As you may remember from our last post, Lindsie and I were just getting ready to leave Lakin, Kansas, to head toward Garden City. I was pumped about Garden City because a friend I knew from college had sent me a Facebook message saying she’d read about our trip and wondered if I needed a place to stay in Garden City.
We left Lakin that morning and wove our way around the fallen tree branches and other debris that the storm the night before had torn up. On the plus side, most of the storm clouds were still around and we had some good cloud coverage for the first three hours of our walk that morning, which is always a blessing—mostly because we had a 25-mile walk ahead of us.
Originally we’d planned to stop halfway to Garden City and have my college friend, Alex, pick us up and bring us to her place for the night, then drop us off where we’d left off that next morning. Instead, we felt motivated enough to push the full 25 miles to Garden City. Although it started to get a little warm around 1:00 p.m., we were so close we could taste it and we finally limped our way into town around 2:30 p.m.
Lindsie was just about in Heaven when we arrived, as Alex is a foster pet owner and was ALSO dogsitting for a friend, so there were all kinds of dogs running around for Lindsie to hug and play with. Our own dog, Jaeda, was less impressed with all of the dog action and spent a majority of her time hiding in the bedroom. Jaeda’s not exactly a dog person.
Alex and her sister, Katie, wanted to take us out to eat, so we enjoyed a delicious meal at one of the Mexican restaurants in town. Then we went back to Alex’s and laid low with the pets until it was time for bed. The next day would be a short one, since we were only going 13 miles to Pierceville, Kansas. (Weird when a 13-mile walk is considered a “short day,” right?) Once we got to Pierceville, Alex planned to kindly pick us up and bring us back to her place for an extra night so we’d have a place to stay again.
The plan worked perfectly, and we only had one slight hitch in that 13-mile walk. My (Mike’s) cell phone fell off my cart without us realizing it. Rather than walk the 13 miles back scouring the ground for a missing cell phone, we went through the process of getting a new phone through the insurance company Verizon uses. My new phone was OVERNIGHTED to the next church on our route, and it got there several hours before we even did. Hooray for Asurion insurance!
Also, our 13-mile walk to Pierceville introduced Jaeda to turtles, which, up to that point, she had never seen live and in-person. We were afraid she’d do something mean to them (possibly a safe assumption, based on her demeanor when she saw the first one), so we kept her pretty far away. It was, however, funny watching her investigate every single rock on the road from that point on just in case it might be a turtle.
Anyway, Alex and her sister made a FANTASTIC dinner that night, grilling out some pork chops, pork steaks, and more. Needless to say, we were happy. And full. Very, very full.
The next morning, Alex borrowed a friend’s truck and drove us out to where we’d left off the day before in Pierceville. We said an appreciative goodbye and began trekking along Highway 50 again toward Cimarron. Thanks to Richard Deimund, the pastor at First Baptist Church, we had a place to sleep for the night, so we made good time and got to the church just ahead of a small thunderstorm. It was sort of like God just held back the rain for us until we were literally walking up to the front steps, which was pretty awesome.
We had fun talking with Richard for a little while, and then he and his wife, Marca, invited us to dinner later that evening. We went to this great pizza place in town and enjoyed several slices of pizza. All in all, it was a really good night full of tasty food and fun stories.
The next morning we set out bright and early to head toward Dodge City, one of the biggest towns on this recent stretch of our route. Dodge City is famous for the expression “Get the heck outta Dodge” as well as being the setting for the classic TV series Gunsmoke. Lots of history for sure.
Dodge City definitely didn’t disappoint. Greg Savage, the pastor at the First Southern Baptist Church, said we could stay at his church, which was a wonderful place. He and his wife, Heidi, also invited us out to dinner with a few friends, Sean and Stephanie, and a gentleman named Thurmon who was also staying at the church that night in order to travel the next morning with a group heading out to do fire relief efforts in Cañon City.
For those who don’t know, Cañon City—where we stayed a few weeks ago—got ravaged by fires a few weeks ago and the damage was pretty rough. So please say a prayer for the folks there when you can.
Anyway, we enjoyed a tasty dinner and then Heidi and Stephanie wanted us to see the famous Boot Hill Museum gunfight. It was a fun little production, and we really enjoyed the experience (as well as the shaved ices they treated us to after the gunfight). After all of that excitement, we went back to the church and got ready for bed. After a solid night of rest, we realized our bodies were still worn out after six straight days of walking. Thankfully, Greg was kind enough to let us stay at the church a second night, so we rested, caught up on some things, and prepared for a good day of walking after another night of sleep.
The next morning we set out for Spearville, which wasn’t too far away but still made for a full day of walking. We got there in pretty good time and made our bed for the night at the St. John Catholic Church. Father Ted Stoecklein welcomed us, offered us a shower, and introduced us to his dog, Doug, all of which made for a nice afternoon. Then we got some sleep and moved on down the road the next day.
That next day ended up being one of the hardest days of this entire walk. As mentioned in the title of this post, we learned the pros and cons of Kansas wind as we made our way into Kinsley.
