All posts tagged california

Into Nevada: The Desert Awaits

Posted
July 11, 2012
Categories
On The Trail
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6 Comments

A few days ago, Lindsie and I officially walked across California and have now reached Nevada.

If it’s ok with you, I’d like to write that one more time. Lindsie and I have officially walked across California and have now reached Nevada. After just a little over 3 weeks, we’ve crossed our first state, and we are so thankful that God has helped us make it across completely safe and sound.

Anyway, here’s an update on what has gone on since our last post.

We left the Prestons in South Lake Tahoe, CA, on Saturday morning, and Cynthea was kind enough to drive our carts up to the top of Spooner Summit so we wouldn’t have to push them up the not-that-enjoyable incline. We dropped the carts off at a state park with the hope that we would pick them up upon arrival and camp in the park.

Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to camp in that specific area of the park. We were told that the camping area is 2.5 miles from where we entered, and you have to go through rougher “backcountry” and hiking trails to get to the campsites. That meant no carts, and no place to sleep.

We decided to roll with it anyway, knowing we’d maybe have to try and push to Carson City that same day, which would make for a 30-mile day total. We weren’t thrilled about that idea, but if it had to happen, we’d make it happen. At worst, we’d camp on the side of the highway. After a 15-mile uphill climb (without the carts, thankfully), we arrived back to where we’d dropped the carts off that morning. It was 4:30 pm and the park rangers were supposed to be gone for the day. We also still had 15 miles to go, and we were pretty much dead already.

Then we decided to pray.

If you’ve read some of our other posts, you’ve probably recognized that answered prayers are becoming a blessedly common thing for us on this journey, and you won’t be surprised to learn that, once again, our prayer was answered.

After praying that God would provide us with some safe place to sleep that night, we sat for about a minute. Then, a park official walked out of the seemingly-closed down ranger station and told us we could go ahead and camp in a restricted area reserved for a research group. It was just a few hundred feet away from us AND it had a bear box so we could keep our food (and ourselves) safe from bears.

Like I said, it was an answered prayer, and we were incredibly appreciative.

From there, we pushed our way (downhill, thankfully) to Carson City. We met with Ted Oxborrow, who is the Nevada State Coordinator for the American Discovery Trail, on the way down (he was riding uphill on his bike). Ted has been an amazing, incredible resources to us as we prepare for this desert crossing. But we’ll get to that later. For now, Ted mentioned that he’d dropped a line to Jenny Scanland, the State Trails Coordinator for Nevada.

Jenny and her husband, Rob, were AMAZING. Besides offering us their guest room/apartment for a few nights, they let us use their Xterra, they made us dinner, they took us swimming in the river behind their house, and they took us to their respective Tuesday morning Bible studies. Add that to the fact that Jenny knows a TON about the various parks, trails, and general environment here in Nevada, and you can see why we were so blessed to have met her (and Rob) in the first place.

We basically felt like family immediately after meeting them, and couldn’t be more thankful for everything they did to help us prepare for the desert. With some truly knowledgeable and experienced insight from the Scanlands as well as Ted Oxborrow, his wife, Jill, and his son, Trevor, we feel more prepared than we ever would’ve dreamed we could be as we get ready to set out across the deserts of Nevada and Utah.

Obviously the desert is going to have plenty of challenges. The main challenge will be staying hydrated and trying our best to fight off the heat. All we ask of you is prayer. Lots and lots of prayer. Prayers that we will always have enough water (even if it means road angels stop and drop water off for us), prayers that we’ll stay safe on a pretty lonely stretch of road, and prayers that we won’t have to walk through any out of-the-ordinary heat waves.

We are very, very confident that we will be perfectly safe. We’ve got complete faith that God will continue to walk with us every step of the way. But that doesn’t mean we’re not open to plenty of prayers and words of encouragement.

Thanks to everyone for following along with the journey. The udpates might be fewer and further between once we hit the desert, but we’ll do our best to keep you as up-to-date as possible.

On a final note, don’t forget to check out the wonderful story Jill Callison from the Argus Leader wrote about our trip. It was fun doing the interview and we’re overjoyed with the story she wrote about us. It’s such a blessing to be able to share with people the what and why of our journey, especially through a paper as wide-reaching as the Argus Leader.

Thanks again, everyone, and we’ll be back with another update as soon as we can be.

