Resupply Days, Butte, MT
by Natalie
It’s quite remarkable how much work goes in to keep us walking through the woods. Much of the work to this point has been done by our Champion Logistical Master – Bud Trippet (my dad). Bud was with us from the very start and was crucial to getting us going. Bless his heart, we met him in Pinedale, Wyoming on June 30th, hugged, handed him the keys to the truck and trailer and told him that we hadn’t the foggiest idea how things worked in the trailer – the refrigerator, the heater, the water heater, the water pipes, the toilet, the shower – nothing. When we met up with in just a few days later, not only had he figured out all the trailer parts, and masterminded a system to get water into our water tank that the trailer uses when not hooked up to a hose in town (which rarely happens), but the truck had begun acting up (shutting off entirely while driving down the road – a little frightening!), and he fixed that too (along with the slow leak in the trailer tire). In short, if Bud hadn’t been around we would be wandering aimlessly in Wyoming. We couldn’t express enough thanks for his work for the 1st 6 weeks of our trip. He has handed the reins over to Morgan Williams, whom you will hear more about later.
There are three (actually four) things that are important at every resupply: get clean, get more food, get emails, and watch the World Cup (which is now over – so we’re back to just three important things). We have 2 sets of all of our clothes, so when we come in to our resupply at the trailer, we put all our dirty clothes in a pile, and then repack our backpacks with our clean sets. We take turns showering in the trailer, then dive in on the food resupply. Each time we meet the trailer we give our LM (logistical master) a grocery list for the next time we meet. Normally LM does our laundry, our grocery shopping, and our email gathering, but on occasion we all come in to town and help.
Just last week we were within shouting distance of Butte (we still are – the divide goes about 300 degrees around this town!), and having heard that Pirates of the Caribbean was playing at the drive-in, we were off! Since the sun doesn’t go down until about 9:30, the movie didn’t start until 10, and then it was 2 hrs long! That plus a 70 minute drive back to our campground made for a late but fun evening.
NEW EXPERIENCES Cody and Jessie have been champs at taking on this long trip. Bobby and I have done a six month trip before, so we had some context to help us know that it was going to be fun, but the girls had none. One thing we were sure would happen was that we would meet amazing people, and it didn’t take long! During one of our resupplies in a campground, we met our wonderful neighbors, the Breinings from Whitehall, MT – Kerry, Vance, Mary Ellen and Kenny (daughter, son, mom and dad). What a wonderful family! They brought us dessert, invited our girls to their RV to play cards, had frog races with us (sadly, no pictures survived of this raucous event), and then went to a movie with us in Butte weeks later. While the CDT is awe inspiring in spreading God’s beautiful creation before us daily, meeting His beautiful creation – man – is even more inspiring. We look forward to the friends we have not yet met, and cherish the ones we have met.
More photos:
It’s quite remarkable how much work goes in to keep us walking through the woods. Much of the work to this point has been done by our Champion Logistical Master – Bud Trippet (my dad). Bud was with us from the very start and was crucial to getting us going. Bless his heart, we met him in Pinedale, Wyoming on June 30th, hugged, handed him the keys to the truck and trailer and told him that we hadn’t the foggiest idea how things worked in the trailer – the refrigerator, the heater, the water heater, the water pipes, the toilet, the shower – nothing. When we met up with in just a few days later, not only had he figured out all the trailer parts, and masterminded a system to get water into our water tank that the trailer uses when not hooked up to a hose in town (which rarely happens), but the truck had begun acting up (shutting off entirely while driving down the road – a little frightening!), and he fixed that too (along with the slow leak in the trailer tire). In short, if Bud hadn’t been around we would be wandering aimlessly in Wyoming. We couldn’t express enough thanks for his work for the 1st 6 weeks of our trip. He has handed the reins over to Morgan Williams, whom you will hear more about later.
There are three (actually four) things that are important at every resupply: get clean, get more food, get emails, and watch the World Cup (which is now over – so we’re back to just three important things). We have 2 sets of all of our clothes, so when we come in to our resupply at the trailer, we put all our dirty clothes in a pile, and then repack our backpacks with our clean sets. We take turns showering in the trailer, then dive in on the food resupply. Each time we meet the trailer we give our LM (logistical master) a grocery list for the next time we meet. Normally LM does our laundry, our grocery shopping, and our email gathering, but on occasion we all come in to town and help.
Just last week we were within shouting distance of Butte (we still are – the divide goes about 300 degrees around this town!), and having heard that Pirates of the Caribbean was playing at the drive-in, we were off! Since the sun doesn’t go down until about 9:30, the movie didn’t start until 10, and then it was 2 hrs long! That plus a 70 minute drive back to our campground made for a late but fun evening.
NEW EXPERIENCES Cody and Jessie have been champs at taking on this long trip. Bobby and I have done a six month trip before, so we had some context to help us know that it was going to be fun, but the girls had none. One thing we were sure would happen was that we would meet amazing people, and it didn’t take long! During one of our resupplies in a campground, we met our wonderful neighbors, the Breinings from Whitehall, MT – Kerry, Vance, Mary Ellen and Kenny (daughter, son, mom and dad). What a wonderful family! They brought us dessert, invited our girls to their RV to play cards, had frog races with us (sadly, no pictures survived of this raucous event), and then went to a movie with us in Butte weeks later. While the CDT is awe inspiring in spreading God’s beautiful creation before us daily, meeting His beautiful creation – man – is even more inspiring. We look forward to the friends we have not yet met, and cherish the ones we have met.More photos:
posted by The Lewises at 11:02 AM
