Not only did we enjoy the things we saw on our big trip, we enjoyed time with people.
Keystone South Dakota is one of the several little towns/cities around Rapid City. It seems an unlikely place for folk from the islands of Micronesia to settle, but, in reality, it has been a landing place for several Micronesians over the past few years. While Keystone is definitely an interesting place to visit, the four islanders we stopped to see, and the others who preceded them didn't come as tourists.
The Keystone Project, https://keystoneproject.org/, is a missionary-related discipleship program. Four young adults, alumni of Pacific Islands University (see my other blog, https://micronesianadventure.blogspot.com/, and scroll through some of the past posts to see our involvement at PIU, a school that serves the Micronesian Christian communities) are currently working at the Keystone Project.
On the left are Joysee and Marco Ilon, then Addie Greene and me, with Patleen Esemanaw on the right. All of them except Addie had been classes Kathy and/or I taught.
Before we left home we had decided, based on some good advice that we had read, that Kathy needed to be able to drive our "rig" in case of an emergency. I normally drive on trips, anyhow. I can't sleep in a car, Kathy can, and it's impossible to make her car sick. In addition, she isn't much interested I'm pulling a trailer. For several reasons, we hadn't put her behind the wheel, yet. As we headed toward Laramie Wyoming, though, the road was straight, the traffic was light, and the weather was clear. We figured it was a good time for her trial. She did great. Pulling Frolic, though, seriously cut into the gas mileage of the Explorer. I was enjoying the ride, and Kathy was focused elsewhere. Meanwhile, back on the dashboard, the fuel gauge crept towards "E." When we noticed that, there wasn't much else to notice, particularly along the lines of signs of human habitation.
We saw a sign that indicated we were approaching a town, so our hopes rose. I can't say for sure it was Van Tassel, Wyoming. I do know for sure the town was about like Van Tassel, population 15. As the picture indicates, there was no gas there.
By the time we drove 20 more miles to Lusk, the countdown-to-empty meter was at about "5." We were glad to see that Lusk has gas.
We learned our lesson. Thank you, Lord.
We were headed for a quick overnight in a hotel in Laramie Wyoming, on our way to Canon City Colorado. That's where we'll pick up the trail, next time.
Comments
Post a Comment