"I am a voice shouting in the wilderness, Clear the way for the LORD's coming!'"



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Monday, October 4, 2010

Richmonddale OH to Butler Christian Camp in Sinking Springs

The last night we spent with Connie and Mike in Richmond dale was an adventure. We went to Point Pleasant WV to go square dancing. Point Pleasant is also the town where the Mothman Prophecies took place. You can find out about that from the internet I am sure or hollywood made a movie all about it! So we took pics with the statue of mothman. Eva wore a pink petticoat over her pants and a Ted Strickland t-shirt. It was a great look for her! She made me laugh all night. We got to the square dancing ho-down and ate dinner and then watched the dancer's for a while before Eva and I could not keep still any longer and had to join in. We had a lot of fun! I think the old folks really got a kick out of watching us too! The next morning we headed down old Highway 35 to the trail. Jeff walked ahead of Eva and I or behind us for most of the day and Eva and I got to have some very interesting conversation. She told me more of her own beliefs and thoughts on the world. Meanwhile Jeff was apparently having an intense conversation with God. While we were hiking in the woods we were also trying to hook up with our brother Chris who was wanting to come hang out with us, but when you are walking through the woods between unmarked county roads with spotty phone service it makes it very difficult to find someone! We got to Caldwell Lake in Scioto Trail SP a little before night fall and we were all so exhausted. Chris actually found us after hunting for us for 6 hours! The next day Jeff was feeling a little under the weather and slept in and when he finally woke up he went over to the park office and someone handed him a raffle ticket and the n they drew his ticket # and he won a free night of camping!! So we camped for another night!! It was nice because we got to spend time with our friend Chris and have bible study and talk about all sorts of things. The next morning we got up early and packed up our things and headed toward Mapleberry Farms where we were planning to camp for the night. It misted all day on us but it was nice for a change from the heat. We were about 2 miles from Mapleberry Farms when a red car pulled up and Chris was sitting in the passenger seat with Mr. Rickey, the owner of Mapleberry Farms. They said they were getting worried about us because it was beginning to get dark. We were all pretty exhausted so we put our packs in the tiny red car and Jeff and I crawled in the backseat and Eva walked the rest of the way without her pack. When we pulled up to the Farm we were shown to our quarters in the tool shed which Mr. Rickey has been cleaning up for us. We dumped our packs in there and he then invited us inside. I looked through the door and saw a piano! I was in heaven. He had hymn books, a guitar and a mandolin. We sat around for a little while playing some music and chatting. Then we went outside to prepare dinner and while we were doing that Mr. Rickey brought out a pot of delicious tomato stew! And told us his wife was making us hamburgers! What a treat!! The Rickey's were such a blessing! We will hold you in our thoughts and prayers forever Mr. Rickey and family. So when we finally started walking the next morning Eva decided to take a vow of silence and Jeff and I walked a couple of hours ahead of her because we had some praying and discussion to do. Jeff and I were beginning to feel that it was time to part ways with Eva. That was a tough day of hiking. We were going up one ridge and down another all day till we got to Pike Lake. When we got there the general store was open and we went in to check out what they had to offer. We got loaded up with snickers bars, a bagel and cream cheese, some spunkmeyer muffins, juice and pop, and a couple of cans of Chef Boyardee along with a can of Manwhich.

