Go West, Young Men

Day 8 - May 23, 2011
York, SC
Written By Viking

What a weekend! Or last blog update found us in Newport News, VA, and we are now in York, South Carolina. Saturday ended up being our longest day of travel thus far, with over 340 miles being covered. Don't laugh. That is a long way on a scooter.

We made it to the outer banks of the North Carolina coast, traveling down the Hatteras national seashore. Saturday night we spent the evening in a gazebo about 200 feet from the Atlantic Ocean. Before going to bed, though, Brady had to drag me along the beach as he searched for seashells with an almost eerie level of excitement. It was very strange, but fun. He held a shell up to his ear and claimed to hear the ocean. We were up the next morning at 4am to ensure that we caught a ferry back to mainland North Carolina. The sunrise was spectacular. The water was like glass as the sun began to break over the ocean horizon. It was a good morning.

On our second ferry-ride Brady laid down next to our scooters to get some sleep. He hadn't brought an air mattress on the trip, and he was growing pretty sore from the repeated nights of camping. We kept on forgetting, but we had been meaning to stop at a camping store to get a small air mattress for him. As Brady was laying there a gentleman who he had spoken with about the trip came up to him and asked him if he wanted an air mattress. With only 40 minutes or so left in the trip, Brady said he'd be fine. The man said, "No, I mean to keep for the trip." The man insisted that Brady take it, and gave him an air mattress with a pump. As Brady told me we were both laughing pretty hard. God is good.

We found a church to attend later Sunday morning. It was good to expand our worship experiences. The energy in the church was indescribable. Ask us about it sometime. Further travel on Sunday brought us down the coast of North Carolina to a home near Wilmington. The previous day I was made aware that an old family friend from our California days was living there. I called him to see if we could touch base and catch up a little, as we have both been in the Marine Corps for six years, but with vastly different career paths. We ended up being the grateful guests at he and his wife's home. He provided us with a McDonald's inspired meal that was incredible, as well as a shower, a comfortable place to sleep, and our first washer and dryer of the trip.

We set forth early this morning to begin our westward trek across the U.S. We have a church this Sunday over 1,000 miles away, so we needed to make some serious headway. It was a great day of travel. We're getting accustomed to longer stretches of riding. The temperature hit 90 degrees today, which was fantastic.That's a 45 degree jump from a week ago. Our vitamin d levels have been going through the roof. Near the end of our day of travel I was beginning to wonder if my tire was a little low on air. I popped it on my trip last summer but the plug has been holding for almost 5,000 miles. God is good. As I put air in my tire we discovered that I had a nail in that same tire that was quickly leaking air. Brady was masterful with our tire plug kit, and we were back on the road quickly, my back tire now plugged twice. I don't know how long that tire had a nail in it, but we thought it was pretty fortuitous that we discovered the potentially crippling leak at a gas station with an air pump. God is good.

I am typing this blog entry in the living room of the home of my Grandpa and his wife, Grace. For the second day in a row we have a house to sleep in, home-cooked food to enjoy, and great company to enjoy. God is good.

Tomorrow we will be heading out, probably passing through Tennessee and down into Georgia. It looks like if we dive south for the week we may be able to avoid the storms that are crushing the midwest right now. We will see.

It has been really neat to see the cultural shift that we have experienced in just a week of travel. People act differently, speak differently, worship God differently, but we (Michigan folks) are less than a days drive away from this part of the country.

All over the east coast people have been very excited about the trip and very encouraging. If you are reading this as someone who has been directed to this website through an interaction with us on the trip, know that we are praying for you, as are many other people.

If you are praying for us, please pray for continued opportunities to speak with people. Pray for meaningful conversations.
Pray for God to work in any and every medium available to impact people.
Pray for the work of International Justice Mission. (You may be able to guess what inspired our trip title) We are still thrilled to have been able to join them for prayer last week, and are encouraged by the work God is doing through them.
Pray for us, that we will seize the surprisingly minimal free time we have in our days to be productive and God-honoring with our thoughts and actions. In that same vein we will try to be more faithful with our blog updates. It's a thrill to reflect on our time, seeing how God has been providing for us. It will continue. I am convinced it has just begun.

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.