I’m sitting in the Atlanta airport on my way home from Chile. It was a very short trip that included 2 red eye flights in 4 days. This was likely my last international trip on active duty. There are a few things that are glaringly obvious to me after each of these trips:
1. Americans are in extremely poor health. The percentage of people who are fit vs obese is essentially inverse in the US compared to other countries. The lack of fitness and health crisis is disturbing and makes me more and more committed to a better diet for my family and participating in fitness activities (running, biking, triathlon, etc). I did get 1 short run in during the 2 nights in Chile.

2. Americans are overly focused on material acquisitions and not appreciative of what we have. Riding around in these countries and seeing how much of the world lives in poverty is eye opening. It doesn’t mean I am going to give everything away and move into a tiny house, but I want to ensure I raise my kids to appreciate their advantages in life and be respectful for the opportunities we have in life.

3. While traveling for work is nice to a degree, I miss my family and being involved in the lives of my kids.

4. As my military career comes to an end, I understand with more clarity how different my life is compared to the average submarine officer. The direction my career proceeded has given me opportunities in my personal life that I am very grateful for.

5. Work to live. Don’t live to work. There are more important things than the bottom line. I have yet to meet traveling businessman who regrets the time he spent with family, but the number of regrets for lack of family time is amazing.

6. I love my family and look forward to spending the holidays with them with focus on relationships instead of things.

Vicki and I headed out to Horsepower Farm’s cross country derby tonight. It was 4.30 pm by the time we made it, but we made it work. Duchess was great, and Vicki had fun. Vicki decided that having a successful ride was more important than trying the next level up. She turned the wrong way after one of the jumps, but didn’t jump anything out of order. The pelham definitely is working for more control and they had a good partnership today.

Here is a video:

This past weekend the kids participated in the NLC 4H Fair at the North Stonington Fairgounds.

Friday we arrived and checked in rabbits into the rabbit barn and exhibits into the exhibit hall. Amanda had a k’nex model and submitted her record book. Vicki submitted two pictures of King from last year. Rob stayed at the fair with the kids in the travel trailer and Anna traveled back and forth to home to take care of animals at home. Turbo stayed at the fair all weekend and showed on Sunday.

Saturday Anna brought three horses to the fair and there was a showmanship and trail clinic, followed by a costume class and some games in the arena. Then horses went home mid afternoon and rabbit showing commenced. Amanda showed as a novice (first year) and won, Alex and Vicki are both seniors this year, and got a third and fifth respectively. Amanda’s friend Olivia spent the night at the fair Saturday night.
Sunday brought dog showing in the am for Vicki and Amanda both showing Turbo, who was a good sport in the heat. They did showmanship and obedience, both earning blue ribbon scores for obedience. The kids participated in rabbit hopping and 4H Olympics and Alex did the robotics challenge and placed third.

Sunday Anna brought Huey and Duchess back for Huey to be used in the Premier Showmanship competition. Duchess was along for companionship. Huey had to do the same pattern for 8 senior 4Hers. A few competetitors held on to him a bit like a cow, pushing his head up and holding the reins too tight, which he wasn’t a fan of, but overall he behaved himself and it was pretty clear which kids were more horse savvy.

The fair ended Sunday afternoon wit awards and Amanda won a best in show award for her model.The kids and adults were exhausted. Enjoy a heap of pictures in no particular order…

On July 14th we headed to Tolland for the CT State 4H Horse Show.

In 4H you have to do a showmanship class and that is first on the agenda. Amanda got to go FIRST of everyone. Yeah Amanda!

Vicki and Duchess were next and Duchess had a fit when she could no longer see Mojo. She was calling for him through the whole showmanship sequence. And not standing still…but she looked pretty.

Alex showed Mojo. They did fine. Which about sums up how Alex feels about doing a showmanship class.

After showmanship, there was a costume class. Both Amanda and Vicki participated.

Amanda showed Huey in walk trot. They did well showing off lead in their first ride around the ring show. She tried her hand at a trail class and they did ok, with Huey only refusing the bridge (he is not a fan on trail either).

Vicki showed in Jr WTC flat classes and 18″ hunter classes. Duchess was hot at the canter with all the other horses cantering and more of a jumper than hunter in the jump ring, so it was more of a learning experience than a success story. They did come home with ribbons though.

Alex showed in Sr English flat classes and 18″ hunter classes. Alex and Mojo looked fab together, but had some confusion in the canter lead department. We also need to discuss the difference between a road trot and working trot. LOL. They jumped all the jumps, albeit sometimes a tad fast…Did not get any pictures of Alex riding, because I was holding onto Huey at that point.

The CT State Horse Show is held for those counties in CT that do not have many participants and do not put on their own county horse show at the 4H fair. New London County is one of those counties and the top senior showmanship scorer goes on to compete in Premier Showmanship at the 4H Fair at the North Stonington Fairgrounds at the end of July. Instead of a show the fair holds a Horse Demo to still have horse presence at the fair.

It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

I spent the past week in the Valparaiso area of Chile having meetings with the Chilean Navy, including a session with the CNO. Of all the trips I have been on, this was one of the better ones. The food was pretty good, but the wines were excellent. The only real disappointment was the coffee – most of it was instant coffee.

I manages to get 3 good runs in along the coast and 1 bike ride in the hotel exercise area.

There were a few things that jumped out at me during my trip. The first is fitness. It is amazing how overweight Americans are relative to the rest of the world. I truly believe there are some serious health consequences in what Americans have accepted as “the standard American diet” and it shows dramatically when you travel outside the US.

I also saw people who were happy with less. We (Americans) seem obsessed with the next new thing. Our kids go from holiday to holiday looking for the next big present. Yet, in Chile, the average family lives in houses that are 1/2 (or less) the size of Americans. They don’t collect the stuff we do but they are just as happy. As I went out for my runs, I saw families walking together, couples holding hands, and people exercising every day.

We did have a couple of earthquakes during the trip. Of note, there was a 4.7 that woke me up on the 3rd night.

Overall, I found Chile to be a fascinating place to visit and I would definitely return, in particular, to spend time in the mountains.