Being in Iowa was so good. I was able to see family that I hadn't been able to see in more than 2 years. Growing up, my mom and I, or all three of us would make a trip out at least once a year, even through high school, but once I got to college I was unable to go as often as I would have liked. Lots changes had happened since my last visit so it was important for me to take the time and see my roots again.
Last summer (09) one of my uncles, my mom's younger brother passed away and just this past July, my grandfather was taken into Glory. It's safe to say that the last few years for this side of my family has been traumatic to say the least. I had shortly arrived in Northern Ireland when I received news that my grandfather, Verne, had passed away and it became clear that I was not going to be able to be there for the funeral. This man was the man who brought Christ to this family. He was always talking about the Lord; read the Word until he close to death; he exemplified devotion. I was deeply sorrowed to not be at his funeral, but I knew and know now that he would have me do nothing other than stay in Northern Ireland and serve our Lord.
All that being said, while I was in IA, I had the opportunity to visit his grave site. I was there with my cousin Todd, his wife, Jodi and their brand new baby girl, Zoe. I didn't cry, I remembered, over and over, one time when he and I were downstairs and he started talking to me about the Bible. I think I had finished my freshman year at Vanguard and was just beginning to learn the depths of the Bible. It was the first time outside of VU that I had an actual exegetical conversation. Even right now, as I right this, I am cherishing that moment. I took a breath and looked around to see Jodi holding Zoe. This little 7 week-old baby girl who's name in the Greek means "Life". I was reminded that I was not visiting my grandfather's resting place, no he's rejoicing, he is experiencing ultimate peace and harmony. God bless you Grandpa; rejoice in peace.
ok, almost cried there. take breath. ...and on we go :)
While I was in Iowa I had the privilege of seeing 1 grandma, 2 aunts and uncles, 6 cousins and 7 second cousins. It was awesome. Last wednesday my Aunt Teri and my grandma, her name is Val, drove me out to Dubuque from Cedar Rapids to see my cousin Kyle and then leave me off somewhere east of Dubuque. After a headry lunch they drove me out to nowhere-ville Wisconsin, dropped me off and I was back on the road!
I decided to head toward Milwaukee after all...
After walking to a good location and waiting I think an hour, Alisha drove by. I was in a 65 mph zone so it was difficult for people to see me well enough and early enough to judge and be able to stop, but that's something I can't help. You're probably thinking, "just walk a little further..." You put on my backpack and we'll see how far you get, it's stupid heavy. Anyways... She flew by me, but at her first opportunity she came back around with full intention to pick me up. She only took me 22 miles, but it was further than where she was originally going, which she decided to do as we were underway! She was a younger gal, but had driven trucks before and if there's something I've learned out here, it's that truckers are not afraid to pick up hitchhikers. I've never been picked up in a semi, but probably close to a third of my rides have been truckers off duty of retired. By the way, just for update's sake, I'm up to a total of TWENTY-FIVE RIDES!
Alisha dropped me off at the top of an off ramp east of Belmont, WI and after having to battle an army of half-dollar-sized spiders (exaggeration) I made it back to US 151 and my sign read "Milwaukee". That's a long word by the way. It was a wee bit cramped on my white board, but it worked because not too much time had passed before Steve rolled up.
Another "btw" or "by the way", every place I get dropped, the first thing I do is scope out a place to camp for the night. Even when I'm riding with someone! Just gotta be ready, ya know?!
Ok, so here comes Steve... He too flies by and then comes back around. He however, I think, was less sure of picking me up. It seemed like he approached slowly and hesitantly, I offered a friendly and sincere wave and that, I think, convinced him. I laid my pack in the back seat, introduced myself and thanked him for stopping and then asked him how far he was going. "All the way to Milwaukee", he said with a smile on his face and his foot on the accelerator.
Steve is in his early sixties and fit. He was on his way home, concluding a road trip to St. Louis, up to Cedar Rapids and back to Milwaukee. His daughter goes in Coe College, which is where my mom went! We talked off and on, mostly about his college days and the bit of hitchhiking he's done, which is another commonality I'm finding in my ride givers. But the good stuff started happening as we got closer to the city.
Through the power of my do-anything and everything iPhone and with the assurance I would make it to Milwaukee that night, I made reservations to take the ferry to Muskegon (Mus-kee-ghin), MI the next morning at 6 am. I was informed that I would have to be there no later than 5:15. Although I was glad to have that set in stone, it made for a more difficult drop point. I would have to be within walking distance to the ferry, but that part of town, Steve's standards and anyone else's was not a good part of town.
