Those Fireside Chats

   So apparently this trip doesn't follow any law of diminishing returns. Today was our lazy day. We didn't do anything because of the rain. Sure we could've been depressed and sad, but NO! We're productive sons of God. Throughout this trip we've taken way too many photos. You've only seen a small portion of them, because it takes forever to format these photos on a post, especially when using a phone's 3G connection as a vessel to the annals of the internet. I'm reminded of a tour guide when I utter the words "If you'll look to your right, you'll see a slideshow of many of the photos taken so far." But it must be said. That is just a small portion of what we've taken so far, as everyone seems to have a trigger happy finger. That's all well and good though, as it gives us something to do on these days plagued with rain and cold.

    Today started with a dreary beginning, with the aforementioned rain. We knew it was coming and were prepared with rainy day activities to pass the time. With no hikes planned, it was time to restock. After a decently long and time-consuming trip to Walmart for provisions, and Radioshack and O'Reilly's Auto Shop to buy fuses for Rastro the Astro, we hunkered down for a bit of light reading. I say light reading because I read about 2 pages. ;) The season finale to our unanimously favorite show "Chuck" had premiered earlier in the week, and no amount of low reception and dirt could stop us from seeing the wonderful conclusion to a great season. So that was a lovely diversion for a bit of time while the worst of the rain passed.

    After finishing up with "Chuck" we decided to hunker down to going through the photos we'd taken so far. About an hour later… seriously… we had trimmed the fat from about 1000 photos, to about 500 photos. I'll reiterate that bit about the trigger happy fingers. Most were pictures of the same landscape from different angles, and it was quite hard to pick between them. I also discovered the magical "Enhance" button in iPhoto and how it makes most every picture look exactly as it did in real life. This was a blessing, as many of our pictures were taken through a car window. Now don't get down on us for being cheaters. Enhancing is a vital aspect of making our photos enjoyable for the masses.

Our Mecca

    Here is where I'm going to overlap with Keegan's post a little bit, but just roll with it. After the wonderful dinner that he mentioned in the previous post, if you could follow the run-on sentence, we headed out to find some free WiFi. Rumor had it that Zion Lodge had some of the good stuff for free. We boarded the shuttle bus alone. Everyone had had enough of Zion for the day, it seemed. After sitting in the rear car of the shuttle for a bit (Yeah, those driver's are legit. They navigate mountain roads with two-car train buses like pros.), the driver came back to the rear to ask us where we were headed. I guess he didn't want to make any unnecessary stops if he didn't have to. When we informed him of our plans, he enlightened us of greener pastures in the form of an internet café in town. For that, I am eternally grateful. Whoever you are mystery bus driver, you are a gentleman and a scholar!

    We disembarked the bus, striding triumphantly through the rain back to Rastro, with dreams of multi-megabyte speeds running through our heads. After arriving back to camp we made headway towards the little town of Springdale. Finally, we arrived at Pioneer Lodge, the best little café I've ever entered. As Keegan pulled into the first available parking spot, the van beside us must have been trying to back out as well. Through no fault of our own, the driver was inconvenienced. As such, I was made to witness the most terrifying glare from the lady driver that man has ever had to endure. That look will frequent my nightmares for the next fourteen days. Seriously, my soul began to weep. And it wasn't even my fault!

The best little cafe in Utah.

    From here on out is the real meat of the post, so don't worry too much about reading that first bit… oh, you already read it… Well as previously mentioned, this is the best little café ever visited by yours truly. Not so much from the fact that the coffee was pretty bangin' good, but from the experience of the entire stay there. This singular 2 hour experience has me so excited for the rest of the trip that I couldn't go to sleep without writing about it tonight. We noticed that they offered free WiFi with a $2.99 purchase, which was not a
huge commitment for Keegan and I, being fledgling baristas ourselves. I never miss a chance to see how differently a drink can taste when made by a different person. This is where we met Jaymes Whitmann. (Name Change for Privacy. I got your back Jaymes) This individual made our stay more than pleasant. He was so ready to make us feel welcome and at home, that I had to reassure him that I was indeed quite comfortable. If every business was run this way, I'd be broke for spending all I had in coffee shops. Seriously, man, you really made us feel at home. If any of you ever find yourselves in Springdale, Utah, be sure to stop by Pioneer Lodge and order a mocha latte. He'll set you up right.

