Hi, I’m Micah Vinyard.  If you’re here you probably know me in person already but if not, that’s okay too. Welcome to MicahV.net. This is my first personal website since… well, my last one was hosted on Geocities if that tells you anything.

I’ve been sitting on the MicahV.net domain for a while now and not doing anything with it, but I’ll be traveling to China in a few days and figured that’s worth throwing a website together for.

The main impetus for this site was my Dad’s suggestion that I keep a journal of my trip.  I can’t promise this will become anything close to a journal, I’ve never managed to keep a journal going for more than a couple of days.  But I do hope to drop by to tell how it’s going and maybe share some pictures every few days or so.

I am traveling to China with my Grandfather J.V. Vinyard. J.V. served in World War 2 as a Hump Pilot, flying supplies over a very dangerous stretch of the Himalayas into China after the Japanese had cut off most of China’s supply lines. The Hump Pilots took big risks and terrible losses to keep China supplied, and the Chinese have not forgotten that. That’s why every few years they invite my Grandfather over to join them in celebrating the anniversary of the end WW2.

Next week, on September 3rd 2015, China is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the end of that war and I have the tremendous honor of going with my Grandfather to China to mark the occasion. I’m very excited – I’ve been fascinated with the far east since I can remember and have always wanted to go to China. It’s going to be amazing. I’m also quite nervous, because it is dawning on me more and more just how big of a deal this is. This is no casual vacation.

It’s not a small event, either. Beijing is making preparations similar to what I remember them doing for the Olympics, such as deploying hundreds of thousands of security personnel city wide and curbing factory production & traffic to ensure clear air. There’s going to be a huge military parade. Vladimir Putin is going to be there. In fact, China has declared a national holiday officially dubbed “The 70th Anniversary of Victories in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Against Fascism.”

And there will be other events to attend to, although I’m sure none will be as grand as the 70th Anniversary celebration on the 3rd. It’s going to be intense. But there will also be time to be a tourist and enjoy the trip. I’m going to be bouncing around China for about 2 weeks. I can’t wait.

Anyway, that’s the story behind this site!  Feel free to leave comments and stuff.