Steve is a good man. For the past however-many-years he has brought day-old Bruegger's bagels in the Salvation Army downtown and was willing to try and pull that string for me to try and find me a bed for the night. Unfortunately, but understandably the gentlemen there were unable to help me out, one has to actually be enrolled in the program to stay there. But, they did tell Steve and I about a place that would be good for me to camp out in. In a park under "Home Bridge". Lakeshore State Park was it's name.
Steve drove me down there and it seemed like a fairly safe place. It's right on Lake Michigan, there were a number of people fishing, people running and biking. Seemed safe enough and it was right by the water; awesome. So I yanked my stuff out, gave him one of my cards with this website on it, said thank you and he turned around and started to go. But not before rolling down his window and giving me his home phone number just in case I get into any trouble. Wow. I was blown away. He could tell I was nervous and I could tell he was nervous about this whole thing and he was good enough to offer me lifeline. I saved him as "Steve in Milwaukee". I don't know if I'll ever call him, but I know that every time I scroll past his name in my phone I will be reminded of how a stranger cared for me.
I took a good while to scope the place out. I wasn't very big and as you can see, I had a good view of the city. I walked further into the park to look for a good place to set up camp, found it and went back towards the mini light house to cook some dinner. Rice. I bet it tastes amazing when it's done, but it never got there. This is no instant rice, quite the opposite really. While I was cooking on this miniature pier thing a couple dudes came out to the end and started fishing. I was talking on the phone when they first came up, but I heard one of them say, "I like what this guy's got goin' on..." So after my rice had "cooked" I took some time to chat with them. We swapped hitchhiking tales and other traveling stories and then they were on their way.
I packed up the kitchen and headed back to the spot that I had picked out earlier. By this time it was getting dark so before I did anything I went to find my head lamp. I looked right where I always put it. In the top pocket, leftish side. Not there. Frustrated, I got out my backup head lamp, yes I have a backup and was able to set up camp. I was off the path about 30 feet and the water was about another 30 feet on the other side of me. I got my tent all set up, sleeping pad laid out and as I was taking out my sleeping bag, I found my primary head lamp! Stoked.
It was still fairly early, like 9 or something so I lit up my pipe, whipped out my camera and set up my tripod. You might not have known this, but Jupiter right now is the closest and ergo brightest it's been since 1956 for the past few nights and that night it rested directly beneath a glowing full moon. I took a good share of photos of that as well as the city skyline. Night photography is SO COOL! I did that for about an hour and then hit the hay because I knew I had a super early morning coming my way...I had calculated, again with the wonder that is the iPhone that it was a 4 mile hike to the ferry and it would take me 1 hour and 20 minutes. This means I would have to start walking no later than 4, preferably quarter to. This means that, in order to pack up camp and be ready to go by then, I would have to get up at the latest, 3. Yep, 3am. I slept just alright that night and woke up at 2:44 and decided that was close enough. That was a miserable morning. With my preposterous pack it took me 90 minutes to get to the port. I walked, quickly from 3:45 to 5:15 and barely made it. Not that I need to sat it, but I slept the whole 2 and a half hour ferry ride to Muskegon. They said there would be 5 ft. swells; I didn't feel a thing.
Oh, Michigan. It was kinda surreal to have finally arrived there. It felt like I had reached another leg of the Journey, even Jeremy (don't worry, you'll meet him later and you'll love him.) referred to it as the Northeast. I walked away from the dock really just wanting to find somewhere to cook some breakfast. I had two Cliffbars as I was hoofin it to the ferry, but that was like four hours ago and it was still only 9:30 eastern time. The time changed when we crossed the lake and yes, that's right, I'm now in the eastern time zone!!!
I walked for a wee bit and found a quaint park with one park bench, three large trees and a river. Perfect. I took the next hour to recalibrate my body and cook breakfast. Organic oatmeal and two different kinds of raisins (donated my the Treehouse Nursery in SE Portland, OR) and some "home made" granola given to me by Emily Marks from a bakery. Mix granola into oatmeal, I'd never done it before, but it's delicious and you should try it.
After fillin up, it was time to hit the road. I wrote "Ludington" on my sign, which is another long word, and started walking. I was still in town and was aiming to get to US 31 to head north towards Jeremy's home. The Lord blessed me with Mark who saw me while I was still in town, backpack on and walking. He was a character. He had cigarettes smashed into the ash tray from who knows how long ago and after weaving through town to avoid road construction he finally got some gas. To start up his old Ford Ranger, he had to turn the key, but then bend down and touch two exposed wires together. Welcome to Michigan. :) Back in his prime he hitchhiked from Florida to where is now in Michigan and loved to tell stories from it.
