Transparent Christian Magazine

One of the wonderful benefits of writing Transparent Christian Magazine is that I get to interview people that I love and respect and inspire me in some way… Sometimes it’s triumph over adversity such as my mother raising my brother and I, or my friend Kent that was shot by a jealous ex-husband and lived to watch his family become close with each other and God, (story to come) or my brother leaving for New Mexico in his 76 Duster, to take care of his family…

There are others who inspire me based on the choices they make, like my friends Tim and Stephanie Pierce. He is a computer programmer/furniture maker and she is a food and environmental specialist that helps communities make healthy food choices. They both quit their jobs this year to travel around the country in a van, sleeping on a futon that Tim adorned with stilts, (so they could fit their gear underneath. ) When they came to visit during their coast to coast trek, I asked them if they would share with me and Transparent Christian Magazine what they learned about themselves, their lives and what role God has played in their travels.

Background: Tim is an avid hiker. A few years ago he hiked all 2000+ miles of the AT. He is handsome, quick to smile and one of the most naturally funny people that I have ever met. Tim is smart too, aware of his surroundings and extremely environmentally conscious. Throwing away an empty cottage cheese container is painful for him. Stephanie is a naturalist to some degree, and loves the outdoors. She is attractive, and has a peaceful spirit. I noticed one morning she grabbed the glass of water on our counter from the night before and took a nice slow drink. She didn’t empty it out first, fill it with ice and refill it with FRESH water (like I do). That simple act spoke volumes to me about her LIVING her environmental beliefs. They are separated in age by around 9 years, Tim is in his early 30’s and yet they seem perfect for each other. They were married on a beach last year in Michigan.

TCM: Tell me about what motivated this journey:
Stephanie: We really wanted to shift gears.
Tim: We never intended to take this trip really.
Stephanie: It stemmed out of a major mental breakdown one day. I called Tim from my job, where I was working to pay off my student loans. I was going to pay them off, and then ditch my job after Tim got his custom furniture business started, but I just couldn’t. We wanted to travel! I said, “you know what? I want to do whatever we are going to do NOW. Let’s take a trip, visit some friends and maybe we’ll figure something out, because I’m not happy in my position.” I called Tim at work and said “I CAN’T DO THIS (job)”. “Let’s plan a trip and get out of dodge. Let’s change our views!”

TCM: Wow. Talk to me about the process.
Stephanie: Well, we went down to the library and got every travel book known to man. ‘Hiking books’, ‘things to do books’… it seemed at first we had 3 books for every state! We finally returned the books and just decided we were going to open up the map, and find the most backwoods way of getting wherever we were going!

Tim: I knew at that time I didn’t want to spend more than 5 hours at a time on the road. I didn’t want to be getting up and sitting in the car for 12 hours. We’ve been really good at taking breaks. Getting out and taking breaks and playing hacky sack or laying in the grass.
Stephanie: We knew that we needed a first aid kit, tools, hiking stuff… So we sat down and wrote up a budget, and got all that stuff together. We then packed the van… And we kept unpacking and unpacking until it all fit. Then we got on the road and unpacked some more! (Laughs)

TCM: Do you have a favorite state?
Stephanie: Its’ all so crazy. These states are SO wildly different. It’s hard to even have favorite places. We went to the “badlands” We didn’t care about the badlands we see in pictures, but nestled under a rock was “Sage Creek Campground” with no amenities except a toilet. You have to pump and filter the water, and we loved it. We also LOVED the Black Hills and the Ancient Forests. Black Hills is in South Dakota. Highway 12 in Idaho we really loved. That was my favorite drive. There are SO many great places. If I had to choose I would probably say Oregon and Idaho.

Tim: I would probably say the exact same thing.

TCM: I never think of Idaho when someone talks about beautiful states.
Stephanie: There are lots of great unsung places. We camped where Laura Wilder (Laura Ingalls) grew up. It’s called the “Plum Creek County Campgrounds”. It was lovely.

TCM: What has been some of your largest surprises?
Stephanie: The feeling of root-lessness. Kind of constantly losing track of what you are doing and not knowing why you are out there. Having to constantly talk through that for my own sanity. It feels like good things keep happening.

Tim: It’s surprising to me how I didn’t predict how difficult it would be to be with one person every day all day.
Stephanie: I agree, because I feel like I constantly have a mirror held up, pointing back at me. I am having to be my best, around the person I constantly want to be my best around! It’s tiring sometimes. There is NO B.S. There is nowhere to hide.

Stephanie: It’s surprising to me how big this nation is. You have NO idea. You can’t imagine when you look at a map how big the country is. We talked before this trip, about how we would love to see other places or other countries. Now, I would be fine to never leave the country, because there is so much to be learned and to be had in this country. There are as many mysteries here as anywhere else, maybe not as publicized, but still mysterious and beautiful.

