A difference in distance.

Mass was beautiful. I had little to no idea what was going on, but Jeremy tried to help me along in the Liturgy. I wish Ed Rybaczyk was there explaining all the different sacraments to me, but I did my best to just appreciate this form of worship. It was difficult for me to enter into worship itself instead of being an observer. For one, I think it was simply because I had never been to an Extraordinary Mass (done in Latin), but also I felt separated from what was going on even deeper than not really understanding it. A lot of me felt like the priest was up there doing all the things necessary to the Catholic Church while her congregation spoke, sang, stood, knelt and sat when qued. This is not judgement towards this beautiful tradition and something that I truly believe is glorifying to God on levels, this is simply what I was struggling with and still am. The picture here is Jeremy's family. Jeremy is holding Mauve, Candice is pregnant with their forth girl and Sage is next to her and then Trinity is on my lap. Gorgeous family, Jeremy. Thanks for the good times, a rekindled brotherhood and all the love!

After a delicious lunch and a few back flips on the trampoline, Jeremy drove me out on hwy 72 into Kalkaska, MI. We said our "see ya laters" and they were on their way back home and I was back on the road.

I set up shop right on the west side of town and not 30 minutes later an officer pulled up and said I couldn't hitch on any MI interstates or county roads. Not true, but I wasn't going to argue. I don't think reciting law back to an officer would go over very well, so I picked up and started walking towards town. He said I could be in town, but if someone called in on me, we could have issues. Good thing I'm not scary looking.

I got to the other end of town about 45 minutes later, only a couple miles, but that was long enough. I was pretty frustrated because I wasn't sure where I could be and where I couldn't, but at one point as I was crossing a street a guy trotted after me from his car at the gas station and handed me a twenty dollar bill. Out of no where. He said it was for my Journey and he was sorry he wasn't going my direction. It was perfect timing for a good encouragement. Not too much further down the sidewalk, I spotted a good place. I've learned that if there's a shoulder, the far side of the intersection at a stop light can produce a ride fairly well. People are stopped and almost forced to look at me for at least 30 seconds.


I was there for, mmm, maybe 2 hours and I could see the light fading. Before Rob came around, I had two other offers! Both of them cars full of girls! The first one was a couple girls near my age, but they weren't really sure what roads they were taking and they didn't even know where I75 was, so I passed. After consulting my trusty map, it was a good decision. about 20 minutes later a car of three high school girls, maybe 17 yrs., rolled up. They weren't going anywhere, but just wanted to give me a ride. I asked if they could just take me to I75, which was 26 miles away. "Oh! no, that's too far." the driver said. I chuckled a little bit and said ok, well, thanks for stopping. Kinda silly.

About maybe an hour after all that, Rob rolled up in his big GMC truck. No hesitation, he knew he was gunna pick me up before he even got to me. I think it's because he could see me from the stop light ;) He insisted I put my pack behind the passenger seat because he had a bike in the bed; I knew this was going to be a fun ride.

Turns out he's a tri-athlete and a dentist. We talked about travel, he asked about my trip and we talked about different adventures we'd been on. We stopped for ice cream; I ordered a small cone, but he told the girl to get me a medium. Later down the road he bought me some dinner. As we got closer to his destination, we began to figure out where he could drop me off for the night, but soon enough, his destination of home became my destination as well. I mention that both my upper front teeth are crowns and that it hurts to floss them more than any other tooth so he said he would have me come in the office the next day so he could take a look.

We arrived at his house and immediately Jill, his wife had food in front of me. It was a wonderful, super healthy chicken soup deal. Very tasty. She also was very curious about my trip and couldn't stop asking questions. I love talking about my trip with people and seeing their reactions. This family seemed very genuine even after just meeting them so "randomly".

The next morning we were off to the dentist office at 9:30. On the way I told Jill that I didn't even have dental insurance let alone enough money to pay for anything. She assured me that this was a gift. "He just does this sometimes and now he's chosen you" she said. We talked about how God's providence is simply undeniable when we pay attention to what goes on around us. He is so good.


I spent a total of 3 hours in the dentist chair and came out of it with a new mouth and a grateful heart. Not only did Dr. Rob fix two or three spot of decay, one of which was getting bad and he said it would have started hurting in the next couple weeks, but he also individually reshaped my teeth so that they line up and I can bite straight down without shifting my jaw! He also hooked me up with a retainer deal thing to wear at night so I don't clinch my teeth. It was an overwhelming experience and everyone in the office seemed so pleased to help and be apart of what Dr. Leach does. Thank you so much Dr. Leach for everything you did. For having the boldness to stop and pick me up and the compassion to fix my teeth at no cost to me.