~Kristin

OK so when we walked into the little general store I asked the guy behind the counter, "how late are you going to be open?" He said sharply, "for another eleven minutes." So that is when Kristin and I started hastily grabbing things that looked good to eat and required zero prep time to eat. When I saw that can of Manwhich sitting on that shelf, all I saw was this big tasty looking sloppy joe on the front label. So I grabbed it and threw it up on the counter too. We paid for our loot and took it outside to the picnic table to devour it like a pack of ravenous dogs. I grabbed our cooking pot and ripped open my can of beefaroni and manwhich with my bare hands and scraped then into the pot. That is when I realized that this can of manwhich looked nothing like the sloppy joe in the picture. I fearfully turned the can around to the back label where I learned that the 1/2 pound of hamburger meat was not included in the can. My heart sank as I realized that I had already mixed my chef boyardee with a can of glorified ketchup!! As hungry as we were, as tired as we were, and as worn out as we were, I couldn't bring my self to eat all of it. I feebly tried picking out the noodles, but that manwhich had permeated every molecule of edible food in the whole pot! Spoon full after spoon full of glorified ketchup went into my mouth and my appitite soon tucked tail and ran. I wound up just tossing the rest for the birds. So to make a long story short: 1) don't try to eat a can of Chef Boyardee with a can of Manwhich without the hamburger meat! And 2) make sure you look at what you are about to stuff into your face before you buy it. Let the laughing ridicule begin.....

Ok so soon after I washed out the pot and was mentally rid of this culinary disaster, my capacity to care for another human being returned. At that moment I realized that we had been there for a few hours, it was now getting dark, and Eva had not shown up yet. Kristin and I were getting concerned and decided that we would go over to the park office. They were closed but we knocked on the door anyway. A woman answered the door, took one look at our packs and invited us into the warm office! She just knew that we were walking the trail. How she knew I'll never know, but she was just the most friendly person ever! We told her what we were doing and she told us that we could stay in a campsite tonight for free! We also told her about Eva not showing up yet, and that we thought she would be alright because she had food, water, shelter, and fire. We just wanted to tell someone now in case she didn't show up in the morning. So we chatted for a while, and she noticed that we didn't have any gloves on, and gave us a pair of jersey gloves each and sent us on down to the campsite. She said that she would call the rangers and let them know about Eva. We said that was great and that we would see her in the morning. Well we had left Eva a note at the edge of the woods where the trail came out, and now that we had a campsite, we had to change the note. So Kristin ran back across the lake dam to change the note, and when she got back Eva emerged from the woods! It was just barely light enough to see her. So I went back up to the office and informed them that she had arrived and everyone was relieved. We walked down to the campsite where we promptly set up our tents and crashed out! It had been an extremely difficult day full of tough terrain and sparsely marked trail. I think that we did 14 or 15 miles that day, which is a longer day for us. I think that we all slept really well that night.


~Jeff


The next morning we woke up at 6:00 and got packed up by 7:30. We headed towards the next campsite, which was Cave Lake. Jeff and I had felt God confirmed in both of us that it was time to part ways with Eva. We were not sure how to tell her though. We walked together all day and after about 10 miles we were all getting tired because of the long day we had the day before. We got to a fish hatchery and talked to the guy who worked there for a while. Cave Lake was another 5-6 miles by way of the foot path through the forest, and I don't think any of us were up for that. So we moped around at the fish hatchery for a good 30 minutes and decided we would just walk until we found a good place to put up our tents. We did not get but a quarter mile from the fish hatchery when a woman and daughter and a big black lab pulled up beside us and asked if we would like a ride. I thought, "God is so awesome, I did not even pray for a ride and he knew exactly what I needed!" We hopped in the car and she whisked us away to Cave Lake. We told her how Jeff and I were walking for Christ and her eyes lit up. I felt that it was encouraging for her. We told her a little bit of our testimony and she was very exited for us. We hugged her and asked God's blessings upon her and wished her well. We followed a paved road to a primitive campsite and popped up our tents. I then had an uncontrollable giggle fest for 30 minutes and fell asleep.
The next morning we all got up and headed to find the blue blazes again. We sat to take a break after climbing straight up a ridge and Jeff went to find the blue blazes. I was asking God when I should tell Eva that we should part ways and I felt him lay on my spirit to just do it now and get it over with. So I told her and she was okay with it and was glad that I said something. So the rest of the day we walked knowing that that would be the last day for us to walk together because Byron, the Buckeye Trail supervisor that we met a few days ago, was taking her to a backpacking gear festival in Dayton for the weekend while Jeff and I were being picked up by a beautiful sister in Christ that we had been connected with to relax for the weekend. So we all had a few more interesting conversations about the bible and life and end times and Jesus and homosexuality and all other sorts of things that had been the topic of conversation for the last 5 weeks. Then we called Byron to make arrangements for picking Eva up and he told us to camp at Butler Christian Camp. We checked out the map and we were only about 2 miles from there so we took our time since it was still early. When we got there we were greeted by Chris. He showed us where we could camp and then took us to the convenient store where Jeff and I went crazy again and bought a bunch of junk food AGAIN!! We were invited to dinner by a lovely family that lived on the campgrounds and Eva and I did some laundry and we all took showers so we could have a big group hug without smelly armpits before we said goodbye!
So......we had a good last evening together and I tried not to get emotional and when I woke up at 6:00 a.m. I checked my voicemail and Tammy, the woman who was picking us up left a message saying she was picking us up at 8 and so we only had a couple more hours of time with Eva. I went over to the big wooden Noah's ark, where she was camped, and she was already getting packed up. Tammy pulled up just a few minutes after 8 and hopped out to greet us and boldly asked Eva why she did not believe in Jesus and then we all hugged and headed to Tammy's house.

