I’ve been at, I’ve never seen a WWII Corsair in flight – it was great!  After several photo passes, the Corsair came in for a landing.  As the craft was slowing down after landing, the F-18 screamed over the top in a high speed fly-by that excited the crowd.

The AH-64 Apache helicopter and the Sea Harrier also put on good shows.  The Apache cruised up and down the flight line showing off its capabilities.  The Sea Harrier flew as a normal plane does in flight but then it also transitioned to vertical flight.  I’ve seen several different Harrier versions in flight and it never ceases to amaze me how an aircraft can transition from straight flight into a vertical mode.

Towards the end of the show, a B1-B did a series of fly-bys before coming in to land at the airport.  This aircraft flew from  its base in Texas to put on the show in Rockford.  The B1-B come in low and slow with the wings extended and then did a couple high speed passes with the wings swept back.  It’s always amazing to see how long it takes for an aircraft of this size – traveling at high speed – takes to turn around.

Lastly, the F-22 put on a HECK of a show.  If you look at some of the pictures I got, you’ll see that it was able to pull vapor off of its wing and controlling panel surfaces.  It is an amazing aircraft.  This plane combines stealth, supersonic speed and a high tech weapons system into one lethal airplane.  Toward the end of its solo performance, the F-22 paired up with  P-51 Mustang for an Air Force heritage flight.

Lowlights of the show

One of the things that bugged me about the Rockford AirFest is that they have pavilions from sponsoring companies that obscure the view of the runway and flight line.  While I can understand the need and desire to keep sponsors happy and reward them in some way, there has to be some way to do it so that all paying participants can fully enjoy the show.

But I’ll probably be back – maybe not next year,but I’ll be back.  Check out my gallery of images from the Rockford AirFest!

Once in Portage, I visited the Begich, Boggs Visitor Center to get a map of the area and the see the available trails.  While I was there, one ranger was telling a family about an interesting trail while the other ranger told me about a fish watching platform where you could see salmon coming upstream.  After leaving the visitor center, I walked to Lake Portage and took some shots of the surroundings. For some reason I love this valley – it has a little bit of everything.    After viewing the lake, I decided to hike the Byron Glacial trail.

I drove the short way to the trail head and parked.  While there I noticed two things – I was the only one there and would probably be the only person on the trail and there was a sign on a board by the start of the trail warning hikers that there were bears active in the area.  Now, I know that the chances of me running across a bear were minimal, it was still a risk.  But the weight of wanting to hike the trail and set foot on the icepack tilted the scales toward me going.  So, remembering what I had learned earlier in the trip – that the human voice was the best deterrent against a bear attack – I started singing out loud.  It’s safe to say that my singing probably chased pretty much anything away with its paws to its ears, but it worked for the hike out to the end of the trail.  I took some time to admire the view, explore around and take some pictures.  Once I was satisfied, I started to head back, using the same strategy I used coming out.  This worked well until I met a group of seven people on the trail.  They probably heard my bad singing but only said a polite hello as they passed by.  Once out of range, I continued to sing.  Toward the end of the trail I met a family of four who again said nothing about my singing but asked how much further until the end of the trail.  Once past, I continued until I come to the trailhead, signed out on the sheet that rangers could use to try and locate my body and went to the car.

After looking at my cell phone I determined that I had enough time so I headed to the Williwaw Campground area to go to  the fish viewing platform.  At the fish viewing station, I was able to see a couple of salmon trying to make their way upstream.  They were under the platform and were trying to swim against the current.  They made a slow go of it but they progressed.  Other salmon were visible farther down the stream working their way up.  A couple who was watching the salmon spotted me taking pictures and offered that there were more upstream along the path.  I thanked them and then headed down the Williwaw nature trail for a bit, peeking at the stream and taking pictures as I went.  I had the polarizing filter on my camera so I was able to peer through the water to get some good pictures.  Since I didn’t have time to go salmon fishing on this trip, I “caught” some salmon with my camera.  Once I satisfied my craving for photographing salmon, I headed to one of my favorite areas – Moose Flats.  Moose Flats contains a small lake that is bordered by trees both living and dead and has a spectacular view of the mountains behind.  This area is usually so peaceful, and it was again for me today.  The contrast of the living trees with the dead, preserved trees that were killed in the 1964 earthquake are reminders of the cycle of life.  The water is so still that it acts as an almost perfect mirror of the surrounding mountains.  This area just strikes me.

