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The Importance Of Friends

Posted
May 16, 2013
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Thumbs Up From LindsAs most of you know, Lindsie and I started walking across the country in order to learn to teach ourselves to rely on God and his provision, while also sharing the Word with people we met.

One of the things we hadn’t totally expected was to make friends. That may sound weird, because it makes sense we’d meet people we like along a cross-country walk. But what I mean is that I’m not sure either of us thought we’d meet people who would become lifelong friends.

As you can imagine, we were wrong.

You may remember from our last post that we spent a few days and nights in Gunnison, Colorado. You can read about it here if you haven’t read it yet – http://stormingjericho.com/on-the-road-again. Well what we haven’t told you is that we sort of haven’t left Gunnison yet.

You’re probably thinking, “How in the world will you make it across the country if you’re spending forever in just one town?” Here’s how…

Games with friendsFriends.

The wonderful people we’ve met in Gunnison (Rich and Joy, Adam and Hannah, Rich and Shelba, Dave and Melissa, and others) have gone above and beyond to help us stay safe, warm, and dry during this stretch of our journey. Every day that we’ve walked so far, they’ve driven out and picked us up at night so we wouldn’t have to spend the night in the frigid Gunnison weather. In fact, Rich and Joy lent us their hiking backpack, so we didn’t even need to push the carts through the mountains. We just packed a few items, started walking, and at the end of the day they came and picked us up and let us spend the night in their guest bedroom. The next morning, they’d drop us off where we last left off, and we’d make more progress from there.

Crazy, right? But crazy in a good way. Because the entire past week in Gunnison was rainy and thunderstormy, and most nights got to right around 32 degrees at their coldest. And we were mostly walking uphill. It would’ve been pretty miserable, actually.

Instead, as a result of our friends’ generosity, Lindsie and I have been able to spend the past week and a half enjoying great conversations, sharing amazing Christian fellowship, and just being renewed and invigorated before heading on down the road. All because our new friends have been kind enough to go out of their way to make our lives better.

Monarch Pass panaroma - Quite a view!

All of this friendliness culminated in our conquering of Monarch Pass earlier this week. An 11,322-foot summit, Monarch Pass was sort of the final BIG hurdle we’ll face on this Storming Jericho journey. But, thanks to our friends, we were able to climb the entire mountain without our carts because Adam and Hannah offered to drive the carts themselves over Monarch for us the next day. All we had to do was climb. And although it wasn’t an easy climb, we overcame the challenge. In fact, Rich Kettles climbed the whole thing with us, and Joy, Adam, and Hannah came and walked various portions of it with us as well. All in all, it was a pretty awesome way to conquer the monster that had been looming in the distance for weeks.

Conquering Monarch!Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us, “Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.”

And 1 Peter 4:8-9 says, “Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.”

Needless to say, our friends have done all of those things and more. It’s really crazy how much they’ve done to make this stretch of our journey a great stretch. The problem, of course, is saying goodbye, but we’re confident the Lord will bring our Gunnison friends back into our lives at some point sooner than later. We’ve grown too close to our friends here for it not to happen.

We just wanted to let everyone know how great God can be when you just come to him in prayer. We prayed for help in Gunnison before we even reached town, and God provided an abundance of help in the form of new friends and renewed passion. You can’t ask for much more than that in our opinion.

The GangWe’re thankful beyond words, and we’re excited for the next stretch of the walk. We’ll be continuing along Highway 50 for now, so if you know people (friends, family members, etc.) in the upcoming towns who would be willing to become our new friends, feel free to pass along their names and/or info. We promise we won’t ask them to do as much as our Gunnison friends have done for us.

Thanks, and we’ll be back with more updates soon!

-Mike and Lindsie

P.S. – Speaking of friends, we wanted to share this update from our fellow walking friend, Gary Mitchell. We posted about Gary a few weeks ago, and wanted to share the update he sent us. Here it goes…

From Gary:

I have some good news. After spending 24 days in rehab I’m now able to use a walker. I made it home on Mother’s Day. I will begin in home therapy three days a week for about six to eight weeks. When I was is in rehab, I was bedfast for about a week. They had church services where I was and I talked to the pastor and he asked me if would give my testimony. I said yes, because God has helped me through my health situation. I give God my full recovery up to this point. I give you permission to post this on your web site. I want to thank you and all your readers for your prayers and support.God bless and be safe.

