Sponsors and Supporters

• Jessica Henry in San Francisco, CA, for letting us stay at her place for a night in what would’ve been an expensive place to pay for a hotel.
• Thomas Francis in Berkeley, CA, for letting us stay two nights at his place in Berkeley, providing us with delicious food for the night, and filling Lindsie in on lots of family stories and info she’d never heard before.
• Sharon Stone in Vallejo, CA, for being a friendly face in rough time (and for providing us with an abundance of water along our way).
• Ricardo Villareal in Vacaville, CA, for praying with us, sharing the Word, buying us dinner and breakfast, and providing us with a place to shower after a long day of walking.
• Bensie Cheney in Davis, CA, for helping us get set up for the night in her church and for providing us with Panda Express for dinner (the first Chinese food Lindsie has ever liked) and bagels in the morning.
• Nancy and Deanna Strohm in Davis, CA, AND Cold Springs Station, NV. Nancy is Lindsie’s mom’s cousin and Deanna is Nancy’s daughter. Not only did those two go out of their way to come see us (and then buy us dinner and let us bum a night in their hotel room in Davis), but they went out of their way to come see us AGAIN during part of our Nevada stretch, where they once again bought us dinner, paid for our campsite for the night, and, most importantly, went out and did water drops for us the next day so we wouldn’t have to push as much water in our carts.
• Terry and Jackie McNeil in Folsom, CA, for opening their home to us so willingly and going out of their way to provide whatever they can for us while we’re still in their area (even though they’d never met us until we showed up at their door).
• Ida Mae in Diamond Springs, CA, for giving us a delicious meal, showers, and a warm bed to sleep in (even though we’d never met her before showing up at her door either).
• John and Pam Blank in Pollock Pines, CA, for letting us stay in their stunning home (designed by John Himself, even though he’s not actually an architect by trade), sharing Pam’s beautiful paintings with us, and letting us shower and then sleep in a very comfy guest bed before serving us breakfast in the morning (and more).
• Mike and Patti O’Brien in Kyburz, CA, for, in a moment of desperation for Mike and Lindsie, pulling over to ask if we needed help, then driving our carts on up ahead of us to the KOA so we wouldn’t have to push them up the steepest part of our journey through the Sierras. We’ll be writing a blog post with more details on that shortly…
• Nate Damm near Kyburz, CA, for stopping by the side of the road as we walked along and chatting with us, providing info and advice, and offering us a refreshing gallon of water before continuing on his own journey. If you don’t know who Nate is, he walked across the country himself a few months ago. Check out his website or his Facebook page. He’s sort of a mentor for us as we make our own cross-country journey.
• Steve and Cynthea Preston in South Lake Tahoe, CA, for letting us camp out in their yard (they would’ve offered beds, but have family in town using all of them…which makes the fact that they’re letting us hang around even cooler), giving us dinner, letting us watch 4th of July fireworks on their boat, and for going out of their way to help us.

Nevada

• Rob and Jenny Scanland in Carson City, NV, for letting us stay with them for a few days and providing us dinner. Also, Jenny contacted forest rangers across the state to make sure they knew to take care of us if we needed anything, which was a huge blessing as well.
• Brennen and Stephanie Behimer in Fallon, NV, for letting us stay with them for a night, providing us with a delicious meal, and letting us enjoy the company of their wonderful family, which includes them and their kids Brianna, Megan, Sophia, and Gabriel. We also got to visit their church the next morning and hear Brennen preach about husbands being good to their wives. Lindsie enjoyed the sermon quite a bit (as did Mike).
• Brett and Tree Jones in Fallon, NV, for letting us stay with them when we decided to stick around Fallon for an extra night. Beyond some great food and great conversation, we got to spend time with their 14-month-old daughter, Avery as well, which was great.
• Jeff Martin between Cold Springs Station and Austin, NV, for dropping us off a cooler full of Gatorade, ice water, PayDay bars and ice, and for encouraging us in general.
• Mike Green between Cold Springs Station and Austin, NV, for giving us tons of water both on his way out to a weekend outdoors trip and on his way back home from said trip. We met Mike at the Behimers’ church in Fallon, NV, so it was fun to run into him again out on the road.
• Rich DeBraga between Cold Springs Station and Austin, NV, for stopping to give us water and Arizona iced tea on two separate occasions during that stretch.
• Rich and RaeAnn Smith (and their daughters Anastasia and Chloe) in Eureka, NV, for being an amazing blessing in a time of need. You can read about our experience with the Smiths here.
• Arron and Vicky Moon (and their kids Arron Jr., Jocelyn, Julianna, and Jenavieve) in Eureka, NV, for going out of their way to provide us with a comfortable place to stay for a few nights, letting us use their internet, and letting Mike drink tons of their coffee (amongst other things). You can read more about our experience with the Moons in this post.
• Ken and Ruth Walter outside of Ely, NV, for stopping to see what we were doing and then blessing us with handfuls of tasty granola bars, a book about Christianity, and other great stuff.
• Carl outside of Ely, NV, for buying us waters and Gatorades (and then returning our money) so we wouldn’t have to walk 5+ miles back into town ourselves.

