And yet another guest...

My good friend Keith Roberts made his first foray into the Middle East on February 19th and he chose to come see me. Again I'm not sure if it was actually to see me, enjoy the beautiful weather or his wife Karla just needed a break from him, but he came, we ran, we ate, we saw some sites, we drank some beer and then he left.

Keith and I have known each other since 1993 when I first moved to the midwest and settled in Battle Creek. We met at a Battle Creek Road Runners meeting and have been running together ever since. Some folks think I'm a running fool or fanatic, but Keith is the original. I can't even think about running the miles he does, my body wouldn't last.

Many of the pictures you will see of him here are in the same spots I've shown you with pictures of Kathleen, Fiona, Lisa and me already, but he made the flight so he gets the same treatment. One thing you will notice is a lot of sand and that Keith has only one shirt and it appears to be from Albion College, a small liberal arts school in Albion, MI. Or as Keith likes to say "The Harvard of the Midwest".

We did do a lot while he was here and I didn't even take time off from work. Here's Keith in his favorite shirt at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. When you get here despite your protestations that you've seen enough pictures of the Grand Mosque, I'll still take you there. It must be seen up close and in person.

We also went out to Manarat Saadiyat so he could see what the total plan for Saadiyat Island is and where our new campus fits into it. Then stopped out at Yas Island to run on the track on Tuesday night and here's a shot of him with the Yas Hotel bathed in blue behind him. We got in about a 10k run, but believe it or not the weather has certainly changed recently and you can feel the heat and humidity increase and even I'm not used to it so we took our running easy all week.

There was a professional tennis tournament taking place in Dubai so we ventured down there Wednesday night with a plan of seeing Roger Federer play, but by the time we got there tickets were sold out. The venue is great and there were probably a dozen restaurants right beside and between the courts so we sat down and had dinner and a beer or two. Then we headed over to the obligatory viewing of the Burj Khalifa and the fountain show. Here's a shot of the big building at night.

I'm just postponing the inevitable here. I mentioned in my previous blog about the "Empty Quarter" and the vastness of it. I had planned on making this trip with Keith and a couple of friends Professor Jeff Jensen and his wife Christina (also a Phd). So let's get to it. Personally I've travelled a decent amount and seen some incredible things in my life in different parts of the world probably more than some and less than others, but I have never seen anything like this.

Sand, Sand and more sand as far as the eye can see. It goes on for 225,000 square miles. Or a square 474 miles x 474 miles. This sand would cover France it's so huge. So we packed up the car with water and sun screen and extra shoes and headed to Liwa and beyond. I say and beyond because Lisa and I got to Liwa, had lunch at the hotel saw some sand and headed back. This trip was to take the road leading to Moreeb Dune which is supposed to be 300 meters high, or about 900 feet. Of course that's subject to change based on the wind I would guess.

There is a paved road that you follow into the Empty Quarter which eventually ends at Moreeb Dune. It's about 30 km long or 18.6 miles. The whole week Keith had been whining about wanting to see camels and get a few pictures of them so on the drive we finally saw some that were close enough to snap pictures of. I pulled over and Keith and Christina hopped out and wandered over to where the camels were to say hello. It seems the camels wanted to do the same thing so Keith and Christina got their photo's.

Back in the vehicle and heading further in and it was only going to be 20 miles into 225,000 square miles of sand. Well we finally came to the end of the road in a huge sand valley. There were actually parking lots, a children's playground, a helipad and a large recreation area where people could bring motorcycles and 4 wheelers out to race up the dunes. We drove around the area on the hard packed sand and finally parked the car way down there.

Keith is pointing out to Jeff and Christina just how high the other dune is compared to the little thing we climbed. At this point we were probably only 1/2 as high as the Moreeb Dune and we worked to get that high.

This area is known for great sunsets and wonderful star shows at night so it gets alot of campers who head out in the afternoon to watch the sunset, God's light show and then sunrise. At this point all we could see was sand. And we could barely see my car, as a matter of fact it looks like a little model.

Here's a shot of Keith and I in our favorite shirts, his an Albion College cotton t-shirt (so 15 years ago) and me in my ever present Boston Marathon "Adidas Climacool" moisture wicking, long sleeve special.

We spent about 25 minutes climbing up this one spot and it only took us 10 minutes to get down. I think rolling down would have been faster, but I probably would have gotten sand in my hair and I never would have gotten it out. The sand is incredibly fine as it should be since it's been blowing around out there for thousands of years. It has a copper tint to most of it and the waves and peaks and valleys it forms are amazing. It was considerably warmer out in the desert and I'm sure the sand gets so hot you can't even touch it in the summer because it was very warm to the touch in February.

Keith was not posing for this picture, but he was trying to lead us out of the desert and we made it. I'm sure I'll head back to this area with any other guests that visit because it's not like a lot of other things you see here or anywhere, it's constantly changing. I was just amazed by the shear beauty of nature. I've been to the Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains and Mt. Sinai and the Pyramids (I know they are man made) and Haleakala and Volcano National Park and I'm not sure if any of them can match what I saw here. Just amazing.

QOB - "However good or bad a situation is, it will change." Regina Brett

I thought this pretty appropriate based on the changing sands I witnessed last week.

Blog preview.... I leave tomorrow for Jordan to accompany 20 students and a few other staff for the 14th running of the Dead 2 Red 150 mile relay race. So you should be reading about the race in the next blog along with the obligatory pictures of the Dead Sea and the Red Sea along with Petra an ancient bedouin community in Jordan.

Stay Cool, summer is on the way.

Wayne