Follow this group of Mennonite friends as they travel from there homes in Indiana, Montana , and Ohio to... literally anywhere they can think of (or afford).
5
AM rolled around awfully fast this morning. All of us friends either
had bright eyes, ready for the day or heavy eyes and not fully
looking forward to this 12-hour experience. Don’t worry, I promise
that for the most part, the girls had a good time. We all piled in
our rented van and headed south for the Monterey Peninsula. We made
it down a few towns and decided that we needed to stop for breakfast.
So Denny’s it was… we walked inside, sat down and ordered and
Dan went back to the restrooms. He came back very promptly, saying
“wow, I can not go in something like that.” The
entire ensemble got a variety of foods, ranging from biscuits and
gravy all the way to pancakes and bacon. Most of the time that we
didn’t spend eating, was spent wondering which of these polo
wearing patrons was going to spend their day at Pebble Beach as well.
We
rolled out of there and just followed the cars, all the way to the
public parking zone. It was a massive lot that was beside what we
assumed were old military barracks. There were a slew of different
vehicles and a ton of buses awaiting passengers. These buses were, of course, the shuttles, by which we were taking to the US “Flippin”
Open.
We
had a half-hour bus ride to the legendary golf course, and you could
cut our excitement with a knife (that means it was tangible,
figuratively speaking). We drove down “17-mile drive”, a
legendary stretch of road with multiple famous golf courses and
numerous multi-million dollar houses. We all were full of excitement
and ready to see everything that we could get our eyes on.
We
walked into the complex, about a quarter mile or so, to the first tee
box. We walked into pebble beach golf links with awe in our eyes.
Immediately we saw some great names in the game around for us to gawk
at and be giddy about. The first group we saw had Rickie Fowler and
Jason Day in it and we took pictures and just hoped they noticed us,
but they never did. However, we did manage to get the attention of
Justin Thomas, a joyless golfer with a snarl on his face. JT
teed off from the 14th tee box and Landon yelled, at the
top of his lungs, GO JT! With the look of a thousand knives and
malice in his heart, He looked directly at Dan and persisted to slay
him with his mind. Sorry, Dan!
We
took a bunch of pictures of golfers as well as the course itself. As
we walked around, we were amazed at how accurate everyone was. Every
pro golfer seemed to be so good out of the bunkers as well as the
rough.
(Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm)
(Brooks Koepka, Bubba Watson, JB Holmes)
We made our way over to the World Famous Par 3, #7. We found a spot in
the massive grandstands, and it got cold fast. We were looking
straight into the ocean and the wind was blowing right into our
faces. This brings out one of the most unexpected situations from
our whole trip. The day before when Dwylin and Landon left the
airport in Oakland, the temperature was in the mid to upper 80s. Now
roughly 110 miles south and we were experiencing weather in the 60s.
This did not feel like California, but it seemed like we were in
Seattle or something.
(The 5th)
(The 12th)
Now,
you need to know some etiquette rules for golf. When someone is
putting on a green, it is proper for everyone to stay quiet so that
the golfers can have maximum concentration. There was a golfer on
the green on #7. He was all lined up, and he pulled back the putter,
now ready to strike. Out of nowhere, a lady right behind us said a
long drawn out “Wow”. Dan and I immediately started laughing at
this embarrassing turn of events for this lady.
(The 7th)
When
you go to a sports event, you get an opportunity to yell and be heard
by a microphone. So we tried to think of something funny and yet
easy to pick out. We settled on the dutch phrase… “Cum Buutz
Meh!” (forgive the spelling from this unwritten language) For
those of you that don’t know what this could possibly mean. It
means “Come Wipe Me”, and we kept trying to say it throughout the
day. Unfortunately, all this was in vain, because even with two
different days of trying, we never really found a clear clip of us
yelling the phrase. Although we did see Jon and Matt when they went
over the 1st green to see Justin Rose, Jordan Spieth, and
Tiger Woods.
(Jordan Spieth, Tiger Woods)
(Matt and Jon are circled in the corner)
We
spent most of our day sitting at two different par 3s, the 5th
and 12th. We sat there watching all the golfers that
we could, and a few of them multiple times. One golfer rose to the
top of our interest and we’ll never forget his bright smile. It
was a Norwegian
amateur
golfer by the name of Viktor Hovland. Why was he considered an
amateur?
He was still attending Oklahoma State University, and this means
that he cannot have any sponsorship
money
as well as not win any prize money. This
did not seem to dampen his spirits in
the slightest.
