All posts tagged walk

Good Food and Friends from Cañon City to Pueblo

Posted
June 7, 2013
Categories
On The Trail
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1 Comment

Jaeda taking a breakWhen we left off our last blog post, the Storming Jericho trio was just about to enter Cañon City, Colorado. And although we were excited to be reaching a new city, we were also slightly nervous. Due to the fact that

we hadn’t had cell phone reception or wi-fi between towns, we hadn’t been able to follow our usual pattern of emailing and calling churches in search of a safe place to spend the night. As a result, we were basically rolling into Cañon City with no guaranteed place to stay. We had tried to call a few churches late on Saturday evening, but we didn’t find much success.

Our only hope was waking up earlier than usual on Sunday and trying to book it into Cañon City so we could catch the pastor at one of the city’s churches before the church closed for the day. We sort of hoped that if we looked ragged and worn out enough, there was no way a kindhearted pastor could reject us if we asked to spend the night on the floor of a church nursery or youth room.

We reached Cañon City around 11:45 a.m. and made our way toward the first two churches on our map. Disappointingly, both churches were empty and locked up for the day. As we sat on the sidewalk contemplating what to do next, a feeling urged me to head toward the Methodist Church, which was about 4 blocks away. At this point it was after noon, which didn’t bode well for finding a pastor still around.

As we pulled up to the Methodist Church, Lindsie and I were pumped to see numerous church members still lingering after what must’ve been the late service. We asked about the pastor, and a nice congregation member led me through the church to the fellowship hall. There, I apologized for the short notice and asked Pastor Eric if they might have a place in the church where we could safely spend the night. He told me to wait just a moment and he’d figure something out.

A few minutes later, Pastor Eric introduced me to a lovely woman named Diane. She was incredibly excited about our journey and Pastor Eric mentioned that she had a spare bedroom for us (along with a chance to shower and do some laundry), which is an offer we never turn down. Diane was so energetic and so glad to be meeting us that her excitement was contagious. The more we chatted, the more we wanted to sit and talk with Diane all day. And thankfully, we’d have the rest of the afternoon to do just that.

Us, the Delaurentis family, and their gigantic Mastiffs

Also thankfully, our carts fit PERFECTLY in the bed of Diane’s truck, which was a great start to our time with her. As we drove to her house, she filled us in on her life, and we filled her in on ours. Once we got to her (and her husband Mike’s) beautiful house, we sat and talked for another 4-5 hours while we waited for him to come home for dinner. It was such a fantastic conversation that the time just flew by.

After a tasty dinner that Diane and Mike whipped up (they used to own an Italian restaurant, so they really, REALLY knew how to prepare a meal), we took our excitedly-awaited shower and got ready to call it a night. We then got to sleep in one of the most comfortable beds Lindsie and I have ever slept in, which was an added blessing.

The next day we prepared to leave. We said a sad goodbye to our new friends and started making our way out of town. Unfortunately, some storm clouds had begun gathering in order to guide us along our path. As we stood on the edge of town getting rained on and seeing nothing but dark, stormy clouds stretched out on the horizon, we realized it might not be the best day for walking 12 miles.

Since we didn’t want to overstay our welcome with Diane, we contacted one of the churches that had been kind enough to call us back. They hadn’t noticed our message until that day (Monday) and told us we had a place to stay if we were still looking for one.

Since we didn’t want to spend a day walking in thunderstorms, we asked if we could spend the night at the church (Christ Episcopal Church to be specific), and the very kind and helpful Reverend Mark Meyer was more than willing to open up the doors for us. It was a beautiful church, and, equally as important at the time, it was dryer than the falling rain outside.

Mike, Jaeda, and the Hill family

Of course, Diane texted to ask about our progress and Lindsie mentioned we were staying at the church. This was simply unacceptable to Diane, who couldn’t bear to think of us sleeping on the floor of an empty church when she had a perfectly good guest room waiting for us at her house. As a result, we were soon riding in Diane’s truck back to her house once again, and we got to enjoy another tasty meal, a junior high school musical concert (that Diane’s friends’ daughter was performing in) and another night of sleep in that awesome bed. Needless to say, we were thankful.