-Mike and Lindsie

Trying To Catch Up In California (Part 2 of 2)

Posted
July 8, 2012
Categories
On The Trail

When our last “catching up” post left off, we were on the cusp of reaching Lake Tahoe. Unfortunately, we ran into a slight problem, which we talked about in THIS post about quickly answered prayers, so be sure you take a minute to read that one if you haven’t already.

Anyway, after the generosity of the O’Briens, we made our way down into the KOA, which is only a few miles south of South Lake Tahoe. South Lake Tahoe was our first “major” destination on this journey—sort of a mini-milestone that we’d been excited to reach since starting in San Francisco. Even though the KOA wasn’t particularly eventful, it was nice to have some time to slow down and catch up on life a little bit.

We went down into South Lake Tahoe the next day, and it was beautiful. The lake is huge (our friends the Prestons, who you’ll learn about later, informed us that all of the water in Lake Tahoe could cover the ENTIRE state of California with 14 inches of water. That makes my brain want to explode.

Anyway, we didn’t have a place to stay our first night in South Lake Tahoe, so Lindsie’s uncle Charlie kindly paid for our room at the Super 8. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, the Super 8 was less than stellar, and after a night of almost no sleep at all, we got a refund and booked it out of the hotel.

Thankfully, Charlie had also connected us with Cynthea Preston through his Rotary Club connections, and Cynthea invited us to come set up a tent in her and her husband’s yard. She wanted to offer us a bed, but her son and his family were visiting from Southern California and there just wasn’t room.

To give you some perspective on how generous this offer was, Cynthea offered their lawn to us ON the 4th of July, even though she had family in town and had every reason to blow us off if she’d wanted to. And if she had told us no, we would’ve ended up paying anywhere between $140 and $200 for a hotel room on the night of July 4th. Scary, right?

On top of this kindness, the Prestons offered to let us stay for several days (which Lindsie and I were really hoping we’d be able to do), and then they got even crazier—they offered to let us join them for the world-famous South Lake Tahoe 4th of July fireworks extravaganza. On their boat. IN South Lake Tahoe.

Obviously we said yes, and, as you can see from the video below of the finale, we got to enjoy an amazing fireworks display.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPFYWpWBk50]

The Prestons were just amazing people. Cynthea and Steve were so kind and gracious, and their son Ryan, his wife Åsa and their two kids Hannah and Dean are all just fun-loving, adventurous people, so we sort of felt like we fit right in with them. They’re also incredibly smart, so it was fun listening to all of their explanations about the environment around South Lake Tahoe and some of the history of the area.

All in all, our stay with the Prestons was a huge blessing. Besides giving us a few days to relax and catch up on things (like our blog posts), it was fun to meet a family that just enjoys life so much. From all of their hiking and adventuring to their beautiful home and delicious meals, the Prestons are the kind of family that just seems to enjoy waking up every morning and doing what they love to do.

The most important thing for me and Lindsie was once again seeing how God provides when you ask. We knew paying for a hotel would be bad news bears for us as far as our budget goes, and as we were getting ready to walk to a hotel and bite the bullet on the cost, Cynthea called and invited us to stay at their place. The timing couldn’t have possibly been better.

As far as what’s up next, we’re getting ready for the desert. We’ll be crossing Nevada and Utah over the next several weeks, and, contrary to what you’d think, we’re very, very excited. The land will be flat (finally!) and we’ll have plenty of time to talk, pray, and enjoy some quiet time out on the open landscape. Thankfully, we already have a few connections in Carson City (who we’ll talk about later) that can help us prepare more than we’d expected, so we should be ready to have an amazing (and safe) desert adventure when we start walking.

That said, we’re still very open to receiving your prayers and words of encouragement, no matter how prepared for the desert we might be. It will obviously be hot, we’ll need to carry plenty of water, and there are a few stretches where we’ll be miles (and miles…and miles) between towns.

That said, we know God will be taking care of us and walking along with us every step of the way. We can’t wait to see how He continues to change us throughout this journey. It has been amazing so far, for sure.

Thanks for the continued encouragement and support. We’re so thankful for everyone who reads these posts, comments on Facebook, and tells us in person that they support us.

-Mike  (and Lindsie)

Trying To Catch Up In California (Part 1 of 2)

Posted
July 6, 2012
Categories
On The Trail
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5 Comments

We’ve gotta admit, sometimes writing these blog posts can be a daunting task. It’s not that we’re not excited about writing them—it’s that so much happens between each post that it’s hard to put it all down into words. But we will continue to do our best nonetheless.