After my mouth got an internal makeover, Jill drove back to the house to get my stuff and some lunch and then she drove me out to Davison to get me out on I69 East towards Port Huron and Canada. The plan was to shoot through out Northerly neighbors and into Niagara Falls and on through New York and so on. Jill traded numbers just in case I needed to get a hold of her and I, again, was back on the road. I walked straight down the on ramp and set up shop not too far away.

Eventually, Tracy stopped for me. I threw my bag in the back and we were on our way to Capac. Pronounced, Kay-pack. Don't ask me. Tracy grew up in the church but hasn't gone very much at all in the past 25 years and has recently been watching a lot of The History and The Science Channel. After we asked about what I studied in school he said, "hm, that's interesting..." like this was more than a coincidence that he picked me up. He said that his "faith had been rocked" by the different ideas presented on his television. He said they seem to have all the answers and all that contradicted his idea of Christianity. I told him that religion and science don't have to be and shouldn't be pitted against each other. There's room for science in religion and I think visa versa. I told him the one thing that hit me hardest when considering the creation story was to realize that the Bible is not a science book; it's a narrative. We didn't have much time, but I hope I utilized the little time we had effectively.

Next came Chris. Tracy dropped me off at the top of an off ramp and I wasn't even to the bottom of the on ramp before Chris picked me up. He wasn't going very far, but closer is closer. It was quickly apparent to me that he was a believer and I could speak openly about my faith and even my previous conversation.

I told him that I hold the belief that the Creation Story is just that, a narrative given to Moses inspired by God to give an account of how we and all of this came to be. I believe God created the world, but the idea of seven days is how Moses could try and make any sense of what was being revealed to him. Chris on the other hand, holds to the belief that it is a literal seven day creation. I did my best to point out that even though we believe different things about how our God works, he is still both of our God. We are still brothers in Christ.

Chris took me more than he had planned and got me only about 10 miles from Canada and then along came the only man so far I forgot to ask a name of. :( He wasn't even going my direction, but he could see that it was about to rain and his daughter said he should give me a ride. So he did, straight to Port Huron! He dropped me right next to a Duty Free away they went.

I was at somewhat of a loss of what to do next. Do I try and walk across or try and get a ride right near the bottom of the bridge? I decided first that I would try and walk until I came to a sign that informed me I couldn't. I wrote "NO PED XING :(" on my sign and tried to play the sympathy card to get a ride. It wasn't working, night was falling and I was getting anxious to try and get across. So I packed up and found my way to the main entrance onto the bridge and walked up. I didn't even make it to the toll booths before a MI Transportation officer greeted me and informed me I couldn't walk across, but that he'd be "nice enough" to let me hitch where I was before, which means he saw me before! or down near the bottom of the ramp I walked up. I chose the route with more traffic and it wasn't long before Gina stopped for me.

Gina is a very nice lady. She works in Port Huron and lives in Sarnia. Neither she nor I had any idea what we were about to get ourselves into. Obviously paying the toll was fine, but trying to get into Canada was like Carlos trying to get through airport security, only he usually gets through. Yes, I had my passport, but due to the fact that I "couldn't demonstrate I had sufficient funds" and hitchhiking is illegal in Canada 400 series highways (the main vein to NY), I was denied entrance. I think it had to do with the fact I didn't have any money to spend in their casinos, so what was the point?

Anyway, Gina, being "responsible" for me had to drive me back to the good ol' U S of A. I felt so bad I had burdened her like this; she just wanted to go home. And after going through customs again on the US side, she made that clear that she wanted to go straight home. We got out to her car and I was hoping she would drive me down to the bottom of the bridge, but she said something like, "well Tom, sorry we couldn't get you into Canada, but I hope the rest of your trip is great." I took that as a polite get my stuff out so she could be on her way. I oblidged without question, gave her a blog card and she drove off.

There I was walking away from customs, in the rain on a bridge connecting two different countries. Like it was gunna be that easy. Before I knew it, I had one, then two then three guys running after me with their hands on the holsters. They were just doing their jobs, which is great, but I just wanted to get off that dang bridge and pitch my tent. They were asking me why I was on this bridge and what I was doing luckily I remembered half of the kid's name who ran our info inside and he eventually came out and have me the green light. I knew it was going to be fine, but it's really sad they have to think that everyone is a terrorist.

