Idaho Part 1

Oh what an adventure, using Kendra's phrase...but it fits nicely.

Knowing this will be my last mission trip with the Southwood Youth Group, I tried to absorb as much as I could along the way. During the Prayer (worship) Service, the prayers which came to mind were prayers of gratitude. I thank God for allowing me to work with this group for 4 trips! What an amazing group of teens!

I'd like to say the travel part of the trip was uneventful, however that was so not the case. We had a late start Friday morning, because the bus driver was at Southwood's former location and not at the new church. (Still trying to figure out how he thought "Zion" and "Southwood" were the same name). The cool thing was, we decided to gather in prayer before the trip, while we were waiting for the bus to arrive. As we were saying our prayers, the bus showed up, just like God had answered our prayers. In North Platte, we had to change drivers, due to DOT regulations. That is where we met the awesome Richard Smith! We got into Buffalo, WY about 2 hours late. Safe and sound, nonetheless.

Saturday morning we left Buffalo for Yellowstone National Park. As we drove through the various mountain ranges to get to Yellowstone, we started to smell burning brakes. (YUCK!) Lo and behold, it was coming from our bus, not the truck in front of us. Richard pulled over to a viewing area to let the brakes cool down. Teens being teens, and rather creative at that, the pictures from that stop are going to be interesting! A few decided to hike up the nearby hill, and do some exploring. Another group juggled a soccer ball between each other. (That soccer ball should have been our mascot, as often as it was brought out! lol) After 45 minutes or so, we were on our way again. What a beautiful drive through that area! Once in Yellowstone, since we were already behind schedule, we decided on the shortest route around Yellowstone. The road followed a path around Yellowstone Lake. Absolutely gorgeous! Interestingly, we did not encounter too many (large) wildlife sitings. One group ahead of us stopped to take pictures of a moose, which was grazing near the road. A trip to Yellowstone must include a stop at Old Faithful. It has been about 13 years since I had seen this geyser. Since then a couple of smaller geysers had appeared, near the original. Now visitors get a bonus of seeing the smaller geysers' displays, while waiting for Old Faithful to "show".

After our visit to Old Faithful, we were on our way to Bozeman, MT. We were right on target to be in Bozeman before the KOA closed at 10, to take showers. Within 10 miles of Bozeman, the bus shuts itself down and we end up on the side of the road. A belt had broken. When the belt broke it hit the hydraulic hose. In the process of trying to find assistance, a call was made to the Montana State Patrol. They must have thought it was a prank call, as an officer never did show up! Thanks to Richard's GPS, he was able to find a mechanic in the area who could fix the problem. It was absolutely shocking to see the teens (and adults, for that matter) to take this delay in stride. We ended up sitting on the side of the road for a good part of two hours. While we waited for the mechanic, some of the teens got off the bus to stretch their legs. The next thing I know, they are singing (Christian) camp songs, like "Sanctuary." The bus was eventually repaired, and we continued the remaining 10 miles into Bozeman.

After a short night's sleep, we were up and on our way by 8, Sunday morning. Originally we had planned to attend church services at the church we stayed at in Bozeman. However, considering none of us had had a shower since Friday, and not wishing to offend a church full of noses, showers were priority over church service. After a stop for breakfast/snack food and other misc. items at Walmart, we made it to the KOA for showers. When I had initially heard this was where we were going to shower, I was concerned about cold, nasty showers. I was pleasantly surprised to have a nice hot shower, in an individual stall! While we waited for showers, the bus died again. This time it was worst than before. Fortunately, we were at a place where food and drink, as well as some entertainment, was available...and not on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. 6 hours later, the original bus was loaded onto the back of a semi flatbed, and a different bus was on its way to bring us the rest of the way to Coeur D'alene. We arrived at Camp Lutherhaven at 9:30 p.m. The whole camp was so relieved to see us, they unloaded the bus for us. Then we were ushered to our first nightly worship service. God bless the staff at Lutherhaven! While we were worshiping, they were able to put together a quick meal for us to eat before getting to our cabins.

Part 2 to follow...