Thursday, July 26th - Rapid City, SDThis town has a large First Nation population. From what I can see it's very segregated. Unfortunately I don’t find this particularity surprising. We ate an early dinner in the park nearby a bunch of folks gathered on a park bench drinking in broad daylight. There were so many of them, all of them so drunk, many of them could barely walk.
Before we left I had to throw out some garbage. There were two garbage cans both equal distances away. One right beside the seemingly harmless, drunken people, and the other a 'safe' distance away. I'm embarrassed to admit it but I didn't want to walk towards those people. Not because they were drunk but because they were different, non-white and middle class like myself. It was to defy or confront this shameful feeling inside, or perhaps to push the envelope, that I walked towards them anyways. It was dark by now, and the crowd had dwindled to a few. Nearby was a little girl and her mother. As I approached the garbage can the little girl bravely ran up and shyly asked me for a ride. She wanted me to bring her and her mother home. Kylie was her name as I later found out. She is six years old, happy, and kind. She is the same age as our little friend Audrey that we met only a week earlier.
Kylie's mom, was so messed up she could barely stand up, and staggered over to the bus. Kylie and I walked in awkward silence; Kylie to small to help her stumbling mother and me too uncomfortable to give her the help she needed. We did make it to the bus, where we found Geoff a little confused but happily obliging. In the van she led us this way and that giving us endless directions leading us in circles before admitting that she didn't know where she lived. She was muttering and passing in and out of sleep - she was so hard to understand. Fortunately she told us her street name before passing out and we had a city map (that had previously been useless to us and almost went the way of the garbage can).
We did get them home, and I helped her mother out of the van to sleep it off. I however am unable to sleep off this feeling I am left with. How can a mother willingly put her child in such a vulnerable position? How can she put herself in one? What if Kylie had asked the wrong person for a ride? What would then happen when her mother forgot the way home and passed out in the backseat to leave her six year old girl alone? I can't believe this child, and what she is surrounded with. I can't believe this is her reality. This was all so normal for her, we were the ones shaken by this whole endeavor not her. She wasn’t embarrassed by her mom’s actions. She wasn’t worried that we were lost and in the backseat of a strange car. She wasn’t surprised to see her mother’s horrible stagger. This is her everyday, this is normal grown up behavior, and as Kylie grows up I can only imagine that she will grow to be a grown up just like the ones around her.
It’s at times like these that I understand the need for Godly interventions of miracle proportions. Because despite how much she was able to hide it I think deep down Kylie really is embarrassed, scared, worried and perhaps a bit hopeful.
Written: Friday July 27, 2007 10:30pm – Gillette, WYWe woke up to a new day after a good nights’ sleep, happy to leave behind yesterday. We filled the day with things of a tourist nature, maybe just to distract ourselves. A tour of a diamond factory, a local winery for complimentary tasting and a bottle of chardonnay we couldn’t afford. Mt. Rushmore was the next stop. As we rounded the corner of the twisty single lane death highway we saw our first view of the mighty mountain…and we damn near drove off the highway in excitement. Thankfully, there was a pull over spot on the shoulder, likely put there for nutcase tourists such as ourselves. But seriously it was really beautiful, I wasn’t about to pledge allegiance to the flag or anything but I did take a picture. The day was great and the park was especially awesome. After the park we left behind the black hills and the Ponderosa Pines for Wyoming on route to Montana for the night. This drive we took across the tip of Wyoming was the most awe inspiring so far. We passed through large mountain passes that had recently been burned; we raced trains, rode into the sunset (like in cowboy movies) and dodged countless deer alongside the road. It’s hard to explain this drive except to say that we drove with a sense of purpose in this world and no plans in particular, we drove along perfectly content.
Written: Sunday July 29, 2007 7:30pm – Billings, MT
Spent Saturday & Sunday in Billings, planning to stay tomorrow too. We desperately need showers, to clean house (or van if you will) and a CV joint grease job. It is really amazing how God provides for us on this trip. It seems that every time we are in need of something someone walks up to say hello to us completely out of the blue. Yes we do stand out; being young, Canadian and driving a bright yellow 1974 hippie van. But these people that come keep coming with exactly what we need. Like the man who out of the blue rode up on his bike and had a grease gun to lend us. I’m not exaggerating when I say that Geoff and I were just talking about whether we could afford one and where we were going to find one so late in the night. He told us we could just drop it off at his house when we were done!
Today we woke up for church with plans to attend to this grease problem afterwards. Instead we awoke to the smell of gasoline. There was gasoline spewing over one of our carburetor thanks to a malfunctioning float valve. As Geoff was off making yet another desperate call to our mechanic for some over the phone advice, along comes another fellow. He was a previous owner of a VW, which isn’t a common occurrence for us. This man however oddly enough just happened to own a very similar model - with you guessed it - Dual carbs! Also he had in fact encountered this exact same problem and knew how to trouble shoot and mend it as well. On top of all of this he was free for the day and stuck around to give some tips, a ride to the parts store, and share stories about sailing off the coast of Mexico and trading pens and paper for potatoes and bread (because money is useless in these small town you see). His wife even bought us all lemonade bless her heart, because it was sweltering today. Call it coincidence if you want, but I seriously suspect that there is some big guy up there looking out for us, and providing daily.
We set up shop right in the Wal-mart parking lot and spent the day trying to look inconspicuous...
Drying some laundry to pass the time
We spent the evening relaxing with hot chocolate and our trusty road map (on loan from my Dad)
Written: Monday July 30, 2007 – Billings MT
Ok, that’s enough I’m tired of this town it’s 100 degrees F…again and it’s stifling. Did the grease job on the back four boots today. They don’t call it a grease job for nothing. Looks like we’ll need to overhaul the axels soon. Spent the whole day running, literally, back and forth from box store to box store looking for a flat tip to a grease gun. Those parking lots weren’t made for people on foot were they? The only was to keep cool is to roll down the windows and keep moving…and so we must.
Oh! And the sweetest part is that we turned the speedometer over! We went from 99999 to 00000. It was pretty sweet, although I had hoped that it would happen some crazy unique place, and at a certain point in time where the stars would align and the heavens part to deliver some divine wisdom as to where and what we should be doing with our lives. Instead we just drove slowly along the highway staring at the dashboard and got into a fight over who was taking a better picture of the speedometer, but we smiled for the camera anyways, because hey it’s a momentous occasion.
Tuesday July 31, 2007 – Great Falls, MTCan’t seem to find these 'Great Falls' this town is apparently known for. Drove all day on route to my Brother Dan’s house in Cranbrook, BC. The new plan is to leave tomorrow at 5:00am to try to avoid driving in the intense heat. The van doesn’t like it, and I can’t say that we do either. There are crazy forest fires here and the smoke is so thick you can’t see the sun except for a deep red ball and if you stand still enough ashes drift down from the sky like the start of a snowfall.