(Viktor Hovland)
We
left the property between 5 and 6 that night, and
head out on the buses back to our van. The girls were
understandably worn out and had lost interest in the event by around
noon. We headed from the grounds to find food because of game 6 of the
NBA Finals were on TV. A game between injury-plagued and the
two
time defending champion Golden State Warriors versus the Toronto
Raptors with their
superstar
Kawhi Leonard. The Raptors were up 3 games to 2 games, and if they
could find a way to win tonight, they’d
win the NBA Finals. The only problem for us would be finding a place
to eat because technically we’re in the Bay Area. Which just
happens to be where the Warriors
are from. The game is also being played in Oakland
across the bay from us.
We
found our way to another Buffalo Wild Wings. Since
this is such a big event for the Bay
Area,
we
waited a half hour to be seated and finally decided to leave. We
settled for an awesome alternative called Fish & Chips in
Salinas, CA. We watched it until the end of the game and enjoyed the very
tasty food. The Raptors
won the game and the NBA Championship as well. The food and service
were so good that all
of us would highly recommend it.
Needless
to say, once we finally got back to the Air BnB. It didn’t take us
very long at all to find our beds and sleep late
into the next morning…
What
else could possibly be waiting for us?
The evening of June
11th brought forth many emotions. Anticipation, worry,
sweat, laughter, panic, and air pressure, but enough about Dwylin’s
car. The appointed time for packing was quickly coming to an abrupt
end. Its 4 o'clock on Tuesday night and Dwylin’s car, the one we
are taking to the airport in the morning, needs air in one of
the back tires. It also appears that a couple of starlings have set
their sights on the back windshield of Dwylin's car. At least six of
them left some departing gifts in my rearview mirror all covered in
white.
From dealing with
this situation, Landon picked up Dwylin to go play in a church league
softball game (Woodlawn vs Fairhaven). They played two games and
both teams won a game. We then headed back to Landon’s house and
spent a bit of time trying to figure out how to hit our max of 40 lbs
in our shared checked bag. It didn’t take long for sleep to come
to either of them, because they had an early start and a long day
ahead of them.
The alarms were
going off that morning at 3:45 AM precisely. Landon made some coffee
and we were off. Middlebury, IN at 4 in the morning is comparable to
the movie, Mad Max: Fury Road! RV workers can be a reckless and
aggressive group of individuals. We did end up getting through town,
without a scratch. A few more hours and we’ll be in Chicago, but
the restroom came a calling.
We pulled off the
highway in Portage hoping to help ourselves out, in more ways than
one… if you know what I mean… but McDonald’s wasn’t feeling
the same way. We got out of the car for a stretch and headed
inside. BANG! Was the sound of the door as Dwylin, unsuccessfully,
tried to open a simple door. It was locked, and we had forgotten
about the time change. The restrooms in this establishment was very
much closed. Our salvation was found across the street in the
restroom of the gas station.
We eventually made
it to Chicago and found our airline and made our flight. It was off
to Las Vegas, and a 3-hour flight to come. We landed in Vegas with
one good hour plus to burn in the airport with oodles and oodles of
slot machines. After one gate change and many tempting looks at
devices claiming a $25,000.00 prize if you play pull a lever. We
found our salvation, from our temptation, with a little help from the
spirit in the sky, which just so happened to be our airline for the
trip as well. For an hour and seventeen minutes we sat in the
airplane anticipating our arrival in Oakland and the official start
of our quote “VACATION”.
We arrived a little
after 1:15 PST and we found our checked bag and started looking for
our ride. We could not find a vehicle with familiar faces,
anywhere...
Matt &
Linda
The long drive
began on Thursday, June 6th to Plains, MT. Matt and Linda
were heading west from Missouri because they’re helping one of
Dan’s brothers. That, however, is another story for another time,
and back to this trip. They headed west and the first stop was Mount
Rushmore. They loved the experience and had a blast seeing the four
Presidents in the rock.
They pulled into
Plains in the afternoon of the following day. They greeted some old
friends and had a burger or two at “The Butchers Nook”
restaurant. All in all, they were in Montana from Friday till Tuesday
morning. They were off, in their car, driving down to meet everyone
for our weekend in San Jose.
They drove all day
and ended up at Multnomah Falls in Oregon. The same Multnomah Falls
we visited on our Alaska trip four years ago. From the falls they
headed west to Corvallis, OR to walk on the football field of the
Oregon State Beavers. Their day of travel ended on the coast of
Oregon, off Highway 1, and watched a sunset. Awaiting the coming day
in California, and all the adventures to follow.
