February 13th, 2024
Living the way that I am living out here on the road is sort of a balancing act between planning and faith. You have to be able to find places to stay, places to dump your tanks, and places to refill your water and propane. Much like everyone else on this planet, a primary concern of mine is finances. I am always trying to find places to stay that are low cost or, even better, free. Over the past year I have become more an more relaxed on this as God has showed me time and time again that He will provide for me. I’ve always had a place to stay for the night and so far I’m not burning through as much of my meager savings as I expected. This is thanks in a large part to my friends Wayne and Carol that I met last year at Angel Creek. The apps that they set me up with have been invaluable and I was so blessed to have met them when I did.
For those interested, these are the apps that I use primarily: Campendium, iOverlander, Public Lands, and Harvest Hosts/Boondockers Welcome. There is one more that I won’t list here that is maybe the best of all for dry campers… you can email me if you would like to know the name. Campendium can really act as your primary go-to though. It has a ton of information on campsites both free and paid as well as dump station locations and other useful stuff. It is also common for there to be several pictures of the campsites so you have a good idea of what to expect when you get there. iOverlander is more of a backup for me to check if I’m not seeing anything promising on Campendium. Public Lands is a useful tool that shows the boundry lines of all public land that is typically free to camp on, ie BLM, Forest Service, etc. And then there’s Harvest Hosts. Harvest Hosts/Boondockers Welcome is a subscription based app where other Rvers and enthusiasts will let you come camp on their property, usually for free.
I have mixed feelings about Boondockers Welcome lately. I used it a ton last year on my travels through Idaho and Nevada and I met some amazing people in the process. On this trip, however, I am really starting to see its limitations. Most of the hosts down here in southern Nevada/northern Arizona are totally booked for months out and there just aren’t very many of them. It’s not really an app you can rely on in a pinch… you really need to plan your trips in advance to take advantage of them in most cases. I’m also starting to notice some padding happening in the listings where expensive RV parks are listed as “Harvest Hosts” and are offering a “free night” only to gouge you for hookup fees in the small print… not cool. If you are going to invest in this app, I would recommend sticking with just the Boondockers Welcome listings and ignoring the Harvest Hosts side.
That said, when you can get things set up with a good host, it is a welcome luxury on the road. That’s what I found when I was camping with Keith on Route 66… a great looking host just 40 miles down the road in Bullhead City that had hookups for electricity, water and sewer and had wide open availability. By now I had been out here for nearly two weeks and was due for some tank dumping and water filling. So I headed into Bullhead City, stocked up on some supplies, and headed to the host.
They were situated in a nice little neighborhood a few miles north of the city. The space was a huge dedicated RV pad that they built just down the hill from their home. It was nearly perfectly level, well maintained, had all the hookups, and was surprisingly private. When I arrived my hosts, Jim and Roni, kindly guided me as I backed into the space and even brought me a goody bag to welcome me. That’s kind of the kicker with Boondockers Welcome, and the main reason why I will likely keep the subscription: the people. These hosts are the salt of the earth. Every place I have stayed they have been so welcoming and generous. It’s already a weird feeling to be camped out on someone’s driveway, they just have a way a removing all the awkwardness and making you feel at home.
Note: Photo not mine, credit to Harvest Hosts
I spent the next few days here getting some much needed work done on this website. I had several blogs that needed to be written from my time in Challis over the summer so I took this time to try to get caught up. I tend to get behind on these blog entries because they take so much time to compose. Each entry takes at least 4 hours of typing and editing, a few hours picking and resizing photos, and then the page itself has to be built. It’s a process that I am still new to and have in no way perfected or even optimized. In fact, I’m finding myself in a crunch right now to catch up with this very blog you are reading. Oh well, I’ll figure it out eventually.
One day while I was here I had a chance meeting with a local fellow on my way back from my run. He was walking his dog and I noticed he was wearing a shirt that I happen to also have in my closet right now. I made a quick comment on it as I passed and this ended up launching us into an hour long conversation. We talked about politics, our lives, and eventually God. As a person who did not grow up believing in God, it always surprises me to hear people who feel so far away from Him when they have believed all their lives. They are often in pain, lost in depression, drinking too much and neglecting their health. So many believers have forgotten that God is with them, and has been the whole time. It’s the very reason for my web site’s main message “God Exists”. It’s so simple but it’s one of the easiest things for forget as we go about our days. I spoke to him at length about his faith and attempted to reignite the fire in him. We had a great talk, and I made sure to give him a copy of Wild at Heart before he left.
After three days with my nose in the computer, I was looking forward to attending a new church for Sunday service. During my stays with these hosts I always try ask their advice on which local church to attend. Roni pointed me toward The Potter’s House Christian Fellowship about 10 miles south so I loaded up on the bike and headed into town. It was a beautiful day for a ride, the kind of day you can’t help but count your infinite blessings as the cool wind whips around you.
Note: Photo not mine, credit to bhcpottershouse.com
The church service was good, I always enjoy seeing the lead pastor take part in the singing the worship, and Johnathan wasn’t half bad. They also did something really cool I haven’t seen before: personal prayer requests during the announcements. They used a projector and put up on the screen pictures of various members of the church who needed prayers. People with afflictions, couples expecting children, couples getting married, all different sorts. It was very personal and it added a whole new dimension to the idea of a church family. Very Cool. The message was delivered by a guest pastor Willis Gordon who did a sermon on the power of our words to hea and harm which was compelling. Unfortunately I did not get to hear Lead Pastor Jonathan deliver a message, but I did get to meet him briefly after the service.
After church I stopped off to pick up a few melons (you know me) and then headed back home… and that’s when things started to get “interesting”.
