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

My young friend is wanted for attempted murder.

I have a young friend who is accused of shooting someone. When I first heard this I was just sad. While I obviously don’t condone shootings or anything like that I immediately thought of all the good times I had with Dejon.

I care because I know Dejon. I’m not going to say he’s a perfect kid or anything. He’s done some things and made some mistakes but so have I. He’s probably done some things I know I wish he didn’t. But I know Dejon grew up with many of life’s cards stacked against him. He’s already been shot twice, he’s grown with people who should have influenced him for good encouraging him towards many of the activities people look down on him for now. Like I said, I don’t condone or excuse anything, I just know a different part of him than what a lot of people see. I know his primary Nik and my co-workers Jesse, Kallie, Steph, Sam, Abby and my boss George know this part of him. And I want you to know it as well.

In the news report explaining Dejon and Tim are wanted for a shooting, people are allowed to comment at the end. People started making harsh, and in my opinion downright immature, comments and others started firing back supporting Dejon and Tim. It’s the easy thing to do, look down on someone and build yourself up by making them look smaller or completely defend someone you see being attacked.

While those comments (and others people made) make me mad and sad I’m not here to fight one side or the other. I don’t see people who mess up as completely innocent or as a waste of a person or a “savage” as one man described these two. I just think people can know others better and not judge them completely by one mistake or a picture seen in passing. Like I said before, I want you to know the good side of this kid which most people never take the time to see.

Dejon and I went to Young Life Camp at Frontier Ranch last year and I got to see him spend a week where he just got to be a kid, away from the worries of the world, and he loved it. We both did. He enjoyed camp right along with the other kids who didn’t have a past like his, hadn’t been to jail, and didn’t have scars from bullets in their chest and leg. He flinched a little whenever the fake gun shots of the western themed camp went off which reminded me of  his past. Camp was something else for all of us and was a place where I’m reminded to see people as they were intended to be seen.

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And I wish you could see Dejon at his best, I hope he remembers those times too, and I hope maybe all the people arguing can just agree on the fact that pointing fingers and degrading each other won’t get us anywhere. Knowing someone enough to blur the line between the “us and them” way we often see life is a better way. A life of empathy changes things while a life of hostility and judging just widens the gap between everyone. Sooner or later I think this will happen and life will make more sense to us all.

Above all Dejon, if you happen to read this, I hope you know, no matter what you did, all that stuff from camp a year ago is true. You are still great and loved and good. I’m sorry more people don’t see the good in you, the way God see’s you every day. I hope you can feel the love. Hopefully I get to see you again soon.

Final: 785 miles, $3,450 raised for kids to go to Young Life Camp and not a single bear.

It was just over a month ago when I was biking across Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The purpose was to raise money for kids from the Dale House Project and from the greater Holland area to go to Young Life camp. I had never done anything like this before. Most days were well over 100 miles and at night I spent time with families I had never met before. The month before had been full of training and fundraising.

The second day of the trip pretty much summed up what the whole experience was like. The first day had plenty of setbacks and turned out to be 164 miles. The second day consisted of a headwind of 15-18 mhp for most of the 100 miles. Headwinds frustrate me more than hills or heat or rain. A good strong headwind feels like pressing equally on the break and gas pedals in a car. Maximum effort with minimal results. That day my legs hurt, I powered through, I yelled going up hills with the wind blowing strong in my face. I pushed as hard as I could only to see the speed on my computer dropping consistently. I dropped my wallet and had to back track. Finally I started praying for the wind to just ease up a bit.

Every time I finished a prayer the wind seemed to pick up, almost mocking me, and putting more resistance on every pedal. Finally that day I snapped. I was sick of the wind, sick of praying and biked harder than I think I ever had. I’m sure my jaw was clenched as I pushed and pushed as if to defy the wind. To overcome everything.

This is what I mean everything was like. Instead of making life easier by giving me what I wanted it was kind of like God may have just been saying. “Stop it. Stop asking for things to be easy. Stop being a wimp”

I felt that in the last leg of the day tuesday. When God seemed to maybe say “You think you’re in shape, you think you know how to push yourself, you think you know strength in weakness but Travis, you don’t know how I’ve made you. You don’t know how amazingly well I made you. You don’t know really what you can do but I can show you and teach you through testing. Maybe if you stopped asking for it to be so easy all the time you might even see”

After everything shook out and the trip was done I didn’t feel much sense of accomplishment but more so wonder of what I might be able to do. The trip was very hard at times but I know I could have tacked on another 20 or 40 miles onto most days. The trip could have been 1,000 miles and it still would have happened. And after the next trip I’m sure I’ll still have the same sense of curiosity.