Matt and Linda had
a 7ish hour drive into California to Oakland, so that they could pick
up Dwylin and Landon from the airport. First, they went to pick up
our rented vehicle, from “Turo”, basically an “Air BnB” for
cars. Since they went to pick up this van first, and we flew in
around 1 o’clock, the traffic wasn’t great so they pulled up
about 20 minutes late, only to see the bright-eyed face and big smile
of Landon Miller. Landon was so excited that he forgot how to work a
van trunk door for a minute, but Dwylin explained that it may be the
year 2019, but it is also only the year 2019. Dwylin then preceded to
open the van trunk like its always been done for the past 40 some odd
years.
Then immediately we
were off again, and south we went, down to San Jose Airport. We
dropped Linda off with their own car and she headed for the rental
property, and the guys headed to the airport. We pulled up on time
for Jon, Heidi, and Dan’s arrival, but there was no one around to
be seen...
Jon, Heidi &
Dan
“The Big Three”
left Plains, Montana Wednesday morning with sights of California in
their eyes. The warm environment and the welcome adventure of time
off was enticing, but first, breakfast at the new Butchers Nook.
They just opened for business one week before taking off for a
vacation. They all ate breakfast and headed out for Spokane, WA.
They headed out of
Spokane at 10:30 a.m. and were on there way to Salt Lake City, Utah.
They landed around 1:30 pm, and just sat around, in the land of
Mormons, waiting for their flight to San Jose. Their flight left
about a half-hour late, but in all reality, they could do nothing
about this. Their flight landed about a half-hour late because of
this and then they met up with the rest of the crew.
Many Happy
Meeting
Now
all the people were back together again and headed to San Jose, our
temporary home. Now since
we are in the Pacific time zone, this meant that it was 8 o’clock
EST.
Which wouldn’t normally be an issue but we had our eyes set on
going to Buffalo Wild Wings and watching game Seven of the Stanley
Cup Finals.
A match between the favored Boston Bruins and the underdog St. Louis
Blues. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great game. The
Blues
won their
first title in team history 4-1 on Wednesday night. From Bdubs we
headed home and went to bed
with
anticipation in our heads because we were headed to Pebble Beach for
the US Open the very next morning.
However, not before at
least a couple games of ping pong.
In the weeks leading up to the wedding, we all had a mad dash to try and figure out how we all were going to go out to Plains, Montana, and back. So here is a basic breakdown of how we all did it...
Landon had to work at the hospital and couldn't get off for the wedding. (Personally, just between you and me... I think its because he might be going to Florida to see his GIRLFRIEND a little too often) (Says the single guy)
Dan along with Matt and Linda (and Linda's youngest brother Milan), drove Ole Hezzie out to Montana... they left in mid-May and will stay till the end of July or sometime in August.
Dwylin and Jared got a free trip out to BIG SKY COUNTRY because they took Dan's 'white beater' Ford truck out to the great west. They headed out on the 9th and drove straight through to Montana. We spent a week out in Plains with the Borntreger family with a plan to fly home on Sunday morning of the 17th with a layover in Minneapolis.
Nate and Caleb headed out from Holmes County Wednesday morning the 13th... 30 hrs of driving later, and they rolled into town around 4 o'clock Thursday night. Unfortunately, the fun with them was short-lived. Nate left hours after the wedding since he is MOVING to Colorado and he had a plane to catch... unfortunately he had plane issues and couldn't fly out until almost halfway through the following day. Caleb is also moving and left the same time as Nate to continue his move out to Bonners Ferry, Idaho. He'll be working construction while he is there. It sounds like he is staying through December and reevaluating if he wants to keep living out there.
The Borntreger Household Was FULL
(5 RVs were Present)
By the time Dwylin and Jared arrived, it was 9 am Sunday morning. They decided against going to church that morning and slept into the afternoon instead. Because of the wedding, many members of Dan and Jon's family were already out there for the big event...
The first couple of days there wasn't a lot to occupy our time... a group went and hiked Baldy on the Cabinet Mountains (that is probably where it is). Dwylin went golfing at the IMMENSELY overpriced Plains Golf Course. Actually, we went golfing Multiple times, and Dwylin lost every time.
We helped set up for the reception on Wednesday, and it was sketchy... here are some pictures of the teardown.
Matt's brother and his wife, Micheal and Mindy, along with their daughter Oakley also came out west for the wedding and enjoyed a long weekend.
Friday at 11: It's go time!