The next day we actually left Cañon City and made our way toward Penrose, Colorado. It was an easy enough walk, even if it was a little windy and slightly rainy. Fortunately, it was nothing we couldn’t handle, and we pulled into Penrose to connect with Andrew and Victoria from Beaver Park Friend’s Church. Andrew, Victoria and their little son were awesome. Not only did they provide a place for us to sleep, but they also fed us a delicious dinner, offered us showers, and shared a great conversation with us for several hours. It was pretty much exactly what we needed after a day of wind and rain.

In another exciting twist, our friend Melissa (from Gunnison) had to travel to Denver and, conveniently, Penrose was on the way. She stopped in to stay with us at the church in Penrose, and we had a great time chatting with her and giving her an authentic Storming Jericho “camping in a church” experience.

The next morning we said goodbye to Melissa and said goodbye to our new friends from Beaver Park Friend’s Church. We pushed toward Pueblo West, which was a good 18 miles away. The wind was brutal almost the entire way there, but we limped our way into the Sonrise Church parking lot before the end of the day.

Mike, Lindsie, Michele, and Jen

We weren’t at Sonrise for our typical reason for stopping in at a church along the walk (which, sadly, is sleeping on the floor). We were at Sonrise because we were getting picked up that night by Lindsie’s friend Beth and taken back to her place in Colorado Springs, but needed a place to keep our carts so we wouldn’t have to stuff everything into her car. And since it shouldn’t be a surprise that God has gone out of His way to make things good for us, we actually got connected to Sonrise through Diane, who we’d stayed with in Cañon City. Diane’s friend Jen works at Sonrise, and she was more than willing to help us out. Once again, we were excited to see God taking care of us.

We arrived at the church around 4 pm, but Beth wouldn’t get into town until about 9:30 or 10 pm that night. Rather than making us sit out on the curb, Jen went above and beyond and called another lovely woman who worked at the church named Michelle. Michelle lived nearby and wanted to treat us to dinner and a comfortable place to sit while we waited for Beth. Both Jen and another gentleman from the church mentioned that Michelle was an incredible cook, so we shouldn’t turn her down.

Michele, her husband, Tom, and her brother, Jay. And Mike and Lindsie and Jaeda.

Seeing as we hadn’t eaten in hours, we couldn’t have turned Michelle down even if we had wanted to. She showed up and brought us to her house, where she, her husband Tom, and her brother Jay treated us to a night of fun conversation and as-delicious-as-promised dinner. We seriously had a blast talking with them, and I think Jay put it best when he told us right before we left, “It felt like we were just sitting around talking with old friends all night long.” We totally agreed.

Then, before we knew it, Beth (and her boyfriend Matt) had pulled up to Michelle’s house. After many screams and hugs and more screams and more hugs between Beth and Lindsie, we started loading up to head to Beth’s apartment in Colorado Springs.

And that is where this lengthy blog post will conclude. There’s still more to share, but I’ll have to get to it in the next post. For now, thanks for reading, and thanks for your continued prayers and support. We always appreciate it, and we’re excited to be continuing on our journey.

More coming soon!

-Mike and Lindsie (and Jaeda)

Adventures In The Mountains

Posted
May 26, 2013
Categories
On The Trail
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6 Comments

Beautiful mountains, right?Being in the mountains on a cross-country walk has its positives and negatives. On the one hand, it’s gorgeous every step of the way. Snow-capped mountain peaks look down from on high, streams and rivers flow all over, and the sky is usually pretty beautiful. On the other hand, you’re pushing a 100+ pound cart up and down the various inclines and declines, and the roads in the canyons cause some tight curves and tiny, tiny shoulders to walk along.

So while we’re sad to say goodbye to the beauty surrounding us in the Rockies, we are excited to start walking through slightly less…challenging…terrains. Because as of now, we are just about out of the mountains in Colorado.

A short reading break...

