Wyoming

Today we drove from Bella Fourche, SD and headed across Wyoming.  We made another stop at an auto parts store and tried a few things that might reduce our oil consumption and fix the slow leak in the back tire.  We transferred some of our luggage to Dara and Ian’s car so we wouldn’t have as heavy a load going through the mountains in WY.

We drove to Devil’s Tower, but didn’t go into the park.  It’s hard to believe that such a looming monument could be formed naturally, which explains all the legends and spiritual significance that the First Nations people attached to this awe-inspiring feature of the landscape.

Devil's Tower has hexagonal towers that shoot up vertically from the earth with a plateau-like peak at the top.  I remember seeing these hexagonal formations on a geometry poster my dad had in his classroom highlighting geometric patterns found in nature.

From there, we drove across the open ranges in the middle of the state.  There were Texas Gates at every exit from the interstate so that the free-range cattle could stay off the road and the cars could still go through easily.  The road was paved with red asphalt, which was fitting because all the dirt exposed between the yellow grasses and grey-silver shrubs was red also.

Approaching the Bighorn Mountains

We took scenic Route16 through the Bighorn Mountains and the Bighorn National Forest.  We knew that it had snowed earlier in the week, and were warned ahead of time.  We drove through on clear roads with white dusting the pines and blanketing the roadside the whole way. 

It made us remember how much we loved the snow in the winter, and we decided that we would have to seek it our when we were living in LA because we just couldn’t go without =)

Dan decided that running in the snow didn't express his enthusiasm sufficiently, so he tried some somersaults on the way down. Not at all surprising if you know Dan.

See that big grin on his face? That's what satisfactory somersaulting does to him. It always makes me smile too.

   

We stayed the night in Cody, WY.  This town is next to a sulfer springs fed river called the ‘stinky river’ by the natives.  There were a number of small privately owned hotels and motels, and we found one called the Big Bear Motel.  The room was rustic and cozy, though a little small for Istra’s appetite for exploration. We took her out on her leash at night and she explored around the back of the Motel and stalked from shadow to shadow, preferring not to be out in the light of the full moon.  When she decided she wanted to go back inside, she turned and ran quickly, which meant Susanna had to run to keep up since she had Istra on leash, which spooked Istra and made her go faster!  They both made it to our room entrance, which was right around the corner of the building, so it wasn’t too bad and Istra quickly knew she was safe again.

Minnesota -- St. Charles at Grandma Connie's

The two silver cars en route to California reunited!

Leaving Illinois, we drove until we reached the Mississippi River in Bellevue, Iowa, a sleepy town that had as many antique shops as it had restaurants. The town felt like it hadn’t aged very much since the 60’s, except for lock and dam #12 built by the Army Corps of Engineers. We got out of the car and walked along the town’s high river bank so we could see the river, the tug boats, and the lock as it let a large barge out one end. We collected zebra mussels and beautiful rocks on the sandy shore. The Lord gave us another beautiful and sunny day for driving off of the interstate, which I enjoy so much. 

Leaving the Mississippi River, we traveled north to the border of Iowa and Minnesota. Ian’s Grandmother Connie lives in St. Charles, MN so that’s where we were headed. Dara and Ian would already be there since they drove from Greencastle, PA in one day, a twelve hour drive with only a roadside nap. 

Istra and Luke were reunited after a month of exploring new places and meeting new friends (or enemies).  Luke had been staying at Ian’s parents’ house with their 2 cats, and he made good friends with Tucker, but was more hesitant with their bigger cat named Clown.  Istra had been introduced to my parents’ cat Hurricane, and old cat who doesn’t like animal friends sharing her turf, which is when she learned how to hiss and growl.  Istra also was introduced to Susanna’s family’s three cats.  She didn’t really make friends with them, though I suspect her experience with Hurricane kept her on her guard and made it harder to trust the friendliness of other cats.  When we brought Istra into Connie’s house, it wasn’t long before she and Luke were playing and happily running through the house again.

We let Istra go outside on leash in Connie’s small backyard.  Her house backs up to a hill, and has 2 levels of grass with 3 foot retaining walls at the face of each.  Istra loved exploring under the bushes, under the porch, and finally up the tall steps to explore the upper level of the yard.  She took a while to gather her courage to jump back down, and when she did, I had to quickly follow her right back to the porch—she was dragging me as fast as I could go on her leash.

I'm almost as good at stalking as Istra...ok, maybe not.

Illinois -- Istra Goes Camping

Doesn't it look just like her?