Look how awesome that looks! And it was toasty warm in there.

    As we drank our drinks, Keegan began writing his post, and the rest of us messed around with the photos and got them up online so that lovely slideshow on the right could be made. As I was going through them all, and picking out the best of the best, a man came up and asked about our travels. We chatted a bit about Bryce Canyon, Zion, and our future endeavors, and also a bit about HDR photography. He seemed to know his stuff, but sadly, I didn't get his name. Another gentleman, who stuck around a bit longer came up and inquired about which was my favorite photograph from the trip. I showed him a few that I was especially proud of and we chatted for a bit longer. He specialized in photographing hummingbirds. So I showed him a photo of Azul, our friendly bird companion, and he handed me his card. Greg Schrodinger was his name (or half of it. Again changed for privacy). His website was on the card. We talked for another half hour or so, and eventually parted ways as the café was closing up. We said our farewells, and headed back to camp.

    This trip has been amazing so far with just the scenery and the landscapes that we've had the pleasure to view. However, I think we can all agree on the singular point that the people we have met so far have made this trip into what it is. We have made friends from all around the country. It amazes me how when you leave your hometown, where striking up a conversation with a stranger would seem strange or intimidating, and heading out into the wilds of the US countryside, can make you feel so open to a human connection. I feel that God has made us to be social creatures. In the garden, Adam became lonely. That was the first sign of man's need for human companionship. God provided for Adam in his time of need, and he has provided for us abundantly with great friendships forged over photographs and a cup of coffee. I honestly believe that the people you meet on the road become a sort of family. Sure, we don't share a last name, but we share that adventurous spirit. We have experiences that make us unique, yet bring us together. Each person on the road can positively add to the experience of another, and doing so makes up a web of mutual benefit for all those involved. I hope these encounters develop into lasting friendships, and I hope we have left these people with as great  an impression as they have left with us. If you folks are reading this, you guys rock!

-David "Cutthroat" Johnson

"Seachnaidh duiné a bhràthair, ach cha sheachain e choimh-earsnach."

A man may do without a brother, but not without a neighbor

The unfortunate search for showers...

Hey Everyone!

So today I will start with talking about yesterday. So last night as we were winding down the day and had just finished eating, and being tired we all started to read around the fire pit (which did not have a fire in it) and generally be lazy. After about an hour Luis, one of the guys we had met earlier that day on the climb, came by and hung out with us. Luis is from Puerto Rico, and is currently living in Charleston, SC as a ballroom dance instructor. He was traveling with one of his students whose name I can't quite figure out how to spell so I am going to go for Lud (sorry Lud for messing up your name) who is currently getting her PhD in micro-biology (I am pretty sure). We sat and talked for a while with Luis who was awesome and fulfilled Stephen's wish for a fire by bringing us some wood. It was really cool to be able to have these long talks with people who just a few hours ago we didn't know from Adam.
Now on to what we did today. Today was somewhat of a boring rest and relaxation day, we woke up around 8ish and ate pancakes and bacon for breakfast. After cleaning up and putting away all of our dishes we then went into town in search of showers, because at this point we all smelled like roses and our breath was like mint **cough cough**. We found a place that only offered $5 showers and we decided that we all smelled quite nice and declined. After going to Walmart and re-supplying we headed back to camp to eat lunch. Seeing as this is all so fascinating I am going to summarize the rest of the day in a really long run-on sentence with bad grammar and little to no way to follow :). Ate lunch read books watched the end of a TV show chuck sorted pictures prepared a dinner of steak onions mushrooms green beans and bread ate our fill cleaned up drove to a internet cafe and blam here we are.
Considering all that we have done and how far we have gone it is nice to be able to sit and collect my thoughts about it all. Yesterday as I stood on top of Angels Landing with everyone, taking in the scene around me and just being blown away, I thought, "wow! This is what my God has made." Every river, every valley, every tree, and every breathtaking peak - the God whom I serve made it all. Every now and then I just need to be reminded about the big picture and seeing all of his creation is reminding me how small I am in the scope of things. I love being a part of something so much bigger than me and being able to step back and see it from a distance every now and then. Well everyone, I know my thoughts have been scattered and it has not been that eventful but thanks for reading and God bless.

