Week 15 - Not Sure If Im Qualified For This

Welcome back to another week of stories from the Lost Bus! Last week, Cassie gave you all a little preview of the adventures we were about to get ourselves into. This week, I’ll be filling you in on how all of that went down, along with a few other shenanigans that unfolded along the way.

But before we get into all the things, I need to bring you in on a little side conversation that happened this week. Because, well… sometimes the best stories have absolutely nothing to do with the actual mission.

A Future WWE Champion? 

Now, those of you who know me know that I’m an ideas man. And not just little ideas. I’m talking BIG ideas. World-changing, life-altering, possibly career-ending ideas. I’m a dreamer!! (and probably a bit overwhelming to people at times). One night last week, I caught a clip of a WWE match playing on the TV, and it hit me like a flying elbow off the top rope.

“Dude… I think I missed my calling in life. I could TOTALLY do that!”

Naturally, I had to share this incredible revelation with Cassie. So, while I was at the gym, I sent her a photo of what I can only describe as my future championship persona and waited patiently for her response.

I was expecting something along the lines of, “Wow, babe! You were born for this! When do you start training?”

Instead, I got laughter. Just laughter. Not even a little encouragement. Nothing. But. Laughter.

Look, all I’m saying is that with the right support system, a little training, and maybe a few trips to the chiropractor, I could absolutely go ALL THE WAY. That championship belt would be mine. Anyway… thanks for humoring me. Let’s get back to the actual adventure before I start cutting WWE promos in the church parking lot.

The Climbing Wall Continues...

Last week, we got all the pieces of the climbing wall laid out and organized in the order they were supposed to be assembled. Earlier this year, a team had come in and poured a concrete pad for the wall to sit on, so we were finally ready to start putting this beast together.

Our first order of business was anchoring the base plate to the concrete pad. Once that was secured, it was time to start building the interior scaffolding that would stabilize the structure and give the whole thing some strength.

Next up: attaching the semi-circle climbing sections to the base plate. Now, these things were roughly 6 feet tall, 5–6 feet wide, and made of fiberglass. They weren’t necessarily heavy, but their awkward shape made moving them around feel like trying to wrestle an oversized inflatable pool toy.

Cassie helped me carry them over to the construction area, but after that, I was pretty much on my own to maneuver them into place. And here's where things got interesting. The climbing wall had been donated, which was awesome! The downside? It came with absolutely ZERO instructions, and about 80% of the labels had worn off. So there I was, standing in front of a giant fiberglass puzzle with no instructions, no reference pictures, and no clue what the finished product was supposed to look like.

Basically, IKEA had sent me a climbing wall, but forgot the instruction manual, the Allen wrench, all of the hardware, and apparently the part where you're supposed to know what you're doing. Nevertheless, we pressed on!

The first piece had four possible ways it could attach to the base plate. I figured, “Surely one of the first two options will work. I mean, the bolt holes line up pretty well!”

Wrong.

I tried all four positions before finally finding the correct fit. But hey, we got the first section up!

Once the first layer was secured, it was time to figure out how we were going to get the second layer of equally awkward fiberglass pieces up into the air. I assembled a few sections of scaffolding and waited for a volunteer group that was scheduled to come in later that week. Thankfully, five or six guys showed up and helped get that second layer attached and fastened. Huge shoutout to those dudes! There is absolutely no way that second layer would have happened without them.

Now, here's where things got a little spicy. All of the climbing wall sections were fastened together from the inside using approximately 80–90 pieces of hardware. Which meant that once everything was assembled, the only way out was to climb up, over, and down the now 12-foot-tall wall.

For insurance purposes, I can neither confirm nor deny whether I had a harness and rope for my descent.

Let's just say I made it down safely, and we'll leave it at that. We still have one final piece to install at the very top of the tower, but that’s going to require a machine with a boom to reach it. The plan is to finish things up once the tractor gets back from the shop.

So, stay tuned! The climbing wall saga is not over yet.

Meanwhile, Back at the Bus...

While I was busy playing construction worker and attempting to assemble a giant fiberglass puzzle, Cassie had a pretty different week!