After leaving the awesome gymnasium of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Camino, CA, we journeyed over to Pollock Pines, CA. Thanks to our friend Barbara from Foothills United Methodist Church in Rescue, CA, we made a connection with John Blank from Pollock Pines Community Church  who offered to let us stay the night there in Pollock Pines.

We got there on Friday afternoon and were excited to find out that the church puts on a meal every Friday—which they’ve been doing for over 21 years—for anyone and everyone in the area who might need and want a tasty meal. While we waited for dinner, Linds and I were able to catch up on our blog and Facebook posts (and—more importantly for Lindsie—catch up on sleep).
Once dinner had ended, John came by to pick us up. He and his wife, Pam, actually wanted us to come stay at their house so we could take a much-needed shower, sleep in a comfortable bed, and grab breakfast in the morning.Then, at dinner time, Lindsie and I had our first sort of presentation/interview in front of a larger group of people. Pollock Pines Community Church Pastor Dave Morrison (who was actually retiring the following Sunday, interestingly enough) typically shares some scripture before dinner is served, and he was kind enough to call us up to share our story, ask us some questions, and tell the dinner guests about our adventure. Then, when we were finished, he gave us a very unique New Testament Bible that he had been given over 30 years ago which we were incredibly thankful for.

Basically, the stay was incredible, and we were blessed to have had the Blanks extend so much kindness to us.We arrived at their house and were blown away. For starters, we were blown away because the house was gorgeous, and we found out that John had actually designed the house himself. Keep in mind, he’s not an architect. But, professional architect or not, the house was, as mentioned, GORGEOUS. Then, we were treated to seeing some of Pam’s amazing paintings. Similar to how John isn’t a professional architect but designed a ridiculously cool house, Pam isn’t a professional painter but paints ridiculously beautiful paintings. After the tour and some conversation, we slept like rocks and they gave us breakfast and prayed with us in the morning.

From Pollock Pines, we headed along Highway 50 toward Kyburz, CA, which is so small that the sign hanging on the main building says “Welcome to Pollock Pines. Now leaving Pollock Pines.” About 2 miles before we got there (and after 17.5 miles of walking for that day), we decided to set up at Sand Flat Campground. It was by the river, which was nice, and I got in the river, which was less nice because it was very cold water. Lindsie did enjoy videoing it though, so we’ll embed that video as well just in case anybody else enjoys watching it.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNfyUGFJhnQ]

Before we get too far along, we do have one thing to mention. Before arriving at the campground, we met an awesome guy named Kevin Lindholm. Kevin was taking his son and his son’s friend fishing in the American River, which pretty much follows all along the road we’re traveling on. He saw us and struck up a conversation (we’re hard to miss with our bright yellow safety vests, big blue push carts, and adorably cute dog).

When we explained to Kevin why we were walking, he was just astounded and inspired, and his excitement was contagious. Lindsie and I found ourselves feeling even more passionate about this journey when we saw Kevin’s reaction to what we were doing and why. Kevin mentioned that he’d offer us a ride but his car wouldn’t have room, and we had to explain that our goal is to walk the entire journey step-by-step. Then Kevin went above and beyond and asked if there was anything at the store he could drive down and grab for us. Keep in mind that Kevin had just arrived to this spot in the river to take two kids fishing and was willing to pack them and their gear back up, turn around, and drive 20-ish miles (each way) to get us something from the store if we’d needed it.

Even though we didn’t need anything, we were absolutely, 100% blown away by Kevin’s willingness to offer help. It’s people like him who make us so thankful that we’re doing this walk. Even though he wouldn’t have gotten anything out of it (at least, from our perspective), he was ready to go WAY out of his way to help us out. He also spread the word by telling his church about us and our mission. I wish there were other ways for me to talk about how thankful we were for running into Kevin. His excitement was encouraging and motivating, and generally just a reminder of why we’re glad we’re making this journey.

In the interest of keeping this post at least a little bit short, I’m going to cut it off here for now. We’re still not really caught up to our current location, blog-wise, but we should be covered by the next post or two down the line (I hope). Future posts will include answered prayers, beautiful views, and fireworks.Anyway, we left the aforementioned campground in the morning and continued heading toward South Lake Tahoe, which was just around the corner.

Thanks for reading and thanks for encouraging us with prayers and words of support in blog comments and on the Facebook page. Hooray adventure!

So Much Going On (In So Little Time)

Posted
June 29, 2012
Categories
On The Trail
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4 Comments

After finally getting a wi-fi connection (and time to get some stuff posted), we have another update for you, dear readers. Rather than make small talk for a paragraph or two, we’ll just jump right into it.

