How to plan a 7 day road trip in 18 hours

I’ve come accustomed to making snap decisions, erring on the side of adventure, and have yet to regret any of the choices this has led me to make.

This brings me to right now. I’m about to leave to Colorado for a week in a little less than two hours. I was supposed to take this trip in 9 days with one of my Young Life guys who is heading to college in the fall. Long story short some plans came up on his end which would have forced us to cut the trip short which we were planning on doing. He was a little stressed and said, while looking forward to the trip, he wished it was a different time so we didn’t have to cut it short.

Last night I was driving to the beach around 6pm I half jokingly texted him saying we could just leave this weekend. He said he could leave tomorrow (which is now today). I said ok and started planning the trip when I got home from the beach around 10pm.

And now we’re leaving in an hour and a half.

I had a pretty good idea of what we would do, places to hike and who we would stay with in Colorado Springs and Denver, but hadn’t hammered out the details yet. I had to give myself a little pep talk to not freak out and then buckle down.

First thing was to remind myself I want to have fun and live a good life. To do this right now I have to remember all we need is a place to go and a way to get there.

So after some quick thinking (like REALLY QUICK) and research we know roughly where we’ll camp, what we’ll hike and more than anything are going in with a strong sense of adventure structured around a loose plan. This fits both of our personalities perfectly.

So here’s the plan (as of now)

Friday: Drive

Saturday: Colorado Springs

• King Chef for breakfast

• Rest/Relax/visit DHP

• Chipotle for Lunch (I know there are lots of Chipotle’s and it’s not THAT special but I don’t live near one it becomes a “must go to” destination whenever I’m near)

• Garden of the Gods

• Saturday Night Activity with DHP?

• Sleep at my friend Nik’s house

Sunday: Drive to Great Sand Dunes National park (2h45m)

• Set up camp

• Hike

• Dinner

• Relax

Monday: Drive to Mt. Massive Campsite (3h10m)

• Visit Frontier Ranch?

• Set up camp

• Dinner in town or at Camp

• Relax

Tuesday: Hike Mt. Massive (13.2 mile route)

• Pack in lunch

• Return for dinner at camp or in Leadville (45 min drive)

Wednesday: Hike Mt. Elbert (9 or 11mile route)

• Pack in lunch

• Return for dinner at camp or in Leadville

Thursday: Drive to Denver

• Stop in Breckenridge for lunch

• Hang out with Chris/Ali in Denver… Rockies game or downtown

• Spend the night Chris’ House

Friday: Drive back to Michigan

It always helps to have plans and have them written out, even if there is little detail (I have more info on the actual hikes/routes we’ll take) I more so like to intentionally go into things planning on not having a plan. The only reason I have this much is probably so I can put certain people’s minds to rest who are not actually going on the trip.

But for now we have all we need. Gas money, a tent, and a loose plan. Can’t wait!

Keep up with Andrew and I on Instagram usernames: travisrieth and ahaverdink_

Below are a couple of the places we’re going to visit (it’s ok… be jealous)

Going to sand dunes in Colorado! A little different than our Michigan breed. We’re hoping to get in a little hiking and possibly some sand boarding.

 

Mt. Massive and Elbert are the 2 highest peaks in Colorado and the 2nd and 3rd highest peaks in the lower 48)

1 shirt, 1 child, 1 month

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I heard this girl get up and talk about the idea she had, then I watched her video, looked at the Facebook page and finally read the blog where she explains the idea like this…

“My name is Emma Dryden and I am a sophomore at Zeeland East. My family recently adopted two boys from Ghana, Africa. I was given the opportunity to go and bring them home. While I was in Ghana I was struck by the extreme hunger in children. It’s my dream and goal to help feed starving kids in Africa. This year I would like to give students at East and West the opportunity to give to children in need. By purchasing a t-shirt for $45 you can feed a hungry orphan for one month.”

 

So basically she came up with the idea to take something she normally has (dressing up for a dance) and giving it up so kids can have food. I love it because it’s simple. She saw a problem and created a solution.