We left PLM headed for Minnesota to meet up with Dara and Ian.  We weren’t sure how far we would get in a day because we didn’t start out very early from PLM.  We drove through a bit of southwestern Ohio and I remember one spot where the highway went through a wetland area.  We were up on a causeway and there were marshes and trees and white birds with long necks and long legs flying or fishing along either side.  I thought it would be really fun to canoe through those marshes, but we didn’t have one among all our belongings so that will have to wait for another time =)  We met some dense fog right where the warning signs indicated – right along the Ohio River.  It didn’t last too long, and before we knew it, we were in Indiana.

 

After a stop in Indianapolis right next to the Speedway for gas and oil, we went on to Illinois.  At this point, we began to wonder how long the Midwest had looked like plains of corn and soy with farmhouses and spots of trees around them.  That’s all we saw, and we were wondering if trees had ever lived on those plains.  We followed a county route once to get from the interstate to US Route 52 and saw groves of trees and a few dips and curves in the landscape.  Maybe there were trees in the Midwest at some time, but you just have to pick the small roads to see the remnants of them.  We weren’t too far outside Chicago at this point, so we might have been in a crossover land between the Great Lakes region and the Midwest.

As we tired of our drive and the day passed, we found some state parks outside Dixon, Illinois that we wanted to aim for to camp for the night.  We drove into Dixon (the town where Reagan was born) and met a bookstore owner closing up shop.  We asked him about the parks in the area and he directed us towards a few promising options.  He was very friendly and before we left he offered us a few hot peppers at the bottom of a cardboard box that he had left over at the end of the day.  Maybe he brought some produce to his bookstore to sell, and this was the leftovers.  We were thankful for the small spicy gift because it greatly improved our meager traveling rations of rice and canned beans, though our taste buds were seared a few times trying to figure out how much of which pepper we should use!

Of course, all the photos are taken the following morning.  That's why I had to make an illustration for Istra's night-time adventure.

We arrived at White Pines State Park at dusk.  It was getting quite dark, so the park host in charge of the sites said we could pick a site and set up while there was still a little light, then come back and square up with the payment afterward.  We set up the tent, then we put Istra in it so that she could get out of her carrier and stretch and use the litter box if she needed to.  While we were on a short trip to the car, she nosed her way out somehow and I saw this dark shape trot by me as I was trying to stake down the rain fly.  I told Susanna, and when she saw Istra going towards the underbrush in the woods, she ran over and made a valiant, yet cautious flying tackle…and missed.  So much for not spooking the cat in an unfamiliar environment with coyotes and owls howling and hooting in the dark woods.

 

Well, I think she must love us because she came back after a minute or so when we called.  Maybe she loved the treats that we had for her… no I don’t think we had the treats this time.  It was just us, her loving human companions. =)

We were very hungry at this point, and we heard that there was a rustic lodge with a restaurant in the park that was open late.  We put Istra in her crate in the tent while we were gone.  The restaurant had just closed—another quinoa and beans dinner  When we returned to our site, Istra was not meowing like we expected.  She must have some instinctual wisdom that says ‘I don’t want to be noticed when I can hear animals out there that sound bigger than me.’

She slept with us on our blanket-covered air mattress and even snuggled under the blankets halfway by morning.  It was freezing cold, but we had a lot of fun venturing out to take Istra on her first night camping!

Istra exploring the next morning-- on her leash.  She still looks pretty impressive, but I'm sure she's thinking, 'If only I didn't have this lumbering human trailing me wherever I go, maybe I could do some real stalking.'

Kentucky

After staying the night in Charleston, WV we’re going to Pure Life Ministries today (October 4^th) to look at the campus and meet Brother Bill.  Dan spent six months at PLM’s live-in Christian counseling program before coming to Houghton in 2005. Brother Bill was a mentor and counselor to Dan during that time. PLM is 45 minutes south of Cincinnati, OH in the middle of the country side, surrounded by small tobacco farms, dried up gullies, and small groves of trees nestled between the hills. 

At the Kentucky welcome center on I-64 west, we asked which route we should take to get to Dry Ridge, the closest town to PLM.  The woman working there told us to take Route 9 most of the way and then go the final stretch on county roads.  Route 9 was like a highway out of the 50’s with no divider in the middle, a large shoulder and double lanes every once in a while.  Once we got to the county roads, we had to go about 35 mph the whole way to follow the serpentine contours of the landscape.

Route 22 in Kentucky.  The forested areas are usually gullies.  The road and cultivated land are located where the ground is level enough to farm.

