Week 34 - Big Wood Thing, Finished

For starters, I need to make some new introductions. The story occurs when Ben Joye, our dear friend from college and Charleston, joined us this past week. Before his arrival, we started to have conversations about switching things up and coming up with new "road names." With a gullible new addition to the trip, we decided to let him decide, kind of. Hanging around the fire one night at Camp Lutherhaven, we gave him a layup question. We lied, very sorry Ben, and told him that we had come up with road names and gave him a chance to guess them. But we all knew, with our unified intuition these days, that whatever names he said would just outright become our new road names. As he went through the group and guessed our names, we erupted each time, and he exploded with excitement at guessing them so perfectly. Towards the end, he caught onto our scheme, but our task was complete. I now would like to introduce to you, our new road names. Please refer to us by these and these only until we step off the bus.

Cowboy Cain, Juicy Josh and Diesel Dave

Oh, you may notice something unique about the picture above. We are all matching in our brand-new t-shirts that we had printed while in Spokane. We would love for you to match with us as well. Reach out to us, and we will set you up with some Lost Bus apparel, with a twist! You get to pick your price, plus shipping.

Ben has done a great job jumping straight into work with us. Even though his first night in Spokane, we made him wait extra-long at the airport (we went to the wrong one). Luckily, he is a super forgiving guy and woke up the next day ready to get his fingernails dirty with us. Coming out of last week, we still had much to accomplish with finishing our gazebo-patella-pergola (according to Juicy Josh). For Cain, Josh, and me, this project has been such an enjoyable experience. Such a large task and having to use a stack of heavy timber and a rough sketch of what they were looking for felt a little directionless, but that was the best part. We got to be the true visionaries to bring it to life, and they trusted us with that.

At Lutherhaven, there is a man named Steve who manages all the building projects at the camp, and I must say, I've encountered few people like him. He would check in on us so little because of his faith that we would accomplish the project to his liking. The trouble was when you had simple questions like where they keep a tool, he was impossible to find. Although, he would always seem to stop in with perfect timing when we needed him the most at major crossroads. Carpentry is a skill that we all enjoy using, but I really want to be a carpenter like Steve, I’ll tell you why.

We needed to cut an archway out of two large sections of wood we had. Brainstorming with Steve, he was pretty straightforward: draw out the arch, then just cut it. Realistically though, you can't just cut a perfect curve out of a 6-inch-thick piece of timber. But Steve was unfazed, as it was easy for him. He said, "Oh, no worries, we'll just use a chainsaw." A very large violent clumsy tool to cut a curve with, but he seemed totally confident. Once the arch was drawn out on our pieces, we called on him to use his finesse with his chainsaw. I'll let the final product speak for his skills. His dreamer and figure-it-out perspective were proven again and again when we needed it most, for example, tying pulley systems between trees to raise beams with only minutes of setup. It was a simple solution he came up with in the moment that worked like a charm for us to raise a huge beam. Steve liked our style too. In some of our final moments, he asked about the minimum age of a LOST Bus crew. He's daydreaming about sending some of the boys he mentors off on an adventure like ours. I would love to see a crew zooming around on our bus with Steve's seal of approval.

A very nice arch

Steve using his favorite tool

Final Product!

Immediately put to use

The crowd at Lutherhaven was so appreciative of our efforts. They paid us back immensely with constant shared meals, a peaceful parking spot for our home, and their onsite putt-putt course that we frequently took advantage of at the end of our workdays.

We were only able to finish with the help of Ben, of course. Having him handy truly expedited our project. He spoke a ton about the joy and satisfaction of seeing something through to completion. Along with that, I've been rebirthed with excitement through his company. For instance, he was super jazzed to go on a long drive in the bus, something I sometimes even see as a chore now. His fresh eyes have brought back some simple excitements I've grown accustomed to.

25!

On Friday, we had the chance to celebrate a big ol' landmark in Cowboy Cain's life—his 25th birthday. If you unfortunately didn't pick up your phone that day, this is your chance to say something nice. I'm going to tell you about our day with some interjecting quotes from Mr. Compton and others, that I think really paint his personality beautifully.

Cain seeks to live each day to its fullest. If even that means waking up at a prompt 4:50 am to watch the sunrise. "I always appreciate the beauty of it, and it's always a great start to your day to be up early, and ready to roll" he says. Following this kumbaya moment, we went to a local joint called Dave's Bar and Grill for breakfast. While enjoying our meal, a friendly neighboring table struck up a conversation with us, initiated by Cain, reflecting his friendly manner with strangers.

We were having a good ol' time, and then this new friend, also named Dave pulled off the smoothest move. Without a slight hesitation in our conversation, he motioned to the waiter to bring our bill to his table. In the most nonchalant manner, he excused himself from the conversation and got up from his table, leaving us with the parting words, "Don't worry about your bill, we've got it covered." He essentially pulled off the raddest cool guy move possible on Cain's birthday, of course. Mr. Dave, I hope you read this and thank you once again.

After breakfast, Dave invited us to ride his souped-up mopeds. Without hesitation, we joined him. Following our moped experience, Cain said, "I totally want to get one of those moped bikes to have on my job sites to use as my downtown vehicle." Always a dreamer for his next fad that will bring joy to his everyday schedule.

The ultimate day continued with an awesome skeet shooting expo on top of the bus in the grasslands of Washington, a special request from Cain himself. It was a dream he had back in Charleston. In the middle of one of our bus work days he approached me, "Dude, I've got this vision of us shooting shotguns off the top of the bus in Texas or something." It finally happened in Washington, and I'm glad it all came together. I still don't regret buying that shotgun with him on impulse last summer.

To top it all off, we enjoyed a scenic drive into the Cascade Mountain Range. Cain Compton's day embodied the fullness of life with places, people and activities—appreciating the natural beauty of our everyday surroundings, striking conversations with strangers because you never really know what it'll lead to, and seeking activities that require ear protection because that's when you know it's real fun.

Mountain Cowboy Cain

Pringles put to good use

Beautiful background, beautiful people

So now officially, I am the only baby left on the bus, being the odd man out at the age of 24. I'll take advantage of that and try to be excused more by my immaturity.