But for now I can say it is good. Roughly $3,450 was raised. Around $2,500 will go to the DHP and $1,000 will stay here in holland to send kids to camp.

Thanks everyone for all the support, encouragement, and help. And no James Sa, there was not a single bear fight/attack/sighting/non-confrontational gathering.

Book Review: The Other Wes Moore

“Two kids with the same name living in the same decaying city. One grew up to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison for felony murder”

I just finished this book today and it resonates so much with what I have seen and lived in the past two years. The story, as stated above, is about two guys around the same age, both fatherless, from the same hood, with an eery amount of similarities growing up but an ever more profound difference of where they are now.

The whole story ends up begging one question of the ways the two men turned out.

How?

Where is the promise of hope and a future? How did one kid get out, become a hero and a leader while the other fell into the victim of circumstances a detriment to society and a villain? It’s a sad and scary story highlighting many of the troubles of youth in America.

I loved Wes’ accurate and humble portrayal of his own life, mistakes and grace given to him while recognizing the same of his friend and counterpart of the story. In the end there are no real answers but a lot of questions worth thinking about to be applied to ourselves and others. To be honest it’s a book I’ve lost some sleep over but I’m glad because it’s been so important to think about my personal decisions and how I approach life but also how I give grace to others like me. How the murderer’s in jail are like me or you or your friend. It made me appreciate my freedom and grieve others entrapment to a life they never viewed as something long term. It challenges the cocky attitude I have sometimes; being proud of where I am rather than grateful of where I am not. Wes states it well when he says “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his”.

Unlike many books I have read and appreciated (Love Wins, Irresistible Revolution, Crazy Love) this books digs into something more intimate than attempts at answers and walks through the real lives of families and individuals. If you are involved social work, teaching, Young Life, race issues, psychology or want a lesson in empathy I highly recommend this book. It’s also just an all around good true story.

I must say it was one of my favorite reads over the past year. A book I’m sure to revisit.

Check out Wes’ website here for more information.

121 miles

Yesterday I went for my first long ride. I’ve been training up in mileage biking or running and least once or twice a day.

The past 2 weeks I’ve spent a little over 26 hours on my bike for a total of 400 something miles. Yesterday was my longest day. I woke up at 5am to get on my bike. The sky was still really dark but I threw on my sunglasses to keep the gnats out and started on my way. At that point it was a comfortable 64 degrees and stayed so for a long time. By the time the sun was rising I had made my way through Saugatuck and to my favorite stretch of road right above the shore over looking Lake Michigan. The water was reflecting the sun perfectly off the small waves letting the whole lake glow gold.

5 hours later I had made my way south of South Haven, turned around and was back at that point of my ride overlooking the lake. Now the clock on my bike read 93 degrees but I felt surprisingly good. I hit a wall around 50 miles but was well over that at this point and kept up a good pace all the way back to Holland. I’ve never ridden or ran for a cause other than to figure out what I can do. I’ve had things on my mind, friends and stuff that keep me going, but it’s different now knowing that this effort could help change a kids life.

When I got back to Holland I had only gone 90 miles so I biked to the north side towards the beach and returned home to put in 101 miles by noon. Then I went to a couple open houses of Young Life guys and a couple guys I coached. Seeing them, knowing them from when I was a freshman until now, hearing from their parents about how glad they are involved reminded me why I became a Young Life leader in the first place. To help kids through high school, have fun and set them up for the rest of their life.

It’s so much in my desire for kids to have that I would do most anything. Especially the kids who don’t fit in, don’t have the families of the kids I visited yesterday, and haven’t known how good this world can be. With that on my mind I went home and ran three miles, got in a little workout in and then headed out for another 20 miles on my bike.

The good news is I’m feeling great today and feel like I could head out for another 120.

In more important/exciting news I’m looking for business and family sponsors for the trip! If you, your family, or business would like to sponsor please shoot me an email (travis.rieth@gmail.com) and we’ll talk!

Thanks!

7 Days. 800 miles. One cause.

One of my favorite things in the world is taking kids to Young Life camp. The first time I went was four years ago at Timberwolf. I’ve gone back there a couple times, to Castaway and Frontier Ranch. Knowing how awesome camp is and the good it can do in kids lives makes we want to go to great extremes to get kids there.