You see, we were traveling west-to-east along Highway 50. And unfortunately, 30-40 mile per hour winds were traveling south-to-north across Highway 50. Since Kinsley was about 20 miles away from Spearville, we ended up getting BLASTED by the wind for about 7 hours. Besides the wind pounding the sides of us (and our carts), we also had the fun experience of trucks driving by that would blast us in the face with wind, then we’d get hit again by the wind from the south when the truck would pass us. People probably thought we looked like little rag dolls getting tossed around by an overactive 3-year-old.
We stopped for a rest at a gas station in Offerle, mostly just to get our bearings and regroup. While we were sitting on the curb by the gas station, a gentleman named Carlos came over to talk with us. Carlos and his wife, Jasmine, are on their way to Pennsylvania to live out on the east coast for at least year, basically because that’s what God is telling them to do. Carlos and Jasmine were delightful, and after they prayed for us (and we prayed for them), we vowed to reconnect with them when we hit the east coast in a few months. We’re truly excited for that to happen, for obvious reasons.
Eventually we limped our way into Kinsley, looking like zombies stumbling around town after the zombie apocalypse. We had hoped to stay with a church in town but never got ahold of any of them, so we made our way to the RV park in town. The wind was still brutal, so we paid a little extra to spend the night in one of the campers available for use at the RV park. As the wind howled outside, we decided it was a wise investment.
Of course, the wind wasn’t all negative. On the plus side, it had been a really hot day on our walk to Kinsley, but since the wind was blowing so hard, we never really even felt the sun. We’ve noticed that even on the rough and really windy days, it helps us beat the heat, so we don’t want it to seem like we’re only complaining. We just wouldn’t mind if God turned down his windometer to like…10 miles per hour or less instead of 20 miles per hour or more. But we’re thankful to be cool nonetheless.
The next morning was Sunday, meaning we wanted to catch a church service if at all possible. Thankfully, the next stop on our map was only 10 miles away. That meant that if we were up and moving quickly enough, we could make it to Lewis, Kansas, in time for any 10:00 service easily, and possibly even a 9:30 service if we hurried.
We still hadn’t figured out a place to stay in Lewis, but we decided we’d cross that bridge when we got to it. After a cool, much less windy morning of walking, we got to Lewis Christian Church about 30 minutes before their service started. The congregation was meeting for Sunday School in the church building, and I (Mike) sort of just walked in and interrupted. But it all turned out well, as the wonderful congregation members were happy to have us stay the night at the church. After enjoying a fun service, two church members, Bob and Norma, took us out for lunch in town. We had a great time talking with them while we ate, and we had the rest of the afternoon to do some cart repair work and relax.
It was a wonderful night, and we were up and moving again the next day, making great progress toward Macksville. Thanks to Sean and Stephanie from Dodge City, we had a contact and a place to stay in Macksville. After a rainy day of walking (a short portion of which was spent hiding in a tent-like Department of Transportation structure, which we were thankful for), we made it to Mike and Kelly’s house. They had a guest room ready to go for us, and we made it in time for both lunch and dinner, which was basically a bonus blessing.
Mike helps run the local Christian Motorcycle Association chapter, which led to some great stories and perspectives on faith. Lindsie and I had a great time with them both, and we were extra thankful to be inside their house when a pretty massive storm began to hit around 7:00 p.m. Once again, God was looking out for us.
The next morning, after Kelly made some delicious cinnamon biscuits for breakfast, we set out toward Stafford, Kansas. But before we got to Stafford, we had an exciting event happen on the side of the road.
Some fellow cross-country walkers (yes, more people than just the two of us do this crazy thing, but only a few) met up with us on the road! Josh and Kerri are walking across the country as a ministry effort as well. Unlike us, they’re traveling east to west, and you can learn more about their journey at www.JoshWalksAmerica.com. Anyway, they’re going through Kansas right now too and they had some friends drive them up to meet us on the road as we made our way into Stafford. On top of that, Josh and Kerri brought us Subway for lunch. The funny thing is that Lindsie had prayed earlier in the morning that Stafford would have a Subway so we could have it for lunch. While they don’t have a Subway in Stafford, God answered Lindsie’s prayer anyway by bringing a Subway sandwich right to her hands on the side of the road. Further proof that He even cares about the little things.
We were really pumped to actually meet Josh, Kerri, and their own little puppy, Skitch, who—not surprisingly, I guess—Jaeda ignored the whole time. It was a blessing to share some stories, exchange info, and get to pray with each other before going our separate ways. Although Josh and Kerri don’t plan to follow the same route west that we took from San Francisco (sorry friends who would’ve liked to meet them), we’re excited for them to make progress whichever direction they go.
Anyway, this post is once again longer than most people probably care to read. I promise I’ll try to get better about keeping them shorter, especially now that we’re more or less caught up with things. I’ll have an update on our time in Stafford and beyond soon though.
Thanks for reading, and please feel free to keep sending us prayer requests if you have them. We still have plenty of time out here on the road to pray for you, and we’d be happy to do so.
Stay blessed, and we’ll be back with more soon!
-Mike, Lindsie, and Jaeda