 

PLM has grown since Dan graduated in February 2005. Several new buildings including a dining hall and a new set of rooms called the Annex. Dan showed me the prayer trails in the woods that go down to the bottom of the rocky gullies. We saw a parachuting spider in the field, whose web was caught in the sun’s rays. Since all of the men were at work during the day, the campus had only a few men walking around. We met and talked to William Thornton, a fellow graduate from Dan’s same year, and then Brad Whitney who told us that Ed Buch and he were also counselors. 

We put Istra on her leash so she could explore around the campus while we waited for Bill. She walked around only with much hesitation and when Bill’s landscaping truck drove up, she tried to run back to the car dragging me behind her as fast as I could go. We didn’t try to take her out again there, though she happily passed the night with us in the spacious guest apartment. 

Bill met us after he got back from a full day of mowing. Bill serves as the maintenance director, as well as counseling a few men, so he gets to be outdoors much of the time. He was very welcoming and gave us a tour, a place to stay for the night, and invited us to join him and the men for dinner in the dining hall. Incidentally, the men were all on a talk fast the day we arrived as a discipline to gain time for reflection and prayer in order to prepare for an upcoming guest speaker. So, though the dining room was full of men at supper, it was quite quiet while we spoke with Bill at our corner table. 

 

Bill had invited Dan and I for an early morning walk, so we woke up before the sun rose to be ready to meet him. In order to see the sun rise, we took our bicycles off of the car and rode into the morning mist, which had settled very heavily in the gullies and less so on the roads. Before coming back to meet up with Bill, we got to see the sun come up just like Dan used to when he lived there and drove to work early in the morning. 

 

 

Overall, it was a really pleasant visit. Bill rightly described PLM as a place where people go only when they really need to, so it’s not surprising that I felt pretty strongly that I didn’t belong there. I also think that my love for Dan and earnest prayers for him over these past 6 years have created a very tender place in my heart for the suffering and healing which is part of being delivered from the bondages that men at PLM fight against. It was hard for me to be there, but I was very grateful for the opportunity to experience a community where the Lord gave to Dan the tools of faith and humility that he needed to be freed in Christ.

West Virginia

Istra's latest Facebook self-portrait, Charleston WV =)

 Well, we’re at the end of day 2 of our cross-country trip.  Our little car has been working hard and faithfully getting us from one place to another.  We are packed quite full, and the back is riding pretty low.  We went through the mountains of West Virginia none-the-less and it was beautiful.  We had to go slow on the uphills, patting the dashboard every once in a while to encourage our little car.  “You can do it.” –pat pat-  We really got to enjoy the green, yellow and a few reds of the trees on the mountains we were weaving around and through, and we went right through the place where I proposed to Susanna on top of Spruce Knob, the highest point in WV.

Champe Rocks near Seneca Rocks, WV.  The rocky Tuscarora quartzite backbone of the mountain in WV juts out to frame the pass like the walls of a fortress.

The WV mountains are much greener in early October than early April!

We haven't hiked or climbed any of them yet, but some day would love to see what the world looks like from the top.

We had an early morning at the Bluemont Cottage.  We had told Hayes, the teenage boy whose Grandfather Russel lives down the hill, that we would be up by 7 so he could start squirrel hunting.  We repacked much of the car, then set off to Winchester, VA to get a full sized spare.  By noon we had gotten a spare, repacked the trunk, found that we didn’t have the propane stove, knew the layout of greater Winchester, and were very hungry.  After getting PB and pumpernickel at Walmart, we felt better and then decided that this trip was going to be more utilitarian than we thought at first—better to get to LA with a car that hadn’t hit a pothole and broken something because of the weight than to find rustic places to camp and take our time.

We experienced two kinds of roads driving through the mountains of West Virginia.  Some were highways with long sweeping grades on causeways or bridges between mountains and blastways through ridges.  The rest were small roads that followed the winding river valleys and wound up and down and around the sides of the mountains.

The route we traveled included sections of the Appalachian Development Highway System.  We heard from Chip that the road system in West Virginia was developed to get resources like coal from the places where they were being extracted to the places where they were going to be processed or shipped.  Very few of these roads are through routes that can be traveled easily from city to city within WV let alone to the surrounding states.  The new highway system makes the sections that have been completed a little faster, but is also controversial because of the way that it changes the landscapes that it passes through.

We took the slow lane on the uphills and the downhills so we got to have more time to enjoy the scenery.  The sun stayed out long enough for us to really enjoy these parts, and by the time we got to the highway leading out of the mountain region into Charleston, we were surrounded by misty rainclouds until nightfall.