Fellow walker,
Gary Mitchell

 

P.P.S. – Here’s a bonus photo of us looking exhausted atop Monarch Pass. Just wanted to add it in for fun. Pretty beautiful up there.

An exhausting (but fun) climb

On The Road Again

Posted
May 7, 2013
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On The Trail
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Wonderful Uncle Charlie!Well, after pausing our walk for a few months in winter and waiting for spring in Sioux Falls, the Storming Jericho team of Mike, Lindsie, and our ferocious guard dog Jaeda, has hit the road again. Thanks to Lindsie’s Uncle Charlie, we got a ride back to the exact same place we’d left off originally in Colorado and were able to begin trekking along just like the good ol’ days.

Although it’s still chilly up in the Rocky Mountains, we’ve been thankful that the weather has at least been bearable. Although we tent camped on the side of the road for a few days, the weather didn’t present anything too challenging. Other than the wind. The wind has been crazy, to the extent that one night I feared our tent would blow away (with us inside of it) and we’d wake up hours later in the land of Oz with Munchkins singing songs outside of our tent.

The beautiful Blue Mesa Reservoir LakeFortunately, we survived the wind, only to wake up the next morning to gigantic, South Dakota-esque snowflakes falling all around us. On a cross-country walk, few things are as disappointing as the idea of traveling down the highway in a grey, blustery, snowy day, and I (Mike) was really dreading telling Lindsie that we’d be walking in a winter wonderland. But, like He always does, the Lord took care of us and within 30 minutes the snow was gone, the sun was out, and we were ready to push onward.

At this point, we were on day 4 of walking without a shower. When you spend 3-5 hours a day being physically active and NOT showering, you really, REALLY start to stink. We had finally reached a National Forest Campground, but none of the running water had been turned on yet (thanks to the nights still getting cold enough to freeze pipes and whatnot). So our plans for cleaning up were thwarted, and we were really hoping we’d get somewhere that had a way for us to clean ourselves.

Mesa RV Resort staff (with Mike)After making a solid 12-mile push toward Gunnison, Colorado (the first real city on our route), we made it to the Mesa RV Resort just a few miles west of Gunnison. The wonderful owners and staff members there went above and beyond to make sure Lindsie, Jaeda, and I were taken care of in every sense of the word, and for that we are extremely thankful. On a side note, we highly recommend spending the night there if you’re ever in or near Gunnison. It’s worth a night’s stay, to say the least.

The next morning, we headed toward Gunnison, which was only 4 miles away from the town. Thanks to the folks at First Baptist Church in Gunnison, we knew we had a place to safely spend the night out of the wind and cold, which was a wonderful incentive to get into town quickly. On the way, however, God decided to work His magic as He always manages to do on this journey.

About ten minutes after setting down the road to Gunnison, we came across a gentleman who was painting a fence. After unweaving himself from the fence posts, he came over to chat. After introducing himself as Adam McKee and asking us about our reasons for walking across the country (teaching ourselves to trust and rely on God and His provision), Adam told us that just hearing the purpose of our walk was a fantastic reminder to him about where his focus should be. He invited us to attend Christian Challenge at the university in town (Western State) that night, and offered to pick us up and bring us when it was time to go. Since fellowship can sometimes be hard to find on the road, we were excited at the opportunity to spend some time with fellow Christians. Needless to say, we were not disappointed.

Our new friends in Gunnison (left to right: Rich, Joy, Rachel, Mike, Hannah, Adam, Rich, and Shelba)We went back to the church to spend the night, ready for our first night of indoor sleep since resuming the walk. There was only one problem—Lindsie had a cold that had developed from slight cough to full-fledged stuffy-nosed, congested throat misery. Walking across the country isn’t easy. Walking across the country with a cold is hard. Walking through the Rocky Mountains with a cold is just awful. So when Adam and his wife Hannah invited us to stay at their place the following night, we decided it was an offer we couldn’t pass up. Any chance to get Lindsie healthier was worth it for us. Plus, we really liked Adam and Hannah, as well as a few of their friends we’d met at Christian Challenge that night.