Once I decided to leave, I realized that this was the last of wild Alaska that I would experience during this trip.  I was now heading back to the big city of Anchorage to have lunch with my sister.  Once back in town, I had lunch with my sister, got the tour of where she works and met her boss.  I was also able to spring her for the rest of the day to help me grab some last minute items.  During my trip to her work, I realized that she has made a life for  herself up in Alaska and has worked hard in her job.  She has gained not only the respect of the people that she works with but also the love of Rusty’s folks.  We headed to some shops and then headed downtown.  After accomplishing my purchasing objectives, we headed to Glacier BrewHouse to have a drink.  She had a coke and I had their Imperial Blonde (aka Ice Axe Ale) – it had a little bit if a kick to it (9% alcohol), but it was smooth.  After that, we headed back to her place to grab my bags, head over to her in-laws house for a halibut dinner and conversation and then I was off to the airport.

One of the animals that I didn’t see in Denali was a moose.  Not surprising since in three trips up, I’ve only seen a moose in the wild once (the cow moose and the two calves in Homer).  I was bound a determined to get a picture if I saw one.  Well, I failed on the picture taking but I did see two bull moose as we rode down the rails.  One moose was startled by the train and was running alongside a lake front.  By the time I could get my camera into play, it wasn’t visible from my position.  Then my sister was joking with me that there was a moose in the meadow out her window (she was having some fun with me) but her boyfriend actually spotted the rack of a bull moose.  Sure enough, there was a moose out her window.  So I did see two bull moose, but alas, no pictures.  I also wanted to get a picture off of the Hurricane Gulch bridge.  This 900+ foot bridge covers a span that is almost 300 feet deep.  I was able to get a few shots of this breath-taking view.  As we rolled along, the railroad employees told us about some of the things that were passing by outside.  I think that the team on the Denali-Anchorage trip did a better job than the Anchorage-Denali crew did.   Because of this narration I was able to see a beaver dam that was over 75 years old, got some history on how the railroad was built and I now understand how to list out the types of Alaskan salmon.

There were other things I was trying to capture with my camera.  One was the amount of ferns along the way, but those are hard to photograph as you’re moving at speed down the rails.  We passed fields of ferns that lined each side of the track.  When you think of Alaska, you think of cold and snow, but the southern part of Alaska is actually a temperate rain forest.  The ferns grow there naturally and in abundance.  Another thing that caught my attention was the amount of erractics that I saw, particularly in the rivers.  An erratic is a large boulder that a glacier just dropped.  Also along the way we saw beaver dams, lots of fireweed and just some simply beautiful settings with the sky and mountains.

As we moved south, the skies started to clear but they didn’t clear fully.  This allowed me to take some more dramatic photos as we neared Anchorage.  The clouds were still low in the sky and brushed over the tops of the mountains outside of Anchorage.  Slowly we worked our way into the city, past Elmendorf Air Force Base and into the Alaska Railroad depot.  It was nice to get out of the train and stretch but it was also a little sad since I had so much fun and valued the experiences I had with my sister in Denali.  After being denied a pizza at a popular restaurant in town (it was still packed with people waiting to get in at 8:30) we went back to my sister’s place and had sandwiches and chips for dinner.

As we ate, I thought about how I needed to pack, because my flight back home left the next day.  I needed to make sure I could fit all the souvenirs I picked up for my wife and kids in my bag since I was at my limit.  Shortly, the day ended with my sister and her boyfriend heading to sleep since they had to work the next day.  I have one last adventure planned before I leave Alaska and I soon hit the hay myself so I had enough energy for that as well as the long flight home.

