Day 43 : The Pick Up...

this morning, we made contact with my aunt and uncle and made plans for them to come and pick us up in lander at around 4 pm.

after getting that all set up, i began calling around to different dentists to see if someone would be able to squeeze me in. i called 2 or 3 with no success, and then finally, i found a very sweet sounding receptionist who seemed determined to get me in. she said, "how does 9:30 work?". which sounded absolutely great considering that it was about 8:45 at that point in time.

cailyn and i got a few things together and walked the 5 or 6 blocks down to the dentists office. after filling out a little information, they promptly took me back and put me in a chair. before long, the dentist came in and asked what was going on. i gave him a summary of what had been going on over the past number of days. he then quickly looked at my abscess and decided that he could lance it and relieve most of the pressure, which would help the pain and also allow the antibiotic to start working much better. so, he numbed it a little and then that is exactly what he did. and i will be honest, it was a fairly painful process, but i can't begin to tell you how much better i began to feel as soon as the procedure was complete. my face no longer felt like it was going to explode.

so, with that out of the way, cailyn and i headed to the main drag of the town to find the bike shop and see about the possibility of them keeping our bikes until we came back through lander with mike and jenna on our way home next week. the bike shop was super generous in telling us they would be happy to keep our bikes for the week while we were in yellowstone.

we grabbed a little lunch at a great local place and then headed back to where our bikes were at (a great little grassy patch by a river and behind a hotel, where we were able to pay them a small amount of money to be able to shower), to pack up our gear and then ride our bikes back down to the bike shop.

we got our stuff all together, cycled to the bike shop, and just about had the bikes all settled in at the bike shop, when we got a call from my aunt and uncle. they had decided that for space reasons, it would be easiest if they just rented a small uhaul trailer to put some of their gear in and we could just put the bikes in there as well, in case we were interested in riding them around yellowstone at all.

we informed the bike shop of our change in plans, and they were still gracious enough to allow us to leave the bikes there until my aunt and uncle actually arrived. so, cailyn and i headed across the street to a pretty nice little bookstore/coffee shop and got a little coffee and sat and talked and read a little in a few different books that we found interesting on the shelves of the store. i have to say, it was nice to be able to just sit and read...something we really haven't done in the last 6 weeks.

and then, before long, my aunt and uncle called again...they were coming into town and needed to know where to meet us. so, we gave them directions on where we were and a couple of minutes later...they were there, ready to load us up and be our knight's in shining armor.

it is totally awe-inspiring to me the way that God works...to be literally thousands of miles away from anyone that we know, and yet to have relatives that end up being hours away when we are in need of someone to come and pick us up and take us the final miles of our journey. God...you are cool...real cool!! i am looking forward to continuing to process the overwhelmingness of that in the weeks to come!

so from here, we are off to yellowstone, to spend through friday with my aunt and uncle, then on saturday, cailyn's friend aimee who lives in montana is coming to see us, and on sunday our great friends mike, jenna, and sammie will come to hang out for a couple of days, before they will take us back to warrensburg.


sidenote: as i mentioned in the last post, over the next couple of weeks, i hope to do a number of different reflection types of posts.


thank you: thank you to all who have followed along and all who have been such an encouragement to us. it has been both exciting and humbling to have so many people join us for this journey. so, there really aren't proper words, but thanks!