I could tell this man worked hard for what he had and was satisfied. And even though what he had didn't seem to amount to much, he was generous to stop and pick up a fellow vagabond. He took me up to Hart, MI which is about 20 miles south of Ludington. He dropped me off at his off ramp and I decided to walk past the on ramp ahead of me. It seemed about a half mile.
Not long after getting my pack on the ground, Bob and Toni roll up. Bob, the brother, was driving and Toni his sister was sitting shotgun. She jumped out and cleaned out the back seat for me while Bob helped me get my pack into the Ford Focus hatchback. They were going to Scottville, which is where I wanted to go. They talked between themselves mostly and then Toni turned back to me and asked, "You wanna go up to Manistee?" Manistee is 20 miles more north of where they were heading and I was more than pleased to accept. We dropped of Toni in Scottville and continued up to Manistee. Say it, it's kinda fun. And this is where the fun began.
I moved up front and from there on out, the floodgates lifted and Bob told me all about his life. His relationship with his sister, his job, his girlfriend of 3 weeks and about his relationship with the Lord Jesus.
We got to Manistee and he asked me if I'd eaten today and I told him I'd had breakfast. It was about 1 o'clock. He pulled into McDonald's, which isn't my favorite, but can't exactly be picky on this trip and he bought me lunch. And this was no drive thru run, this was go in, order and sit and eat together. It was awesome. We talked mostly about the church and how he isn't a big fan of going to church and doesn't think it necessary for him to be a Christian. This is not what I believe, but I could tell that he had been wounded. I don't believe that church attendance is required for salvation, but holistic Christianity includes the church and being apart of a group of believers comes with being Christian.
We finished our meal and got back in the car and I was thinking he was just going to take me to the edge of town, but he just kept on talking and in turn, kept on driving! I took out my map and began to try and figure out where we were and he just said, "eh, I figure I'll take ya up to Bear Lake..." Another 20 miles!
We talked the whole way. He took me to the other side of town, which wasn't far, but still, it would have been really far to walk. He pulled into a gas station and out I got. We shook hands, I thanked him, he got back into his car only to get back out and hand me a 5 dollar bill. Who is this guy?!?! He gave a little honk as he drove away and he left me edified. Feeling abnormally blessed for the day I stood there for a while and took it all in.
Considering how my day began and how far I'd managed to come and knowing that I was close enough for Jeremy to come get me in the morning, I decided to make camp. It was only 2 or so in the afternoon, but I was exhausted. I walked about a mile from where I got dropped off to get outside town and was able to find a lovely little spot under a big pine tree bedded with pine needles about 100 yards off the road.
After getting my tent set up, I built a fire, but everything was so wet that trying to keep it alive would take every second of my attention and honestly I was running out of usable fuel. I cooked dinner, again I didn't wait until it was fully cooked, but it was still filling. I was in my sleeping bag by 7 and asleep before 8.13 hours later, I arose.
It was a very windy night and I woke up periodically, but for the most part I had a very restful night. I was awaken by a text from Jeremy saying that he was on his way! He had about a 45 mintues drive so I had to get up and get moving.
For those of you who don't know Jeremy Stringer, let me give you a little background. He was librarian through high school and talk about the coolest librarian ever. He was in his late twenties at that time and had always had a life-giving personality. By the time I was a senior, we were close friends. Through the second half of my senior year we would ride our bikes to school and back; eight miles one way, just about every day. Even if it was snowing. On the way home we had to climb a 3 mile grade and it was in those three miles and about 45 minutes of pumping that we would talk about life and God. He's married to Candice and I knew Sage and Trinity when the lived in Twain Harte, but I was able to meet Mave for the first time. Girl number four is due in December!
I hadn't seen him since he moved back here to Michigan, which was about four years ago so you can imagine the anticipation there was knowing we were so close to seeing each other again! He called me when he thought he was close and I was just rolling up my tent, so I hurried up and made my way to the road. I popped out of the woods about 100 yards behind him and he started honking and reversing as fast as he could. It was a reunion for the record books.
I got in the car and it smelled like smoke, so not too far into the drive I asked him, "you don't smoke, do you?" "No" he says, "never, just pipe tobacco." I was blown away. After having so much in common years ago, now we have this too! He was ecstatic to learn that not only did I smoke pipe tobacco, but I had my pipe!