Of course, we had some wonderful experiences along the way. After finally saying goodbye to our dear friends from Gunnison (which you can read more about here), we started on down the road. The first day over Monarch Pass we made it to a campground and met an awesome gentleman named Peter who was riding his bike across the country. Peter’s from Germany, so Lindsie and I were pumped to talk with him about his journey, and even more pumped when he invited us to stay with him if we ever make our way over to Germany. The more contacts around the world the better as far as we’re concerned.

After that, we began making our way into Salida, Colorado. We emailed several churches hoping at least one would be willing to let us camp out for the night. After several emails and several calls, we got ONE response from Pastor Neely at Living Waters Assembly of God Church. He offered to let us use the church for the night (and also use the church’s kitchen, which is always a blessing). We were also thankful that God worked out the timing—as we’ve learned He tends to do—so that we could enjoy a Bible study with Pastor Neely and some of the Living Waters congregation members that same night. Later, as the wind howled outside and the rain continued to come down off and on, Lindsie and I thanked Jesus for Pastor Neely’s willingness to open his church doors to us. Being inside in weather like that is SO much better than being outside, as you can imagine.

Pastor Neely and Linds

The next morning we said goodbye and began walking again. In order to avoid the S-curves we’d heard more and more about in the canyon that Highway 50 travels through, we decided to take a recommended path that wasn’t quite a shortcut, but would help us avoid the more perilous stretches of the highway. While the path was successful, there were two different portions of the road that required us to take off our shoes, walk through the river carrying our carts, and push through some rugged terrain. But as we made our way out of that road in one piece, we were thankful that God had kept us safe the entire way.

After a 21-mile walk (which is pretty aggressive for us), we reached the KOA campground we’d been dreaming of for hours. Warm showers and clean clothes were on their way! Or so we’d thought. But when we limped our way into the office, we were informed that all of the tent sites had been reserved by a local rafting company and there was nowhere for us to stay that night. Needless to say, we were disappointed. But we didn’t have much of a choice other than picking back up and moving down the road. Two miles later we reached a suitable place for camping and decided to call it tonight. Although we were disappointed not to have showers, we were thankful God gave us a safe place to sleep for a night. Especially one that was free.

One of the goats

We woke up the next morning and made a push toward Cañon City. As we walked, a car pulled over on the shoulder and our friend Melissa from Gunnison jumped out. She was on her way to Denver and had been keeping an eye out for us so she could stop when she saw us. After talking with her about our KOA experience the night before, Melissa offered to drive ahead and reserve a tent spot for us at an upcoming campground so we wouldn’t have any more “no room at the inn” fiascos. Her help was certainly appreciated. After that we said goodbye, but she planned to come see us again when she made another trip to Denver a few days later.

We kept on walking, and things went well. The Arkansas River followed our path, which was relaxing and beautiful, and we saw rafters and kayakers all day in the river, a herd of bighorn sheep up on the mountainside, and a cool snake on the side of the road. The only bummer is that, on the way to Cañon City, there’s a pretty lengthy incline up the side of the mountain. Even though it took its toll on us, we did our best to keep pushing up and over. Unfortunately, with about a quarter of a mile left going up the incline, a thunderstorm broke out. Lightning flashed all around us and hail came plummeting down from the skies. It wasn’t very fun.

The cool snakeThankfully, we reached the top and as we came over the crest of the hill, the hail stopped (for the most part) and we were able to keep walking, even if we were soaking wet. Our destination was the Starlite Classic Campground, and the Starlite Classic did not disappoint. The whole place is 1950s themed, and features vintage 1950s campers you can rent and spend the night in. We didn’t do that due to budgetary restrictions, but it’s still an awesome campground.

On top of that, the woman who runs the campground, Sylvia, offered to drive us up the road to a really nice restaurant that was a quarter-mile down the highway. Normally we’d just walk, but after a 20+ mile day that included a gigantic hill and an afternoon spent wet and cold due to the hail and rain, we opted to take the ride. What made it even better is that she drove us out to the restaurant in a classic 1950s car, which was just fun.

