The Elements
I woke up around 2 a.m. to see Jenn Heatwole off. She drove all the way from Salt Lake City twice to find us. In my estimation, Jenn was on the road a total of 23 hours in order to visit with our group. Talk about dedication. I’ve heard a number of people say that it has been really good to spend time with a group of young Mennonites. Jenn was one of them. She explained that she was willing to drive so many hours to experience a bit of home.
I woke up a second time for our regular 5:15 a.m. “rise and shine” moment. The Casper KOA was a good place to be for our rest day. But new roads awaited us. The support crew dropped Jenny off at the airport. She’s back in VA in order to prep for a new teaching job. We will miss her pleasant, ready-for-anything, hilarious and dedicated demeanor.
After a scorching hot day that truly tested my patience (continual direct sunlight is not my friend), we camped by what appeared to be a lovely reservoir. There are a few requirements when looking for a place to sleep: access to water (for the very thirsty bikers), a place to bathe (showers, rivers, or other large bodies of water will do), some kind of bathroom facility (we haven’t always been lucky with that) a bit of grass for a softer place to lay, and cheap fees (to keep Dave happy). The reservoir locale should have been quite nice with public bathrooms and a large body of water. Geese walked around by the water. The scenery was beautiful and peaceful.
The group decided to investigate its lovely bathing potential only to discover that the trek down to the water involved a lot of mud. Deep mud. Up-to-my-knees-in-certain-spots mud. My-Chacos-got-sucked-right-off-my-feet mud. While Sarah thought the mud was beautiful and thanked mother earth for its rejuvinating power, I wasn’t so sure. With showers few and far between it’s hard to deal with that amount of mud.
That evening we decided on a vision statement, written as a Haiku. It reads as follows:
Cultivating a
relevant community
through conversation.
It should be on the website. Be sure to share your perspectives about it with us.
We also discussed the idea of adding a place on the website for papers written by young adults. This would be another avenue for the broader community to read a bit of who young adults Mennonites are, or at least a bit of what we’re thinking.
So we settled in for a night of much needed rest. Sarah and II Timothy (Shenk) were preparing to leave us the next day. I believe we had all found our way to our abode for the night when the ferocious wind started. I’m not sure what velocity it was. But I’d like to imagine that it was similar to hurricane force winds. I should know. I camped out in a hurricane once. Anyhow, several people were soon out of their tents trying to make sure everything was secure. I decided to stay in my tent and let my two companions inspect the situation. Without my weight on the tent floor I’m sure it would have blown away. I do not lie. We have video footage of the next morning to prove it.
We are about at the halfway mark of our crazy adventure. Thank you for reading, visiting, talking and responding. We truly value your presence with us. Hot days of flat lands await us. New people will be joining our group. A few will leave us. There are new churches to visit, much more writing to do, and plenty of dreamings to be had along the way. I am certain of the brooding Spirit among us and feel challenged to be attentive to its work.