Utah

• John Gergen outside of Minersville, UT, and Beaver, UT, for bringing us pizza one night, taking us out for dinner the next night, sharing an incredible story/testimony with us both nights, and rescuing us from near-disaster (which you can read about here) just to add the cherry on top.
• Michelle (from the Minersville post office) in Minersville, UT, for dropping us off some delicious homemade bread, fresh-cooked corn on the cob, and fresh-picked vegetables.
• Ryan and Malissa Anderson in Beaver, UT, for driving out into a disastrous dirt/rock road to rescue us in our broken carts, then driving us back to Beaver, then giving us a WAY better route to take to our next town. Also, you can read about our rescue here.
• Andy from Camperland in Beaver, UT, for letting us stay a night for free after our disastrous first attempt to leave Beaver, and for being helpful however he could when we had issues.
• Karen Karbach and family for being a HUGE blessing to us when we needed it pretty badly. You can check out all of the details in this post.
• John and Yvonne Lyrenmann in the Fruita, Utah, area for letting us share their tent site (for free) when the entire campground was full, then leaving us a treat in the morning with a bag full of goodies before we said farewell.
• Kim and Cephilia in Hite, UT, for providing us with a shower during our 126-mile stretch in Utah (and consequently helping us to avoid going 11+ days without a shower).
• Tracy from First Baptist Church in Monticello, UT, for providing us with excellent spiritual conversation and driving us to see some gorgeous scenery in Utah.
• Edwin and Karen Taylor in Monticello, UT, for letting us stay at their house for three nights, taking us out on their four-wheelers, providing some delicious meals, and really giving us spiritual fulfillment when we needed it heading out on our next stretch of road.