Jaeda's ready for bedThe next step of the journey was to make our way into Cañon City. But since plenty of great stuff and great people entered our story in Cañon City, I’m going to stop writing and cut this post off here so it doesn’t turn into TOO much of a novel. We’ll fill in more details with the next blog update.

Anyway, we want to once again so thanks for all of the prayers and support we’ve received since we’ve been back out on the road. There are SO many people who have done an amazing job of keeping us motivated and inspired every day, and for that we are thankful.

A quaint barn on the edge of town

On that note, I just want to remind you that if you have any prayer requests or concerns, please feel free to share them with us, either in the comments below or privately by emailing us at StormingJericho (at) gmail.com. We have LOTS of time for praying and are happy to do that if you have prayer requests, so please don’t be afraid to let us know what we can do.

Thanks again, and we’ll be back with another update very soon!

-Mike, Lindsie, and Jaeda

Prayers For A Friend

Posted
April 21, 2013
Categories
On The Trail
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3 Comments

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

Hit The Road, Jack!

Posted
April 6, 2013
Categories
On The Trail
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8 Comments

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
Categories
On The Trail
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3 Comments

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)

 

Jesus Is Awesome (Literally)

Posted
January 25, 2013
Categories
Spiritual Insights

Cristo Redentor by Eric LimThis past weekend while Lindsie and I were in church, I was reminded of something important.

Jesus is awesome.

Read that last sentence again, but read it a little more slowly.

Jesus is awe-some.

The definition of awesome, according to Merriam-Webster, is “expressive of awe,” or “inspiring awe.” Far too frequently, people (including myself) overuse the word awesome. They use it regularly in everyday conversation for things that they could be describing as, “neat,” or “good,” or “pretty cool.”

And as we sat in church and the pastor talked about the various things Jesus has done for us—simple things like, you know, performing miracles, dying for the sins of mankind, rising from the dead and ascending into Heaven—I realized that far too frequently, Jesus falls into the version of awesome that most people would equate to “neat” or “pretty cool.”

It’s easy to hear the words “Jesus died for your sins” and think, “Yeah, it’s awesome that He did that.” But the truth is we should be seeing what Jesus did for us as AWESOME. As in, awe-inspiring awesome. Because what He did makes things like sports accomplishments, musical performances, and blockbuster movies seem trivial by comparison.

But it seems we’re much more likely to update Facebook saying that the newest big-time basketball dunk on YouTube or the latest James Bond movie is AWESOME than it seems we ever would be likely to update Facebook saying, “Jesus is AWESOME!”

It’s not easy, but I’m challenging myself to remember that the next time I describe something relatively trivial as “awesome.” If I can get pumped about a captivating solo performance or an amazing buzzer-beating half-court shot, there’s no reason I shouldn’t get that excited (if not more) about Jesus.

Because the bottom line is that Jesus is awesome. And I mean AWESOME.

If you don’t believe me, take a glance through the New Testament. It won’t take long before you see for yourself just how awesome He really is.

-Mike

Photo by Eric Lim Photography. Thanks Eric!

Surround Yourself In Faith

Posted
January 11, 2013
Categories
Spiritual Insights
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4 Comments

PeacefulnessSince we’ve been back in the “normal world” after pausing our walk for the winter, I’ve noticed something important happening in my life.

Being back in the normal world means the world wants me to live a “normal life.”

Time that used to be spent on our journey talking with God or talking with each other about God has suddenly turned to other things. I find myself filling more and more of time with things like work, sports and TV shows, books (yes, especially comic books), and video games. The sorts of things “normal” 26 year olds are interested in.

The problem isn’t necessarily those things I listed though. The problem is that, slowly but surely, they’re pushing my time with God (and my conversations about God) more and more out of the picture.

God wants to be the most important part of our lives. A verse many people have heard many times, Matthew 6:33, says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” That’s the NIV version. The New Living Translation says, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”

The key words in those verses? “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…” and “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else…” But how often do we seek God’s kingdom (or even just His presence) first? In my own life, nowhere near as much as I should.

