Well, we have plenty to update you guys with after several days (weeks?) with little internet access and even less phone access, so we’ll just get right down to business.
After leaving our good friends the Smiths and Moons in Eureka, Nevada, we began the 77-mile stretch from Eureka to Ely, Nevada. We knew it was sort of our last major stretch of emptiness in Nevada, and we were excited to be on our way (even though we knew we’d miss the Smiths and Moons greatly as a result of having to leave Eureka).
We set out toward Ely and were a few miles down the road when the aforementioned Smiths and Moons showed up to deliver some delicious food, some Gatorade, and play on the giant pile of gravel we were camped out next to. We’d set up our tent to avoid rain and we picked a perfect spot because the gravel provided about 45 minutes of excitement before our friends headed home.
Also on the way to Ely, we met a couple named Ken and Ruth Walter from Napa, California, who turned around their travel van to see what we were doing, because we had “piqued their interest.” They were fellow Christians and were excited to hear about our journey. They also kindly gave us a HUGE handful of Chewy Granola Bars because they weren’t going to eat them all. Getting any food on this journey is a blessing, so we were very appreciative. We were even more appreciative of the conversation we had and the prayer they prayed over us before continuing on their way. All in all, it was an awesome experience meeting them.
We eventually made it to Ely, and set up shop at the Motel 6 for the first night, mostly because we just wanted a comfortable bed, wi-fi, and a clean, private shower to use. It was a great night’s rest, to say the least. The next night we headed only a little further down the road to the Ely KOA, which was equally as splendid (especially for only $25). The reason we stayed an extra night in Ely is because we had a 140+ stretch to Milford, Utah, coming up where we wouldn’t be able to carry enough water in our carts. That meant doing water drops, and, thankfully, Ely had a car rental place in town.
After loading up with 20-ish gallons of water at the grocery store, we got in our rented car, drove out toward Utah and started dropping off water every 10 miles or so. While it ended up costing around $135 when it was all said and done, doing those water drops was worth EVERY penny.
Unfortunately, we noticed that the sky was looking more and more ominous toward the end of our water drops. More unfortunately, it was looking ominous over the general vicinity of our campsite in Ely. As we cruised home, the storm got worse and worse. Sure enough, we arrived at the KOA to see that our tent was SOAKED. You see, we had left our rain fly off the tent in order to let it dry while we were doing our water drops. When we’d left Ely, it was a perfectly clear sky above us. However, that was definitely not the case 4 hours later, when we finally returned. Without the rainfly on, our tent had accumulated puddles deeper than our hand in certain places. And a decent number of our things were inside the tent, so they were pretty (really) wet as well.
That said, we knew everything would eventually dry, and we were thankful to have had an opportunity to do water drops, even if it did mean our stuff had to get a little bit wet. It was still worth it to know we’d have water every ten miles during one of the last major stretches of our journey.
We would’ve left Ely that next morning, but our friends the Smiths decided to come out and see us one more time and spend the afternoon at Cave Lake to do some fishing and grilling. It was a blast to see them again, and we enjoyed the adventure of fishing at the lake, eating the delicious steaks Rich grilled up, and generally just having fun with them one more time. All in all, it was a treat to see them again.
After three nights in Ely, it was time to move on (and finally finish crossing Nevada). As we headed toward Baker, Utah, we stopped at a small lake just outside of Ely. We realized we had made a slight mistake, however. Even though we’d calculated enough water for the water drops on the way to Milford, we’d forgotten to keep two extra gallons with us before setting out from Ely. We prayed God would provide a way for us to find some extra water, because, at this point, we knew He would answer our prayers somehow. As we contemplated pumping out lake water into whatever water containers we could scrounge up, we were blessed with another answered prayer. A few families were fishing at the lake, and we heard one guy yell to some people in a boat that he was going to run out and grab some water to bring back.
We knew it was our chance, so I walked up, explained our situation, and asked the gentleman if he was planning on going into town, and, if so, whether he’d mind grabbing a couple of extra gallons of water for us. He mentioned he had just been planning to go to his campsite nearby for the water, but wouldn’t mind going into town for us anyway. Very thankful for his offer, I gave him $10 and said just two gallons would be great, and if he could snag a few extra Gatorades if there was money left over, we wouldn’t complain. I also remembered to introduce myself and he said his name was Carl.
Carl came back with a load of supplies. He brought us 4 gallons of water, 4 Gatorades, and then handed back our $10 and said he was happy to help. Talk about a blessing (and an answered prayer). We thanked Carl and then went back to wait out the afternoon heat.
As the afternoon came to a close, we noticed that the clouds looked sort of terrifying. We’d learned that it was “monsoon season,” which means that, in this area of the country, storm clouds form quickly in the evenings and rain will suddenly come out of nowhere, sometimes for 10 minutes, sometimes for an hour or more. We decided that, rather than fight the rain again, we’d set up camp and avoid getting soaked.
It was great until about midnight, when a group of (we’re assuming) high schoolers drove out to the lake and started shooting off fireworks like crazy. That was a pretty rude awakening. We eventually fell back asleep, but it was certainly a surprise.
Anyway, other than one other afternoon of rain at a rest area (where we hid in our waterproof bivy sacks until the rain stopped), the rest of our trip to Baker was relatively uneventful. Once we arrived in Baker, we randomly and unexpectedly found wi-fi at the Silver Jack Inn and Lectrolux Cafe, which was an AWESOME place run by very cool, fun, friendly people. Even though we didn’t have cell reception, it was a blessing to be able to email our parents, send some tweets, respond to some emails, and do some other internetty things. If you’re ever in Baker, Nevada, for whatever reason, be sure to hit up the Silver Jack Inn and Lectrolux Cafe. You won’t regret it.
After that, we moved on from Baker and crossed into Utah, which was cause for celebration. We could now say we’d conquered two states, one of them being the menacing desert stretch we had been told would be “just about impossible during the summer.”
Since then, we’ve been plowing through Utah at a pretty good pace. We’ll have more to post soon as far as a location update (once we’re a little further down the road), but we’re excited to have wi-fi again and have the ability to post this.
On a different note, we have had more and more people share prayer requests with us and we are SO thankful people are willing to do that. We really do love praying for people out here and it has helped us grow ourselves in many ways too, so if you have prayer requests, please don’t be afraid to share them, either by connecting with us on Facebook, emailing StormingJericho@gmail.com, or by any other way you want to send us a prayer request. We have been so blessed with prayers and encouragement on this trip, and we’re honored to be able to pray for others as well.
Thanks for your support, and for the kind words on our recent posts and updates. We look forward to sharing more news (and possibly posting more frequently now that we should have hopefully internet access a little more consistently) as we continue on across Utah.
Back with more soon. Until then, keep on Stormin’, everyone!
(That’s just a cheesy tagline/closing line option that I’m giving a test run, much to Lindsie’s dismay. We’ll see if it catches on.)
-Mike and Lindsie