She had a rare opportunity to spend a good chunk of her time working her travel agent job. Over the last month or so, she hasn’t had much space to dedicate to it between all the traveling, serving, and general Lost Bus shenanigans. So it was awesome for her to finally have some uninterrupted time to get caught up and work on that side of things. But that wasn’t the only adventure she tackled this week! Cassie also added a brand-new skill to her résumé. Mowing the grass!!

That's right, folks. This week, Cassie mowed a lawn for the very first time in her entire life. And I gotta say, I'm pretty proud of her! Although, if I'm being completely honest, I'm also pretty excited about what this means for my future. After all these years, I may have finally found a way to retire from lawn care. Guess who's officially off the hook from here on out? THIS GUY!

Now, if we can just get her comfortable operating a tractor, fixing the bus, and changing the oil, I might actually be able to kick back and enjoy this whole adventure thing.

Just kidding. Mostly.

A Bit of Reality

There’s truly never a dull moment when you live in a space that moves around all the time. You learn pretty quickly that it’s only a matter of time before something breaks, leaks, rattles loose, or decides it’s officially done participating in the adventure.

One morning this week, we woke up to find a puddle of water underneath our refrigerator. Immediately, my brain went into full emergency mode. “Is the fridge broken? Are we going to have to buy a new one? How much does a refrigerator cost? Are we about to lose all our food?”

You know, just your average peaceful morning on the Lost Bus.

After doing a little investigating, we discovered that the culprit was nothing more than ice buildup that had melted overnight after Cassie adjusted the refrigerator settings. Crisis averted! We cleaned up the water, saved the fridge, and carried on with our day.

Trivia Time

One afternoon, the kitchen crew at Lutherhaven Camp served up loaded baked potatoes for lunch. And let me tell you, Cassie and I were STOKED. Who doesn't love a giant baked potato loaded up with all the good stuff? These things were absolutely massive. We're talking potatoes the size of a 20oz water bottle.

Then it hit me.

“Dude… we're in IDAHO! These HAVE to be the famous Idaho potatoes, right?”

I mean, come on. We were practically standing in the potato capital of the universe. Surely we were about to experience the pinnacle of potato perfection. So we started asking around, trying to confirm our suspicions. And that's when the news hit.

“Nope. These potatoes are from Washington.”

Excuse me?!

Washington?!

I was devastated. Absolutely shattered. My entire Idaho potato experience had been a lie.

Okay, maybe that's a little dramatic. But I had expectations, people!

Naturally, this led us down a rabbit hole of questions about why Idaho is so famous for its potatoes in the first place. And that's when we stumbled across some rather interesting claims about genetically modified potatoes designed to withstand being sprayed with Roundup. The idea is that the weeds around the potatoes die off while the potatoes themselves survive.

Apparently, there are claims that these potatoes are perfectly safe to eat.

Yeah, I'm calling BS on that! Either way, we enjoyed our Washington-grown potatoes while sitting in Idaho, which is about as confusing as trying to explain our travel schedule to someone who thinks we're just on vacation.

Heading to Spokane

With most of the climbing wall assembled and the final piece waiting on the return of our trusty tractor, it was time to pack up the bus and head west.

We’ve officially parked the Lost Bus outside Redeemer Lutheran Church in Spokane, Washington, about 45 minutes west of Lutherhaven Camp. Before crossing the Idaho/Washington border, we made sure to top off the fuel tank. And when I say “made sure,” I mean we were trying to avoid paying an extra dollar per gallon simply because we crossed an imaginary line on the map.

At the beginning of this adventure, filling up the bus cost us around $200. These days? We're sitting closer to $300 per fill-up. While we were fueling up at Love’s Truck Stop, a trucker parked next to us wandered over and asked what the bus was all about. We got to chatting, and he told us that back in the day, he had built out a double-decker bus and traveled around following the Grateful Dead!

How cool is that?!

I love running into people like this on the road. Everyone has a story, and sometimes all it takes is a weird-looking bus parked next to you at a truck stop to get the conversation rolling. After talking for a few minutes, he reached into his pocket, handed us a handful of cash, and wished us luck on our journey.

What an awesome dude!

It's moments like these that remind us just how many incredible people are out there and how often the Lord provides encouragement through complete strangers. So, to our new Grateful Dead trucker friend: Thank you! We appreciate you!

And to everyone following along with the Lost Bus adventures, thanks for continuing to be a part of the journey.