13 July 2012
Rawlins to Jeffrey City WY 70 miles (TransAm 2,723)
It seems I’m not the only one behind in the housework. I may not have dusted in the past 8 weeks but to hear Gina tell it, God hasn’t swept out his house of worship in Jeffrey City in at least as many years.
I don’t know if it’s okay to call a church a Dump with a capital D, but this is what Gina is doing and the way I figure it, I’m just the messenger. In fact, let’s remove me from the equation entirely and go straight to the source, using some of Gina’s other words to further describe her evening’s lodging:
“Words can’t describe how filthy and full of junk this place is.” (Actually, I think maybe these words do paint a sufficient picture.)
“I don’t think they’ve purged since 1981.” (For a person with OCD, this is truly a sin.)
Okay, so the pastor lives next door in a trailer and even the boys are putting up Bug Free Zones for sleeping. We all know that God works in mysterious ways; maybe he’s just not quite finished here yet. Plus, given that the next possible place to stay is 58 more miles down the road, it’s probably best to simply be grateful here and act like you don’t notice that the doorstep to the Pearly Gates could use a good scrubbing.
On the way to this dumpy place, our girls met a few of earth’s angels – the Wildland Fire Suppression and Rx Burning Team out of Oregon, on their way home after fighting one of the many wildfires that’s been raging across the West. Nice young men, sharing their bottles of cold water with our girls. They also yo-yo’d across the Continental Divide a few more times and stopped at the Split Rock Historic Site for a history lesson on the Pony Express. Our TransAmmers have had some long, tough days in the saddle but I’d say those Pony Express riders had it worse. Imagine how hard it would be to walk the next day after riding 20 hours straight on the back of a galloping horse. Come to think of it, I’d say the ponies didn’t get such a great deal out of it either.
Thanks for your insights into this trip. I’m so inspired that perhaps next year, I’ll do a similar service for my husband (co-leader Paul). But probably not – I’d have to learn to write and I’d have to get at least a minimal amount of information from Paul, which is unlikely. Usually by the time I hear about events from Paul, I’ve read three perspectives of the event on three blogs. I will say, however, that there’s an amazingly high correlation between the blogs and the few details Paul provides.
If your resume doesn’t include personal communicator between distant couples you might want to add that. I’ll give you a resounding recommendation.
Karen