But I’m doing my best to change that, even in the simple, everyday things I do in my life. For example, I’m a huge music fan. I listen to TONS of music, and I listen to an incredibly wide variety. I go from Dave Matthews Band to rap music to Elton John to country, with plenty of other stops along the way.

But one type of music I’ve never fully fallen head over heels in love with is praise music. I don’t really have a reason why, but it just seemed like it wouldn’t click with me like I needed it to in order for me to sit and listen to Christian music for hours.

Then I realized something. There are a lot of talented musicians who make Christian music that isn’t just praise music. As a result, I bought tons of Christian rap music and asked Lindsie to share more of her Christian music that fits the same style as my preference of non-Christian music. Now I have entire playlists I can listen to for hours that feature spiritually uplifting and thought-provoking music—and it’s music I thoroughly enjoy.

It seems small, but you’d be surprised at how much it helps to surround yourself in faith. Whether it’s the music you listen to, the shows and movies you choose to watch, the books you read, or the friends you choose to spend time with, being surrounded by an uplifting, faith-encouraging environment can make an amazing difference in your spiritual life.

It won’t solve all of your problems, since it’s ultimately up to you to seek the Lord and spend time in his word. But it’s small steps like those that can strengthen your spirit rather than pulling you away from God.

I know it’s working for me, and I hope you’ll find a way to surround yourself in faith as well.

-Mike

P.S. – If there’s ever anything Lindsie and I can do to help lift you up in your own walk, please don’t hesitate to ask, either in the comments below or, if you’d prefer to keep it offline, feel free to email us at StormingJericho (at) gmail.com.

Photo by Lindsie Billeter. (She’s awesome.)

Checking In From Our Hiatus

Posted
December 19, 2012
Categories
On The Trail
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1 Comment

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)

New Shoes Lost and New Friends Found

Posted
September 5, 2012
Categories
On The Trail
Comments
2 Comments

Sometimes something works out in ways you would’ve never imagined. In fact, that seems to be a pretty common theme of this adventure so far. Thankfully, the Lord has continued to make things work out better than we could’ve expected or even hoped.

If you read about our recent craziness in Beaver, Utah, (you can check out this post to see what we mean), you’ll know that we had an unexpected mess that was resolved by some incredibly helpful people. Oddly enough (or maybe not oddly at all), the same thing happened two days later.

As we made our way from Beaver to Circleville, Utah, Lindsie’s shoes were pretty much clinging on to their last shreds of dignity. In fact, one of her shoes had a hole in the bottom you could literally poke your finger through – that’s how worn out they were. Thankfully, we knew her newest pair of shoes was being held at Stan’s Mart in Circleville, and she’d be ready to put ‘em on and continue down the road once we picked them up.

Or so we thought.

But when we arrived at Stan’s, we quickly learned that the UPS folks had picked them back up from Stan’s and sent them back to the shoe company. Apparently there was a miscommunication and someone thought we’d be picking them up within a day or two, even though we were over 80 miles away when they were dropped off and Lindsie had said very clearly, “We’re walking across the country, so it will take us a few days to pick them up.”

Regardless of whose fault it was, Lindsie no longer had the new shoes she’d been expecting, and UPS said it would take a minimum of 3-4 days (thanks to the Labor Day weekend) before they’d arrive. We were stuck in a pretty small town with no wearable shoes for Lindsie. She was either going to have to walk 3-4 days in her old shoes or we’d have to wait 3-4 days in Circleville for new shoes to arrive. Neither option was ideal. The other problem? Lindsie wears a size 11 in shoes, which isn’t a terribly common shoe size for women, and in a town of 400-ish people, randomly finding someone with size 11 shoes wouldn’t be easy. Once again, we were praying for some miraculous resolution to our situation.

Enter Karen Karbach.

Karen and her family had seen us ALLLL the way back in Nevada over a month ago when we were walking along Highway 50. They’d been driving to Reno and noticed us on the way there and back. Her son, Scott, had seen us in Circleville and told his mom, “I think those are the people we saw walking in Nevada.” She didn’t believe him, so she came up and asked us if we were the same people.