So when I learned a couple months ago The Dale House (where I worked last year) needed some help sending their kids to Young Life camp this year I had to do something. I took the kids last year and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I was able to see the kids that went have so many first experiences, step outside their comfort zone, but most importantly got to see how accepted and loved they felt by getting to go to camp. Most of the kids grow up in abusive and neglectful environments. Watching them go to a camp where they are treated like royalty, get to know so many new friends, and are truly loved for who they are was one of the most amazing representations of how God loves people that I’ve ever seen. I know for a fact it changed those kids lives.

Coming back to Michigan I started being a Young Life leader again and know there is a monetary need here in Holland to send kids to camp as well. When I heard the DHP needed help too I knew I just had to do something. I really wanted every kid who wants to go to camp to be able to go and saw a need.

To give online click here or call 616-392-6555 to make a donation. Thank you so much for joining with me on this. I’ll keep you updated on how the fundraising is going.

Thy will be done here as it is there.

Last Sunday I was invited to head up to Grand Rapids to see what a church was doing to reach out to the homeless. From 3-5 there was pizza and people just hung out and talked before a service started at 5. When the service started the guy who invited me, Brian, and I headed out to go down to a tent city where about 8 guys live.

We hopped a curb in Brian’s minivan and headed up a service road next to some train tracks. A little ways down the road I saw a huge Budweiser banner that served as part of a wall to a shack that was built up from boards and siding and other scraps. We kept driving a little bit more and a few more sheds showed up tucked back in the woods where a huge american flag hung like a canopy in the trees.

Brian stopped the van at the last shed. He told me that the church has mainly funded and built this shed and was way better than the other places. We knocked and walked through the door that led into one room that was about ten feet by twelve feet. Three couches lined the walls which wrapped around ladder in the center of the room that went up to a lofted bed. In the corner was a wood stove where food had just been cooked. The shed smelled like chicken and charcoal.

One man sat on the couch next to me was passed out snoring the whole time we were there. Another man sat next to him with a broken heel wrapped in ace bandage and a trash bag. He had long thin red hair, hands coated with dirt and had just finished a bottle of vodka which made him very talkative.

Cookie, who is the owner of this shed, sat across from us. He wore a hat and huge glasses that I’ve only seen in pictures of my parents from the 80’s. After we shook hands my palm took some of the dirt, oil and charcoal from Cookie’s hand leaving mine dirty and dark but I really didn’t care. It reminded me of times in Denver that I oddly miss right now. We talked for a while about how life was going, how he was holding up, what supplies he needed, what problems the tent city community was having and when we might see him again. Sooner than later, after taking note of the things Cookie and the rest of the city needed, we said our goodbyes and left them sitting there in the shed.

That all made me think about how people often ask me why or how I can justify just going and being with people “like that”. Aren’t they addicted, jobless, beggars, smelly, scary, weird and not trying to become un-homeless? Well yes sometimes they are but I think what people are really asking me is how I can care about them when they don’t seem to be trying to be “normal” or “good like us”.

It really is an interesting question. Why do I do it?

I guess because I’m messed up too but I want to be perfect. I want others to be perfect. Not the perfect that is attained by our own effort and not messing up at all but the perfect that is given to us when Jesus died for us. We’re told we we’re made perfect by that. We can be seen as perfect because all our bad, our sin, our flaws, self centeredness, pride from achievements and shame from failure can be sent away. It’s how Jesus see’s us. It’s how the Bible tells and pleads with us to see each other.

So that’s why I do what I do and why I love doing it. Because in the shed next to the muddy road that lines the train tracks I believe what the Bible said could happen, why Jesus came, and how we’re supposed to live our Christian lives started to come into fruition here and now on earth. In a sense I saw 5 perfect people sitting with each other in a space that was created out of forgiveness and understanding and having the kind of value that God gave us on the sixth day when he said “this is good”. It’s the same space that was created last night when I got to hang out with 15 Young Life guys and the same space that I experienced in a brunch at a hotel with my uncle and a businessman that was worth 50 million dollars. Hobo’s, high-schoolers and millionaires… all equal and perfect and loved and enjoyed. I imagine that this space is what we mean when we talk about heaven on earth, when we say thy will be done here as it is there and when we ask to see the world through Jesus’ eyes.

Life is not about the conditions we or others are in. It’s about space we make.

*If you are interested in helping out here are a couple things we’re trying to get for Cookie and the community this week. Just an opportunity for you to be part of that space.