The day started out a little cloudy but  all three of us were filled with excitement and energy to start the day.  We lined up in front of the resort to get on the bus and shortly it arrived.  We all  piled on and took our seats.  This was a full bus with only one seat available, one that the three of us could bounce around to.  Our bus driver/naturalist was very personable and knowledgeable about the park and its inhabitants.  We started through the taiga, the forested area, of the park.  This is the area that is below the tree line and is home to moose and the merlin, a small bird of prey.  The taiga is a heavily forested area of the world that is continuous across the northern continents.  Trees located in Denali are related to those taiga forest trees in Russia, Sweden and Canada.  The first animal that we saw , the willow ptarmigan, was in the taiga.  The willow ptarmigan lives in Denali year round and its feathers change to match the seasons, brownish in spring, summer and fall, white in winter.  Not only does its plumage help to disguise it, but feathers around its feet help to act as show shoes during winter.  As we approached the first rest stop, someone noticed something moving on the river bed below.  It was quickly identified as a porcupine.  This guy looked pretty big from the distance we were at but he was moving with some speed.  As we were looking around, I noticed another form in the distance and my sister confirmed what I was seeing, a grizzly.  The bus driver moved ahead into the rest stop so we could all pile out and take a look at the bear on the river flats below.  Luckily, this rest stop has the only man-made deck in the park.  We were lucky to not only see the bear, most likely a solitary male, from the rest stop deck but also as we drove away on the bus.  As we were leaving the taiga portion of the park we met the cute Arctic ground squirrel.  This little guy was as hyper as you’d expect, and he had his cheeks full with forage that he was storing for winter.

Once out of the trees, we are now in tundra.  This area is treeless and is home to many of the larger animals of Denali – grizzly bears, caribou and dall sheep.  The tundra contains small bushes, many of them berry bushes, and grasses.  These give sustenance to the animals that dwell there.  It was here in the tundra that we saw most of the wildlife that we would see during the day.  The first animal that we saw on the tundra was a caribou on the hills above.  This sighting was followed by a flock of dall sheep high up on the slopes.  The bus driver had to use maximum magnification on her video camera in order for us to see these sheep, otherwise they were just white dots on the green mountainside.  Shortly after the dall sheep spotting, we saw a sow grizzly with two larger cubs.  These bears were foraging for berries that were now in season.  The grizzlies in Denali are more vegetarian than their Alaskan coastal cousins, who have access to salmon.  This does not mean that Denali grizzlies won’t attack or eat meat, but it’s more likely that their diet will consist of mainly grasses and berries.  After spending some time watching the bear family, we continued on to witness nature in action.  Someone spotted a caribou on the river flats below us.  As we watched this caribou it took off in a short sprint; it looked spooked.  One of the eagle eyed riders we had on the bus noticed something else that moved, a wolf.  As the driver used her video camera, we saw that there were multiple wolves and that they were stalking the caribou.  We watched this fascinating display for a while until the caribou moved off and the wolves gave up the pursuit.  As we moved on, we also saw a pair of merlin flying around close to the road.  This small bird of prey hunts in the tundra and must have caught a meal close by since they didn’t want to leave the area as the bus rolled through.

Soon, after some tight turns and narrow passages, we came to the spot where the bus was going to turn around and head back to the entrance of the park.  The road we traveled on is 92 miles long but we only traveled about 60 of those miles.  We turned around at the Toklat River, a glacially formed river that is known as a braided river.  Since this was the mid-way point of our excursion, we also got out and had the ability to hit the restrooms, stretch our legs and see the sights.  During this time, each of us noticed that it was getting hazier in the park – smoke from forest fires to the west and north of the park were filtering in.  The three of us went down to the river and looked at it and the surroundings; we even dipped our hands into the slitly water.  We visited the small visitor’s center that is there and then we boarded the bus to head back.  By now, the three of us were excited by what we had seen so far – but we hoped to see more.  Other riders took the opportunity to doze off – I guess they thought we wouldn’t see anything new.  Well, were they wrong.  We stopped at a small overlook that had a few trails that allowed everyone to admire the view and to take pictures.  This overlook showcased two glacial valleys merging together.  After re-boarding the bus, we looked out for a red fox that someone had spotted, and instead of finding it below the road bed, it was above us on the slope.  We watched this fox dig, burrow and then climb on the rocks.  This fox was much bigger than any of the foxes I’ve seen in the Midwest.  As we drove on, we came across the sow grizzly and her cubs again.  This sighting was interesting because a caribou suddenly darted across the road and into the hills on the other side of the road.  One of the cubs playfully chased after it.  We watched this bear family for a while since most people had hoped to see bears in the park.  We were lucky so far with three separate bear sightings.  The grizzlies were much lower than before, allowing us to get some good pictures of the mother and the cubs.  We were all fascinated not only to see the bears as close as they were but to also see the interaction between them, with one cub staying close to the mother, the other cub being more adventurous.  After visiting this bear family for a while, we continued on, taking in the scenery and looking for more wildlife.