Colorado

• Pam in Egnar, CO, for letting us fill up with fresh water and offering to help us if we need anything while we’re in Colorado.
• Lonni Spor in Dry Creek Basin, CO, for going wayyyy above and beyond in helping us out. Besides letting us stay in one of her hunting cabins at her store (the S Slash Bar Store, in case you’re wondering), Lonni helped us figure out all kinds of chaos as we tried to make our way back to South Dakota for the funeral of Lindsie’s close friend, Sara Javers. Lonni also let us stay at her own house and let us store our carts in her shed while we were on the road to SD. Then, when we returned back to Colorado, Lonni picked us up in Montrose, CO, and drove us back down to the Dry Creek Basin area so we could start back up where we’d left off on our journey. She was also an amazing source of spiritual fellowship and insight. For all of this, we are overwhelmingly thankful.
• Chase and Ashley Replogle in Springfield, MO, for letting me and Lindsie spend the night at their wonderful home before heading back to Colorado and for buying us delicious Qdoba for dinner.
• Cole Fricke in Denver, CO, for giving us a place to spend the night safely in Denver and making us a delicious spaghetti dinner for us. And for watching the original Batman with us.
• Joe and Judy Bowman in Norwood, CO, for providing us with some delicious meals, letting us take showers and do laundry, and driving us out to take photos of elk.
• Eric and Cheryl Darcy (and their kids Alexis and Trevor) in Ridgway, CO, for offering us a warm place to sleep for two nights, providing us with numerous meals, and taking us rock wall climbing while we were in Ridgway.
• John Zacharias in Ridgway, CO, for loading us up with extra food and water before we set out down the road again.
• Charlie Page (Linsdie’s uncle) in Casper, WY, for driving 8 hours to rescue us in Montrose, CO, and bring us back to Casper so we could figure out our next plan of attack. And also for letting us live in his house for several days while figuring out said plan of attack. And for letting us live in his house for another 10 days when we came BACK to Wyoming, then driving us back to where we last left off in Colorado so we could resume our journey after winter was over. Really, he should be on this list like 12 times.
• Allan and Francie Ivy for taking care of us at their campground, Mesa RV Resort just a few miles west of Gunnison, Colorado.
• First Baptist Church in Gunnison, CO, for letting us spend the night in their warm, wind-free nursery.
• Adam and Hannah McKie in Gunnison, CO, for letting us spend the night at their house so Lindsie could rest and recover from her cold, as well as providing us with a delicious meal and great fellowship. Then, of course, there’s the whole “driving our carts up over Monarch Pass (11,322 feet) so we wouldn’t have to push them up and over” thing they did for us, which was pretty awesome.
• Rich and Joy Kettles, also in Gunnison, for letting us spend several nights at their house while feeding us, inviting us to church, and just blessing us with great fellowship. Also thanks for driving us out each day to walk so we wouldn’t have to push our carts every day, picking us up to let us stay at their house each night, and then driving us BACK out to where we’d left off each day for several days.
• David and Melissa Curtis, also in Gunnison, for paying for our night’s stay at the Starlite Classic Campground to ensure we didn’t get stuck without a campsite that night.
• Mike and Diane Delaurentis in Cañon City, Colorado, for providing us with some delicious meals, two incredible nights of rest, and some really energizing and enjoyable conversation in Cañon City before we had to head down the road.
• Pastor Andrew Hill and his wife, Victoria, in Penrose, Colorado, for offering us a nice dinner and some hot showers to get cleaned up after a day of walking.
• Tom and Michele Cox (and Michele’s brother, Jay) in Pueblo West, Colorado, for taking us in for an unbelievable dinner and a great night of conversation and fellowship while we waited for Lindsie’s friend Beth to come pick us up.
• Mark and Jen Rudnik in Pueblo West, Colorado, for being super helpful with cart storage and for mailing a package for us so we wouldn’t have to drag 12 pounds of unnecessary stuff with us until we reached a post office.
• Beth Jorenby and her boyfriend Matt McCuistion in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for picking us up in Pueblo West and bringing us back to Beth’s for several days of tasty food, good friendship and fellowship, and great conversations.
• Brandon and April Montoya in Pueblo, Colorado, for providing a place to stay for three nights, feeding us, letting us speak with their church’s youth group, and just delighting us with their company.
• MJ Romano in La Junta, Colorado, for letting us spend the night in her church (First Presbyterian Church in La Junta) and then connecting us with congregation member Leonard Vance so we could stay an extra day in La Junta when Lindsie wasn’t feeling well.
• Leonard Vance in La Junta, Colorado, for offering us showers and a bed to sleep in, a chance to do laundry, and some tasty meals.

Kansas

• Richard and Michelle Brookman in Lakin, Kansas, for offering us a place to stay for a night (during a horrible storm, no less), providing us with a tasty meal, and providing Mike with several hours of comic book conversation and discussion. It was a good night.
• Alex Beddow in Garden City, Kansas, for offering us a place to stay for two nights, and for picking us up in Pierceville so we didn’t have to tent camp the second night, as well as providing fantastic meals and offering us the use of her car for a day so we could get a bunch of stuff done. (Also, Alex is an Augustana grad like Mike, so that’s extra awesome.)
• Bob and Norma Delay in Lewis, Kansas, for taking us out for a tasty lunch in Lewis and sharing some wonderful conversation with us along the way.
• Mike and Kelly Benzel in Macksville, Kansas, for providing us with a comfy guest bedroom, making us lunch and dinner, and for offering some fantastic and uplifting conversation throughout the night.
• Mike and Joni Mead (and their granddaughter Ivy and her friend Lindsay) in Hutchinson, Kansas, for blessing us with food, fellowship, and a comfortable place to sleep for the night. Also, Mike and Joni are the daughter and son-in-law of Bob and Norma from Lewis, which was extra fun.
• Christina Siriwardena (and her husband, Brian, even though he wasn’t there) in Newton, Kansas, for letting us spend the night in their comfortable guest room, providing a fantastic home-cooked meal, and being a conversational blessing to us throughout the evening.
• John and Kathy Boccia in Potwin, Kansas, for bringing over a tasty meal of burgers and corn on the cob and whatnot. It was delicious.
• Carla and Gary Chrispens in El Dorado, Kansas, for talking with us for an evening and grilling out a delicious meal for us to celebrate the 4th of July.
• Joy Jensen in Eureka, Kansas, for taking us out to a filling Pizza Hut buffet in Eureka. As a fellow South Dakota State grad, Lindsie was excited to meet Joy, and she was a delight to eat with and talk with.