Instead of wearing her dress to her high schools dance she made some t-shirts with different designs to wear and invited her classmates to do the same. Her idea was to give up the cost of the dress and instead take the money and give it to children in need. The t-shirt cost $45 which, cost to make the shirt included, is enough to feed a kid in Africa for a month (hence 1shirt1child1month). I love the idea but also like that the t-shirts look good so they can be worn more than once which will keep spreading awareness towards Emma’s cause.

What is especially cool is that Emma is trying to spread the word, get this into other schools, and invite others in on her idea. If what she’s done inspires you be sure to share it with your high school, teachers, YL leaders and anyone who might be interested in this!

For more information or to order a shirt (you don’t have to be in high school or have a dance to go to in order to buy a shirt or give to the cause) visit their Facebook page or email 1shirt1child1month@gmail.com

On Telling:”What you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are” – C.S. Lewis

“What you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are”

I have not always, in one way or another, wanted to be the type of person who talks a lot. Talking is, essentially, the furthest thing away from experiencing anything as you can get (next to sitting in silence). It’s a good thing to do sometimes because it may be the closest thing we can get to an experience or feeling at any certain time but still, at it’s best, I feel it usually does a poor job as to what it’s intended for. Say you want to describe something about a friend; a good memory with the best one you’ve ever had or how you felt when you lost a good one last year, or the memory about a time riding a bike off into a sunset on the foreign back, unknown, darkening roads of Minnesota with 80 miles till your next known destination. These moments mean a lot to me and never thinking of myself as much of a talker it’s easy for me to shy away from telling much, excuse myself or flatly say I can’t do something justice, letting go of any attempt of getting closer than silence to an experience. Questions are good, curious, hopefully unassuming inquiries about some subject or experience or opinion. Good questions are not hard to come by but good answers, however, are a much more delicate thing. Good answers require the answerer to be good at telling. Telling is a skill I often feel I lack. For my whole life, literally, I’ve not wanted to be the type of person who talks a lot for the sake of talking, but I do grow and learn and share and become a version of myself which is comfortable with doing all those things, because that’s how I think things might get better. By having some vision and tact, keeping replies concise but better than short one word replies of “good” or “fine” when asked a good question about how something was. Because telling is much more than all that.

And through all this telling, here I am. My life has been an interesting bit for a while and I’ve been waiting for the time, the person, or the event in my life where I can say things right. Not for my sake or your sake but for our sake is why we should tell and ask, not so we should talk, as to think and spark interest and eventually do and experience.

I love movies about this, big picture by smaller story, where you learn something about a person and what they think. Movies like Rudy where you learn what he thinks of football and Notre Dame and chasing dreams. At the end you understand Rudy, learn from him, want to be more like him or at least approach things in your own life in the same way he approached things. It reframes things is all and I like that. One of my biggest regrets so far in life is when talking to people, even without meaning to, I regularly muff up opportunities to tell someone what I know or mean or wish they would know. Reframing things isn’t my strong point. I want to get better at this.

So I want to practice it. I’ve been writing letters the past couple of weeks, just trying to express in written word to people how life is going, ask them about theirs, while keeping things clear and concise. It’s these impromptu things I am bad at. I’m unprepared mostly and struggle to get the spoken word out, which I’m tired of. So I force myself to sit down and think of things and write to someone, slowly with a pen and paper, letting myself tell without worrying of getting it right instantly or wondering if they’ll like my letter or if I’ll like it. I just tell. So far it’s been good and I want to keep it up.

Here too, I want to keep it up, it would be good to try and explain and tell things more, which might take some time, but hopefully it’ll be good. So if you have a question you’ve wondered just let me know.

In the mean time I’m going to try and tackle the questions which come up over and over again. The first is “So what did you learn about being homeless in Denver”. I’ve quite possibly done the worst job in telling about that in some ways, my answer is always different, so I feel like I’ve let a good bunch of people down when I’ve not focused and just become stressed and given some dumpy answer. If you’ve felt like this about me, I’m sorry. I promise to try and work on it.