Keegan

The People You Meet

To sum up what all has happened since Stephen filled you in last night, we got up early this morning to snow showers on our tent and broke camp pretty quickly.  We then boarded the old teal van and made our way about an hour southwest to Zion National Park.  Driving into the park, I didn’t think there was any way that Zion could be as cool as Bryce Canyon… I was wrong.  We have all pretty much come to a consensus that neither park is really anymore awesome than the other but that they are equally awesome… just in different ways.  I really never would have thought that two parks that are only maybe 50 miles apart could be so different, but the terrain in Zion nothing like Bryce.  The fact that they are both canyons is about where the similarities stop.

We arrived at our campsite in the Watchman Campground (much prettier than our site at Bryce), threw up camp and quickly set out for a hike to Angels' Landing.

We learned on the shuttle ride up the valley that Angels' Landing first got its name because a Methodist minister saw it and thought it was so inaccessible that only angels could get to the top.  And yet, some intrepid (and maybe slightly insane) national park employee didn’t think this was the case.  Fast forward a few decades and there we were scaling the cliffs high above the Virgin River hoping to be rewarded with 360 degree views of one of the prettiest places on earth.

We were 1,000 feet above the ground clinging to the side of the bright red cliff when the guys above us shouted down to David, “Hey David, keep telling jokes, it helps.” He responded in kind, "So this guy falls off a cliff..." We had only met this group of church staff from Las Vegas a few minutes before and yet in their time of need they were calling on us to help them fight through the vertigo and fear of heights that often accompany the hike to Angels Landing. 

It never ceases to amaze me how much camaraderie develops between strangers in national parks.  I noticed this on my previous road trip out west as well.  There is something about the people who frequent national parks, or the situations you get in, or some mystery variable that I haven’t thought of, that makes it completely appropriate to befriend anybody and everybody around you.  I love it!  You find anything in common with the people around you and suddenly you are swapping stories of your trips and recommending experiences that lie down the road.  Take last night for instance.  We were looking through the gift shop at Bryce Canyon when all of a sudden I heard “UNC sucks!” ring out.  I looked around me and saw a young guy wearing a Virginia Tech hat heckling an older gentleman in line who was wearing a Chapel Hill hat.  Not wanting to miss a good ACC showdown we all jumped in proclaiming the glory of the institution that is NC State.  In no time at all we were conversing with the Chapel Hill fans and picking up good tips about places we could check out on the rest of our trip.

I really can’t think of many other situations where people are as amiable and ready to talk as when they are exploring the wild places that this country has to offer.  The places that we get to experience make this trip amazing but I think equally important are the people we meet and share our lives with along the way.

-Joshua “Sugarpants” Clemmons

Friends in Strange Places

So today we hiked Bryce canyon. The five of us set out from our humble enormous Parthenon tent, and drove to the edge. Having already viewed the top upon arrival, we wasted no time in our descent.

Despite how majestic the view from the rim was, it did not compare to what we saw on either side of us as we hiked the path downwards. Orange stone, layered sediment weathered by time, rising hundreds of feet above our heads. If sediment could be called sublime, I would call this sublime.

We joked, we laughed loudly, we posed for ridiculous pictures, and were basically tourists. And that’s when it hit me: I am a tourist. Normally I’m close enough to home to consider the park that I’m in as mine, but this was different. I have traveled across the country, just to go here. I AM A TOURIST. And I was having a grand time. We took a lot of pictures, because that’s what tourists do, right?

