All posts tagged vallejo

California Kindness (and Many More Miles)

Posted
June 19, 2012
Categories
On The Trail
Comments
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Well, after heading out from Berkeley a few days ago, we’ve made more progress than I think Lindsie and I would’ve even imagined. We’ve already made it through Vallejo, and, thanks to someone we can’t thank publicly (because he might get in trouble for it), we had a very safe place to stay in Vallejo two nights ago. It was a little noisy at times, but we made it work and were up and moving again by about 7 a.m.

There are two things about Vallejo we want to mention.

1) When we arrived, there was a Pirate Festival going on. So that was interesting. We might try to upload some more pictures later, but here’s one just to give you a taste of the action.

2) A few hours before we stopped for the night in Vallejo, we came across one of our favorite road angels so far. We met Sharon Stone (not the actress) hustling and bustling outside of her business on Sunday. We were starting to get concerned because we weren’t sure about the area of Vallejo we were in, and when we asked the police for advice on dangerous areas to avoid, we were told “We can’t tell you that because it makes us liable for discrimination charges.” So…we couldn’t rely on the police to keep us safe. Which was weird and sort of unsettling.

Thankfully, we ran into Sharon and she offered us several bottles of water, some chairs to rest in, and a good 20 minutes of conversation that both lifted our spirits and eased our minds. She was an absolute blessing to come across and reassured us that we were on the right path, whether the Vallejo Police wanted to help us or not.

Anyway, after we left Vallejo, we put in SEVENTEEN miles (a new record for us) and made it to Fairfield, California pretty early in the day. We walked through about half of Fairfield before deciding to call it a night. We actually splurged and stayed in a hotel last night in order to get a good shower, wash some of our dirty clothes, and make good use of a wi-fi connection.

Besides writing and posting these blog updates, we’ve also been trying to contact churches along our route that may be willing to offer us a place to sleep or a congregation member who might want us to camp out in their backyards. So far we haven’t heard back from any, but we’re praying that at least one of the churches along the way might take an interest in the two Christians who are walking through their neighborhood as they travel across the country.

All in all, we’ve gotta get moving here in just a few minutes, and we’re hoping to put in another 14 or 15 miles as we make it up to Vacaville tonight. From there we’ll go through Dixon and, if we get an early enough start, we might even make it to Davis before we’re done walking.

If you are reading this and know of anyone in Vacaville, Dixon, Davis or Sacramento who might be willing to let us camp out in their backyard for a night, please let us (and them) know as soon as possible. We’d love to know there’s a safe place ahead of us to set up for the night, and if it means we need to readjust our route a little bit before we get there, that’s perfectly fine too.

We just look forward to meeting more great people and sharing our story with them wherever we go. This has already been an amazing week of walking so far and we can’t wait to see what’s on the horizon.

Crossing California

Posted
June 16, 2012
Categories
On The Trail

Hey everybody!

Here’s the long and short of things so far: We started with our feet in the water in Point Reyes National Seashore in California. Unfortunately, most of the Point Reyes area from the seashore almost all the way to San Francisco was made up of trails that were just a little too small and narrow for our carts.

In the process of figuring that out, one of our carts broke and Lindsie happened to roll one of her ankles. Not exactly the best start, but it could’ve been worse. Thankfully, we were able to make it to the Point Reyes Hostel in one piece. There, we spent the night, reassessed things, and got a ride into town from a VERY kind woman and her daughter so we could buy replacement screws for our cart. (Thanks Melinh and Malaya!)

Lindsie’s parents actually drove back to Point Reyes to help us get out of the national park in one piece, and, as a result of having to reassess things, we shifted down toward San Francisco and started on the western most part of San Francisco just west of Golden Gate State Park (but don’t worry, we still started with our feet in the water).

Once we got going in San Francisco, we said goodbye to Lindsie’s parents for a 2nd time and began a big loop around the city (which took us right up by the Golden Gate Bridge, once again). Then, thanks to our good friend Hugh Weber, we made a connection with Jessica Henry, who graciously put us up for the night in her San Francisco apartment. Needless to say, it was a huge blessing, as there’s really nowhere to camp in San Francisco and hotels (even grungy ones) are incredibly expensive.

After staying in San Francisco for the night, we trekked over to Oakland on our way to Berkeley. Lindsie’s 2nd cousin, Thomas Francis, lives in Berkeley, so we had a good 9-10 miles of walking to do once we got off the ferry in Oakland. We walked up Market Street in Oakland and met a great guy named Lamarr Couttien who kept telling us how inspired he was by what we’re doing, and we were thankful we had a chance to talk with him and be inspired ourselves (good luck with your next step in life, Lamarr…we look forward to staying in touch with you).

From there, we pushed our carts up some absolutely BRUTAL hills (hills have now become our worst enemy on this walk) to reach Thomas’s lovely home, where we set up our tent in the backyard and enjoyed some well-deserved rest. In fact, due to some blister injuries and route readjusting, we ended up staying the night again.

Which brings us to this moment. We’ll leave Tom’s tomorrow morning for Vallejo, California as we continue on our journey. We’re hoping one of the churches in Vallejo will be willing to put us up for the night so we can get a good night’s rest. Otherwise we’ll probably need to find a safe place to set up our tent before we’re up and moving again in the morning.

To say it’s been a crazy couple of days would be an understatement. Thankfully, God has continued to provide for us, whether it was through Melinh and Malaya’s timely generosity, Lindsie’s parents’ never-ending generosity, Hugh’s eagerness to help, or Jessica and Tom’s incredible hospitality. We feel so blessed already and we’re excited to be on this next portion of our walk as we continue across California.

All in all, we appreciate everyone’s support and encouragement so far and we can’t wait to share more updates with you.

P.S. – If you’re following along with our journey and either live in the Vallejo, Fairfield, or Vacaville area or KNOW someone in any of those areas who might want to put us up for a night when we come through, we would be incredibly thankful. We know we might end up having to snag a hotel room at worst, but anyone who would even let us set up a tent in a backyard or sleep on a living room couch would be a huge blessing. (We’ll even wash dishes or vacuum the floor as payment.)

Feel free to contact (or have someone contact) Mike’s phone at 605-521-6762 or you/they can email StormingJericho@gmail.com.

Thanks again!