You have made a wide path for my feet
    to keep them from slipping. – Psalm 18:36

While Rebekah and I were out of town, roadtripping with our grandchildren from North Carolina through Virginia to West Virginia, on to Ohio and into Michigan, then up to Canada and back through New York and Pennsylvania to the Jersey Shore, I kept up to date by posting a daily travelogue. But I limited the pictures to images from my phone.

Now, getting back into the day-to-day routine, I have the opportunity to go through a few of the moments I captured on my Nikon. Both sets are extraordinary (I particularly appreciate the immediacy of the phone images) but you absolutely do not want to miss these.

Today’s pictures come from West Virginia’s New River Gorge, and being able to use my 18-400 telephoto lens to frame out some of these shots made a huge difference.

The first photograph – at the beginning of this post – tells an important story. Two summers ago Rebekah and I took the children for their first journey into the mountains and they learned all about the National Park Passport Book. Since then they have been doing their best to get location stamps whenever possible.

Shots that tell stories:

Along with the stamps has come increased awareness regarding the all important learning dimension to travel. Rebekah and I always take in the interpretive material explaining the history and the geology and our grandchildren are catching on.

(As a side note, David and Beks were disappointed when the Canadian border guard failed to stamp a maple leaf into their brand new international passports).

I think my favorite image in this set is that of Beks (11) taking a selfie with Rebekah; the picture reveals another benefit of having the telephoto lens on hand.

The West Virginia scenery is spectacular. But the stories are too. In fact, if we don’t take the trouble to learn the stories then we will never be equipped with knowledge and understanding and wisdom for making decisions when the future is on the line. Open-pit mining devastated much of the region before common sense and more holistic economics prevailed.

We have talked about this before in this space, but it is worth repeating a truth I highlighted a couple of weeks ago: conservation, intelligent resource management and economic stability are all one and the same. There is no economic growth – no prosperity – without a living, breathing planet.

There is no economic growth – no prosperity – without a living, breathing planet.

So enjoy these photographs. And revel in the great outdoors this great country has to offer. And be thankful to Creator God for all of this good good Earth – DEREK