~Around 2 AM Friday morning we stopped
in the town of Elko, NV to fill up and reload on our supply of
chocolate milk. This brief oasis only lasted about a half-hour, and
our band of brothers moved forward. Eventually, all except our
driver, Daniel, wasted no time falling asleep with the
darkness of the desert around us all.
~Morning came quickly for some as dawn
broke the silence of the world, into a song of salt and water. Dan
was the only one to see the salt flats of Utah in all its glory. He
was joined soon by Jared and Dwylin just in time to see the “Great
Salt Lake”. Matt joined in the early morning event to see Salt
Lake City, but only to return to bed once the city was gone.
~The Day of driving was overall
uneventful for the group. Temperatures started to rise, gas prices
began to lower while at the same time the wind gusts began to make
themselves known once we entered the state of Wyoming. Stopping for
gas, most of the guys headed inside the Flying J / Denny's to get a
little something to hit the spot. Matt and Nate entered the RV with
slices of pizza, while Jared came back with a salad (what a stud).
Dwylin, however, returned with a container of biscuits and gravy (which
apparently Western Canada and Alaska don't realize is a breakfast
delicacy).
~Making good time, well as far as a 24
year-old RV is concerned, we continued our never-ending journey
eastbound and down to Indiana. Receiving body blow after body blow
from the wind as we entered our drive through Nebraska. We all of a
sudden drove right in the winds best shot to this point. A nasty
left hook to the side of the RV, and like an uncontrollable dizzy spell, we
headed into the lane beside us. God's provision was there first because nobody was anywhere close to RV when this insult from the
wind came at us. While there was nothing to the left of us, something
had appeared to our right. We lost our camper's mouth guard, the
camper's awning was surfing the highway, and forced us to pull off and
stop.
~After a good twenty minutes, we finally
got everything disconnected. Since there was such a lack of room in the RV for the awning, we felt we had little to no choice but to leave it behind. On the bright side,
Nebraska has some new scenery to behold just before you enter the
Village of Potter.
~We raced on hoping to get to Omaha,
Nebraska before all of the restaurants closed, and to see Dan's
brother Chris and his family on their way home to Montana from
Tennessee. Upon our arrival, around 11 pm, we had enough time to say
hello, but not enough time for supper. So we said our hellos and
goodbyes, and off to find a place to eat. Apparently, it is difficult
to find a restaurant at 11:30 at night, but we finally found a place,
The Fox and the Hound Bar and Grill. We left stuffed to the gills and
ready for another night of driving.
~Now, about 1 am (CST) with only 580
miles left on this journey, we set out thinking of beds and home and
now forced upon us... humidity. From this point on we left all the
windows open to keep it at least a bit mild in the belly of Hezzie.
~Almost at 12 noon (EST) on this very day, July 23, 2016, we
made into the driveway of where it all began. We pulled in ready to be
home and all in desperate need of showers. Ten thousand miles will hurt a man!
~Our story is done in this chapter of
our lives. Our own version of 'The Odyssey' has indeed ended. If
anyone is in need of ideas of what part of America to go see? We all
could recommend Alaska, but just leave 'Ole Hezzie' out of it. She
came back from this trip with some of her fire and spirit in dire
need of repair, however, we do have it narrowed down to where she left
the skip in her step... Somewhere in the Yukon.
A Message from the Minority
(Warning!! The Messages your about to read may have grammatical errors riddeled throughout, proceed with the most greatest of cautions!)
~From Jon
My favorite part of the trip... I have
many favorite parts like hanging out with five friends and getting to
know each one a little bit better and there personal walk with God,
it was an encouraging and fun trip. If I had to narrow it down to
just one, while Alaska was beautiful and “Mount McKinley” was
absolutely amazing. I would have to say the Banff National Park was
probably my highlight. The majestic mountains and the rushing waters
are so awesome! I just have to wonder how anyone can see this
beautiful creation and say, there is no God.
~From Dwylin,
Trying to summarize the experience of
this trip in a paragraph or two is well, totally impossible. If you
asked me what my favorite place to drive was? I would probably have
to say the drive to Homer's Spit from Anchorage, AK. Driving
alongside the bay with such immense mountains on both sides. Once we
came up to a viewpoint of the Spit, my mind raced back to a time as
a kid reading The Hobbit. From a distance away I couldn't help but
see Laketown in my head, the only difference was that instead of one
'Lonely Mountain”, The Town was surrounded by Gigantic Mountains.
The blessing God showed us
weather-wise could so easily be described by one word... “DENALI”.
Just going up to this mountain that only 30% of park visitors see a
glimpse of, and even fewer see the whole thing. God blessed us with
a view of the whole mountain, but this was just one experience. The
whole trip was blessed with great weather and sights to behold.
Little to no weather issues to speak of.
If I had to sum up what God was
allowing me to see. God was showing off... God was saying look at
Indiana, its wonderful in its own way, but come here and check this
out.
~From Matthew,
So I guess I'll just give my three
favorite things about this trip. The beauty of God's creation just
blew me away!! I remember when we left Montana and just got into
Canada and we were all glued to the windows making sure we didn't
miss anything with all the mountains and rivers and lakes. We
couldn't believe how beautiful everything was. But then the next day
we went through Banff and Jasper National Parks and it made
everything we had seen so far seem so small. By the time we got done
with Alaska, we were passing by beautiful mountains and no one
bothered to get their cameras out because it just wasn't as good as
what we had already seen.
I also enjoyed the people on the trip.
From random people we would meet, friends I've had for years, and
Nate who we all got to know pretty well by the time we were done.
Nate probably thinks he got to know us a little too well. I especially
liked all the swimming we did. We hit most of the lakes we camped at,
the one waterfall, and the pacific ocean twice.
But I think my favorite moment was the
one night Nate and I decided to go on a hike at 11 o'clock at night.
We climbed up Flattop Mountain and hung out there the whole night. We
were just outside of Denali Park and the mountain looked just like it
sounds. After you get done with your climb the top of the mountain is
flat and long. Apparently, it's a great place to find caribou sheds.
Nate was responsible for finding all three that we found. The last
one of which was huge! I don't know if I've ever seen someone so
excited. The best part about that night was the sunset/sunrise which
literally lasted the whole night. We had a beautiful view of
mountains everywhere. We got back to camp at about 5 in the morning.
I think my sleeping pattern is still off track because of that but it
was well worth it.
And last I have to give some love to
Ole Hezzie. We put her through a lot of miles on this trip. And most
of this wasn't our nice roads in the lower 48. A lot of that mileage
was on the Alaskan highway and the other route we took through Canada
to get home. Those roads were definitely not the best. But somehow we
found our way through all of that with a 1991 Pace Arrow motor home
that's being held together with zip ties and duct tape. For anyone
who doesn't believe there is a God. Take a look at the vehicle we
took over 10,000 miles of rough road, and believe!
OFFICIAL GRADE FOR TRIP:
A+
You just can't do much better
Within a month we hope to have our videos done. We took video each day with a camera to attempt to better summarize each chapter of this story. We thank you for following our trip and hope you watch the videos when they are ready.
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