This was going to be a good weekend.
We got to his place and he made me some food, Quinoa to be exact. It's this weird grain thing that looks like pasta when you cook it. I'm trading my forever rice for some of this Quinoa. Not an hour later, we were in our board shorts and on our way to a giant sand dune! I wish I had pictures of this, but the wind was whipping up so much sand that it would have been the last picture my camera would have ever taken. But trust me, it was huge. It was in Sleeping Bear Dune Park and from the top to the water, which is Lake Michigan, it was probably about a 200 foot decent. After shielding our eyes with sunglasses, oh, and it was cold, we started our decent. Unfortunately, due to the wind, there were rocks exposed from the sand, but that didn't really slow us down. We were gallivanting down this steep sandy slope all the way to the bottom!
You can imagine the air and the speed we were catching. What a rush! We reached the bottom in less than 2 minutes and took out time and took in the view. We stacked some rocks down there and because of the storm the water was fairly treacherous. Having grown up near the ocean, I had seen a lot worse and been in a lot worse and was insistent on going in! Jeremy was hesitant, but after some peer pressure we ripped off our shirts and plunged into the choppy water. The swells were about 3 to 4 feet and close together. It was fresh water, which was weird for me. there was a strong northerly current and being the only people down there, we only spent a couple minutes in the water, but it was a action packed two minutes!
Then came the accent. oh. my. goodness. hated that. My legs were still wrecked from the hike that morning and less than half way up my calves felt like they were going to pop off the back of my leg. Don't forget there are torturous winds. It took us probably a good half hour to reach the top and the higher we got, the more pain my legs were in and the harder the wind blew and it felt like a thousand needles on every exposed part of skin. Good thing I was wearing short shorts. I had to sprint the last 25 yards up the dune because the wind blown sand was so unbearable. Jeremy was catching his breath waiting for me and we made made our way back to the car victoriously.
That night and last night and every night for Jeremy we took his dog, Texas for a run. This looks like us hopping in the car, loading up Texas, lighting up our pipes and going to an undisclosed dirt road where Jeremy lets Texas run while he drives. It is blissful. There's an old covered bridge built with an old rail car as it's base surrounded by miles of woods. Those are cherished moments riding and smoking with Jeremy watching Texas weave in and out between trees.
Yesterday was a lot of rest and Wii ping pong, which over time, I have become an admiral opponent for Jeremy. But that evening we were able to have some man time. The ladies went to
some shopping down town and dropped us for to explore Traverse City. It wasn't far into our excursion before we found our way into a cigar lounge and I bought us a couple stogies for our stroll. Down town Traverse City is pretty cool, and we walked the whole strip as he showed me places along the way and at the other end we found ourselves in Kilkenny's Irish Pub drinking Bushmills whiskey and Shirley's Irish stout. They actually paired surprisingly well. That time in that pub was so good for us. We really have so much in common. This visit has solidified that this is a brotherhood that will last far into the future.Then we came home, played Wii ping pong and I beat him. :)
I am finishing this post Sunday morning and we are about to go to Mass. Latin Mass. And I'm stoked. Jeremy and his family are strong practicing Catholics and it was has been awesome to see this side of Christianity up close and personal.
Sometime this after noon, after a big bbq lunch, Jeremy is going to haul me out to Kalkaska and get me underway for the next and final leg of my Journey! I don't personally know anyone east of here. I have a contact through a cousin in-law of mine that I think will work out nicely, but there's no guarantees in this game.
I plan to head across Michigan towards Sarnia, MI and through Canada on to see Niagra Falls. From there it's more or less a straight shot along Upstate New York, right through Vermont and New Hampshire right into Maine to reach Portland. It's gunna be a crazy last leg and I don't know when the next time I will be able to post will be, but keep me in your prayers. I have a Twitter, which will make it easy for short and sweet updates along the way if you'd like to do that. (LV2XPLR)
I can still feel the winter creeping in on me, so please pray for NO SNOW! or rain. Cold fine, but wet and cold, not so much.
Ok, time to get ready for Mass. I love you all and thank you so much for sticking with me throughout this whole Journey.
Eight days ago I was reunited with Brother Carlos and it has been aglorious week. There has been a lot of simply relaxing around the house and playing with the kids. When all of the family comes over, it gets crazy. One pair of 1.5 year old twins, one 16 month old, a 3 and a 4 year old. Some of Kris' family were in town and a few times it was all the kids and like 15+ adults. ...and breathe... it was a ton of fun. 