As Dwylin and Jared were waiting for the wedding to start, they were getting bored! So what do two guys do... Jared was watching the FIFA World Cup and Dwylin was watching the US Open golf on their phones.
Overall it was a great time! Best wishes to Jon & Heidi!
(Nate trying to melt his butter over the candle)
A mix of the people that came on our Alaska RV & Montana Hiking Trip
Saturday was a rainy and cold day... a bunch of us went out to eat for breakfast at the Nook (Dan and Jon's Restaurant). Then some of the brothers of Dan went Morel Mushroom hunting and they struck gold!
The brothers also went to Baldy Tire Shop and had a quick race...
Most of the day was spent indoors playing Jokers & Marbles or Euchre. This was the only day we didn't spend time by the fire or playing Bouche Ball. However the excitement level went up when one of the Grandkids shot a quarter that he put on top of a 22 barrel... and later that night another Grandchild shot and butchered three birds just for fun.
This was the end of our great trip. Jared and I flew from Missoula, MT. We got on the plane just in time to watch game 1 of the World Cup for the Day... Our second plane did not have that same amenities...
but we made it home to the South Bend Airport by 12:30 pm on Sunday afternoon.
We had a night at one of our home churches Griner, and showed the video and told stories about the trip. here follows the videos that summarize our Hiking Trip. I hope you enjoy them.
Morning
came fast and before we knew it, our last day of adventure had begun.
Jon was feeling better than yesterday morning but still not great.
We believe he got a bit of food poisoning from our summer sausage
that didn’t get the end cut off. We made our
final breakfasts
and began to pack up camp, when
“the fishermen” passed by our camp bright and early, and with no
acknowledgment of our existence once again. In all honesty, Dwylin
would not have had that any other way.
A little while later “the girls” passed us and all of them had
jackets on, but it was a chilly morning. It just made us more
nervous about getting back in the water. Not long after,
followed the “mountain men”, but we need to describe at least one
of these guys. I thought
they had a shirt under his hat so that it would hang over his neck
and protect it from bugs or the sun. As we got closer, we realized
that this was not the case. He had himself a big old beard and hair
down below his shoulders and the friend with him was your standard
bearded guy with longer than average hair. Anyways, these guys also
passed us down the river.
We
looked around our surroundings
and found burned trees and
cliffs on both sides. The light reflecting off the water was a
welcome sign of a good day to come. Off in the distance, we heard a
low rumble that kept increasing in volume as we
got further down the river.
“I don’t know, that sounds rough,” Jon said with a smile. He
continued to say this nearly every time he heard rapids off in the
distance.
We
finished packing up camp and headed down the river for the last time.
One thing we neglected to mention from our last post was that only
one guy managed to flip his boat during our first day on the river.
Matt ended up flipping twice on the trip, but in all seriousness, it
wasn’t his fault. He weighs roughly around 155 lbs spread out over the length of the boat, but
with a 45 lb. bag in the front of the raft. So if there is anything
I know about weight
distribution… this isn’t
a good mix.
We managed to record a video of Matt flipping, but there was no
audio, but it is still fun to watch.
Dwylin
was the only other one to flip his boat, and
gratefully, nobody got it on video. We headed off the end of a waterfall with about a one-foot drop. The current would drag you back
into the waterfall and you would start taking on water if you didn’t
have enough speed to get through the current.
First, Caleb
didn’t make it through the current and was taking on water. Dwylin
was following close behind and also wasn’t able to make it
through. Basically, Dwylin decided that
if he nailed Caleb at full speed, there
may be a chance he can't get out of the current, and he was proving to
be right. Unfortunately for Dwylin, he was unable to save himself and took a tumble in the cold water. He jumped up out of the water
with a big gasp for air and from the shock of the cold water. He
guided his boat to the shore and stood there for a while to catch his
breath and to cool off his temper.
We
headed down the river again we could hear something faint in the
distance, “I don’t
know, this one sounds pretty rough” Jon said. Dwylin
stayed in the back of the group paralyzed with silence.
We
approached the next set of rapids, and boy, were they ROUGH. Our
group had been
tackling
the rapids one person
at a time. Dwylin was one of the last to roll through the rapids,
and something happened to him that made everyone wish they had a
camera rolling. Dwylin's boat took a turn in the rapids
that was much sharper than he wanted. He ran ashore on a rock, and
the current kept pushing him down the river. So Dwylin’s raft
turned around backward, and before he knew it. The raft was now
flowing down the rapid backwards,
and Dwylin feeling totally out of control took his paddle and started
pumping up and down in the air. This motion resembled a weightlifter
doing a bench press. (This
motion basically represented his total lack of control in this
situation, and he identified
that) As he continued down the river, backward, he went down
another drop in the water level. Dwylin, who
had not put his paddle in the water since he spun around, was
still content to make it through the rapids without paddling.
