Road trip!

So it somewhat new for me to try and write a narrative of an event and even stranger for it to be on an Ex post facto basis so be patient. I will try not to ramble to much but seeing as rambling it my forte it will inevitably happen.

So after a full year at Fort Lewis College I was in desperate need of anything that wasn't just sitting on my couch and watching Wrath of Khan over and over; so I decided to plan a road trip. I had a friend whom I had grown up with since about sixth grade on, and she is one of my best friends in the entire world. For a long time she had been telling me to come and visit her at her college in Idaho but I just never had the time, willpower, or money to make the trip. After doing my taxes for this year I found I had about 500 dollars more than I thought I would have so I thought, "Hey, I can take a trip!" So after a couple of failed attempts to find other people to go on a trip with me I eventually decided to do this trip Han style: Solo. I already had a job lined up for the summer that was to start the Thursday after I finished finals, but after talking to the owner of the company he told me it was fine to just start a week later. So with all things somewhat in place I left my home literally the day after finals.

I had googled the route and printed directions, fixed various problems with my '86 Honda Prelude, and had packed all that I needed to survive for a few days in a tiny bag (yea that's right; I know how to roadtrip). I had planned on leaving at some crazy time like 4:30 in the morning like I usually do for trips but I didn't take into account that when it is just me on a trip there is little motivation to leave earlier than 7:00. The first couple hours of the trip were uneventful besides some amazing scenery God had made. Around 1:30 I started to realize how incredibly lonely and boring driving 13 hours by yourself can be, and honestly I was stating to doze off. So I stopped for my very first gas break, my car has amazing MPG, at a Subway/Gas station hybrid and had lunch. Before leaving I went against my better judgement and bought my very first Monster energy drink. Those who know me have learned that I have bad reactions to caffeine because of how ridiculously skinny I am, and because of this I very rarely eat sweets or drink coffee and I never do energy drinks of any kind. However, this trip was demanding an immediate intervention so I partook of my very first energy drink. At first it didn't really do much besides help me from being drowsy, but after a few more sips of the revolting concoction I was quite out of my mind. At this point in the trip I was going through the very mountainous roads in Utah, and even though it was a shear drop on one side it was still two lanes for both directions. My car is relatively fast and mountain passes don't bother her one bit so I was flying by all the other slowpokes that were way under the posted speed. Due to my caffeine altered state I was blasting heavy screamo music like Emery and Underoath. On top of me destroying my vocal chords trying to "sing" along to the music I also would yell "Huzzah!" out the window every time I passed someone and I would tip my can of sugary death towards them as one would lift their glass in Victorian Era England. Thankfully the drink wore off by the time I got to Boise and I was almost my normal self again.

I arrived around 8:15 and so since the night was young my friend and some of her fellow students took me downtown to see the city. Even though I live in a small town that is very removed from an large cities I have been to quite a few big city, and Boise was one of the most beautiful. It is not near the size of NYC or LA, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in awesomeness. Despite my small town upbringing I felt quite at home in Boise, which for me is strange because I don't always even feel at home when I am in my home. We visited a frozen yogurt shop and I was extremely surprised to find out it was headquartered in Durango, Colorado. I crashed on the floor of one of my friend's friend's floors. BBC only has about 200 students so I got to meet almost everyone. All the people were so nice and after a year at an extreme liberal arts college it was so great to be around so many good Christian brothers and sisters. Also everyone there loves Star Wars and even a few student are Roddenberry fans.