As we moved on, we noticed a caribou on the slope above us, facing away from us.  It was dead still but then moved.  Our driver noted that at this time of year, caribou are perplexed by flies that swarm and bite them.  She said that sometimes caribou can be found on the road since it is cooler and the flies don’t travel there as much.  Sure enough, the caribou made a dash away from us and onto the road.  It ran away and then back at us on the road.  We could hear the clatter of its splayed hooves on the road surface.  This guy actually made a circle around the bus, giving everyone a great view.  We all felt bad that he was being annoyed by the insects but we were grateful for the up-close experience.    After making sure the caribou was safely out of the way, the bus continued on.  We saw more ptarmigan and caribou but nothing spectacular like the grizzlies or the caribou.  As we came back down into the taiga again, our bus driver noticed a form in a dry river bed.  Thinking it was a moose, she slowly backed up so we could all have a look.  Instead of a moose, it was a large dark grizzly. This was our fourth bear sighting!  That pretty much concluded our day as far as wildlife viewing went.

The park itself is beautiful and wild.  This protected environment showcases everything that the wild should be, life uninterrupted and untouched by the hand of man.  Although my experience in the park was great, the true splendor of the surroundings wasn’t evident due to the amount of smoky haze in the air.  My trip might have been a once in a lifetime excursion; it might not have been.  If it was, I will remember it for the rest of my life.  This trip isn’t for everyone, but for the people who want to do it, it’s an adventure that you will never regret.

We started out from Anchorage about 8:15 in the morning.  As the day dawned, we hoped for the best but didn’t expect too much.  There are fires burning to the west and north of Denali and smoke has been in and out of the area.  Besides being bad to breathe, smoke can also obscure vision, and each one of us wanted to see “The Great One” – Denali.  The best viewing of Denali is from the Talkeetna area since the mountain is toward the southern portion of the park.  So as we were going up, we all looked from time to time.  Once I looked out, there was nothing and then before you knew it, someone was calling out, “There it is!”  Sure enough, Denali (or Mt. McKinley) was visible, gleaming white in the brilliance of the sun.  I was lucky and persistent enough to be positioned well to get some pretty good shots of the mountain.  This is my first time (and may be my only time) to come to Denali and I was lucky enough to see the mountain.  Others have come numerous times and have not been able to see it.  We were extremely lucky that day!

The trip to Denali was completed by train on the Alaska Railroad.  This train takes about 7 hours to travel from Anchorage to Denali.  You can travel the route faster by car, but you don’t get to see and focus on the same sights.  You’d be worn out from about 5 hours of driving instead of having the luxury to read, converse, sight-see or just sleep as you travel.  Knowing me, I was sight-seeing all the way, baby!  The train trip was great and relaxing, allowing us to see a part of Alaska that’s not available from the road.  The rail cars have assigned seating but you are able to travel to other cars that have observation seats in them.  There are also open areas between the cars that make for excellent picture taking. The train also has a sit down dining car as well as a snack or bistro car.  Since we left shortly after 8 AM, we had breakfast at my sister’s place, but had lunch on the train – pretty good buffalo chili.  As interesting as the trip is, it can get a bit monotonous, so we all dozed off at least once.  I found myself standing for much of the trip in between the cars.  Here, you have the entrance to the car when it is stationary, but when the train is moving this gap creates a partial opening that allows you to see what is going on outside and allows you to take a look up and down the length of the train.  I found this to be exciting as well as a great way to enjoy the warm sun on my face.  I would recommend the method of travel to others who are thinking about heading to Denali.

So the comfortable train service and the clear skies that allowed me to see Denali made this a day to remember.  I hope to someday be able to make this trip again with my family but if not, I know that I have see the Great One and have stared upon its rocky face.

