Week 12 & 13 - Good. Great. Beautiful Day!

Idaho Bound: Old Friends & Old School Camping

After leaving Rapid City, we pointed the LOST bus west and made our way toward Idaho. Next stop: Old Faithful Christian Ranch, where we got to reconnect with some old friends of mine, Kevin and Pattie Owen.

Kevin and Pattie have been serving as the camp directors there for the last four or five years, but I actually met them way back in 2016. Long before Cassie was in the picture, I spent a summer working at a summer camp in South Carolina called Asbury Hills. Kevin was the facilities director at the time, and I worked under him as his assistant.

That summer was basically a crash course in fixing, building, maintaining, and figuring out how to make things work when you have a limited budget. I learned a ton from Kevin, and it's pretty cool that many of those skills I picked up almost a decade ago are still getting put to use today as we travel around in the LOST bus and jump into whatever projects come our way. And yes, this was the first time Cassie had ever met Kevin and Pattie. So I got to play the classic, “Hey honey, here are some of my old camp friends from before I knew you existed” card.

Old School Camping

Old Faithful Christian Ranch is an old-school summer camp and retreat center about 30 minutes from the West Gate of Yellowstone National Park. During the summer they host around four or five weeks of youth camps, where they spend their time investing in the next generation and helping kids understand what a real relationship with God looks like. Once summer wraps up, they shift gears into hosting retreat groups and preparing for the long Idaho winters.

And when I say old school, I mean OLD SCHOOL.

Before Kevin and Pattie arrived, they were still doing paper registrations that literally had to be mailed in.

As in...

Put stamp on envelope.

Walk to mailbox.

Wait for the mail.

You almost expect someone to hand you a registration form and tell you to fill it out with a quill.

The camp itself is incredibly rustic, too (in the best ways). A bunch of the lodges and other buildings were built using trees harvested right there on the property. During the winter, the road maintenance for the snow plows stops a few miles before the camp, which means once the snow really starts flying, the only way in and out is by snowcat or snowmobile.

It is the real deal.

No fancy resort vibes. No polished campground experience. Just mountains, trees, cabins, dirt roads, and enough wilderness to remind you that you're definitely not in the suburbs anymore.

Andddd depending on the day maybe a grizzly bear or two.

Old Faithful staff who had us belly laughing 99% of the time

Serving Wherever We Can

During our stay, we were able to park the LOST bus in one of the many RV spots they have on the property. Since we were there so late in their operating season, they didn't have any big projects going on. But if you've traveled with us for any amount of time, you probably already know that doesn't mean we sat around doing nothing. Cassie was able to jump in and help Pattie with some administrative work. They went through the evaluations from the summer and organized them in a way that would hopefully make future life a little easier.

Meanwhile, I got to work alongside Kevin again and help finish up a few smaller maintenance projects around the property. And, of course, after meals, Cassie and I would jump in with everyone else to clean up and tackle the dishes.

Because apparently dishes are just following us across the country now. At this point, I think the dish pit deserves its own chapter in the LOST bus story.

P.S. I am in a much better place with dishes now than I was a few weeks ago!

We shared a ton of laughs, had some really meaningful conversations, and were genuinely encouraged by the time we got to spend with their team. It's always pretty awesome when the road gives you an opportunity to reconnect with people from different seasons of life and see what God is doing through them years later.

Yellowstone & The Grand Tetons

Now, when you're parked 30 minutes from Yellowstone, you can't exactly NOT go explore. So we made sure to take some time during the week to adventure into Yellowstone National Park. We explored geysers, hiked some trails, took in some ridiculous scenery, and saw plenty of wildlife.

Unfortunately, the grizzlies decided not to make an appearance. Which, honestly, I'm not sure whether to put that in the “bummer” category or the “thank you, Lord” category. Either way, no grizzlies.

But the following weekend, we decided to take things up a notch and go car camping in Grand Teton National Park for a couple of days. Originally, we planned on spending two nights and two full days in the park before making the drive back late one night.

That was the plan.

And if there's one thing we've learned on this journey, it's that the plan is more of a loose suggestion. We ended up loving it so much that we squeezed in an extra day. And I'm just going to say it ... the Grand Tetons absolutely blew Yellowstone out of the water. I'm sure some people are going to strongly disagree with me. That's okay. They can write their own blog post. 😂

The Hike That Wouldn't End

Now, here's where our nice, relaxing weekend took a bit of a turn.

We had planned on doing maybe 5–10 miles of hiking over the entire weekend.

Instead...

WE HIKED 30 MILES.

Yep.

Thirty.

Miles.

Apparently, somewhere along the way, we forgot how walking works.

Never mind the freezing temperature, the Aussie must swim in any body of water available to her.

Cassie’s first time hitchhiking!

Some of it was our own fault. We definitely underestimated a few hikes and thought, “Eh, who cares. Lets do it!”

Famous last words.

We also had some miscommunication with park rangers, took some very long walks from parking areas, and eventually found ourselves doing a little hitchhiking to get where we needed to go. (This was Cassie's first time hitchhiking!!)

So our peaceful little car-camping weekend slowly turned into:

“How far do we have to walk?”

followed by:

“Wait... how far is it actually?”

followed by:

“Well, we're already here, so we might as well keep going.”

Thirty miles later, my feet were killing me and Cassie had some pretty gnarly blisters. But honestly? It was totally worth it. The views were absolutely incredible, and the mountains made it pretty easy to look like we knew what we were doing with a camera.

We also ended up making some new friends who were camping right next to us, which was another unexpected little gift along the way. That's kind of what we've come to love about this whole journey. So much of it isn't what we planned. Sometimes the best stories come from the wrong turn, the extra mile (or MILES!!), the random conversation, or the thing that completely messes up your original itinerary.

And somewhere between old friends, rustic cabins, camp projects, geysers, mountain views, hitchhiking, and way too many miles on our feet, we got another reminder of just how incredible this journey has been.

Another week. Another adventure. Another beautiful reminder that we don't have to have everything figured out to enjoy the ride.

Now we're off to Spokane, Washington! Let's see what kind of trouble we can get into up there. 🤙