The next day in Gunnison was a treat. We hung out with Adam and Hannah, and also got to go to a game night with a bunch of really great people. It was there that we met Rich and Joy Kettles, who, like Adam and Hannah, invited us to stick around until Lindsie was healthy (or at least healthier). Because Lindsie still sounded like a honking goose when she coughed, we decided to accept the offer. We spent a couple of great days with Rich and Joy, Adam and Hannah, and also spent some quality time with Rich and Shelba Townsend, who do ministry work in Gunnison. And, thanks to the timing, we got to attend church and Sunday school with Rich and Joy, which was an added blessing. Lindsie also got to attend a bridal shower for a lovely young lady named Heather, which was both random and fun for her. It’s funny to see what activities you get involved in when you make new friends during a cross-country walk.

Yay for wedding showers!

All in all, after 4 nights in Gunnison, it is, unfortunately, time for us to move on. Although Lindsie’s not quite 100%, we’re going to have to make some progress down the road or this journey will never end.

We want to thank all of the people in Gunnison who went out of their way to take care of us. It’s one thing to have a place to stay for a night or two. It’s another thing to be surrounded by fellow believers and people who truly just want to lift us up in prayer and see us succeed in our journey. It was a great chance for both me and Lindsie to get refilled spiritually, and we are extremely thankful for that opportunity.

The crazy thing is that, right before we started walking the morning we first met Adam, Lindsie and I prayed that God would put some people in our path who would make us feel welcome and that we could spend some time with on a spiritual level. We certainly didn’t expect God to put an entire GROUP of fellow Christians in our path, but He certainly seems to enjoy blowing our expectations out of the water on a regular basis. God’s pretty cool that way.

Anyway, we’ll soon be heading on down the road from here—the 11,500-foot Monarch Pass looming in the distance. Although we’re not thrilled about the challenge it will present, we have faith that God will make our climb as doable as we could hope for. It’s possible that with some good timing and some willing help, we can get our 100-pound carts up to the top before we make the climb ourselves, which would be fantastic. Either way, we know the Lord will take care of us.

Thanks so much for your prayers, and we’ll have another update as soon as possible. For now, we just ask that you pray for sunny days and warm nights as we finish our journey through the Rockies. And as always, please don’t hesitate to let us know if we can pray for you. We have all the time in the world to do it, and we’re always thankful when we have an opportunity to pray for others.

We hope you have a blessed day (or night, depending on when you’re reading this), and we’ll be back with more soon.

-Mike and Lindsie

Prayers For A Friend

Posted
April 21, 2013
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On The Trail
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We’ve been blessed along this journey of ours to have TONS of friends and family actively praying for us as we travel. Whether it’s prayers for our safety, prayers that the Lord will strengthen our willpower, or prayers that we’ll grow closer with the Lord every day, we’ve been blessed beyond words.

One of our most consistent friends and supporters on this journey is a gentleman named Gary Mitchell. Gary walks for cancer research out in West Virginia, and, unfortunately, very recently had an accident while walking. Gary broke his leg and had to have a pin and plate put in to help with the recovery. He’s now going through rehab. Although he should recover, it’s not going to be any easy process, to say the least.

We just wanted to ask for your prayers for Gary, as he’s someone who has been a fervent supporter and follower of our journey. We figure it’s the least we can do to send a few extra prayers his way while he recovers.

Thanks for the prayers, and we will be back with more info on our own journey soon. We’re only a few days away from heading back out to resume our walk. We’re both excited and nervous, so feel free to send words of encouragement if you have time. Every bit helps.

Thanks again, and we hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

-Mike and Lindsie

Lights In The Darkness

Posted
April 19, 2013
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Candle In The Dark by Don McCulloughHey everybody. We’re still waiting for weather to warm up, but we’ve at least made it part of the way out west. We’re staying with Lindsie’s wonderful Uncle Charlie (who came and rescued us in Colorado when winter hit back in November) in Wyoming until the snow and below-freezing nights go away for good.

While we wait, I wanted to share something I read recently in a book called Dreaming With God by Bill Johnson. Dreaming With God was recommended to me by my brilliant friend and business partner Jared Soundy. The book itself is about unleashing the God-given creativity within us to impact our world in a positive way for Christ’s Kingdom. The book is FULL of fantastic points, insights, and thought-provoking ideas, and I wanted to share at least one of them here.

In the chapter “Invading Babylon,” Pastor Johnson talks about how, in the midst of the darkness that surrounds us here on Earth, it seems like the only solution is to give up, run away from it all, and wait for the Rapture (which, according to many people, has to be coming soon based on the state of the world right now).

But according to him, that’s not the path we should take. And I tend to agree. Here’s what he says about our role as Christians in society.