On the second day we started off the morning by driving around looking for homeless people; and when we found them we gave them sandwiches and bottled water, and then just talked with them for a while. This was such an amazing opportunity to show God's love, and for me it was very neat because there are not any homeless people in Bayfield so I don't have that kind of opportunity all of the time. After that we went to the Boise rescue mission and got to do some work at one of their women and children shelters for a couple of hours. This was so extremely cool because I want to work for an intercity mission someday so it was great to be a part of the work they do there, even if it was only for a few hours. Of course there are about 20 or so different mission-type jobs that I want to do at some point, but if they all fit in with God's plan for my life then I will not put a limit on how much he can do through me. Next we went to an African church service. Keep in mind this was not African American but actual African. Some were refugees and others move here just to be missionaries here in America. How strange that we send missionaries to their countries while they send missionaries to our's? This church service was one of the most amazing things I have ever been a part of. Everything from their music to their prayers were ten times more energetic than how we Americans worship. Every single visitor was called up so the congregation could pray for them. As I was a visitor I had to go up and be prayed for. At first it was a little strange, but then I realized this is exactly the kind of thing the original church probably did. Also at the beginning of the service the pastor told everyone to go and shake everyone's hand and introduce yourself. I have been to many different churches and almost all of them have a pastor that says this, but this pastor was for real. Literally the service did not resume until everyone had met EVERY other person. After this me and a group of BBC student went to Buffalo Wild Wings. This was a bad decision as I am a huge daredevil when it comes to hot foods. I ended up close to tears the entire way back to the college because of how many of the extremely hot wings I had eaten. That night we visited Table Rock which is this gigantic lit-up cross that shines above the whole city. Getting to look down on Boise at night from the mountains above it was simply breathtaking and really makes me want to live there.

The third day was Sunday so I went to my friend's church that morning. The membership of the church was over twice the population of my town so overall the worship service was amazing. The sermon was on Acts and how there are so many unsung heroes related to Saul/Paul's conversion that most people look over. Despite the less than explosionary topic I was close to tears by the end of the service. I love my church and my pastor so very very much but it is always amazing to visit different church's services and experiencing God in a different setting than I am used to. The rest of the afternoon nothing too extraordinary happened but I did get to go on a wonderful walk by the river that runs through the city. On a side note I also watched Jurassic Park which helped remind me how awesome dinosaurs are.That night we drove out to a huge lake and watched the water for a while. God's creation is so amazing yet I find myself not even noticing it most of the time. We truly have a beautiful planet.

My friend wanted me to stay another day but I needed to be home for my job so I left Monday morning. I had originally planned to drive back through Denver and visit my brother and some friends there but it turns out Denver is quite a bit out of the way so I guess that will have to be another trip at a different time, which is a bummer because my brother isn't coming home at all this summer because of an internship with AMD that will keep him up there the entire break.

When I left Boise it was slightly raining which was perfect because I love driving through weather as long as it isn't apocalypse level. I got into Utah and was cruising down the interstate with no visible building or town for as far as the eye could see when all of the sudden my tachometer started revving way too high. So I took my car off autopilot (cruise control but I like to pretend my car is a spaceship) and tried to use my accelerator manually, but even then all it did was rev as though it were in neutral. In the past my car has had transmission problems but we had that completely replaced. Fearing that I would be stranded and have to die alone in the middle of Utah I started calling my parent to let them know I was having car trouble. Because the car was acting as though it were in neutral it coasted for many miles before slowing down because it had a huge tailwind that was helping it. When it got down to about 35 MPH the gears kicked in again so I kept driving on the shoulder at that speed. I tried to speed up but as soon as the transmission kicked into 4th gear it revved out again until I got slow enough for it to slump into 3rd. (Note: normally you should put your hazard lights on when you drive that slow but my friend broke the button for them years ago so I just alternated left and right turns signals.) Eventually  after a while of driving like this I got brave and decided to see if I could push it into 4th gear. For some reason this time it worked perfectly. I had no other trouble from then on, and all of that can only be attributed to God watching over me during the entire time.

Thank you to all who were praying for my safe travels. Even though I only spent a few days on this trip I feel like a very changed person because of it. For a while my future has been uncertain as I decided long ago that I would not return to FLC in the fall and this trip has really made me desire to go to a bible school like BBC, or even BBC itself as I have already made many new friends there. I will be in extreme prayer over the next few months about what to do with my immediate future because I most definitely want to be following God's will and not just my own desires.

EL FIN

Live Long and Prosper,
Benjamin Renfro