Missouri

• Dana and Tonya Kennard in Nevada, Missouri, for letting us stay a few nights in their house while Lindsie wasn’t feeling well, along with providing us meals, having a game night with us, and letting us become friends with their adorable daughter, Talitha.
• D’ette Eaves in El Dorado Springs, Missouri, for blessing us with a safe place to stay in El Dorado Springs, keeping us out of the thunder and lightning, and offering us some fantastic meals and conversation while we waited out the storms.
• Norman and Mary Cooper in Collins, Missouri, for letting us spend two nights in their wonderful home and rescuing us during a full day of rain to return us to the warm and dry abode.
• Justen and Lesley McCarter (and their kids Lily and Jaxen) in Collins, Missouri, for spending two evenings with us enjoying great conversation AND for making delicious meals for us both nights in Collins.
• Frank and Ruth in Macks Creek, Missouri, for offering us lunch and dinner and for providing us a comfortable place to sleep before we made our way down the road.
• Jim and Jenny Burton in Swedeborg, Missouri, for letting us stay at their house for two nights, taking us out to a unique and fantastic dinner in The Cave, and for sharing great conversation with us.
• Nancy Morse (and her three adorable children) in Dixon, Missouri, for bringing over some tasty snacks to enjoy on the road (and for being willing to give Mike’s children’s book a test-read).
• Mike and Hollie Shaughnessy (and their kids Alexis and Abygale) in Dixon, Missouri, for blessing us immeasurably. From Mike getting his feet washed to Lindsie being anointed and prayed over, to blessings of delicious meals, to a safe place to sleep, to finding us places down the road to stay, and, most importantly, for providing some incredible fellowship and deep spiritual discussion.
• Kevin and Aimee Johnson in Rolla, Missouri, for offering a ridiculously comfortable bed to sleep in, some tasty pizza, and for helping Mike create a beautiful birthday gift for Lindsie.
• The Lange Family (Pastor David Lange, his wife, Christy, and their wonderful children) from Mission Community Church in Pacific, Missouri, for offering us their very nice travel camper for two nights and blessing us with some great meals and some fantastic fellowship.
• Jim in Pacific, Missouri, for miraculously connecting us with someone in St. Louis who could fix our broken front wheel.
• The Kunce Family (Mike and Stacy, and their kids Brandon, Amber, Miranda, and Marissa) and the Kohn Family (Charlie and Debbie and their daughter Kayleigh) in St. Louis, Missouri, for going NUTS when it comes to taking care of us. From a place to stay to repaired and upgraded carts, taking Lindsie out for a fun girls night to an impromptu birthday party for Lindsie, and about a hundred other incredible blessings.

Illinois

• Chris and Jihanna Hogge in Belleville, Illinois, for offering us a tasty meal, giving us a safe place to stay for a night, and dropping us back off where we left off in O’Fallon, MO, the next morning.
• Ryan Siegel in Collinsville, Illinois, for meeting up with us in Breese, dropping off some much-needed packages that we’d shipped to his house, and sharing a great afternoon of conversation, fellowship, and spiritual insight. And for continuing to support us spiritually as we’ve traveled.
• Mike Frein in Aviston, Illinois, for connecting us with the New Life Christian Center in Trenton, IL, and for giving us a ton of extremely delicious deer meat, which has definitely gone to good use.

Indiana

• The folks at Slicer’s Bar and Grill in Vincennes, Indiana, for opening up early and grilling us up some tasty food even though they weren’t technically open yet. And for giving us cold bottles of water for free.
• Brent and Renée Cramer (and their wonderful kids, Graceanna and Elaina) in Wheatland, Indiana, for: letting us stay at their house during our 2nd night in Wheatland, providing us with a delicious meal and tasty breakfast, adding upgrades and repairs to our carts, driving 45 miles out to pick us up when we didn’t have a place to stay in Huron, Indiana, letting us share our story with their church during Sunday night Bible study, letting us stay at their house again that night, providing dinner and breakfast YET AGAIN, and, finally, driving us all the way BACK out to Huron to drop us off where we’d left off. And for sharing in some fantastic fellowship with us.
• Reverend Beth Ann Cook in Bedford, Indiana, for letting us stay at her house for the night, for making us a fantastic multi-course meal, and for blessing us with some fantastic conversation and spiritual insight.
• David and Tracey Graham (and their kids, Steven and Sarah) in Bedford, Indiana, for storing our carts for us at their home on a day full of hills, and then for letting us stay an extra night in Bedford at their house when Lindsie wasn’t feeling the greatest. And for taking us to a tasty, belly-filling meal at Golden Corral, and for driving us back out the next morning to drop us off where we’d left off.
• Jim Waldon in Aurora, Indiana, for providing us with an extremely comfortable night of sleep at his bed & breakfast in Aurora.