“…anywhere we do not invade becomes darker in our absence. We are the ‘light of the world’ (Matt. 5:14). The realms of society that we fail to invade are hopelessly lost to darkness. Invasion is the responsibility of light.”

Week by week, it seems this world is falling into a state of ruin. This week alone we’ve witnessed the Boston Marathon bombing and a shootout and manhunt on MIT’s campus, both of which have left people dead. And it’s SO easy to think, This snowball is already picking up too much downhill steam and growing too big—there’s no way to keep society from falling apart now.

But, as Pastor Johnson points out, it’s not just possible to prevent that decay—it’s our RESPONSIBILITY. He later writes, “In crisis, people will always turn to those who are stable. Integrity will be a beacon of light to those wandering through this land of disappointment and shame.”

With God behind us, we have all of the strength and stability we need to be a light for others. As Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 1:7-8, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord.”

This world needs beacons of light to invade that darkness. Matthew 5:14 tells us, “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.”

WE are that light. So in the face of the darkness we confront on Earth, let’s shine as brightly as we can for the Lord. I don’t want to leave my future children and grandchildren to inherit a planet that has forever fallen into darkness. It’s our job to be warriors for Christ, not just semi-believers who have read His Word but don’t truly believe in the authority God has given us.

Let’s use that authority to start confronting the darkness in this world. The brighter we shine, the less power darkness has against us. Light will always overcome darkness under any circumstances. It’s our job to shine radiantly for Christ.

-Mike and Lindsie

Photo by Don McCullough

Hit The Road, Jack!

Posted
April 6, 2013
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On The Trail
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Hey friends!

We’ll keep this post short and sweet, but we wanted to announce that we’ll be resuming our cross-country walk and hitting the road again next weekend, April 13-14. Due to transportation availability and a few other factors, this is pretty short notice for everyone (including us), but we’re extremely eager to be getting back on the road soon.

We’re sad to be leaving Sioux Falls again, but we appreciate the friendships we were able to rekindle while we were here. We also appreciate everything people—particularly our parents—have done for us since we’ve been back. And most of all, we appreciate the prayers of support and words of encouragement that our friends and family have offered over the past several months.

We’ll have more regular updates coming soon now that we’re hitting the road again. Needless to say, we are excited. Thanks for sticking around after our four-month hiatus, and feel free to keep the prayers coming. They’re always welcome in our book.

-Mike and Linds (and Jaeda)

 

Just A Quick Update

Posted
February 26, 2013
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On The Trail
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Walkin' AlongJust wanted to check in and let you guys know what we’re up to.

First, an important bit of information: We ARE fully intending to hit the road again in a few short weeks. Although we’ve enjoyed our time with family and friends back home, we’re itching to get back on the road and pick up where we left off (literally…like in the exact same place we left off before in Colorado).

It’s weird because we’re also nervous about getting back out there and starting again. Those same concerns that made it hard to get out on the road the first time are nagging at us (mainly me, Mike), but we know that God was with us then and He’ll be with us again when we start walking in a few weeks.

We just hope you haven’t gotten tired of waiting for us to get back out on the road. Your prayers and encouragement are a HUGE part of what has made this journey so successful thus far, and we’re thankful to have such incredible friends and family supporting us in this adventure.

We’ll have another update soon. In the meantime, we’re going to continue preparing (both mentally and physically) for our return to the road. We’re already getting routes prepared and supplies pulled together, so the Lord is clearly re-lighting that fire in our hearts. We look forward to sharing more with you as more develops.

I wanted to leave you guys with a verse to consider, and I found one that couldn’t be more fitting for what’s happening in our lives. Hopefully it hits you the same way it hit us.

Ephesians 4:1 (New King James) – “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.”

Or, as it says in The Message version of the Bible: “I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you travel.”

We may not be running out on that road, but we certainly plan to walk it, and we’re excited to have a chance to do it again in a few weeks! Thanks for sticking around during this rest time. We hope you’ll enjoy following along when we do resume the walk again.

-Mike and Linds (and Jaeda)

 

Checking In From Our Hiatus

Posted
December 19, 2012
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On The Trail
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Us, in the mountainsWell, after a few weeks of getting situated back in South Dakota and getting our lives in order, we’re back with an update! While things aren’t quite as exciting these days as they are when we’re out on the road, we’re incredibly thankful to be back with our families for the holidays (and the rest of winter as well).