Not surprisingly, we were the same people.

Karen wondered what we were doing in Circleville, and Lindsie explained the shoe situation. Then we heard the magic (or should we say, blessed) words…

“I wear a size 11! And I have tons of extra walking and running shoes if you want to take some of them!”

Lindsie just about burst into tears right there on the sidewalk. Karen said she’d run home, grab a few pairs of shoes, and Lindsie could try on and take any shoes that fit.

A few minutes later, Lindsie had a perfectly-fitting pair of Sauconys that would easily get us by until we arrived in Loa (60 miles down the road) and got her real new shoes. Then Karen said, “We’re running to Walmart in Richfield soon, so if you guys need anything while we’re there just let me know.”

Frankly, it was kind of nice just to know Walmart still existed, as we haven’t seen one in over a month now. We actually did have a need at Walmart, as our lone iPod cord had just shorted out that day, so we were happy to get a few of those without having to pay $30 at a gas station for an iPod cord.

Karen and her kids went to Walmart, got their stuff, got our iPod cords, and came back. Oh, and did I mention they let us do laundry at their place so we wouldn’t have to pay for it? Because they did that too.

On top of that, a woman named Dottie who owns a delicious–and very fairly-priced (particularly for being in a small town)–cafe told us we could have breakfast at her place for free the next morning, which was a really welcome blessing for sure.

The next morning we got up to leave, and, since it was Lindsie’s birthday, we didn’t want to put in a full 20-mile day of walking. So, of course, Karen asked if we wanted to hang out at their place for the afternoon and ride four-wheelers (and their sweet electric car), visit Butch Cassidy’s childhood home, have dinner with them, and, to cap off the night, shoot of fireworks for Lindsie’s birthday. And at that point, they invited us just to stay at their house instead of trying to camp right outside of town for the night or pay for another hotel stay.

Needless to say, it was a VERY happy (and fun) birthday for Lindsie, and we were grateful to spend so much time with yet another wonderful, awesome family like the Karbachs. Karen and her son Scott, her daughters Nicole and Danielle, and her sort of daughter Kasey (and her son Brayden) are just overly friendly, laid back people, and we were blessed to be staying an extra day and enjoying their company. Karen’s husband, Kraig, was working in California for Labor Day car sales, so we didn’t get to meet him, but he also seems like a great person.

All in all, what went from a disaster of lost shoes and a sad birthday turned into another miraculous blessing (I mean, really, the only reason they even talked to us is because they’d seen us walking over a MONTH ago in a totally different state? That’s too much of a coincidence to simply be a coincidence as far as we’re concerned…), and we are thankful yet again that the Lord is watching out for us and taking care of us on this journey.

Thanks to everyone who has wished Lindsie a happy birthday and supported us with encouraging words as we trek across Utah. We feel so thankful and blessed and we’re excited to share more with you.

Also, don’t forget to check out our new website (thanks to Jonathan Kurten of Jonathan Kurten Design), which we are extremely proud of and excited about. Just visit stormingjericho.com to see it in all of its magnificent glory.

We’ll have more info soon as we continue on across Utah. We truly look forward to seeing what other blessings God puts in our path and sharing them with you as we go.

Keep on stormin’, everybody!

-Mike (and Lindsie…if she doesn’t leave me for saying things like “Keep on stormin’!” that is…)

Utah, New Friends, and a Rocky Road

Posted
August 31, 2012
Categories
On The Trail
Comments
6 Comments

Now that we’re a good week into our stretch of Utah, we’re blown away by how different it is from Nevada. While Nevada was beautiful, it definitely felt like we were in the desert. Meanwhile, Utah has sort of looked like the desert in some stretches, but most of the time it’s just green and mountainous (and beautiful as well). At least, that’s been the case for us so far.

So here we were, expecting vast miles of empty desert, and instead we’re hitting towns every 20-40 miles and there are trees, grass, and plenty of farm animals grazing all over the place. It’s different, but in a completely great way.

