UMTravels

So, last night, I posted a status on FaceBook:

Mark Stephen Souder is wondering what I’m going to do now that I had to resign my day job in Congress because I’m:
a) Heterosexual
b) Married
c) Right Wingnut Christian Republican (and some of my friends are former Republicans, now Independents, and Christian)
d) Cheating on my wife with a part-time staffer

and look at this woman, so not my type:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/18/tracy-jackson-mark-souder_n_580144.html

And then I posted a response on the Huffington Post:

As someone who shares the name Mark Souder — I consider him my doppelganger. He is as far right as I am far left. That said — after 15 years service in the congress… let’s talk about his retirement package (rather than the package as a gay man I don’t want to think about when I think of him):

• Best three years salary: $165,000 a year
• 15 years of service
• 1.7% of the total
• $42,000+ a year — AND he can collect when he turns 60, which is July 18th. At 68 he can collect his social security as well since he joined congress after 1984 when they required congressman to pay Social Security.

This for a man who has disgraced his wife, his party, his religion, his country, and my name.

Should you want to explore Mark EDWARD Souder, rather than Mark STEPHEN SOUDER, check out the WikiPedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Edward_Souder

The only bad thing about this is that the Bing/Google search on me will be easier.

And now onto our regularly scheduled post:

My day from an email to Debbie in San Diego:

Greetings from West Yellowstone. I think Angelica would have enjoyed my day today – I saw buffalo, elk, deer, trumpeter swan, and one nasty fat raven – and almost ran out of gas – the trip computer said I had 15 miles left in the tank, and there are only three gas stations in Yellowstone. Part of the day we even had the top down. The we? I picked up an vegan Israeli girl hitchhiking by the front entrance to the park and squeezed her and her pack into the car – no small feat it being the Jaguar and the fact that the passenger side seat was forward almost all the way because of the kneeler wedged into the back seat. Just dropped her off back by the highway after a full day of touring, chatting, photographing, walking trails etc. I offered her the other bedroom (I’m in a two-bedroom, two-bath unit so there is plenty of room) which if she doesn’t get a ride back to Rexburg (she is http://www.couchsurfing.com on a Mormon couples couch) or it starts raining, I told her where the condo is (half a dozen blocks from where I dropped her) so she can crash here as a backup plan.

Not a bad day (except for that panic about the empty gas tank). Here is a great photo of myself and Zuphit, the vegan Israeli hitchhiking couch surfer:

So, I guess the only other thing to add is the scroller bar with the rest of the pictures:

Dinner tonight is a filet mignon, baked potato, salad, wine… hard life.

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