The transition from walking down the road every day and camping on the side of the road at night to “normal life” has been an interesting one, to say the least. On the one hand, it’s wonderful having a real bed to sleep in every night. On the other hand, many of the challenges that were forcing us to rely so heavily on God have been made much easier to handle ourselves by living in the “regular” world. For starters, we can drive wherever we need to go these days. And we’re not exactly wondering if we’ll find a safe place to sleep at night or have enough food/water to make it through the day.

What this has taught us is that, while it’s easier to rely on ourselves instead of Christ, it’s up to us to continue making Christ the focus in our daily walk. For me (Mike), this has meant surrounding myself with Christians who will continue to push and challenge me in the right ways. One benefit of being in a city like Sioux Falls is that it’s much easier to get involved with Bible studies led by uplifting Christian friends than when it was just the Storming Jericho crew (i.e. – me, Lindsie and Jaeda) on the road. And having gone so long without being involved in a traditional Bible study, it has been fantastic to see how that daily challenge of studying the Word and developing a better understanding of God’s will have improved me spiritually.

I know Lindsie has also enjoyed the opportunity to escape from the world and find her personal quiet time with the Lord. She’s a little bit more of an introvert than me, which means she enjoys her alone time. Unfortunately, there’s not a ton of true “alone time” to be had when you’re with your husband 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And while I’m sure Lindsie loves me dearly, she also loves being able to spend time one-on-one with the Father, and we’re both thankful she has more of an opportunity to do that these days.

Now that we’re in the groove of things, we plan to update much more frequently than we have the past couple of weeks. For now, we just wanted to share a little bit of what’s going on in our worlds and let you guys know that we’re still fired up about this cross-country journey and we’re looking forward to continuing it as soon as winter is over.

On a final note, we’ll be speaking with the youth group from Lindsie’s church in Watertown, SD, tonight, so please pray that God gives us the right words to speak and the right thoughts to share with the youth. It’s such an honor to even be asked to share our journey with a group like that, and we want to be sure we make an impact for the Lord. As mentioned, your prayers are welcome.

Thanks again for the support, even during our hiatus, and we’ll be back with more soon.

-Mike and Lindsie (and Jaeda)

Thanksgiving Blessings

Posted
November 24, 2012
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On The Trail
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Hey everyone,

We know it’s a little late, but we wanted to send out a late Thanksgiving post anyway (because it’s really never too late to give thanks, right?).

We want to start by thanking all of you–our friends, blog readers, and Facebook followers who have supported us every step of the way on this adventure. We have been overwhelmed (in every sense of the word) by everyone who has left comments on our blog, posted encouraging words on Facebook, or sent us messages of love and encouragement directly. When we started this walk, we knew we’d be doing something crazy, but we had no idea it would inspire so much kindness and support from people (some of whom we’ve never even met) all over the country. Every day we get comments and words that encourage us to keep making progress, no matter what adversity we’re facing, and we hope and pray that encouragement will continue as we pick back up in March.

While we’re thanking friends, we should also take some time to thank all of the incredible Road Angels who have helped us out along the path. Whether it was providing a place to sleep, a place to shower, or just offering some company on the road, we can’t put into words how much we appreciate the help we’ve received along the way. We’re also thankful that we’ll meet more Road Angels when we pick back up again in March. All in all, it has been and will continue to be amazing as we meet more and more people along the way.

We also want to thank our families, for being supportive in more ways than we can count. Whether it’s our parents encouraging us in the ways only parents can, our aunts and uncles for going out of their way to support our adventure, or our siblings for keeping us close even when we were thousands of miles away. Even though it’s their job to love us as family, our families have done more for us than we could’ve ever imagined when we started out on this walk. We are so, so thankful for that support and unconditional love.

Finally (and most importantly), we want to thank our Father in Heaven for always, ALWAYS keeping us safe and provided for on the road. We knew this journey wouldn’t be easy, and the whole reason we started walking was to learn to rely on God. Well, we’ve definitely had to rely on God since we started and He has never once let us down in any way, shape, or form. We’ve seen and experienced miracles on this adventure we would’ve never imagined, and we’re only about 1/3 of the way through. We can’t wait to see what else God does for us when we start back up again (as well as what He’ll do for us during our short winter break). We have been blessed beyond measure and we are thankful for the love of Christ, the sacrifice He made for our sins, and the unconditional love He shows us every single day.

