Tour '02 Update #1
09/02/02Written by Tom Troyer
Here we are fulfilling our calling, quitting our jobs and school, heading back out on the road!
What better way to begin a new set of updates than with a picture of a croc?! My bud Rick Rhodes, missionary in Grenada, sent me this picture after our last croc-filled trip. As I'm sure you recall, Rick was one of our contest winners last time! Watch for a contest during this trip, if we can think of a decent question (and a decent prize!).
We left last Friday at about 8 in the evening, we were supposed to leave at 5 but that didn't happen. (Editor's note: It wasn't my fault.)
We had a lot of stuff to pack.
We hit the road and drove all night, I don't remember a whole lot about it personally. Kon drove the first ten hours, then David or somebody else drove. I slept a fair amount myself. We were headed for Norwood, CO, and arrived there about 6 in the evening. That was a long drive, but it went really well and passed quickly.
In addition to sleeping, I worked with my new ThinkPad laptop.
It is rather crowded in the car!
We stayed at the Woodstock's, caretakers of a small retreat center for pastors (and now quartets). It was a really nice place, and we were treated far better than we deserved.
The whole family was there for supper.
We sang in the morning service at Norwood Christian Church. This is an incredible group of people, some of the friendliest and most generous you'll ever meet. This church meant a lot to me when I was sick last winter. Sunday marked the third time that we've been here, and we're already looking forward to the next time.
Getting ready for the service.
We have an addition to the quartet for the first part of this trip! Heidi Headings is riding with us, we're taking her back to her home in IA (she's in a few of the previous pictures). So far she has been holding up well traveling with us.
Still, many people express to her their sympathies for the situation she's in. But I asked her, and she said she was having a good time, so there. We like having her along, but she's very reluctant to express her opinion, even when we specifically ask for it. We're not used to that! We don't hold nothing back!
That night we sang about an hour and a half away in Montrose at the Christian Church there. We had a good crowd, around 300 I heard. We sang there several years ago, and at the Sunnyview Mennonite Church in Montrose last year. The Mennonite Church must have shut down last night, because just about all of them were there. We even saw some people there we knew. Heidi had some cousins in attendance, Jeff Wolfer from OR was there, and Carl Kropf, who we know as the guy who came out to OR with Nolan Hostetler years ago. Speaking of Nolan, his sister was there too. There were even some people there with connections to people in Georgia that we met last June.
On stage at Montrose Christian Church.
After the service they had a peach-themed desert free-for-all in the fellowship hall. I love peaches.
After packing up our "equipment," we drove back to Norwood to spend the night. We left the ranch at the crack of dawn this morning, about 8:30. That afternoon we saw a go-kart/mini golf place by the side of the road, so we had to stop there and take it to each other on the racetrack. After Konrad and I proved that wisdom and experience defeat youth and idealism every time, we moved on and took it to each other on the golf course, where we proved it again. Heidi was the official impartial scorekeeper.
This picture is for Hal, my college music professor. He thinks I pick on poor defenseless Byran all the time without any retribution. Here I thought By was posing nicely beside me, and when the film was developed I find that By is ready to bean me over the head with his putter! This calls for a tenor joke or two.
Not long after trading our race cars back in for the Caprice, we got stuck in a long line of barely-moving traffic high in the Colorado Rockies.
The drivers here are extremely rude. And the motorcyclists are worse!
But happy times truly were here again later that night when we stopped at a Krispy Kreme!
Halfway through my **th donut.
Looks like someone else doesn't know when to quit either!
So anyway we're off to our hotel in Sterling, CO, for tonight. Tomorrow we'll get Heidi home (some are sure she'll be greatly relieved!) and then the next day we'll make our way to Arthur, Ill. We're going to be singing for a couple of nights there at some revival meetings several churches are sponsoring. Todd Neuschwander is the evangelist, so it will be good to see him again.