They showed me a safe way to get down to street level through a series of stairs, and elevator and a long ramp, but I finally was off that dreadful bridge and on solid ground, but still in the rain. I followed to bridge toward the river looking for a dark spot to pitch my tent. Finally I found one. The ground had been raised up about 4 feet around this pillar and that was the best I was gunna get. I set up quickly, journaled some and went to sleep. Frustrated.

It rained all night and all morning and all day. I woke up to puddles creeping on my tent and I tried to put off the inevitable of putting away my tent in the rain, but I knew what I had to do. I miserably packed up and found some shelter on the lee side of a building. I text Jill to see how serious she was about helping me out. I was not looking forward to standing out in the rain trying to get a ride. She said I could stay there tonight, but I should try and get as close as I could because she had to work all day.

Five hours. Five hours standing in the rain that day. I have water proof stuff, but things fail at a certain point and I was wet and cold. Finally at about 4:30, Dale comes up to the stop light waiting to turn right, in the direction I was needing. I looked at him, made eye contact, gave the

"man nod" and looked away. Out of my peripheral vision I saw him roll down his passenger window and lean towards it. I couldn't hear what he said, but I knew he was asking where I was going. "Towards Flint" I said. "Well, I'm not going very far, but it'll get you closer..." At that point I would have taken just about anything. I threw my pack in the bed of his truck and I said good riddens to Port Huron.

He is a carpenter. After learning about what I was doing, Dale was inspired to take me further than intended so he could take the back roads home. He was interestingly interested in what I was doing and seemed inspired. He got me to Imlay City and before he drove away he shouted back, "you gunna be ok, right?!" I assured him I would be fine and he was on his way home.

Jill was just finishing work at this point about would be there shortly! I hid out in a patch of woods near the off ramp, it was no longer raining, and called my parents to say hi.

Jill was there in no time and I couldn't have been more relieved to see her. I was wet, cold and tired. When we got back to their place, they let me set up my tent in the living room to dry out and fed me, of course. I took that night to dry out and warm up. My stuff needed the same treatment. Everything was soaked. I spent some time that night trying to help Rob set up stuff on his new Mac.

I spent the next morning packing up and reorganizing things in my pack. We left for lunch and afterwards Jill and her son Bruce drove me out to Fenton, MI onto US 23 South. This route diverted me away from Detroit and still got me into Ohio. We again, said our goodbyes, this time with a hug and that was that. They are such a warm caring family. Jill has texted me just about everyday since I left there just to see where I am. She said today that she doesn't think the Lord is done with the new friendship and I couldn't agree more. :)

Berny, a female was the first to pull of US 23 and pick me up. She is a professor at a university in Toledo, so that was easy enough. She is a very adventurous person so we talked about that adn she was extremely hungry so we stopped at a Bob Evan's along the way. She had lunch and bought me a piece of pie. Entertaining lady, fun to talk with.

She dropped me off where 184 meets US 23 and she was on here way. I walked up and around and found myself in Sylvania, OH. I found a good spot, on the far side of a stop light, but not 20 minutes in, an officer rolled up and said through his passenger window, "You know, it's illegal to solicit rides. I don't have time to deal with it right now, but I highly suggest to keep on walking." and he drove off. Again, incorrect, but I'm not going to argue. So I walked and hitched and walked and hitched. I walk 2 miles until I came to a sign that read, "Welcome to Toledo". New town, new cops. Time to set up shop.

I was there for maybe 45 minutes before Ray picked me up and little did I know, but I was about to get a full tour of down town Toledo! It was an interesting car ride. I had a good time with Ray. He knows a lot about that city and knows how to make it interesting. I could tell he was proud of it too. He didn't take me very far, comparatively, but he got me to the other side of Toledo, which was what I needed. It was about 5 so I decided to call it a day and find a place to pitch.

Pearson Metropark would be my home for to night. It basically was a big patch of woods with a running loop around it, but it's innards was all natural. I worked my way back and found a good spot for the night.

The next morning Sam picked me up and drove me to Port Clinton out Route 2, which was what I was looking for. He told me about his days hitchhiking and all the crazy stuff me used to do. Fun times.