Once we left Davis a few days ago, we continued toward Sacramento. We had a fun, peaceful night camping at the West Sacramento KOA where we met some incredibly kind people (and enjoyed a few s’mores out by a fire) before heading to bed early.

The next day we pushed on into Sacramento. After stopping by the beautiful state capitol building, we kept on walkin’ along. We were hoping to find a place to stay (either with a personal connection or camping in a church yard), but we couldn’t connect with anyone and ended up spending the night in a Travelodge. Even though hotels are nice (showers, beds and air conditioning are never a bad thing) we need to start saving money, so we’re hoping to stay as hotel-free as we can from here on out. We’ll see how that goes.

Anyway, we left the Travelodge for Folsom, CA, where we met some of the kindest, most enjoyable people we’ve met so far on this trip. Thanks to a Rotary Club connection through Lindsie’s Uncle Charlie, we met Terry and Jackie McNeil in Folsom, CA. We got to their home, and even though we’d never met them before, they welcomed us in like we were prodigal children returning home.

We simply thought we were getting a place to set up our tent, but Jackie immediately offered us their guest room, as well as showers, a delicious dinner, and s’mores out by a backyard campfire. Two of Terry and Jackie’s three daughters, Jen and Amanda (and Amanda’s two great kids) were also there, so we enjoyed getting to know them.

After the McNeils provided us with some extra emergency gear, a few extra survival tips, and some route-strategizing, we went to sleep following a wonderful night of kindness and generosity from the McNeil’s.

The next morning we were off bright and early to head toward Rescue, CA (though not before Jackie was able to cook us up a tasty breakfast). Thankfully, the folks at Foothills United Methodist told us we could camp out in one of their youth rooms, so we just had to put in a good 13 miles of walking to reach their church.

During our walk, Jackie swung back by to bring us emergency safety vests (to be sure people would see us on the road). We really don’t understand why Jackie and Terry have been so great to us, but we just keep rolling with it.

Once we reached Foothills United Methodist in Rescue, CA–which has an unbelievably fun, unique, and beautiful set of buildings–we were blessed to spend time talking with Barbara Gillespy (who works at the church and went out of her way to ensure we’d have a safe place to stay) and Pastor Dave Bunje, who took time to talk with us, discuss our route, and just bless us with his company even though he most likely had plenty of other stuff he could do.

Then, as a bonus visit, Jackie and Terry drove up from Folsom to pick us up again (how they weren’t tired of us at this point, we really don’t know). They ran us to a few sporting goods stores to be sure we had everything we needed supply-wise, then were kind enough to grab us some In-N-Out Burger, which is delicious. And, as we learned during dinner, In-N-Out Burger is owned by a Christian family that writes Bible verses on the wrappers of the burgers/fries/etc., which we thought was pretty cool. After dinner, the McNeils dropped us back off at Foothills United Methodist; we said a second sad goodbye and went to get some sleep.

After enjoying another comfortable night of sleep (Barbara and Dave were kind enough to let us sleep inside the youth room), we headed on toward Placerville. Or so we thought. But, thanks to Barbara’s relentless willingness to help us connect with people and places to stay along our route, we ended up staying with a lovely woman named Ida Mae in Diamond Springs, CA. Even though she’d never met us, Ida Mae offered to let us stay in her guest room, and she made us a wonderful meal of spaghetti and meatballs. We enjoyed chatting with her about her kids, her grandkids, and her great-grandkids, and then we called it a night before Wheel of Fortune had even started (yes, we went to bed THAT early).

The next morning, we grabbed some breakfast, said thanks and goodbye to Ida Mae, then began the trek to Camino, CA. It wasn’t easy. Like…really wasn’t easy. We started at 1,400-foot elevation and ended the day just around 3,000 feet of elevation. There were LOTS of hills and pushing 80+ pound carts up those hills didn’t exactly make it easy, but we finally made it to Camino. Thanks to Barbara’s aforementioned relentless willingness to help us, we were able to spend the night at the 7th Day Adventist Church in Camino. The maintenance man on the property, Dan Smith, gave us plenty of info and some really helpful tips on dealing with the animals we could end up running into during the next portion of our walk. He also had a great life story that he shared with us, and we really enjoyed the conversation.

Then we set up shop in the church’s enormous gymnasium and enjoyed a night sleeping in a very unique location (as you can see from the photo).