-Candles (tall thick ones that don’t burn out quickly), pancake mix (Meijer or Wal-Mart gift cards could work too), an acoustic guitar (if you have one sitting in the basement or one to spare? Cookie is quite the guitar player and plays for all the guys at night).

**I also need help raising my support to work at the Rescue Mission… part time at the running shop isn’t cutting it. My goal is $800/month any help would be great. Gas cards also really help out too since I do a lot of driving.

Contact me at travis.rieth@gmail.com or comment below if you’re interested in any of the above.

Thanks and God Bless.

How being a Young Life leader helped me be, be with and reach homeless people.

I remember when I became a Young Life leader. It was right at the end of May 2008 when some guys from the Fraternity I just joined encouraged me to check it out. By the end of June I had gone through a fast track of training and in July I went to my first ever Young Life camp. Ever since then I’ve been hooked. I have been to camp 4 times since then. I’ve crossed off Timberwolf, Castaway, Frontier Ranch and Pico Escondido from the list of YL camps to go to. All along the way I was slowly learning something a guy by the name of Tony Dilaura introduced me to way back in 2008 when I was just a young starry eyed 20 year old going through training.

That one thing was to “earn the right to be heard”.

That one thing has become the basis of whatever I do now with my life.

It started in Young Life and continued there throughout my time in college.

After college earning the right to be heard was really put to the test when I worked with and lived with kids at a group home. These were kids that had grown up in abuse, neglect and abandonment. For some turning to drugs, gangs, guns and anger was the answer while for most it was just their life how they had always known it.

These kids were looked down on, outcast, institutionalized and corrected by others who “know better”. People wanted to talk to them so much telling them what to do but it didn’t seem like many times in these kids life people had taken the time or put in the effort to earn the right to be heard. I was thankful to be a part of a group of people at The Dale House where a relational life where earning the right to be heard was emphasized to be a way of life rather than an exception.

Eventually the decision came to take this to where I couldn’t see it going before. To a place where there is no high school lunch room, there is no sporting event and no best week of your life at camp. A place where very few even go let alone want to listen to the people’s story who are there and take the time to earn the right to be heard.

There were a surprising amount of similarities in doing Young Life and living with homeless people. I’ve experienced the same challenges whenever my intent has been to earn the right to be heard.

The first time I walked into a high school to do some contact work I thought…

What if they don’t like me?

What if I’m not funny at club?

What if I’m the one that doesn’t fit in?

What if I can’t find the right kids?

Walking out to the streets of Denver to pursue the homeless left me with similar feelings…

Where do I go?

Who do I talk to?

Where am I going to sleep?

Where am I going to eat?

Whether it be Young Life at a high school, working at a group home or becoming homeless to reach people I wondered the same horrible thought I think we all wonder…

What if I’m terrible at this?

It’s a good fear to have. I think it’s a healthy thing to wonder so you don’t just go into others lives thinking you have yours all together.

This allowed me to go in quietly and to sit in silence and listen. It allowed someone to slowly lend me their story so that way I could go through it with them.

I’ve sat with so many adults and teens this past year. I’ve learned so many stories. I’ve heard terrible things. A girl’s life that has known little more than being raped, abandoned and then sold into human trafficking. A child whose parent killed themselves right after telling the kid it’s all their fault. A schizophrenic who no one has sat down to talk with in years. A man drinking alone in the rain who is so depressed he’s ready to kill himself. Another man who wishes someone saw one good thing about him rather than disregarding him because he’s homeless.

Earning the right to be heard often left me understanding a persons individual suffering better. Understanding pain better made me realize that the words I was planning on saying would fail and be cliche to the point that they would cause pain. I’ve learned that I can’t fix people. I don’t have the answers. I wish I did. I’ve tried to and I’ve failed. I’ve learned to stay quite more than I used to and just let someone know that I’m not going anywhere. I’ve learned to be consistent, continue to eat with people, walk through town with them, talk about baseball with them, go to their games, buy them their favorite magazine, visit them in the cafeteria or sit in sandwich lines with them just to be with them as they struggle so that they might not have to struggle alone. It’s not always the best time. It’s not always easy or profound. But when we join in that silence, in that waiting and sharing of pain and burden and people coming to know they don’t have earn your love… God is there.

Once the right to be heard has been earned it’s interesting how much less I have to say than I would have wanted to in the first place. I don’t need to say it because it’s understood.

I’m so glad I’ve been blessed to be a a part of so many people’s lives.

I’ll never forget it all started with Young Life teaching me what it means to earn the right to be heard.