Distance = 17 Miles; People Met = 10
Early on in the day I turned on CR 67 by mistake. Or was it? There was a question of water for the route we intended and my left foot was in bad shape. The night before the surface sloped the wrong way for my foot. A paved road slopes the “right” way most of the time. When I recognized the mistake I decided to continue on 67 for those two reasons, even though it was probably a slightly longer route.
Soon after a Dish TV service truck drove by us four times, obviously having trouble finding a place. We wondered if it was one of the private Christian camps we passed. Hmm. Christian camps with private property and no trespassing signs. A bit of a disconnect there.
Exclusive Christian Camp
When we came to Sprucewood we discovered what the service truck was looking for, the restaurant/bar of the same name. Sprucewood was, in fact, the only establishment around there and we stopped to get some water. Kelly arrived soon afterwards, with a bounce in his step and a kind word for our endeavor. He escorted us inside to fill out our water bottles.
Paul the Dish TV service guy
Kelly was apparently a fixture with the establishment, transcending different owners. He introduced us to one of the new owners, Raquel. The restaurant hosts a community potluck every Monday night which has been quite successful. The restaurant still remains open for “outsiders” passing through, with a collection jar for donations. They were quite enthused about how this community potluck was working out and I was quite enthused to hear about it; another good idea in regards to our mission.
Kelly and Raquel
Later in the day we met Dan and Shannon from Texas and got into a lengthy and enjoyable conversation. Shannon also has a degree in Biology along with a deep faith. Dan works with border patrols as a hobby and mentioned he does not instinctively trust people, but both his dogs and him trusted us right away. Of course, once his dogs later saw us with our packs on they forgot their trust. Our large packs have a way of spooking animals.
Dan and Shannon
We stopped short at Deckers because of an offer I’ll get to in the next post. We saw an advertisement for ice cream in Deckers and, being a hot day, we made right for that. We met Bret and Jennifer, two climbers from Wyoming exploring the area. They treated us to a beer as we sat and chatted for awhile. Bret was a trail runner dabbling in climbing and Jennifer was a climber dabbling in trail running. They have been together for five years and were enjoying their combined hobbies together.
Bret and Jennifer
Something else special happened at that ice cream shop, but I’ll get to that later.
