Dear Friend,
Tonight I helped to wipe out the forces of Greece. I was allied with my Roman counterparts in a coordinated campaign of utter destruction.
Yes, I played Microsoft’s “Age of Empires” computer game with my two sons tonight. It’s an old game that allows the players to work as a team by utilizing the wireless router we have on board the Warrior (appropriately called “RoadWarriorNet”).
I have always enjoyed playing computer games. Especially games like Sid Meier’s Civilization and its progeny. This is not a Sid Meier game but it’s of the same genre.
I have also found that the time that I spend playing these games with my kids is not simply a collection of mindless zapping noises or brain-numbing blather, as some fear. I actually feel a closer bonding with my kids when I share these electronic experiences with them.
I think that my kids really like the fact that I am able to interact with them in ways that most adults cannot. And yet I can be an adult, too, when I must.
So tonight was a good night.
We are in West Yellowstone, Montana, where the temperature is ten degrees Fahrenheit cooler than it is back in Missoula. Of well, we headed South to cool off, I guess.
We have really been in a quandary as to whether we should continue on to Vancouver, British Columbia (our original destination), or just keep heading South. At this point we would have to back-track quite a bit to get there.
But my eldest son pointed out something that had a big impact on my thinking. He said that we simply had to finish what we started. Otherwise, our whole trip, no matter how fascinating, would have the air of failure about it.
I had no response to that line of reasoning. So it looks like we’ll spend a good part of this week here in Yellowstone, and then head off to Vancouver as originally planned.
When will we return to the East Coast? I really don’t know.
Don’t really care either.
All the best,
Hugh