All in all, we’re thankful, whether it’s after Thanksgiving or not. Thanks to everyone reading, and we hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving as well. Feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you’re thankful for. We’d love to hear about it.

We’ll be back with more soon!

-Mike, Lindsie, and Jaeda

Photo by Sharon Mollerus. Thanks Sharon!

Making Some Tough Decisions

Posted
November 18, 2012
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On The Trail
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Hey friends and family,

After a few weeks of very careful and prayer-filled deliberation, Lindsie and I have made a decision.

Since the beginning, our plan was to walk across the country throughout most of the winter (minus a month-long break in December when we’d return to stay with family in South Dakota). We purchased/gathered extra winter gear as the weather got colder, and we knew we were planning to just grit it out and continue the journey, rain or shine (or snow).

Unfortunately, after getting snowed on last week and trying to walk the next few days as the temperature continued to drop, we realized something really, really important: we had lost the joy of this journey.

Even though we were physically capable of walking through the snowy, increasingly-cold Colorado mountains, we discovered that neither one of us seemed to be enjoying it as much as we were before. There’s something about waking up inside a snow and ice-covered tent and knowing you’ll be walking 15+ miles in 18 degree weather that just isn’t as fun/adventurous/exhilarating.

The point of this walk isn’t to just “get” across the country. It’s to do it in a way that strengthens our relationship with God, connects us with people along the road we can share our (and God’s) story with, and making memories that will last for the rest of our lives.

Beyond that, Linds and I have spent the past few weeks and months really focusing on learning how to discern God’s will. While we’re certainly not experts (and maybe never will be), this was a wonderful experience for us to strengthen and grow in that sense. Although we didn’t realize it initially, we both were beginning to feel like God was encouraging us to make a decision that we hadn’t once felt called to make on this entire journey until very recently.

As a result of all this, we’ve decided to temporarily (note: temporarily) postpone our journey until spring rolls around. We fully intend to pick back up exactly where we left off once the weather’s a little warmer and we can continue walking without the risk of losing our extremities to frostbite or waking up on the side of the road as cross-country popsicles.

We’ll spend the next few months in South Dakota (which, really, only adds about 2 extra months of resting in SD, since we were going back for all of December in the first place), and we look forward to reconnecting with our friends and family in SD once we’re back.

To be clear, we will continue posting on the blog throughout the next few months. Many of the posts will be more of the “spiritual insights” and cool/inspiring things we’ve come across rather than updates on our progress, but we hope you’ll continue following along with the blog and our updates anyway. We’ve really enjoyed connecting with so many people through the blog and Facebook and would hate to see that slip away while we waited to restart our journey.

Thanks to everyone who has been so helpful and encouraging as we’ve walked up to this point. One of the main reasons we’ve made it this far is because we’re so motivated by the conversations and comments we’ve shared with you all on and offline. We can’t wait to fire that back up in the spring and start Storming Jericho again when the time is right.

Our only request is that, during this break, you continue encouraging us as you have encouraged us so much already. We’ll still need your help over these next few months to keep us focused on our goal and, more importantly, focused on the Lord and what He wants for us as we go. That encouragement will help keep us fired up to hit the road again when March rolls around.

Thanks so much, everyone, and we hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving if we don’t get another post up before then!

-Mike and Lindsie (and Jaeda)

P.S. – 1) HUGE thanks to our friend Cheryl (from our stop in Ridgway http://stormingjericho.com/showing-true-grit-to-reach-ridgway-co/) and Kellie from Ridgway Community Church for rescuing us from a random stretch of Highway 50 and bringing us back to civilization so we could figure all of this out. 2) EXTRA HUGE thanks to Lindsie’s uncle, Charlie Page, for driving 8 hours down from Casper, Wyoming, to pick us up in Montrose, Colorado, and bring us back to Casper so we could drive home to South Dakota from Casper using his extra car. All kinds of generosity, to say the least.

P.P.S. – All of these gorgeous pictures were taken by my beautiful wife. She’s awesome.

Walkin’ In A Winter Wonderland

Posted
November 15, 2012
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On The Trail
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Well, we finally got snowed on. After pushing our luck for weeks and weeks as we continued across Colorado, the snow finally fell. While we’d definitely prefer to be warm and dry at all times, we knew winter had to happen eventually, so we’re making the best of it as we go.