Miraculously
his boat turned around for the second time while in the rapids and
Dwylin made it through this
experience unscathed.
We
came up to some small rock
cliffs that had some ledges
and the guys decided to stop and jump off. Landon, Dan, Nate, Matt, and Caleb were jumping in.
Matt jumped in the water and right as he jumped into yelled out, “I
love you Linda.” (HEY, CONSIDERING THAT I WAS THE
ONLY ONE ON THIS TRIP THAT DOESN’T SPEAK DUTCH… I DON’T WANT TO
HEAR ANYONE COMPLAIN ABOUT TRANSLATION DIFFICULTY.) Every
now and then Dan will do something just beyond his skill level and
saw one of those today… watch and see.
It
didn’t take long for us to keep on moving and after a few more
bumpy areas, we found “The Cliff”. Dan, Jon, Nate, and Matt all
decided to jump off, but no one was able to jump off. Dan kept
looking like he was gonna jump but just couldn’t do it. So, to
ensure that everyone would jump off all the guys agreed to a bet. If
one failed to jump off, that meant he owed the others $15 each. Jon
and Dan switched places in line and Jon jumped off first. Followed
by everyone else, and no money switched hands because of this.
There
is a pullout point for the rafts, about two miles from where our cars
were parked. Some of the guys have been saying the whole trip that
they would like to float the whole way to the end. If you pull out
where everyone else pulls out you have a two-mile hike ahead of you.
Now, if you keep going down
the river you’ll find that the river narrows and that the rapids
turn from class 1-3 and after you pass the pullout point it becomes
a class 4 and above. Matt, Jon, Landon, and Dwylin pulled out and
Dan, Caleb, and Nate continued on down the river, with no life
jackets or helmets, basically asking to be killed. They
gave plenty of warning for all those that wanted to continue on down
the river.
The
four walkers started walking up the path with our bags repacked. As
soon as we started walking uphill Dwylin’s
left leg seemed to be tight and unable to extend
fully. We would find out, after the trip, that Dwylin’s knee was
slightly out of the socket. Landon’s shoes were soaked and decided to
walk the two miles back in his flip flops. While
walking back on the path we
ended up seeing our three amigos rafting down the river. Getting
in and out of their
boats to check the rapids to see if they were too rough to go
through.
At
one spot Dan was headed down
the river and saw that he was heading towards a rock wall so he
bailed and grabbed on to the rocks and ended up climbing out as his
boat kept going downstream. When Dan jumped out, his boat flipped
and kept going downriver. Eventually, we found it stuck in a
Whirlpool still upside down. The only problem was that the boat was
about 20 feet below them.
Caleb managed to find a 20-foot long stick from a tree, and Nate used
it to get the boat away from the whirlpool. Once it was out it
headed back down the river to
a point where Dan was waiting for it. Standing there with his feet
on both sides of the river. He waited for the boat to get
between his legs and went to grab for it, but the boat was dragged on
down the river and out of Dan’s reach. Dan ran after it again and
the boat got caught by a rock. When
Dan caught up to it again, the
raft, seemingly with a mind of its own,
managed to escape his grasp once again. So,
he had no other choice but to run off down the river. He got in
front of the boat and found an
underwater
shoreline that he could
stand on so he jumped
in the water and grabbed
his
boat. This is a story you
just wished that you could see it in person, but we have the next
best thing. That's right we have a video and we added music to it.
The
other group of guys finished their
hike back to the trucks and started to clean up.
Most changed into new
clothes and just wanted to clean their feet.
Jon found a used 24 pack of
water in his truck and did we ever enjoy that watery feeling. There
was just a
totally new appreciation
for the simple treasures
in our lives, but something
else caught my eye. It was some sort of structure off in the
distance. It had four brick walls and a metal door with a lock on
the inside, and a beautiful commode on the inside. Do you want to
know the best part was? It had a concrete floor!!! No brush or
branches around or even worse animals ready to catch you in a moment
of weakness, but this was another step closer to heaven.
OK, I may have over
emphasized how amazing this restroom was, but for a restroom, it
wasn’t too bad.