The other thing I’d like to think about also comes up a lot, usually from good people, and I hope I’ve done a better job with this (really I’ve tried here) because it actually matters. My cousin called me the other week asking me the question. She asked what I thought she should do for a homeless woman who asked her for help, the next week another friend asked me the same thing, and I’ve been to Grand Rapids three times in the past couple weeks and each time I’ve been approached and asked for money or dinner or coffee (I seriously think they have it out to make me completely broke) which has all caused me to ask myself about it all. So I want to try telling what I think about those things and responding better than I have.

All in all I have to think about where I am, who I am, then also what I want to tell. I just finished “The Magicians Nephew” by C.S. Lewis today. Great book really. In it there was a thing going on which one character, Digory, saw one way while his uncle saw something completely different. Lewis wrote of the two and how differently they responded “What you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are”

I just think I could do a better job of explaining where I’m standing, what sort of person I want to be, and maybe by practicing it a little good might be had.

Hopefully not just for you, or for me, but for us.

2012 in review

2012 included time in Michigan, Colorado, Florida, West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota doing things like snowboarding in the Rockies, surfing on the Atlantic Ocean, coaching a talented group of lacrosse players, white water rafting the #1 day trip in the world, Young Life, raising $4,000 for kids to go to summer camp by biking 785 miles, working with homeless men and then kindergarteners, watching my brother start medical school, officiating my first wedding and then my second, and just going through life. I’m thankful for two friends whose journey on earth finished this year. Mark, Vis Veres, thanks for the reminder to keep chasing dreams, living crazy and going non-stop with effort. Luke, bear a smile even when it’s forced, thanks for teaching me how to be thankful in a fast world and remembering who to know best, trust, and be thankful towards. A little of all I do has carried a bit of you guys in it.
So here’s to not slowing down in 2013.

My Top Ten of 2012: Call Me Uncle Travis in 2013

First I’d like to say some honorable mentions that didn’t quite make the top 10. There was the day the world didn’t end, but who really expected that to happen, the day congress declared pizza a vegetable which made my diet considerably more healthy, and the day I got hit by a car on my bike just to bounce off the car and on the cement a few times unharmed (not really a great day until considering I was completely fine). All in all it was a great year and a top 20 would have been easy but I didn’t have time for it.

So after everything happening this year here we are at #1. To me this was unexpected but always wanted and took the top spot as soon as I heard the news.

Sometime around June of 2013 I am going to be…….. AN UNCLE!!!

Excuse me to take a few moments of excitement here but it’s the most amazing, potential packed, exciting, loving, scary, nerve racking, thought provoking and inspiring thing which has happened to me in a long time. And I’m just the uncle. I can’t imagine how my brother Tyler and his wife Kerri are feeling.

It’s weird for me because I’m the youngest of three brothers and of all my cousins who were around growing up. I’ve never had someone to look at as younger. A person I am a close relative of to take care of, buy small clothes for, send a toy, teach something to, pick up in the air and give them the love you can give to a kid, or teen or young adult. But now I will. And I’m so pumped!

If things continue as they are I’m probably not going to live near him/her (him/her is also exciting to think about!!!). So I’ll be the uncle who lives in some place foreign to them who they get to go on a plane and fly and visit for a week to stay up late at his house and go on adventures with to be slightly or wholly irresponsible. I’ll get to the privilege to have fun with the kid and check in on life when them. Send them abstract gifts and clothes which don’t fit quite right or aren’t completely in style at the time (along with a check of course to make up for whatever shortcomings I may have in appropriate gift giving).

