My friend Jesse and I just finished our bicycle ride from College Station, TX, to Baton Rouge, LA. We had good, though cool, weather for most of the trip. The winds cooperated, the trucks didn't flatten us, and now we have FINALLY ridden out of Texas. We pedaled through the Bible Belt, onward into Cajun country. Now, I'm on my way home to North Dakota for Christmas.

-Deacon Jason

It's been a while since I posted much on here aside from homilies and info on the history of Halloween, so I thought an update might be in order. My second-to-last semester here at Kenrick is almost at an end. There is only a week and a half left, and that includes no less than four final exams, a presentation, and a homily. Pray for us. It's a stressful and tiresome time of year.

That being said, we are all rested after returning from Thanksgiving break. For the novelty of it I took the Amtrak trains from St. Louis up to Minneapolis to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. It was good to see them, and my nephew Noah is growing like crazy (he's about 6 months old now). This was my first "real" train ride, and I enjoyed it. If the train works for your travel itinerary, I highly recommend it. It's an enjoyable ride, and it's much less stressful than planes and airports. If you're trapped on a train for 15 hours, you can get a lot of homework done.

Once I plow through these final exams, homilies, papers, and so on, my buddy Jesse and I are going to tackle section 5 (of 7) of the Southern Tier Adventure Cycling route from December 11th-20th (see the map above). We'll fly down to College Station, TX, on the 11th, ride bicycle from there to Baton Rouge, LA, from where we'll fly back home for Christmas. Our bikes are both on the way down there already, and should be waiting for us when we get there. On this trip, I hope to use my Android-based cell phone to provide my location on a map in near-real-time for those who wish to follow our progress. I may also post some pictures and updates from along the route via Twitter. Check back soon to see if I get a tour web page up.

Oh, and one more piece of good news. No, it's great news. My graduate thesis is now completely finished and graded. I worked on it, off and on, for at least a couple of years. The (especially lengthy) title is Prophets on the Digital Continent: Magisterial Guidance for the Exercise of the Christian Duty to Evangelize Using Modern, Social Means of Communication. I might make copies available for those interested. Let me know if you're one who is interested.

With that, back to my test preparation work.

Happy Advent,
Deacon Jason

My poor motorcycle typically sits in a garage in Mandan for almost the entire year. It's tough to get it out for a ride when I'm 1,000 miles away in St. Louis or even 160 miles away in Beach, ND, where I'm working this summer.

When I'm working somewhere I need my pickup and I was always unsure if the motorcycle would fit in the back. And I was nervous about wrecking the bike or pickup trying to load the thing. But I finally got some ramps and some help to shove the bike up in the pickup box. It worked great! So, in case you were wondering, a 2001 Suzuki SV650S does fit nicely in the back of a 2005 Chevy Colorado.

After the Masses here in Beach today the sun finally came out after days of wind and rain. To take advantage of the beautiful weather I cruised on over to Medora and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park (South Unit). While there I drove around the 36-mile park loop road. It's beautiful out there. I saw deer, rabbits, prairie dogs, and three or four bison. Along the way I did a little hiking around Buck Hill and in Wind Canyon. Check out the photos here:

Back in Medora after the ride I had some dinner, an ice cream cone, and did a bit of shopping (I picked up a biography of Theodore Roosevelt) before racing (yet another) thunderstorm. It's been stormy this summer. But at least I got out for a little while.

-Jason

P.S.: In one week, I will be a deacon. Wow.

It's hard to believe it, but another academic year has flown by. I'm now a member of the "Theology 4" class, and will soon be ordained as a deacon. The picture above is of my old room at the seminary. When seminarians are ordained, they get new nameplates for their doors that say "Rev. Mr....," but it takes a while. A classmate prematurely put up a temporary "Rev. Mr." in front of my name, so it had to be clarified.

After working nonstop for a week on my thesis over the last days I managed to crank out one more chapter. I suppose I'm about half done with that project. Then, as a reward, I took time to pack up my things and move to a new room.

This is a crazy panorama I stitched together of that old room. It seems like just yesterday that I moved into that 10x10' room, but that was almost 4 years ago.

So now I'm enjoying my slightly larger room on the 2nd floor. The seminary is mostly empty as everyone has left for their summer vacations before their summer assignments begin. It's peaceful here when the place empties out. I'm thinking I might just hang out for another week and pound away at that thesis paper before I head north.

-Jason

The semester has ended here at Kenrick, and I finally got a rough draft completed of a thesis chapter (something I lazily worked on for probably half a year). So tomorrow our Christmas break begins. To kick off the long break, I will be flying down to Del Rio, TX, hopping on my bicycle (which is already waiting for me down there) and riding to College Station, TX, over the course of the week. This is Section 4 of the Adventure Cycling Southern Tier Route. Jesse McCormack and I have ridden the first three sections, which cover the distance between San Diego, CA, and Del Rio, TX. He will be joining me on this ride as well. You can see our path across Texas in blue, above.

We'll be on our bikes until December 20th. You can follow our progress on Twitter, where I will be posting updates whenever I have cell coverage. I'll try to update at least once a day to let everyone know what city (or village) we're in. To see the latest news, click on the image above, or visit my Twitter page at http://twitter.com/jsignal/.

Please pray for our safety, health, and for good Texas weather.

-Jason