Which brings us to today. We’ve reached our next location for the night (which we’ll share about later), but it has definitely been a fun, occasionally-grueling adventure these past few days. It’s amazing how much happens when you’re just walking around. We’ve met such wonderful people, and it’s only the beginning of our journey. We couldn’t be more thankful for everyone’s help and support. We’re not sure if there are words that can do it justice.

We’ve definitely got an “adventure” ahead of us, as we head into animal country. Bears, mountain lions, and probably snakes all await us as we head toward the Lake Tahoe area. We’ve got bear spray with us, but we’re open to any and all prayers as our journey continues, just in case.

Thanks to everyone who has helped us so far, as well as everyone that continues to help us even though we’re out of their areas now. We have some exciting things coming up and we can’t wait to share the next steps of our journey with you.

We’ll be back with more, hopefully sooner than later!

-Mike & Linds

From Cow Town to Davis, now on to Sacramento

Posted
June 22, 2012
Categories
On The Trail
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2 Comments

Since our last post, we’ve only been blessed even more abundantly, which is amazing. Just thought we’d start this post off by mentioning that.

After reaching Vacaville (Cow Town in Spanish), we had an opportunity to spend the night at Valley Church. Thanks to the overwhelming generosity of Ricardo Villareal, the chaplain at Valley Church, we were able to get a hot shower, and he even bought us dinner (and breakfast the next morning). He also spent tons of time sharing stories with us and providing a wealth of insight on the Word. And thanks to Ricardo and Kevin Anderson, another Valley Church staff member, we were able to sleep safely and comfortably inside the church.

We woke up bright and early the next morning and, after a quick breakfast with Ricardo, we were moving on toward Davis. We had originally considered spending the night in Dixon (kind of a halfway point between Vacaville and Davis), but we had a church to stay in once we got to Davis, so we decided to make the big push to get there in time for a comfortable night’s stay.

Unfortunately, getting to Davis in one fell swoop meant pushing on for 21.7 miles (definitely a new record for us so far). Add to that the fact that it was an almost 100-degree day, and you can imagine that we were just about dead on arrival in Davis.

Thankfully, Bensie Cheney from Davis Christian Assembly met us in Davis with plates full of delicious Chinese food and another church to safely spend the night in. PLUS, we stayed in the preschool room, which had an extra-thick padded carpet, so we were basically sleeping in the lap of luxury as far as floor sleeping goes. Even though we were exhausted from our 22-mile journey, it was great talking to Bensie and spending some time with her and her two adorable kids, Helen and Conner. Then she was kind enough to bring us bagels the next morning and let us bum around the church for awhile, which was an added blessing.

The 22 miles took their toll on Lindsie’s feet (which are pretty horrendously blistered up, to say the least), so we were thankful that Lindsie’s mom’s cousin, Nancy, and her daughter Deanna, asked if we’d hang out with them an extra night in Davis. With an offer of fun company, a free meal, and a warm night in a comfy hotel bed, we were more than happy to take them up on said generous offer. It was great talking with Nancy and Deanna, hearing family stories, and spending time with people who care about us.

Finally, because of Lindsie’s still-messed up feet, we’ve decided to stay here in Davis for one more night. Tomorrow morning, Saturday the 23rd, we’ll pack up early and head to Sacramento. We don’t have any connections in Sacramento yet, so if you know of anybody who wants to let two cross-country travelers set up a tent in their backyard, feel free to let us know (or have them let us know, if that’s easier). They can email us at StormingJericho@gmail.com or they can call my (Mike’s) phone at 605-521-6762.

We want to thank everyone again for the great words of encouragement. We hope we aren’t sounding like a broken record, but it’s just been amazing to see the outpouring of support we’ve gotten in the past few weeks. It seems like no matter what challenges we come across, God is there to help us figure out what to do next and there are always people we can rely on to keep pushing us on. So again—and certainly not for the last time—thank you.

We’ll have more updates soon, and we’ll try to mix things up with a video or two here in the very near future. We have a few great products to highlight via video (and Jaeda’s starting to complain that she hasn’t been featured enough on the blog), so we’ve obviously got more work to do soon.

We hope you’re doing well, and we encourage you to drop us a line, either directly via email or phone or by leaving a comment on this blog or the Facebook page. We love hearing from our friends and family, plus we don’t stay as up-to-date on everything that’s going on in “the normal world” when we spend all day walking down the sidewalk. So keep in touch, por favor!

Back with more soon!

-Mike and Linds (and Jaeda!)