After the Sunday service was over, our final goodbyes were said, and our trailer was packed for travel, it was dark. When we’d arrived at this campground, our truck bogged down in the saturated ground. Since it had rained Saturday night, Bill decided to pull forward, rather than back up, to avoid getting stuck again. That was successful, but when he pulled onto the camp road and needed to back up, it was dark and he couldn’t see where he was going. I hate to raise my voice but it is necessary at times like these. (I have to yell so he can hear me over the truck’s diesel motor. Otherwise, he wouldn’t know which way to turn the trailer.) Between Bill’s skillful maneuvering and my hollering, we emerged from the campground with an unscathed truck and trailer. Oh yeah, at one point I had to reach up and hold tree branches away from the RV so they wouldn’t puncture the roof. Being tall comes in handy sometimes.
By this time, it was about 10:00 p.m. We wanted to be in Salt Lake City by Tuesday night. The next 48 hours proved to be trying, tiring, with some fun thrown in too. That night, we drove as far as Dickinson, North Dakota, dry camping in a Wal-Mart parking lot. We got to sleep about 3:00 a.m.
Monday, we took our time. Bill had never been to this part of the country before and he thoroughly enjoyed the scenery. I did too, of course. It’s rugged cowboy country, where Custer took his last stand at Little Bighorn. We really wanted to drive through the Badlands but we did not have enough time. We could see part of it from the highway, though, and Interstate 90 paralleled the beautiful Yellowstone River.
The Badlands
Yellowstone River
We had a six o’clock dinner planned with Larry Roberts and his wife, and my friend Denise. Many years ago, we ministered in the Indianola, Iowa church, where Brother Roberts used to pastor. He now lives in Hardin, Montana and works with the Indians on the reservation there. Denise and I met in 1992, when I visited her church in Billings with the CLC chorale. It is always nice to see “old” friends. After dinner, Denise came back to the trailer, which we’d dropped at the church in Billings. We had not set it up yet, but, fortunately, that was a simple process. Denise and I chatted until well past midnight, not knowing when we would see each other again.
Denise and Sylvia
Tuesday is when life began to get interesting. It was one of those days that I wish I could video record. Occasionally I meet people who tend to think evangelists have life made-in-the-shade and that our travel days are “days off.” People see us minister, they experience the presence and power of God in the services, and tend to think that preaching, singing, and praying is all we do. Really, those powerful times are simply the culmination of days of practical chores like truck and RV maintenance and long drives, and spiritual preparation like prayer, fasting, and study. A video would reveal the side of ministry that nobody sees!
Tuesday began beautifully enough. We left Billings and continued along Interstate 90. At one point, the truck started to overheat and we had to stop at a rest area to let it cool down. Bill couldn’t figure out the problem. He added water to the water pump reservoir. He thought maybe the radiator needed to be flushed, but he wasn’t sure. We kept hearing a clicking sound but had no idea where it was coming from. We were concerned, since we had no idea if our problem was serious, and we still had a long drive ahead of us. Finally, the truck cooled down and we hit the road again.
We turned south onto Highway 89, which we thought would be a shortcut. On the map, Highway 89 cuts through Yellowstone Park, but we found out that in reality, the highway becomes a narrow, sometimes windy, sometimes steep, tourist-filled park road.
As we entered the park, we had to pay a $25.00 entrance fee, although we were only passing through. Soon, we began to ascend a mountain. This is when trouble began. Our truck started to overheat again. Now, this might not sound like a big deal to you, but put yourself at high elevation on a narrow, twisting, steeply ascending road with few places to get off the road. Add in American and foreign tourists who have nothing better to do than leisurely drive along gawking at waterfalls and wildlife. This is okay, except, when you’re pulling a 13,000 pound trailer, you need speed to gain momentum and slow-moving vehicles get in the way.
Finally, after a nerve wracking five mile ascent, we arrived at a visitor’s center. We were nervous, the truck was way too hot, and we were in the middle of nowhere, more miles than we wished to consider from mechanical help. We settled the truck and trailer into a parking spot and got some lunch while we waited for the engine to cool down. In the meantime, we saw some elk hanging out on the lawn. (Seeing them provided us with a little compensation for our $25.00 donation!)
Elk at Yellowstone Park with our Truck and RV in the Background
Bill asked a park ranger about the remaining road through the park. We would drive up one more ascent like the one we had just driven, and then the road would be relatively flat until we were on the other side of the park, he said. This made us feel a little better. So, we climbed back in the truck and started up Ascent #2. Surprise, surprise, the truck started to overheat again. Bill pulled the truck and trailer onto a narrow gravel pullout and we waited about a half hour for our truck to cool down. I got the job of pulling up the bug-coated hood to allow air flow across the engine, while Bill stayed in the drivers seat, in case the truck started to roll backwards. (You guessed it…that’s another story.) Bill called Ron Roberts, the pastor in Salt Lake City, to let him know that we would be arriving later than planned. When Brother Roberts heard that we’d been trying to save time, he laughed and said, “In the mountains, there are no shortcuts! But, since you’re there, you might as well enjoy the scenery!” So we did. As we waited on the side of the road, we watched a coyote in the woods and a gentle breeze blew through the trees, creating a soothing sound.
Finally, we made it to the peak and once we were level, we were able to mentally relax a little, although Bill kept wondering what was wrong with the truck. When we were in Jamestown, Bill spent some of his free time replacing the front rotors and brakes on the truck. Now, he was looking at another difficulty. Life is like that, isn’t it? You get one problem solved and another one comes along. Life offers no shortage of crises and complications.
Yellowstone Park really is beautiful. Forested mountainsides, boiling hot springs (that smell like rotten eggs), and pristine lakes create quite a nature’s paradise. Maybe someday we will be able to return and enjoy it without the pressure of a defunct truck and a deadline to be somewhere.
We emerged from Yellowstone Park and descended a 6% grade in a five mile stretch. We were glad we were going down, instead of up! At one point, the view broke open before us and a wide, wide plain stretched out as far as eye could see, bordered on either side by mountain ranges. At this point, trouble was behind us. Other than one big climb in Utah, where we pulled over again to let the truck cool down, and dodging barrels at highway construction sites, the rest of the trip was uneventful.
We arrived at New Destiny Church about 11:00 p.m. We were glad Pastor Ron Roberts was able to meet us there and help us get set up. In approximately 48 hours, we traversed five states and, overheated truck aside, I was glad we didn’t have to make that trek in a covered wagon.
You know that scratchy feeling you get in your eyes when you are fatigued? Well, I think we had that feeling for two days straight, and I know Bill did because his eyes glazed over a few times while he was driving. And a shower never feels as good as when you haven’t been able to take one in two days.
All’s well that ends well. The older I get, the more I realize that things just have a way of working out. It doesn’t do much good to get panicked and upset about things we can’t control. We just pray and trust the Lord to help us and give our minds peace through the trial. Because, usually, trials don’t last forever. For us, 1,200 miles later and 400 diesel dollars less, not only did we get to glimpse some of God's masterpieces of nature, we arrived alive…and that’s a lot to be thankful for.
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