And there were lots of French speaking people. We figure that they are probably Canadian, but they speak French either way. Or they’re from the mythical and enchanting snow land of Canadia, which borders on the hard desert land of Araba. However, joking aside, there they were. Josh postulates that there will be more foreigners than Americans in the national parks, because when you go to another country you go to see the pretty things. I think that there’s a massive French Canadian conspiracy to take the lush and fertile land of Utah by force.

We made friends today. Their names were Steve, Jeffery, Mitch, and Azule. They were animals, and we named them. We wanted their love, and their companionship, their undying loyalty and affection. All they wanted was our food. It didn’t work out on a permanent basis. But I hope to remain pen pals, perhaps find them on the interwebs. Maybe tomorrow we’ll make some human friends.

I forgot about the altitude out here. Even at the bottom of the canyon we’re thousands of feet higher than dear old N.C. at the highest point we were OVER 9,000!!!! feet up. Or 89,000 if you ask David. Either way, it was hard to breathe, and hiking up steep inclines and around canyon cliffs was quite difficult. I at least was winded and worn out by the time we ended our hike, and ready to eat and sleep. We ate, we cleaned, we talked about things, and packed up for our trip to Zion tomorrow. Now the sun has begun to set, and there’s a layer of clouds, which means no stars tonight. Bummer. But it’s been fun for us, now have some fun yourselves. And make some people friends, or animals work too.

~Stephen Minervino

Nice Butte

Greetings to all of our faithful blog followers – your prayers and God’s providence have kept us going almost to our first destination! While we have been traveling for nearly 32 hours, we are all in excellent spirits, even despite the sleep deprivation of some of us (such as myself). We have only a few hours to go before reaching Bryce Canyon, and yet we’re so used to driving all the time that we feel like we could just keep going all the way to the Pacific (though fortunately we will not be)!

                The trip so far has been interesting and yet uneventful in a very good way. In these 32 hours, we have traversed 8 states on 5 different interstates, traveling through at least 5 major cities along the way, not to mention vast extents of farmland or exceptionally lush pastures and forested land. We drove right by the St. Louis arch as we passed through the Gateway to the West, then spent most of the uneventful hours of darkness driving on the incredibly straight and empty highway through Kansas. That was a rather monotonous experience punctuated only by a rather creepy driver switch in the middle of nowhere (creepy music just happened to pop up on the iPod at that exact moment, and we were all eerily reminded of such films as “Jeepers Creepers”…). We also made a run to the Walmart Supercenter in the middle of nowhere at 3:30am to buy ratchet straps to support the metal luggage rack attached to the trailer hitch which appeared to be sagging lower and lower to the road, occasionally scraping when we’d go over a bump. Fortunately, we can now say that it’s completely secure (and we all feel safer for some reason), and that’s about the worst that has happened apart from the loss of power to two of the cigarette lighters which were being used to power much of our state of the art technology. The only other downer was the weather, which refused to be anything but gray, dreary, and rainy all the way past the mountains west of Denver, except for a brief glimpse of the sun to remind us that it really did exist. We certainly have been exceedingly fortunate, though, to have no greater problems than these!

At least for me, the most interesting part of the trip thus far has certainly been today’s journey through Colorado and into Utah. This morning started at about 4am with David driving and me as his navigator/make-sure-he-doesn’t-fall-asleep guy in the passenger seat. We passed the remaining time on the planes with a wonderfully long round of the Name Game, which about a half hour spent exclusively using names from Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. We also got to see the sun defeat the clouds enough as it rose to produce a great pink sunrise. I got to start driving after we made it through Denver, and I must say I’m glad that almost no one else was driving west of Denver on a Sunday morning because this is where it really got interesting. If you’ve ever driven on I-70 west of Denver, you know that it’s really windy and the weather is rather unpredictable. Soon after passing through Denver, we gained enough elevation that snow