We
were at the trucks for about 20 minutes when our brothers from down
under showed up told us about their
adventures. They brought up Dan’s experience and how he lost his
jacket and some socks, but left with his life. This was a good trade
and we all laughed together
and reminisced on our trip experiences. We got ourselves in a circle
and prayed together one
last time thanking God
for providing us with safety and also allowing us to get ourselves in
precarious situations so
we could find joy in the
mistakes that we all made.
After all, it’s not the safety of our experiences that make lives
epic and interesting. It's pushing through
the hard moments and reaching your goal at the end. Much like our
Christian lives we aren’t meant to live these safe lives with no
adversity, but lives of action. Moving in a moment's notice
at God’s command, and
making it to our reward at the end. Taking our experiences and scars
with us all the way to the end. All of this creates the epic story
of our lives and our chance to see God working through all of it. Do
I wish I wouldn’t have had my knee pop out or a ton of blisters on
my feet… yes! I wish that, but I wouldn’t trade that story for
what actually happened.
Epilogue
Aug/ 11/ 17 - Aug/ 13/ 2017
We
split up from here Dan and Jon headed back to Plains, and the rest of
us headed to Indiana. It was about a two-hour drive just to get out
of the dirt roads, and another
hour and a half
to get a cell phone signal. At
this point, we all started to receive oodles of messages from family
and friends. Nate or Caleb managed to turn this into a competition.
Nate ended up with around 16,
Matt with about 12, Caleb ended around 22, Landon UNKNOWN, Dwylin got
last with 1.
We
got ourselves out onto the pavement again and stopped along the road
to talk with Dan about how we should leave. Splitting ways was just
another punch in the gut that our trip was rapidly coming to an end.
We had to head back to Browning, MT to return our rafts. We got
there as the sun was fading away, and then stopped at a local subway
for the best
footlongs of our lives!
Landon
started by driving from the park to Browning and then Nate took over
for a few hours. Dwylin drove after that so that the others could
rest. I feel that Dwylin did a great job driving through the
darkness of night while everyone else was
asleep, said an anonymous
occupant of the truck. (It could have been Dwylin that said this.
Technically, he was an occupant in the truck.) However, even the
greatest of people can have a moment that can bring him back to
reality. For Dwylin it was
driving around 90 mph and having a deer cross the road in front of
him. It wasn’t as
dramatic of an experience as
it could have been. Dwylin started to realize how he wasn’t as
alert as he thought he was.
Landon
took over next and we found ourselves driving on the freeway that
passes Sturgis, SD. This could easily be considered the Mecca of
motorcyclists. A small town in the middle of nowhere gets ravaged by
thousands of bikers and their
RVs and Trucks for two weeks. People
will do whatever it takes to get their
bike to and from Sturgis. From here
all the way to Chicago we surrounded by bikes and trailers that were
heading home.
What
is something that should happen on every trip? SHAMELESS SINGING!
By the time we reached Iowa, we were bored enough that we started
singing the greatest hits of our Alaska trip and sending them to Jon
back in Montana. This was causing laughter hard enough to make our
sides hurt. Here is a sampling of it.
We
got back to Dan’s around 2 AM on Sunday morning, and
I went home and showered and soaked my feet in Epsom Salt and went to
bed around 3 and slept a solid 9 hours. Matt drove left with Nate
and Caleb to go to Ohio to
see his fiance. Caleb was dropped off at a hotel in Fort Wayne,
where his parents happened to be staying that night. Matt was
dropped off pretty close to 6:50 at Linda’s house, and Nate finally
made it home at 7:30. Just in time for his family to get up for
church that day, but Nate would not accompany them. However, back in
Indiana, we found out that Landon did indeed go to church that
morning. Making my parents ask me why I decided not to attend.
Thanks a lot Landon.
TWO
WEEKS LATER
Aug/ 26/ 17
All
of us were able to see each other again at Matt and Linda’s
wedding. As with
any
group of guys, there
were
no pictures
taken to prove it. Jon and Dan were groomsmen and Dwylin was Matt’s
personal server and “First Alternate” *wink. Caleb showed up as a guest because he happened to go on the trip with us, and
that still makes me laugh.
Landon was there as well helping park cars and to enjoy the
festivities.
Now
that Matt is married our adventures as
a group will definitely slow
down, and we understand
that. We
gave him our blessing anyway, but
what choice did we have. I mean he really likes her after all.
This
now concludes our adventure from
the Bob Marshall Wilderness…
hopefully
in the next few weeks, I’ll be able to finish the videos for you all
to see but here is a gift to hold you over till then…