I think about my Uncle’s Eddy, Fred, Bob, Terry, and Randy. They were all sweet. Uncle Eddy is the crazy one always good for fun. Uncle Fred is a man I’ll always look up to as what a man should be in how he treated his wife and me and others. Uncle Bob is a solid family man established in his community. Uncle Terry, the one I looked up to the most as a child, is a strong and silent man except for the stories which he tells of being a pilot who in Vietnam, commercially and then privately. Uncle Randy is tall and quiet but always enthused and asking questions about my life. I like to think I’ll take the good of what I’ve seen of them and try to be that.

Whatever it is about it I’m overcome with it all. I’ll do whatever I can to be good once this kid comes along and it’ll be another reminder in my life to grow up to be someone worth visiting and having a relationship with on any level. So to my #1, niece or nephew, you’ve got one excited uncle (and another uncle and aunt and grandma and grandpa and many more) waiting for you. You don’t know it yet but you are already being celebrated and will know it from the second you come into the world.

I am guessing I already know my #1 of 2013 as well. See you in June.

Just adding a little Rieth to the family!

 

My Top Ten of 2012: #2 Weddings

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This was completely out of left field for me but early in 2012 my friend Addison called me because he was getting married and said he had something to talk to me about. I was thinking he was just going to see if I wanted to treck it out to Colorado for the wedding. There was more to it than the trip out there though. He asked if I would officiate his wedding for me. Like I said left field.

This was the first time in my life I was literally speechless. I sat on the phone before I could barely manage to get out “I don’t know… Can I even do that?”

It turns out I could do it. Addison had already done the research and in the next couple weeks we decided I would do it. And it actually happened. I wrote the whole ceremony out, got a suit, flew out to Colorado, and showed up. We practiced the ceremony but still I was nervous. It wasn’t until sitting with Addison the half hour before the wedding I calmed down for the both of us. My leg still shook almost the whole ceremony but the words came out, people even laughed at the joke I tried to make. Besides all that it was probably the most humbling thing ever to be asked to do. It was really a great privilege to be able to talk, in front of people who mattered to them, about Addison and Kali. At the end was the coolest part of getting to pronounce Addison and Kali Haynes; husband and wife. It really felt weird for me because I never expected to do it and because they thought I would do a good job.

It was interesting after as people came up and told me it was a beautiful ceremony. One guy even asked about how many weddings I do a year. I was worried I would be terrible at it but thankfully, hopefully, for Addison and Kali’s sake it was a good time.

Then about 3 weeks later when I had truly just started to de-stress from the wedding, bike trip and week at Young Life camp my friend Josh asked me to officiate his wedding. This was also un-expected. The second time around was easier because I had done it a first time already. The writing came easier and the day approached with less stress. The day of I showed up early to run through the ceremony a couple times and got soaked by a flash rainstorm as I sprinted back to my car. I ran through everything again while drying my hair with the vent fan on high in my car.

Eventually the rain died down and things went as planned. During the ceremony my leg didn’t even do the shaky leg thing it did at Addison and Kali’s wedding! I was happy again to tell a story of two people meeting, falling in love, about the engagement, about their faith and finally (I’m sure this never gets old for people who do a lot of weddings) pronounced another couple husband and wife. After the ceremony we took a group picture with both families and went to celebrate Josh and Molly Cooper.

Writing and performing the ceremony for these two couples was probably one of the more challenging things I did in 2012 (biking across 5 states was definitely easier) because I wanted everything to be perfect. I know it wasn’t perfect but I came to the conclusion sometime while working on Addison and Kali’s wedding I was just celebrating them. No matter how good or bad what I did was it had nothing on their love for each other. So I tried to look at it as trying to give a good gift. If it was good, they would like it, and if it wasn’t good they would still be just fine. I have to say though those two nights were the two happiest of my 2012.

My prayers, love, and best wishes to you, Mr. and Mrs. Haynes and Mr. and Mrs. Cooper, in 2013. Thank you.