started to blanket the trees and ground all around the highway, becoming thicker and thicker as we went. For those of you who know me, I love snow, so of course I was rather ecstatic about that. But on top of that we saw at least 40 deer (or elk, they went by really fast) and began to drive through a deep gorge with extremely steep, tree covered slopes or rocky cliffs rising on either side, all blanketed with snow. Then suddenly, the veil of fog and cloud was lifted, revealing majestic, snow covered peaks presiding over our tiny highway and dazzling us with the brightness of sun reflected off of snow. I was now ecstatic AND awestruck. I had no idea that some of the most beautiful scenery we saw might be on the drive there and not in the parks themselves.

We proceeded on through the ski-resort country and towns such as Vail and Aspen, continuing to be amazed by the scenery around us. Eventually we moved into a drier and warmer, but no less spectacular, area as we traveled along the bottom of a towering canyon and out into wider valleys, still with slopes of various colors and textures sweeping up on either side to high ridgelines. Our surroundings gradually became drier as we made our way into Utah, and we soon found ourselves surrounded by desertlike plateaus and buttes, intricate rock formations, and the occasional snow-tipped peak in the distance. Right now as I write we’re driving through the bottom of another canyon. 

I’ve tried to explain what we’ve seen as best I can, though of course it doesn’t do any of it justice by a long shot. To partially compensate for that, we’ll soon hopefully be posting pictures of all of this as we can, though even that still won’t satisfactorily convey what we’ve seen.

Each of us has different reasons for coming on this trip. For me, I know that the best times of my life have been spent in the wilderness and in community with other people. I also know that being away from the craziness that is the life of an American and a college student can be nothing but good for my sanity and spiritual journey. Also, I think I need a reminder that the world is huge and wide and much bigger than me. In fact, it was made by a God who is even huger and wider than these awesome places we are visiting. As others in the group have mentioned, I also think that we as men were made for adventure and not just for work and daily drudgery. Reclaiming some of that spirit is definitely part of what this trip is about. However, the adventurous spirit of a man is meant to extend beyond time spent with other men, or on outdoors expeditions, or on cross-country road trips. Jesus called us to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow him. When someone is carrying a cross, it means that he has already been sentenced to die, and therefore has nothing to lose. Thus Jesus has asked us to be risk-taking, adventurous, radical followers of him in all we do – both in daily life and in our exceptional moments – rather than being passive men going with the flow and are slaves to the god of control and security. This applies to our careers, to our efforts to help the poor, and to our privileged roles of doing God’s will to advance his kingdom. Hopefully, we will come back with a bit better knowledge of what this means for us.

Until the next time!
Dan

Going for the record!

So today has gone by incredibly fast. We still have about halfway to go until we reach Bryce. I realize that we're going to have more than one post a day, but that's ok. You guys can get different point of views. My current point of view is from the middle seat. :) I'm getting more and more excited about the next couple of weeks. Part of me wants us to never get to Bryce, because the drive has been so chill and doesn't even feel like a burden. I guess that's the point of a road trip though: to enjoy the ride as much as the destination. I feel like we may be cheating according to road-tripping rules by having all of this technology with us. But I say, bring it on. It makes it easier to chronicle the journey.

One example of useful tech is a good camera. Photos will not be far and few between because Dan's camera is spectacular. It's been a lot of fun just trying to get great photos. I initially wanted to get a photo of each state welcome sign, but that pesky lens cover just had to take an extra second to get off. I take full responsibility for how those absences will detract from the experience for our audience back home. My Bad! Right now, I'm watching Keegan trying to take sweet light photos of the cars in front of us. They're turning out pretty well. I already had my turn, so I'll let him have his fun.

One thing that hasn't gone as planned on this trip so far is the amount of reading being done on my part. I don't consider that a bad thing though, as the distractions were much more welcome. It's been hard to keep concentrating on the words on the page when there's just so much going on around me. We've been having great conversations and just a all around good time. Dan and I had a good game of Name Game going, which eventually grew to include everyone, even the reluctant Stephen. I knew we'd distract him from his book. :) Even Keegan came up with some good actors and actresses, even though he claims to have no knowledge of pop culture.