• Brian and Christina Siriwardena in Cincinnati, Ohio (yes, the same Brian and Christina we stayed with back in Newton, Kansas), for letting us spend two nights in their house, for taking us out for some delicious custard, and for being great company for a few days in Cincinnati.
• Eric and Tammy Averwater (and their daughters Abigail and Amber) in Owensville, Ohio, for letting us stay with them for three nights, for doing major repair work to our carts, for providing us with tasty meals, and for just blessing us with their company and friendliness.
• Fran and Laurel Nimmons in Fayetteville, Ohio, for providing us with a place to sleep for the evening and a tasty meal to go along with it.
• Glen and Carolyn Smith in Chillicothe, Ohio, for blessing us with a comfortable place to sleep for two nights, for offering great breakfasts and dinners, and for providing fantastic conversation during our time with them.
• Tom and Janelle McManis in McArthur, Ohio, for taking us out to lunch after church and for doing a last-minute, late night load of laundry for us when we needed clean clothes and didn’t have any other options.
• Tammy Gillogly in Albany, Ohio, for providing a delicious, home-cooked meal of chicken and noodles and mashed potatoes when we reached our stop in Albany, and for just being a blessing in general.

West Virginia

• Susie Goodwin in Ellenboro, West Virginia, for helping us figure out a place to stay when we got to Ellenboro, when nothing else seemed to be working out. She went above and beyond to provide us with a hot meal, find us a place to stay, and just treat us like family during our time in Ellenboro.
• Paul and Sharon Weekley in West Union, West Virginia, for following our journey forever, for providing us with a place to stay for two nights in West Union, for blessing us with several delicious meals and snacks, for driving out and picking us up after a day of walking so we wouldn’t have to walk 3 miles off of the highway for a place to stay, and for just being all around awesome people while we were in West Union.
• Gary Mitchell in Clarksburg, West Virginia, for following our journey closely over the past several months, for trying to set us up with a place to stay, and then going with the flow when our plans changed and still coming out to treat us for dinner in nearby Bridgeport, AND for blessing us with great conversation and a lovely prayer on top of that.
• Dave and Mary Kay in Burlington, West Virginia, for dropping us off some delicious apple butter and for offering to pay for a meal at the Burlington Café.
• The kind folks at the Burlington Café in Burlington, West Virginia, who gave us our delicious and very fairly-priced meal on the house.
• Cindy and Darla (from Aurora, West Virginia) near Romney, West Virginia, for catching us on the side of the road and dropping off Gatorades, candy bars, and for just brightening our day in general.
• Ted in Romney, West Virginia, for giving us all kinds of tasty foreign chocolate given to him by former exchange students he and his wife had hosted and for driving our carts 20+ miles ahead of us to make our day of walking about a million times easier.

Virginia

• Diane Luttrell outside of Gore, Virginia, who stopped us on the side of the road to give us tasty snacks and pray with us before we went our separate ways.
• Zita from Christ Church in South Riding, Virginia, for picking us up at the church and dropping us off at the comfortable townhouse that was a few miles away.
• Mike from Christ Church in South Riding, Virginia, for picking us up from the townhouse the next morning and dropping us back off at the church so we could resume our journey.
• Margaret and her kids Charles and Robbie in Upperville, Virginia, for making us a delicious breakfast before we set out on our journey.
• Leonard (and his absolutely delightful wife, whose name we couldn’t hear during introductions and now we feel terrible about it) for stopping with us on the sidewalk in Washington, D.C., to talk and pray with us before we continued on through D.C.

Maryland

• Sal from Sal’s Italian Restaurant & New York Style Pizza in Denton, Marlyand, for giving us our fantastic Italian dinner on the house and for packing us two massive cold-cuts to eat during lunch the next day on our journey.

Delaware

• Our crazy parents for driving all the way out from South Dakota to be there when we hit the water and completed our journey. And for then driving us all the way home from Delaware.

• So many other wonderful people who have blessed us with conversation, prayers, advice, and words of encouragement along our way. Thanks to everyone who has been a part of this journey.