Part 3 of 5
Dirk's Story:
Date: July 7, 1998
greetings from broadus, montana!!
after enjoying a wonderful week in rapid city, south dakota with bruce and sandee rambelberg, i am now under way to seattle, washington.
i can't tell you how refreshed, both physically and spiritually, i was by spending time with the rampelbergs. being with people of like mind and spirit really does the body good!!
for excitement, they took me down to mount rushmore, a 17 mile horseback ride up to harvey peak (7242 ft. high), and a short horse ride through the bad lands on sunday afternoon. i was also able to sit in on a promise keepers lunchean held by the first christian church in rapid city. although i didn't get the opportunity to preach while in rapid, i was able to speak to the high school group on sunday morning.
if you have never been to rapid city, it is definitely the place for your next vacation plans. there is just so much to do, and the cost to do activities is relatively inexpensive.
upon leaving rapid city, i had a wonderfully nice ride through the black hills. the climbs weren't so bad and the scenery was majestic. i stopped 137 miles from rapid city in a small town called alzada, montana. really, it wasn't a town at all, just 2 bars and a few houses.
today, i am experiencing first hand why there are not many people who live in montana. especially on the eastern side of the state, there isn't anything here. i have to pedal 30 to 50 miles just to get from one town to the next. and the towns aren't towns, just a few homes. i can already tell that montana will definitely be the most trying state for me. already since yesterday, i am finding myself getting terribly lonely. there just isn't anything to see, and the wind is unbearable at times. i think it would take a divine wave of god's hand in order to switch the direction of the wind. in speaking to different people along the way, they really can't remember the last time that the wind blew out of the east.
i hoping to make it up to havre, montana by this weekend. bruce rampelberg's father lives there and was a minister there at one time. from havre, i will pedal up through canada, and down through glacier national park.
please do bear with me as in montana, i'm not quite sure how many times i will be able to find a library, or be in a town when a library is open. i should at least be able to give another update when i arrive in havre.
i suppose that the one key element that has given me some sense of solace over the past 2 days especially has been my reading of the bible. because of the basket that my father placed on the front of the bike, it works out quite nicely with everything on the front of the bike for a
little reading shelf. throughout the day i read one chapter from proverbs, 4 chapters from psalms, and usually a book from the new testament.
many times during the day, i find my thoughts turning rather ugly and uncharacterisic of a christian. i am finding more and more that as i spend these days alone with god, that satan also is there with me doing everything he can to disrupt the good things that i try so hard to dwell upon. so as i have involved myself in reading god's word, these lowly thoughts are becoming less and less. and furthermore, i am finding that i am beginning to see god in much more of a grandeur way that i have seen him before.
thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers for my journey. it is many times throughout the day when the wind just seems too unbearable that i think of you and your thoughts and prayers over me. and i find the strength to go just a few more miles to another town or over the next hill.
god is beginning to show me that this journey of faith is no longer just my journey, but one for anybody who hears or reads about it. all i see my part as now is just putting forth the peddal-power to get to the next town. it is god that is demonstrating in a greater way than i had ever
expected to people who i have never met that his goodness can be experienced even if it is not first hand.
alone with god.
dirk.
Date: July 8, 1998
greetings from miles city, montana!!
yesterday was one of utter discouragement. just when i thought the terrain would become flat, it would begin to go up for miles. just when i thought the relentless winds would blow more softly, a ghastly wind would come from nowhere showing me just how weak i am. just when i thought the sun would decrease in strength, somehow at mid-afternoon, it shown brighter than anytime during the day. yesterday i was completely beaten down. yesterday, i biked just 100 miles.
today however is a new day. last night i stayed behind a post office in volborg, montana. although there is a post office in volborg, the town is nothing more than 2 houses with a little trading post carrying only beer, ice and snacks. the couple who ran the post office however were the nicest people that i've met thus far in montana. the wife let me take a shower with a garden hose outside in the back pasture. you might find this barbaric, but after not having taken a shower for 2 days, any kind of bathing is openly welcomed. furthermore, you really haven't experienced the great outdoors until you have taken an outdoor shower facing the hills and the setting sun to warm and dry the body. this was exhilirating to say the least.
this morning as i have come into miles city, i met up with 23 cycilists who are peddaling from seattle to washington d.c. when they saw my set up and heard of my distance traveled each day, i guess you can say they were a little amazed, even taken back. i'm not sure if they really even believed my tale, but this will be for them to decide. their journey is consisting of stopping at different towns along the way and performing service acts in return for any food or lodging that they are receiving. i guess that you could say that there was a definite clash in bicycling methods between them and myself. they were also apalled like many others have been that i don't wear the proper attire for cycling. by this i mean the right kind of shorts, shirt and even a helmet.
well, off i go into the land of nothingness. really, there isn't any town than 100 or so up to glasgow. so this might be the end of me for a few days.
alone with god.
dirk.