Oh! And there were cows!
And a blue-headed bird!



All these games and such have resulted in time flying, and none of us are really tired. That could become a complication here in a few hours when some of us are taking our second shift of driving as the moon takes its downward slope. I'm excited to watch the sun rise from the driver's seat hopefully. It's too late to do the math and see if that's my shift.

So through the course of this trip, there have been many quotable quotes, but the only one I can think of is "Kansas: Where Couples Find Desire." Yeah, that one was a misunderstanding. Haha. I can't remember any of the others, but they were good. Take my word for it.

Also, the first negative thing about the trip just occurred. We just went through a toll booth. That means we need to get out of Kansas soon, or it goes up. Speaking of Kansas, that's the 6th state we been to so far in under 24 hours. I'm so excited to be able to claim that! I'm really excited to hit Colorado in a few hours. I don't really know why, but I've always just assumed Colorado was one of the cooler states in the U.S.

God really has blessed us with a stress free trip so far. I'm thankful that he's been so faithful in protecting us thus far. I pray that he will make our rack stay attached to the back of the van, because it has the majority of our food. Haha. It's leaning downward pretty precariously, but we think she'll hold in there. This van is a dream. There hasn't been a time yet that I've felt cramped or claustrophobic. Everyone get their own little space, which I think has led to none of us sharpening our teeth on the other person's head. That's another thing that you guys could be praying for us about: That we'll keep our brotherhood strong and not let any dissension stir up among us. I know it's going to be a little harder tomorrow morning when we haven't had as much sleep, but I think we'll be fine.

I'd like to make one last request for tonight, if I may. Tell your friends about this blog. We want as many people to enjoy this trip as possible. If it were financially possible, it would've been great to have an entire caravan of these luxury vans making their way to California, but this blog is the closest thing we can do to bringing you guys along for the ride. So spread the word, folks!

P.S. Verizon decided to extend their free mobile hotspot access until June 15th, so that's a blessing for us because it allows us to add these posts from a computer instead of typing them up on the phone, and you can bet they wouldn't be as long or pretty if that wasn't the case. And... we can watch the season finale of Chuck! :)

-David "Cutthroat"

"By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night."

-Exodus 13:21

Mystery Machine

Disclaimer to those first reading my writings: I happen to write stream of consciousness so you have been fairly warned ;)

Up until this point our trip has been all about the van, which I have promptly named the Mystery Machine. We are about 12 hours into our trip and about 10 driving hours in leaving us a little less than a day until our destination. The crazy thing is the further in to our 33-hour drive the more excited and agreeable we have become and through it all I am loving just driving with 4 of my best friends. When we stopped for lunch I began to think about how this trip is about the things we will see but it is also largely about who we are with. It’s amazing to look over the last few years and to see how we went from barely knowing each other to brothers of Christ who are knit together in our hearts. It is amazing that we live together for about 9 or more months of the year but with this trip we are stripping away most everything but each other and learning to love and enjoy each other unlike how we do most of the year.

With all of this it makes me slightly sad that we Americans (can’t speak for any other country because well we are all Americans) spend most of our day with our “friends”, but if we were asked to speak at their funeral we would only be able to talk about their work or hobby and not much past that. I have been blessed with some amazing friends and family and the closeness and intimacy that we share is worth the world to me.

For those of you who don’t know I love fantasy books and so to draw a parallel to that, in many fantasy novels they talk about dragons hoarding things and being really protective of their treasure. Many times this is what we do with our lives and our past and as such we live our lives in our cave with our treasure alone. That is a sad and miserable life, so I challenge you today find some people to share yourself with and hold onto them and live life together. Your life will be so much more rewarding and full of life. The Church is the body of believers not a building where people go on Sundays, so believers out there start being the living Church and transform you life.

-Keegan

"Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."

-Ecclesiastes 4:12