Thankfully, we do have a set of incredibly warm sleeping bags and some decent 4-season camping equipment, so that should definitely help keep away the cold, at least while we’re sleeping. Plus, we’ll be getting picked up and brought home to South Dakota for the month of December, so even though it’ll be cold there, we’ll at least be indoors a majority of the time.

Anyway, onto our recent progress. After leaving Ridgway (which was a delight), we made our way toward Montrose, Colorado. We’d actually been in Montrose before, during our unexpected return trip to South Dakota a few weeks ago, but we got to see a different part of the city which ended up being pretty nice.

Anyway, right before we got to Montrose, our friend Lonni (who continues going out of her way to make our lives better) and her friend Thomas told us they’d reserved us a room for two nights at the Country Lodge, a really nice place that was perfectly situated along the road we’d need to take out of town.

The Country Lodge was wonderful, and the people who run it were incredibly kind and helpful. In fact, because we had some things we needed to figure out and do, we stayed an extra day and Jeff, one of the owners/managers, offered to let us stay for an extra night. Needless to say, we felt blessed.

After tearing ourselves away from the Country Lodge, we finally started walking down the road toward Gunnison, our next reasonably-sized town on the route. Gunnison, we’ve been told, is the coldest city in Colorado, so we’re hoping one of the churches in town invites us in for the night rather than making us camp.

Anyway, on the way out of Montrose, we did some tent camping again. It was getting chilly (and we felt pretty bummed after having such a nice place for several nights), but we survived safe and sound. The only problem was that the wind was horrendous, and Lindsie and I both woke up around 3 am and never fell back asleep because our tent was flapping and bending like a cartoon.

The next morning, neither one of us felt particularly great. We noticed that we were near a big, semi-empty building that looked like a rarely-used Department of Transportation building. We didn’t see any signs saying “Do Not Enter” or “Employees Only,” and it had a GIGANTIC garage door that was wide open.

So we decided to camp in there for the night. It was great because we were able to stay out of the wind and we were much, much warmer than we’d been the night before. Plus, as a bonus, there was a functioning electrical outlet, so we were able to charge all of our electronic stuff all night long.

The next morning, some Department of Transportation folks pulled in, but they weren’t too mad at us. They just told us we had to head out because they were going to be using the building all day, which worked out perfectly because we were already packing up.

We said goodbye to our helpful empty building/garage thing and continued on down Highway 50. As we walked, we got rained on a little bit, but not enough to stop walking. Eventually the sun came back out and we ended up reaching our goal for the evening, which was Cimarron, a not-really-town that had a convenience store, a gas station, and a campground. We camped out for the night at the campground, and I (Mike) woke up around 3 am to the sound of rain falling on our tent.

At least, I thought it was rain.

It was actually snow. So for the first time during our journey, as I mentioned in the beginning of the post, we got snowed on. It was a pretty bleary scene when I crawled out of our tent. Completely gray sky, snow still falling around us, and because it had started as rain, most of our stuff was covered in ice as well. This wasn’t a winter wonderland type of snow. It was much less pleasant than that.

As we contemplated our next steps, we came across a park ranger who was checking the campground. He told us it was supposed to get really cold the coming night, and then should warm up for at least a few days after that. We realized that being stuck outside again might not be our best bet, so we packed up (wet and icy though it was) and started walking down the road again. There was a campground and lodge about 4 miles down the road from us, and we were hoping to make it there before it got dark again.

Thankfully, the sun decided to come out right before we started walking, which melted some of the snow, and, more importantly, melted some of the day’s dreariness away. Suddenly it felt like there was hope in the world yet again. After just a little bit of time walking, we reached the campground and they had one available cabin left for us to rent (thank you, Jesus, for providing once again). Although the price tag was higher than we’d prefer, we decided that having a warm, comfortable room for the night was a little more important this time around.

After we woke up, we decided to try to start walking down the road again. Unfortunately, the weather was the coldest it had been so far (18 degrees with the sun out and shining brightly), but we set out bundled up and trying to stay as warm as possible. This effort led to us making a tough decision, which we’re going to post about in our next post.

Talk about a cliffhanger, right?

Anyway, thanks so much for the continued encouragement and support. We just feel so blessed that people keep commenting on the blog, leaving messages on Facebook, and just generally being supportive as we walk. We’ll have an update on what’s next in our future very soon.

-Mike and Lindsie (and Jaeda)

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