HE dropped me on an off ramp from Route 2 and before long my thumb was out again. Except this time it attracted an Ohio State Highway Patrol Officer. I never got his name, but he was so curious about what I was doing. It was like he couldn't understand what anyone would do this just for the fun of it. After a thorough pat down, I got in his rig and he took me off Route 2 into the booming town on Sandusky.

I started walking from there on US 6 towards the other side of town and in about mile 2 Mike flipped around and picked me up. He said he wasn't going very far, but he could get me to the other side of town, near the turnpike. But not before he got me some food. He had a buy one entre get a another free coupon for the Chipotle-like place and I ate my quesadilla then and saved my burrito for later. Mike took me down near the turnpike, handed me twenty dollars(!) and wished me luck.

There I stood for 2 hours. No luck. I had a couple offers, but they weren't really going anywhere at all and I decided to wait for someone going the distance. Due to all the run-ins with cops and such, I was feeling defeated and treated my self to a room at Days Inn also in celebration of being on the road for over a month. Indoor pool. yum.

(If it seems like I'm burning through this, I'm sorry. I'm super tired and I'm leaving where I am now at 5:30 am, which is less than 4 hours from now, but I have to get this out becasue I have no idea when the next time I will be able to blog next. So please, bare with me)

The next moring I got out there, to that same spot at 10 am. Over 3 hours my sign went from reading, "East!" to "NY!" to Norwalk", which was the next town down to just simply being thrown on the ground out of frustration. I didn't know what I was doing wrong or what I could do differently, but behold, 15 minutes after ditching the sign, Ken rolled up in hid oversized, white Cadilac and took me to Norwalk. That at least got me down onto the US 20.

I got some Subway and then made my way over to the onramp and saw this sign. Awesome. Thank you Ohio. So I stood right there and didn't wait long before Kerry stopped for me. He wasn't goig very far either, but he got me to where US 20 was no longer freeway and I could actually hitch right on it. That was really helpful.

I set up shop and waited about an hour for Vince to drive by and he said he was only going up to Oberlin, about 20 miles, but I was down for that. He is an English professer who loves to drive on his time off.

Do you remember a few posts ago when I mentioned somebody has been texting me annonomisly; sending me Bible verses and encouragments and been praying for me daily? Well, earlier that day, this person told me that if I get to Oberlin to let them know because they had family there. So I did.

Not knowing how this would turn out, but pretty soon I got the text, "stay put". Vince had dropped me on the east side of Oberlin right on the 20 so that's where I stayed. It was this huge, drwan out thing. I got texts from this person that read, "Stay put and wait for a familar face" "A lil slice of Twain Harte is on its way my friend." "You'll know him when you see him" These plus others really got me excited about who was about to pick me up. It took us a while to connect, but eventually a bearded man drove up in front of me and low and behold it was Tim Ewing! A man that had wathced me grow up in Twain Harte E.V. Free from when I was 7 til I left for school! I was blown away. I had no idea he and his wife Jan were here and they had no idea I was in town. They are out here currently visiting one of their daughters who married an Ohioan and they live in Oberlin. In fact, Vince drove me right past their house!

I hadn't seen Tim and Jan for more than five years and it took me a while to put together all the pieces, but once I did, I was overwhelmed with the reality of who my little shoulder angle is.

Cameron McClean was my youth pastor through Jr. high and through some less than pleasent events, our lives became detached from one another's over the years. I had no idea it was him who was texting me this whole time, but I wouldn't have had it been anyone else. This is huge and I am so thankful for the body and of Christ and the redeeming work of the Lord. If you're wonderong about the family connection, Tim in Cameron's father-in-law.

So I have been here in Oberlin in this beautiful house with this amazing familiy trying to wait out the rain, but my time has come to move on. The man of this house, David is the son of a man who owns a huge greenhouse farm, flower/plant growing facility. They ship plants to Wal-Marts and Home Depots and places alike for us to buy plants to place in out gardens! I got a tour of some of the facilities and got to see the orchid rooms. Beautiful.

So, they have a delivery truck going out to Akron tomorrow, leaving at 6 and I figure that's a pretty good ride to get started early in the morning. But I need to get to bed in order to get up! I haven't made it very far in the last week, which is frustrating at levels, but I need to remember the life is a Journey not a destination.

I love you all and thanks for reading! I hope to be to Maine in about 7 to 10 days! Please pray for clear skies!