Anyway, here’s what happened after we left Baker and crossed into Utah. We pretty quickly came up on a fairly small town called Milford, which had a great diner—Penny’s, if you’re ever there—that let us sit around ALL day and use their wi-fi. We felt obligated to order both lunch and dinner there as a result of our wi-fi usage, which worked out well for us anyway because the food was tasty.

As we were getting ready to leave Milford, we got caught in an aggressive downpour of rain, so we just set up at the Lyon’s Club campground in town rather than moving on down the road. The next morning, however, was much clearer, and we began the push toward Minersville, which was only a little farther down the road.

Minersville was also a great town, partially because of Michelle, the friendly post office worker we met while picking up a variety of packages we’d had shipped to Minersville. Michelle was excited for us and our journey, and wanted to help us out. She ended up going WAY out of her way by bringing us fresh baked bread, still-hot corn on the cob, and a load of hand-picked vegetables from her garden. Also, we discovered Barq’s Red Crème Soda while we were in town, and that stuff is FANTASTIC. Needless to say, we liked Minersville, even though we weren’t there long.

We didn’t want to stay in Minersville that night because, at that point, we hadn’t yet walked very far, but we knew there was a campground a few miles farther down the road at the Minersville Reservoir Recreation Area, so that’s what we set out for. We got there early enough in the evening to have some time to ourselves. It was a little eerie/odd because there were 40 campground spaces and we were the ONLY people there, but we had fun nonetheless. Plus, it rained while we were there and Lindsie was able to take some killer photos of the rainbow that came out as a result.

Later that evening, a guy we’d met earlier on the road from Ely to Baker brought us a pizza and had dinner with us. His name is John Gergen, and his life story is amazing. As he filled us in with the details of how he was saved and born again and what he’s done with this life since then, we just felt more and more blessed that God put him in our path. Plus, the pizza he brought was really tasty. We ended up enjoying a really blessed night of conversation and fellowship that ended in some really powerful prayer, so we were thankful for John’s company and his willingness to share such an amazing story with us.

Anyway, John works in Beaver, Utah, during the week, and then drives back to Ely—where he and his wife own Second Chance Ink, a laser tattoo removal shop that removes gang tattoos for free—on weekends. With Beaver only being 10 miles farther along from the reservoir, we told John we’d probably see him later that night and he told us he’d love to take us out for dinner if we wanted to. We were definitely fine with that, and we looked forward to meeting him later that evening.

At least, that was the plan. Then we got thunderstormed on, hard. Even though we’d only gone a couple of miles that day instead of our usual 15-20, we decided to set up the tent and call it a night. We’d tried to wait it out under a couple of tarps, which led to the disastrous result of both me and Lindsie soaked to the bone and surprisingly cold for being out in the desert.

We told John we weren’t going to make it to Beaver that night and we were sorry for faking him out, but he did what any awesome person would do and just drove out to get us (it was, after all, only about 10 miles away by car). We ate a delicious meal with him again, enjoyed more fellowship, and said our goodbyes back at the tent when dinner was over. We told John we’d keep in touch and we’d be talking with him sooner than later, even if it was just to say hello.

We had no idea we’d be calling him again two days later to work a miracle for us.

So here’s what happened. We made it to Beaver the next day, and it’s a lovely place. We set up at Camperland, which is just a really nice campground on the south side of town, and had an entire afternoon to use our computers and internet, plus we were able to reload on supplies AND send food ahead of us to a town that doesn’t have a grocery store as big as the one in Beaver.

We got up the next morning and began to take a road that both Garmin and Google said was a safe, travel-able road. Lindsie had been sure to set the GPS to “avoid unpaved roads.” We started off down South Creek Road and it wasn’t paved, but it was at least a solid enough gravel road. After 9 miles, we were supposed to turn right and continue toward Freemont Road, which we’d hoped was paved, or was at least good, solid gravel.

Instead, the road looked like the picture you see in this blog post. It was made of rocks. Not smooth, cart/bike/drive-onable rocks, but huge chunks of rocks just strewn about on barely visible patches of dirt road. Needless to say, it was a battle. We were hoping it was just a short stretch of difficult road before hitting a smoother road soon after.