I received a video call from someone I haven’t spoke to in over 20 years, a guy from my college fraternity named Nick. I stared at the phone, baffled. Nick and I had never been that close, and now 20 years later I have a video call coming in from Nick just out of the blue? What is going on here?
I answered the call and immediately was greeted by something I haven’t seen before. The screen was split up into a grid with about 6 different faces staring back at me. Faces I had not seen in a very long time, several of which I barely recognized. Apparently I was not to only one is shock as everyone seemed to be in a state of confusion. None of them recognized me at all, which was a bit of a compliment in itself but after a few minutes we all kind of a settled in and started catching up. It was actually really cool to see these guys after so long, share my story, and get filled in on what they were doing with themselves. It’s weird… they looked the same but totally different. There’s a strange feeling when you see someone that you knew at 19 who is now suddenly in their 40’s. It’s almost like it’s that same kid in a disguise. It’s very strange.
After about 20 minutes of catching up, Nick finally got to the point of this call. Justin, one of our brothers from the fraternity, had died. Even more shocking, he had died of alcohol abuse. This hit me pretty hard. Justin had been my “big brother” during my time in the fraternity. Back then we were all drinking and partying, but he always seemed to be one of the more responsible people with alcohol. Apparently he had recently gone through a divorce and found himself in an isolated situation not unlike my own a few years prior in Post Falls. Justin and I had fallen out of contact soon after college so I had no idea that he was going through such hard times. I lamented that I could not be there to help him through it while at the same time realized how close I came to the same fate. I wish I could have helped him find what I found, helped him ween off the booze and see God’ calling out to him trying to pull him from the darkness. Alcoholism is a dark place filled with shame, guilt, and regret. It breaks my heart that he spent his last days there.
We spent some time together talking about Justin and sharing stories. Nick let us know that his funeral service would have a live feed in a few days if we would like to attend from long distance, and we said our goodbyes.
And that was it. An old friend, just, gone from this world. And that’s when it came… The Pull.
As I sat and reflected on the time I spent with Justin I began to really regret my failure to keep in touch with him over the years. I know I cannot shoulder all of the blame for our estrangement, I also know just how isolated I became after college… a reality that got worse the deeper I fell into alcoholism. I thought about other friendships that I had allowed to fade over the years, like my friend Jesse from San Diego.
In 2011, I moved to San Diego California from Boise to get a “fresh start”. I will share more about that story another time, but suffice to say I moved about 1000 miles away to a new city and didn’t have any friends there. Jesse was my first friend in that place, and was a great friend at that. We met at a party and connected immediately. We shared several interests and just started hanging out all the time. He was a lifeline for me in a strange place and quickly became one of my best friends in the world.
I fell out of contact with him when I moved to the LA area to go to school about a year later. I have no excuses, it was the same story it always is. I was spending most of my free time drinking alone and I let the friendship fade away. I had thought about calling him over the years, but what would I have to share? “Just been sitting around drinking alone… it’s great!”. The shame of what I let my life become was too embarrassing to share, so I never did.
As I reflected, I couldn’t help but have an overwhelming urge to call Jesse. The Pull was strong on this one. “Why not call him? Heck, I’m in Arizona right now just a couple hundred miles away from San Diego… maybe I could stop in and see him and catch up.” Ever since being saved by God, I have no trouble reaching out to people from my past. I finally have something worthwhile to share with them. Stories of healing, transformation, and adventure. It’s strange that I no longer feel a sense of anxiety or fear when reaching out to them… heck I used to get that just going to the grocery store.
So I listened to The Pull and looked up his number in my cell phone contacts list. I wasn’t even sure if he still had the same number, but I gave it a go and dialed him up. It rang twice and then a familiar voice greeted the other end of the line. It was a simple “Hello?” but it was an immediate rush of nostalgia. “All these years any you still have the same number eh?” … “All these years and you still have the same dumb voice” he cackled from the other end. We laughed and were instantly right back in our old rhythm. We spent the next hour catching up, I told him all about my life leading up to going on the road full time, and he told me all about his life leading up to his recent decision to move to Arizona.
My heart skipped a beat. “… Wait… you live in Arizona now?”. “Yeah, I’ve been here about 6 months working a ranch… where are you at?” he said. “I’m in Bullhead City right now, heading down to Parker in a few days on my way to Yuma.” I answered. “Oh really? I’m about 10 miles south of Parker, you should just come here. We have 40 acres, you can stay as long as you want.”
My mind was utterly blown. How is this possible? How can it possibly be that one of my oldest and best friends is 60 miles away right now in the direction that I am already heading? I didn’t know what I was doing or really where I was going. I had a vague idea to head in the direction of Glammis, and that’s it. I pick the direction and get started, and then I hope that God will tell me what to do along the way. Well… He did… bigtime.
As my jaw dragged along the floor all I could really say was “Ok, sure… send me the directions and I’ll be there in a few days.” After that we concluded our conversation and the next leg of my journey was decided.
I cannot stress enough the power of The Pull. The Pull is our connection to the will of God. It is that desire that comes to you seemingly out of nowhere that compels you to do something out of the ordinary. For all who love God and allow Him to guide their lives, The Pull is a powerful tool that He uses to guide us to good things. I did a video on The Pull if you would like to watch it, you can find it in the videos section of this web page.
An hour ago, I was a guy out in the world not sure exactly where he was going or what he would do when he got there. But, as I would soon come to find, following this Pull would end up shaping the rest of this journey in ways I couldn’t imagine and turn it into an avalanche of life and blessings.
“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”
-Proverbs 16:9