My Top Ten of 2012: #3 Young Life

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These two were pretty easy picks for me. For the past 4 years Young Life has been something I do. Really it hasn’t been until this past year and a half where it really feels like a day without something to do with Young Life is an incomplete day. It’s been great to be a part of something which encourages earning the right to be heard through open and accepting relationships before anything else. I’ve gotten to go to go places and do a lot of amazing things through this great organization but above all am so glad I get to share in a growing friendship with a great YL team and great group of guys.

In other great news I learned Plainwell is getting Young Life. Plainwell is where I graduated from in 2006 and I’ve been hoping and praying Young Life would pop up there for a while now. It’ll be exciting to see Young Life get into the community and school there in 2013.

My Top Ten of 2012: #4 Biking from Michigan to Minnesota

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#4 Biking

This was one of the more adventurous things I’ve gotten to do in my life. The trip took seven days and I traveled a total of 785 miles. It all started in Holland and the first day was 164 mile route, with a detour through Gary, IN when I needed to get to a bike shop after popping three tubes and slashing a tire on the first day. In Chicago I got to stay with my friend Greg. That day I drank 8 32 oz Gatorades, 64 oz of water, had 3 snickers bars, a cliff bar, 3 packs of Gu, and once in Chicago ate 2 burritos from Chipotle and still lost weight. From there I stayed with a families I had never met in Janesville, Richland Center, and Fountain City.  I stayed with the Marshall’s in Richland Center and they treated me with the hospitality of a long lost brother. The mom made me eat my weight in food within the first hour and then we had dinner and after that the two Marshall daughters, Mckenzie and Alyssa, took me out for ice cream and a tour of the town.

The next day I got into Minneapolis late after a 130 mile day of bike problems, no cell phone service, hitchhiking and gut wrenching hills. It was nice to be done, as I rode past Target Field Justin Morneau hit a home run. I pretended it was all for me as the crowd went wild and fireworks shot up into the air from the scoreboard right above me. That night I stayed with my friends family and had some much needed food and fun. The next day was a little crazy. I thought it was going to be a normal short day. Only 99 miles to Little Falls, MN but when I got there the person I was supposed to stay with (he was an elderly man) never picked up his phone. So I ate at a bar and met a husband and wife who, without telling me, ended up paying for my meal on their way out. After the meal I went and saw a movie and since I still hadn’t heard back from the man started biking into the night. Around 30 miles later it was pitch black with enough light from my bike lamp to see the painted lines on the road. I was in the backroads in the backwoods of Minnesota when, about 50 yards off the road, I saw a light in the woods seeming bright than most. Turns out it was Sweet Water Lake Resort. I knocked on the lodge doors which were locked by the time I got there and was greeted by a nice old lady who gave me a 2 bedroom cabin on the lake for a mere $50 and then had the best sleep of my life. The next day I woke up and had a flat tire so I put a new one on. My pump broke when I was about half way done inflating the tire. I biked 20 miles to a gas station to fill up on air when I realized my back tire had 3 broken spokes. I didn’t care too much other than it made for a bumpier ride. 60 or so miles later I finished my journey at Castaway Club Young Life Camp in Detroit Lakes Minnesota. There was no one there to greet me, after all of the preparing I forgot to call ahead and let them know I’d be coming on bike. My Young Life guys were still an hour and a half away when I got to the camp so I went for a swim in the lake and laid in the grass before they got there.

The whole idea started when I heard some kids needed help with funding to go to Young Life camp. Total they needed $8,000. Through the help and generosity of others we raised $3,000 for those kids and they were able to go to camp, we also raised another $1,000 to help kids in Holland Michigan go to camp. It meant the world to me to be a part of something good happening. Since the whole thing ended I’ve just had the lingering thought of what if’s about getting in better shape, going longer distances, more days and the possibility of doing more to make sure kids are provided for. We’ll see what 2013 and beyond have in store.