Istra exploring the rather boring room while I warm up some beans and quinoa for dinner.  Yum!

Istra meowed all night at our first night in the Motel 6 in Charleston, WV. Loud kitty meows, not soft ones. We couldn’t figure out what she wanted, except that she clearly missed the cobwebs of Bluemont and the good smell in all the hiding places. 

"Rraow...MEEoooww...MEEEEOOOOW!"

She’s perfectly good all day in the car too- resting peacefully in her box-, so it could be that she’s letting out all of her mews before we get in the car. I hope that tomorrow night is a bit quieter and more peaceful for her. Lord, please remind Istra that you are with her and that she doesn’t need to be afraid.

Virginia (Bluemont)

Dan and Susanna outside the Bluemont Cottage or Addy's Cottage

The Bluemont Cottage has been in the Thomforde family (actually Truesdell, Hemingway, and Thomforde) for 2 generations.  It was first given to Addy (a Hemingway or Truesdell relative and Susanna's great aunt) and it has been passed down since.  It is in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains about 1 1/2 hours from Washington, D.C.  Susanna has fond memories of family gatherings there often during summers growing up.  Berry picking along the gravel roads in big Chinese hats, a dozen mattresses lining the screen porch, practicing violin with Phil, and listening to Izzy's bible stories that were illustrated using a flannelgraph. She really wanted to see it again and to show it to me for the first time.   We knew that someone named Chip had been living there and taking care of the place, but we didn't expect to find anyone there when we arrived.  Well... we were surprised.

Chip. He’s interesting to talk to for sure and very friendly too. We were quite surprised to find his belongings all over the middle room…clearly lived in! 

When we went to ask Russell, who lives in the big house, about Chip, he told us to be careful since Chip probably owned a gun and would defend his property against strangers.  Needless to say, we were quite intimidated by this warning! However, when we returned to the cottage, Chip greeted us with a good sense of humor. It sounded like this: Susanna: “Hello. I’m a Thomforde (Thomforde said slowly and emphatically so he would understand immediately we weren’t strangers).” Chip: “Well, Hello Thomforde!” For the rest of the evening, Chip remained jovial, conversational, and friendly, sharing dinner with us and greeting us in the morning as we repacked our car.

As far as the warning about catching Chip unawares and meeting a gun, I think that was more a reflection on what a typical gun-owning Virginia mountain man is expected to do rather than a picture of how scary Chip is.  Chip was more interested, it seems, in such pursuits as protecting the woods from invasive flora that comes in on construction equipment and finding a job where he can commute via recumbent bicycle.  In fact, Russel and Hayes (his 15 year-old grandson) seemed far more interested in hunting and gun collecting than Chip.  Hayes warned us that he was going to be hunting squirrels at the cottage, partly for sport, and partly on Chip's suggestion because they have invaded the cottage and Chip's non-violent remedies aren't working.  Chip's response to carpenter ants was to "send out vibes that say 'go away.  Find somewhere else to live-- maybe a rotting log.  Wouldn't that be nice?'"  In addition to 'sending out vibes' he's been using peppermint oil to repel them and researching ant killing fungi.  He had outlet buzzers that repel rodents, but I guess he needs a little Hayes too =)

All in all, Chip seems to know a lot about natural, non-chemical responses to pests, plant or animal. He lives in many places and calls himself a Generalist. For what it’s worth, he seemed to know quite a lot about how to care for the Bluemont cottage. He told us an impressive story about skiing into the cottage in the middle of winter, only to find a snow drift as high as the front door. Dan and I want to try skiing into the house some day! Snow that high in Bluemont is unusual, though Chip would rather call the recent changes in climate the “new normal.”

Dan and I would both really enjoy visiting the Bluemont Cottage more often and would be glad to help fix it up. Maybe some time in the future.  For now we continue to head west.

Oh, and by the way, we saw this nice Saab sports car in the driveway when we first turned in.  I think that it was the first tip-off that the cabin wasn't as Susanna remembered it=)

 

We stayed in the corner bedroom that was not lived in, but rather tidy and COLD.  I think the high the day we arrived was 45.  We were glad for the small space heater provided by Chip.  Also, Istra was thoroughly enjoying herself exploring every nook and cranny in the cabin and getting covered in cobwebs!

We found an old Newsweek magazine with an ad for our new used car acquisition, a 2002 Toyota Corolla.  I like the ad, even though it's for an '01 and ours is an '02... close enough.