~Kristin

We rode in Tammy's truck the whole hour and 10 minutes back to her house. One of her daughters was in the truck with her when she picked us up, and one was back at the house. Their Names are Amber and Abigale, and they are the coolest kids you could imagine. Tammy and Eric have done an awesome job raising and homeschooling them. Amber and I like to find all the hidden objects in her kids "Highlight" magazines! She says I'm her "best buddy" when it comes to finding the things in the magazines! We are going to miss them. Tammy and Eric took us to the massive outdoor car show, fed us lots of food, let us sleep in their spacious camper, and took us to church! We even spent the day after church with Tammy's parents splitting wood and eating pizza! Tammy's father Fred, a 22 year career Marine, got a kick out of my beard and told me stories about his "Great Squirrel Wars" where he fought for the birds, and their feeders, in his back yard. He finally won the upper hand when he wired up the house current electricity to the copper pole that the squirrels ran down to get to the bird feeders!! The look on that man's face when he re-lived that story warmed my heart to no end. Fred and Lois, you are such a blessing and we can't wait for the day we meet again. Either here on earth, or in eternity! We have had sooooo much fun spending time with Tammy, Eric, Abigale, and Amber and are going to be sad to part company. Luckily, we will be coming back through the area on the trail in a few weeks, and they have said that they will be happy to see us again.

While we were at church I met a man and fellow bassist named Bill. He let me play his bass and i offered to take it back to the house and give it a good set up. He came over today and took me to his house where he showed me around his "man dungeon" that is full of R.C. Helicopters, electric trains, and a full band set up! We even have a mutual friend that plays in his band! Small world. We spent some time talking about bass and music and he showed me around his property. He even offered to open his house up to Kristin and I if we needed it during the winter! He said, "I've driven 8 hours to pick up some goats. I'll certainly do that for you guys!" We have just been so blessed to meet all the good people of the world that God has sent our way. We are amazed and humbled everyday. Tammy and Bill both offered to take us back to the trail, and since Tammy has spent the majority of the time with us, she reluctantly agreed to let Bill drive us back to the trail. We have been completely spoiled here in Ohio and are excited for who God will have crossing our path down the road.


~Jeff

2 comments:

  1. Chef Jeff strikes again... too bad it didn't turn out as well as when you first mixed vanilla ice cream and powered orange gatorade!!! :)I am so glad you had a nice time in Ohio... I am excited to keep reading... I love you both!

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  2. So awesome to read your blog! I kept wanting to read more even when I was at the end. It sounds like this adventure has allowed you to meet and touch many peoples lives. The lord as certainly blessed you all along the way with such awesome people to take you all in, feed you and to provide shelter. Although I am feeling a little sorry for Kristen, Chef Jeff is not on his (A) game all the time.:)

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