It wasn’t. It went on and on and on.

We ended up camping early for the day so we could decide what our plan was. We ultimately decided that, knowing Freemont Road was only 4.5 miles further, we would just try push on and see where we could get, hoping the road would get smoother once we progressed past the rocky section.

It only got worse. After taking apart our carts and carrying them through massive mud puddles and carrying them around other mud puddles, pushing over rocks, and getting poured on not once but twice, we’d made it a grand total of one mile before my cart finally broke. One mile, when we’d been averaging 20 per day on normal roads.

We were stuck, and really not in a good situation. We were 3 miles out on a backroad where we hadn’t seen a single large vehicle (just two guys on their ATV who couldn’t believe we were trying to push on that “road”), we didn’t know how much farther we’d have to go to reach real roads, and our cart was broken, so going back was essentially impossible.

We didn’t know what to do. We called Camperland, and Andy gave us the number for the area’s Search and Rescue department, just in case they’d be willing to help. Unfortunately, no one answered. The ONLY other person we knew in the area was our recently-made friend, John, but he didn’t live in Beaver, so we didn’t know if he’d have any idea on what to do. Plus, it was a Sunday, so he was back in Ely anyway.

Either way, we knew he was our last option, so we gave him a call. He said he might know someone who could help, so he told us he’d call us back after he asked if his friend could help.

We waited nervously, praying God would send someone…anyone…our way who might be able to help us.

Eventually John called back and said his co-worker, Melissa Anderson, and her husband, Ryan, should be coming out to rescue us. We couldn’t believe it.

Sure enough, after a few phone calls and a few sets of directions and re-directions, Melissa and Ryan pulled up in their Jeep Wrangler. We were saved, and overwhelmed with gratitude. The only dilemma was cramming ALL of our stuff into the back of their Jeep. Thankfully, as you should be able to see in the photo, we made it work, piece-by-piece. Then we took off across the mess that had been kicking our butts for 3 miles. We ended up going out the way we were intending to continue on and we’re amazed to see that we would’ve had to go through about 15 more miles of that brutal rock road if we’d continued on our path. Instead, we enjoyed a fun backcountry ride out in a Jeep and were dropped right back off where we’d started at Camperland. And as a bonus, Andy, the owner of Camperland, felt bad about how awful our situation had been and let us stay for free that night. He actually told us to give the $20 for camping to the Andersons for gas, but they refused to take the money, and we ended up with a free rescuing and a free night of camping. We’ll call that a double blessing.

On the one hand, we were disappointed to end up back where we’d started two days before. On the other, more important hand, we were SOOOO thankful that the Lord provided us with a means to escape our seemingly-hopeless situation. Between God putting a great, uplifting Christian like John in our lives three days before we needed his help to Ryan and Melissa going WAY out of their way to come rescue us, we felt blessed beyond measure. If it meant coming back to Beaver and reassessing things from here, we thought it was a very worthwhile trade-off.

Anyway, we’re now figuring out a new plan of attack and will actually be on our way by the time this post goes live, but we look forward to whatever adventures come our way next. We’re hopeful those adventures don’t involve roads made entirely of rocks, though.

We hope you’re still enjoying following along with this journey and we’re thankful for everyone’s support and encouragement. We’re hoping to plow through Utah from here on out so we can hit Colorado running and make it through both of these states before the snow starts to fall. Please pray that we will make good time as we continue on the road.

Also, don’t tell her I told you guys, but it’s Lindsie’s birthday on Saturday, September 1st (tomorrow), so feel free to comment, call, text, or whatever else you feel like doing to wish her happy birthday. I’m sure she’d love reading happy birthday messages all day, as she’s a pretty big fan of birthdays.

Thanks again to Michelle, John, Melissa, Ryan and Andy for making our first week in Utah a memorable one, and thanks to everyone else for following our updates. We’ll be back with more soon!

-Mike and Lindsie

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