Date: July 9, 1998
greetings from glasgow, montana!!!
there are two things for which i have been in grave error about. the first is that somehow in the midst of this great and desolate state of montana, i am somehow managing to be in towns along the way at the right time to send you updates. i believe this is the third day in a row!! i gues that god wants me to communicate more in this great spanse of montana.
the second area for which i have errored is in calling montana desolate and bleak. i can remember some of the words of wisdom that lyle bundy, a professor from florida christian college, gave to me. he said that i should not be so hasty as to only see god in the great and grandeous events and sites of this great country. lyle encouraged me to find god in the smallest of things which i come across. well, in remembering these words i must confess that in montana, i have forgotten to look for god even in the bleakest of states.
an example of this can be given in elizabeth and warren ronning. two people that are not especially important unless you were to be on a bicycle fearful of what the up and coming road will bring. you see, from the beginning of this journey, i have avoided rock roads like the plague. rock roads not only slow me down, but there is a risk of puncturing a tire or even breaking something on the bike. i was successful at this until reaching 12 miles east of rapid city. in looking at the map, i noticed that my father had mapped a shortcut along a rock road to bruce and sandee rampelberg's house. since it was the end of my leg, i figured why not... well, on that road the rough terrain of the rocks broke my two bottom brackets on my front basket. yet it was ok because i knew that bruce would be able to fix it for me, which he did.
with that triffle of a bad experience behind me, i again faced another such dilemma coming to the house of the ronning's. again, my father had mapped a shortcut for me on a rock road, but this time the distance was not 12 miles, but 37 miles!! i knew that if i broke anything this time, it would be quite some time before i was able to fix my bike because now i was in the middle of nowhere. literally!!!
in coming to the ronning house, elizabeth greeted me outside with a smile and invited me inside for a short spell. once seated, she asked me if i was hungry and immediately shelled out a small salad and a meatloaf sandwhich. after sitting and visiting with them for a little while, their grandson warren came in to tell me that the rock road for which i was going to travel was one of the best rock roads in the county and definitely manageable for a bike. with this bit of good advice, i proceeded with great delight.
what i learned from this, and please forgive the symbolism, is that i have come to see the mapping of this trip on my dad's part somewhat like god's wisdom given to us in his word. no, this isn't a great new revelation, but simply a reminder that if we stick to god's word and avoid running to different roads dictated by our own fears, i can guarantee you that the road which god plots for you will be much better.
Date: July 15, 1998
greetings from white fish, montana!!!
what do i miss after being on the road since may 12th, and 5,100 miles? (and these are not necessarily in order) i miss biking alongside of my dad as we enter towns that neither one of us have ever been into before. i miss the kind and warmingly loving touch of my mother. i miss the laughter of heidi, my sister, and her dog china. i miss the gentle and longing gaze that falls upon me so often from the eyes of my beloved sarah. i miss knowing where i will lay my head each night. i miss the constant fellowship of other christians who see god as i see him. the list goes on, but these are the biggies.
what i really don't miss is the television, worrying about money or my next meal, living a life that was so bound to my own efforts in providing for myself.
as my dad was correct in his assumption of montana; it has been the worst state so far on this journey. the reason has been because of the constant wind. after leaving jack rampelberg in havre on monday morning, i was faced with an all out wind from the mountains for the next two days. with wind gusts reaching up to 35 mph, i really did want to quit. yet i knew that once i reached the rocky mountains in glacier national park, that it would get better.
the people of montana have been a story all of their own. i can see now why someone would want to move to montana, to get away from people. the people have been somewhat accomodating, but not really amiable. i met up with a couple who have been peddaling from kentucky. they are on their honeymoon going out to seattle. as the wind in montana blows from sun-up to sundown, and even all night sometimes, this couple really just could not make it anymore. so they thumbed it hoping to get a ride from some passing farmer who was going to the next town which was only ten miles away. well, this hopeless couple stood there along side the road for 2 hours before they decided to walk their bikes to the next town. the number of empty pickup trucks that passed them by without stopping really gave me a real life commentary on the people of this state.
tommorow, i should make it into idaho. from idaho, i hope to make it into seattle on the 23rd. my mother's brother lives there, so i will hope to stay with him and his family.
for those of you who received an e-mail message from bob, please do forgive him as jesus was able to forgive. sometimes in life, we go fishing, but we just use the wrong bait. he has apologized to me and has offered a lengthy explanation to me for his message. he just like many people, are seeking. and in that search sometimes, an ill-thought idea is espoused.
alone with god.
dirk.
Date: August 3, 1998
greetings from lincoln city, oregon!!!
please do forgive the length of my absense.
over the next week, i will be trying to get caught up from my journies over glacier national park, the northern cascade mountains, seattle, and now in oregon.
my no money faith-stretching trip is now to 6,300 miles. the wonder of it all is that god seems to be wanting to communicate to me is that what he really wants to show me is just beginning.
bye for now.
dirk.