The only way to get to Whittier is by boat or car. Boats arrive via the Prince William Sound. Cars have to come through a one-way tunnel. At the top of the hour, cars can go from Portage to Whittier for a $12 toll. At the half hour, cars can go from Whittier to Portage. Oh, by the way, trains use the same tunnel, so your schedule could be screwed by a train either arriving or leaving. I was able to make the 9:30 AM tunnel with no problem and I was shortly in Whittier, which gave me plenty of time to explore the town since I had never been there. Once I parked, I started my explorations around the town which isn’t really that big. I visited the local museum and took in the exhibits. I investigated the abandoned Buckner building (a former military barracks) and noted some of the graffiti. I walked up the roads on the hillside to find a great view of Prince William Sound. Lastly, I hiked some trails that led to several melt water streams merging together to form a creek. Once I followed the creek to where I parked the car, I saw that it was boarding time for the boat.

The Klondike Express is a powered catamaran that plies the placid waters of Prince William Sound, giving tourists a close up view of wildlife, glaciers and the overall majesty of the sound. Once on board and underway, we were served a fish and chips meal while a forest ranger narrated the opening segments of our excursion. We soon understood the differences between suspended, hanging and tidewater glaciers, and we were ready to view. It was a beautiful day on the sound, temperatures in the 60s and full sun, but the ship moving across the water at 46 mph creates a very cool breeze to say the least. As I walked outside, I donned my hoodie and set my camera to capture the sights I would see. There was plenty to look at – we saw birds, lots of sea otters and seals. The glaciers themselves were also very interesting. We got to see some of them, specially the suspended and hanging glaciers from a distance, but the tidewater glaciers were the coolest. We visited two different tidewater glaciers and you could tell when you were getting close, even if you couldn’t have seen them. Small icebergs and brash ice were in the water, signaling that a tidewater glacier was near. As we got closer, the boat slowed down and then finally stopped. As the engine sound died away, you could hear the ice groaning. Since a glacier is simply a river of ice, it is in constant motion even though it might not be apparent to us. It became clearly apparent when a section of the glacier fell away, calving off from the main glacier. With a groaning crack and a crash of ice into the water, the glacier became a little smaller. The visit to the tidewater glaciers was the highlight of the cruise. Soon we were heading back to port in Whittier. After the cruise I headed back to my sister’s place and rested for a few minutes before heading out for dinner to one of my favorite Anchorage establishments, Humpys. If you ever get then chance to to a glacier cruise, take it! It’s too great of an opportunity to let slip through your fingers.

On Sunday, we got up at 5 AM to get ready and to be at the dock for 5:45. We made it and were soon on Born Free, a fishing charter boat. Our day was just starting. After about a 90 minute run into the Cook Inlet, we were able to drop anchor and start to fish. Now wrangling a fishing pole with a three pound lead weight on the end might sound easy, but in practice it’s a different matter. We dropped our lines overboard and let them descend down to about 250 to 275 feet. We then waited for the nibbles. Soon, fish started appearing on board as one person after another started to reel them in. I caught 8 fish total, and kept three of them (we could keep six total since each angler could keep two). It was quite the experience and I’m having some of the catch shipped home.

Once finished fishing, we had lunch, saw a few more sights and then headed back to my sister’s place in Anchorage. I have the start of a gallery for this trip started here. Take a look and leave a comment!

On my way to the airport, I get a call from Orbitz TravelAlert telling me that my first flight has been delayed 15 minutes.  I now begin to wonder about that 35 minute window I have in SLC.  Then I get a second call telling me the flight is now delayed 75 minutes.  I’m now starting to urge all the other cars on the road forward so I can get to the airport.  Once at the airport, I hit the Delta counter and soon find that my itinerary has been changed – changed so much in fact that I’m not even flying on Delta anymore.  They’ve booked me on an Alaska Airlines non-stop to Anchorage.

So, I go to the Alaska counter and get my temporary boarding pass and head for the gate.  Once at the gate, I notify my family at home and in Anchorage about the change and then wait.  I knew it was a long-shot, but I put in a request for a window seat thinking about all the cool pictures I could take out the window.  Alas, that was not to be.   Instead I got the aisle seat in the last row of the plane, next to the lavatories – yay!

