Army Shooting Today 
Still Dreaming 
Castle Time 
Walty!!! 
Prego Art 
Big Castle 
Knighted 
Pretty dresses 
Ski Lift 
On top of the mountain 
50 point turn 
Take me to the cross 
Austrian Hiking 
On top of the battlement 
Arches are cool 
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After a good hearty Austrian breakfast we headed to our canyon. As I opened the door at the trailhead all we could hear was rifle fire. I knew the Austrian army does shooting practice one day a month in this canyon, but I was not able to discover when that day was going to be. It turns out that they were training today, from 9a-3p, which cancelled out our canyon. There was a army guard at the gate who I went up to talk with. He was super serious and kept telling me no matter what I said to him, “You shall not pass!”. It was quite comical, as I assured him I was just trying to understand if they would be there tomorrow also. His other quote was, “I am not authorized to give out that kind of information.” I wanted to get a picture with him, but thought better of it as he was so serious that me enjoying our conversation was almost more than this guy could bare. He also had a gun and was tense, so never a good combo to take lightly.
We left the army and drove to a nearby castle. It turned out to be set up as an art exhibit. After getting our fill of paintings and statues, we went to the bottom of the hill and got on a ski lift. At the top we were able to ride a roller coaster sled down the hill. It was pretty awesome. I drove and Elijah sat in my lap. Elijah asked to go again so I let him take the 2.7km ski lift up the mountain and the sled down. The cool thing to me was I was able to walk Elijah through that whole thing and then immediately I was able to let him go try it on his on. It was a pretty big deal for trust and Elijah stepping into his own. This trip Elijah is learning to be the man and take the lead. Then he is also learning to submit and follow. Both are vital to be a solid leader.
Our next stop was another castle ruin. This one tested my mettle. We got onto a wet dirt road with a 35% grade going up the side of an Austrian Alp. When we were 90% up the road the tires spun out on the wet road. I was not able to continue up and the road was too narrow to do anything but back down. Mountain was on one side of me and a sheer drop off with nothing in between was on the other side. We finally made it down to a spot in the road that was as wide as the car is long, so I did a fifty point turn to be able to go forward down the mountain. We parked the car and hiked up to the castle. It turned out to be private property. We were able to walk near it, but not go into it. We were bummed, but it was great exercise.
We found another castle ruin and went off in search of it. This one turned out to be a full bush wack, as very few people ever venture to it. We were only able to walk around this one too. There was a rope climbing up into it, which I let Elijah try. He made a solid decision that it was not safe and we turned around. I wanted him to try it thought and be able to see that all the rocks he was climbing on were moving and his landing was a slanted slope which went off a cliff. It is important to be able to see and we have been praying for the gift of sight this trip.
We made our way back to the hotel bummed that we where not able to get inside of a fun castle. Walking around the city, we saw another castle above the town. We jumped in the car and drove up to it. It turned out to be the coolest castle ruin we have seen. We were able to get into it and walk through it. Elijah had prayed for this and it was an answer to prayer. We ended the night Skyping with family, which was super fun.
Elijah’s Take – We woke up from our hotel in Austria and started a pretty drive towards the canyon we were going to do. When we got there, people were shooting for the military and they would not let us pass. So, we said ok, God give us our assignment for the day. We went to a castle and it was full of paintings, not exactly what we were expecting. Then we left there and went sledding on little carts down the side of the mountain. We took a gondola up the mountain to ride a roller coaster down. I went once with dad and once all alone while he waited for me at the base of the mountain. We we finished we left to go to see another a castle. We drove up the hill to the castle until daddy’s wheel’s got stuck in the mud and he had to go backwards back do the mountain until he could turn around. We then hiked the rest of the way up. When we got to the castle it was private property and we were not allowed in it, so we hiked back down to the car. We then went to another castle ruin. We tried to get in it, but it was really old and crumbling so you could not get in it. We went back to our hotel and took a walk through town. While walking we saw another castle up the hill from our hotel. We got in our car and drove up to it. We were finally able to get in this one. We hiked around it and it was really cool. Then we went back to our hotel for ice cream!