My Top Ten of 2012: #6 West Virginia and #5 Greek Life Arc Project Surf Trip

#6 West Virginia and #5 Greek Life Arc Project Surf Trip

These two go together (kind of) and are possibly the two most exciting things of my top ten. I consider myself lucky and blessed and trusted entirely too much to have had these experiences. A little bit before this time last year Hope College’s chaplain asked my friend Jay and I if we would be interested in taking a bunch of Fraternity guys on a mission trip to Florida. It was a mission trip but I feel guilty calling it that because it more so had the feeling of vacation. Every morning we woke up early and headed to Jacksonville where we fixed up a day center kids from local schools hung out at after school and all day during the summer. We painted, shoveled, laid cement, raked, painted some more, moved and constructed with the efficiency of 21 young men. They came up with more work for us to do after we completed everything they wanted us to on the first day. Every afternoon we’d pack up, grab a quick lunch and head to the beach to give surfing our best try. At the end of the week we hosted a day long surf camp for the kids from the day center and then celebrated with them pizza party style in a nearby park.

Then this fall Jay and I got another call, seeing if we’d be interested in taking another group of Greeks to West Virginia on a whitewater rafting trip. Jay and I, being the willing individuals we are, eagerly agreed. It was another amazing trip but quicker this time. We only had four days to drive down, hike for a day, go white water rafting the next day and then drive back.

The trips are amazing. It’s just a bunch of guys from separate Fraternities who don’t really know each other hanging out, eating, hiking, serving, surfing, trying not to die on a river and trying new things together. The whole point of the trips is to create unity and community among these guys. It’s been fun to see it work. It’s easy for the people to critique each other, downplay the good they have to offer and fight, but it’s much harder to create. These trips have created something good among the Greek at Hope. I’m real glad to have been able to be a part of it all.

The trips were a great part of 2012… Now I’m excited as surf trip 2013 is in the works and we’ll be back in Florida in a few short months.

Surf Trip!

Fall Break!

My Top Ten of 2012: #7 Camp Rock

#7 Camp Rock

I met with Todd, the head of Camp Rock, and we talked it through. They had a need and things at the Rescue Mission weren’t moving along as planned. A day after our meeting I agreed to shift my responsibilities and money raised to work at Camp Rock for the summer. The last thing to talk over was which group of kids to work with. Todd gave me the opportunity to have a voice in where I would go.  I pointed out my experience being mainly with high schoolers and some middle school but told him I would go where he needed me. Come to find out they had enough staff to help out with the high schoolers (there were usually only 15 or so who showed up). The middle schoolers were pretty set as were the 3rd-5th graders. I put my best face to prove I was a cool go with the flow type of guy but really I knew what it meant.

Kindergarten-2nd grade.

As a younger twenty year old guy I wouldn’t have described myself as a kid person. I’d never had a little sibling or neighbor or anything. I felt completely incapable. I was nervous. My plans, as they often do, were completely flipped around. The summer was planned to be spent focusing on community development with churches, rehabilitation programs and helping grown men find jobs. Instead I was with toddlers on playgrounds, going on field trips, laying around in the shade of trees on sunny days or sitting next to an old fan watching Madagascar and explaining questions about what the penguins were doing. I was worried they wouldn’t like me or I wouldn’t be fun for them or wouldn’t be able to calm them down when they started crying in big hyperventilating gasps. Without much of a transition case management was traded in for bear hunts in the woods and job training for lifting tiny bodies into the sky like airplanes. Summer turned into time spent with little kids who have weird little lives. They are entirely confused and ask when lunch is about a thousand times a day. Their hands, which they are always insisting you hold on to tightly, are always sweaty, they tell you when they are about to pee their pants and we run to the bathroom. They would rather feel your muscles or be picked up and spun around over and over than have anything else the world has to offer. Someone is always needing a hug or a hand to hold when walking places, they are scared of weird things and need someone to console them when they are afraid. To cup their tiny bodies up in arms and whisper little words in little ears how everything is going to be okay and make them feel protected.

#7 was a change of plans I am very glad for. It was a great way to learn something about myself, and little the little kids I learned I have a heart for, and what I’m capable of. Giving little kids attention and love they need. Learning each and every one is a special little being and is worth treating so.

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