Overall, the flight was good and I have nothing really to complain about, except there were no condiments left for the cheeseburger I bought on-board the flight.  I  had fun watching people come back and forth to the lavatories – there was one kid who came down about every ten minutes and then there was the little girl who got stuck inside and came out with big teary eyes (cuz her father didn’t stay there and make sure she got out OK).  My row mates were an odd sort.  I think a German woman sat next to me and she was  putting spray up her nose and trying to sleep and just generally fidgety and not too friendly.  The lady with the window seat hardly even looked out the window as she read her book and then played a small electronic Yahtzee game.  My photo-shooting finger was feeling mightily frustrated!

But in the end it was worth it – I got to Anchorage 2 hours earlier than planned, met my sister at the airport and then headed to her place.  Now I’m set for some fun and adventure.

Photos courtesy of NASA

We can argue about it today, but yes Neil Armstrong’s quote wasn’t as all-inclusive as we’d use today.  For his time though, it worked.  It conveyed the awesome scope of the occasion.

Today, July 20, 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.  This feat marks the highlight of mankind’s scientific achievement to date.  The sheer effort involved in pulling the moon landing off consumed lives and treasure while captivating the minds of the world.

The success of this endeavor made instant heroes of the men who made the trip to the moon.  Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins will forever be tied to this event.  Over time, they have capitalized on their notoriety and made names for themselves or they have let the fame that they gained for just performing their job affect their lives and relationships.  Who can say how the rest of us would have performed.  I don’t know how my life would have been affected by peering into the black void of space, setting foot on an alien body and then looking back onto the blue marble of Earth.

What I do know is that it didn’t take too long before moon landings were viewed as commonplace; where we thought more about the products that came about as a result of Apollo – like Teflon – than the actual feat of the lunar landing itself.  Once we had “been there, done that” we lost interest and thus killed the dream that we strived so hard to achieve.  You have to wonder what Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins think privately about the lack of effort, the lack of will.  So, what happened, what diverted us from the course that we had charted for ourselves once JFK stated that we were going to the moon?  There were many issues but I think the most important are:

• Lack of leadership – what passes for leadership in this country is fairly poor.  We’re better emulating the Romans (make sure they have their read and circuses) than making people see that there are tough choices to be made in life.  Leadership in this country failed the country, became embroiled in wars that had no lasting difference and pandered to the basest desires of the populace.

• Willingness to be taken for the ride – the American populace failed in their obligation to be informed and educated.  We have sunk to new lows in this country when it comes to education.   Other countries now are hurriedly taking up where we left off – Indians, Chinese and others are looking not only to return to the moon but are also talking about colonizing it.  They have the critical systems in place to do it too.  They value education, they encourage students to learn and grow and they capitalize on the investment.  America should learn this lesson and stop settling for public school systems that simply pass students through.  Education is not a cost, it IS an investment.

• No sense of purpose – I’m probably going to get reamed for this but the Baby Boomers have left us a legacy of individualism.  An individualism that is so strong it borders on national narcissism.  These were the people who rebelled in the 60s, fueled the 70s with sex and drugs, made excessive greed popular in the 80s, and fostered the over-the-top 90s.  They gave us the “I’ve got mine, you can get yours” attitude, with no thought about the better good, sacrifice or the future.  The Baby Boomers have had their run, now it’s time to turn our attention to giving America a vision, correcting the course of the ship – it’s time to get back to the business of America.

So what can be done?  Well, nothing simple, that’s for sure.  It’s going to take a lot of work, none of it easy.  It’s going to involve hard choices and difficult decisions.  First off, we have to recognize that now matter who we are – the color of our skin, the language that we speak, our economic class, our orientation – we are first and foremost Americans.  We can no longer afford to be divisive.  The politicians and the pundits have made this the easy route because that takes the heat off of them.  Instead we need to see the future of our children and work now to make it better.

We need to look out for ourselves and our families without a doubt, but it should be tempered with the realization of our need to invest in coming generations.  We are providing the foundation for them to learn, grow, and succeed.  We cannot take it for granted that they will have good lives just because that’s the way it’s always been.  We have real competition out there, people and countries are aiming for our standard of living and they are gaining ground fast!

Lastly, we need to be united and aligned.  We need to hold our politicians to a higher standard.  We need to expect more out of ourselves.  We need to understand that we can make a difference and work toward changing our country and society at every chance we have.

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