Westward Ho!

The past two days have been on the road, towards our next encampment at Judith Guard Station in Montana - all 1,150 miles of it across Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and half of Montana.
Friday night we stayed in Valley City, ND where we got the last non-smoking room in town at the Wagon Wheel.
Saturday was our longest day West but what a day it was. Huge farms stretching on and on in the flatlands, punctuated by rows of trees used for windbreaks, then giving way to more grasslands and grazing cattle on rolling hills, then the hills turn into little mounds and eventually become a rugged landscape with ravines, cliffs and more of a south-west character.



I-94 follows the Yellowstone River upstream as do several rail lines, so we watched the trains go by as we enjoyed the varied scenery. At one rest stop overlooking the Yellowstone we were privileged to see a pair of very rare Whooping Cranes fly up the river below us as we took notice of the cautionary signs about rattlesnakes.

For part of the trip (about 50 miles) we took a back road which paralleled the river and enjoyed a closer encounter with the land where we shared the road with a group of cows on the road.

Earlier in the day we shared the road with another local character.

We arrived in Billings around 4:40 got settled in, set up and rested for a while. Then we had dinner at Denny’s, did our shopping for the next week, (got a .10/gal discount on gas, filled up at $4.09 plus the discount) and drove up the mesa above town where we enjoyed the sunset, rain showers sweeping across the valley and saw a forest fire to the West. We also had out first view of the mountains. They are actually out there.

Later in the evening a serious thunderstorm went through here with lots of noise and pretty intense wind. The locals even seemed to be impressed.

After attending church this morning we drop out of sight at Judith Guard Station and the Gird Point Fire tower. So, until next month - be well, do God’s work and keep in touch.

Encampment Three: Cedarly Retreat Center
Posted from Fargo, ND, July 25



Cedarly Retreat Center, west of Milwaukee, proved to be the perfect place of the third encampment on our sabbatical journey. Here we found gracious but non-intrusive hosting in the persons of Andy and Nancy and shared the house with nine other guests - four pastoral couples (one from Columbia, PA!) and one single pastor. The breakfast and evening meals were set out in a little kitchen galley for us to eat on our own but the noon meal was fully prepared and personally served by the resident chef, Mike. We could not have eaten better. We all gathered around the large table, Andy would lead in a brief devotional thought, give thanks for the meal and we dug in. Between bites, Andy would probe and challenge our thinking in relation to how we take and observe sabbath as a means of growing our relationship with God and maintaining physical, spiritual and emotional health in our ministries. This was the only scheduled group activity of the day. Beyond that we could rise when we wanted and use all the rest of the time to pursue our own schedule of rest, reading, journalling or conversation with the other pastors, something that increased as the week went on. Every need was taken care of and we could give ourselves to our spiritual journey without distraction or interruption. A large lake provided opportunity for canoeing, swimming and, of course, windsurfing.

Again we commit all that we have seen, heard and learned in this place to the Lord as we move on west to our fourth encampment at Judith Guard Station and then on to the Gird Point Fire Tower. Until now, all of our places have involved some measure of interaction with others, but this next week will be just the two of us. Let’s see how we survive that!