I really don’t like consumption for consumptions sake. There is a misconception that you need to travel around the world to be well rounded and a sophisticated person. I don’t want to have something else to pull out at a dinner party, like my trip to England. It’s another consumption trap like collecting things, and achievements… I’ve been here. As an example, we never saw old faithful. We drove by Mt. Rushmore, but we didn’t really care about that. If our vacations are just “Oh the cheese in Humboldt California is amazing” it is not a wise use of our resources. We’re not looking for the photo op!

The most fun we’ve had has been when we pitched a tent somewhere and walk around. When we went to the Arches we took the pictures, but it was out in the middle of hell, and It’s people just pushing the people next to you to take the picture they want. I’m just not interested. It’s so super seductive. “Well, you’re not really up to par if you haven’t been to WHATEVER” It’s just another lie.

TCM: I’ve been following your fascinating blog, and I was surprised at the amount of times you mentioned arguing. Tell me about the arguments:

Stephanie: Which part do you…
Tim: Interrupting is one of them! (they both laugh).
Our initial argument in South Dakota was because we didn’t plan. Each of us had a different picture and no timeline, just some prioritization of some people that we wanted to see. Stephanie didn’t know if there was going to be enough time, to see everyone, so she felt in a hurry. We knew we were going to be driving 8000 miles, but we had been on the road for 2 weeks and gone like 500 miles.

Stephanie: This is the first time I have been jobless since I was 12. To not have income coming in is a real struggle for me. If you run out of money on the road you are screwed.
Tim: In reality, we knew it wasn’t going to happen, (running out of money) but we hadn’t figured out how to stealth camp yet. We would drive into a campground and need none of their services except a place to park, and they would need $20. I thought that was ridiculous. Time and Money were the biggest 2 arguments. We’re out here… and it’s done… and we can’t go back and say “This isn’t working, abort abort!”

TCM: That’s funny in a way. When Shelli and I argue, it’s about Time or Money mostly.
Stephanie: There was this complete and utter meltdown on my part when I realized that we were in the middle of nowhere and we couldn’t turn back. It was so hard. The rest of the arguments have been a lot about control. I think it’s because things are so unknown, that we try to control our environment.
“You have to cook in THIS order.”
“You have to take the boxes out of the van THIS way.”

Tim: The garbage bag has to be in the same spot all the time.
Stephanie: Oh my gosh, we’ve argued about the dang garbage bag. (Laughing). Because when you need it HAS to be there. Things seem to get blown out of proportion when we’ve driven a lot, or (aren’t intimate for awhile), or when we eat sugar!!

TCM: Sugar? Really?
Stephanie: Yes. We’ve really been thinking about the aspects of food, and sometimes we get ice cream. It affects us terribly. If it affects us like that, how many people that eat foods with sugar and drink sugary drinks are affected?

TCM: Tell me a funny story.
Stephanie: Laughs… Every time Tim removes his pants for an outdoor shower, even in the most remote places on earth, people show up. We’ve been laughing about that the whole trip.
Umm… Getting attacked by a partridge is funny… now. We almost committed animal murder in Idaho. None of the Idaho trails are managed, and we were hiking on this ridge. Sometimes you have to plow through 48 inch tall weeds. The animals keep it worn a bit. We started the hike at this river and there was a wall on one side of us, and the trail drops a couple hundred yards straight down. I saw this bird, and I said “oh, it’s a partridge.”

The thing flew down and to the right on this trail, and we were walking up on it. We noticed that the partridge was freaking out, and I stopped and at this point, Tim broke rule numeral uno, which was ‘don’t mess with a partridge’. Then he broke rule numeral 2 which was don’t push your wife on a 12 inch wide trail. We were screaming at each other over an #@$% partridge. “You did THIS,” and “you did THAT.” “Why don’t you listen to me, when I tell you to do something”.

We finally admitted we made some mistakes.

On the way back through the trail, it was like ‘silence of the lambs.’ We were SO tense, because we had to walk by this stupid partridge. On our trip, we’ve seen Bison, and Mountain Lion prints, and bears, and we were scared of this dang bird.

TCM: What are you learning:
Stephanie: I have just been astonished by the people that have taken us in. Everyone has been so supportive and wonderful. I’ve been just shocked by the people that have taken us in, that we HAVEN’T known for a long time. It has been humbling and challenging to allow myself to be taken care of. That has been really great, because I got really burned out in Grand Rapids and for people to love on us and take care of us has been an awesome experience..

Another lesson came to me over the last month. One of the things that I wrote about in my journal before we left was that I thought we would be like seeds in the wind, just blowing care free from place to place. What I have realized is that seeds need stability and ground and roots to grow. When you travel so much, you can’t really grow roots and I am really craving that.

TCM: Where’s God in all of this:
Tim: We’ve found (Him), we just don’t know how to get our minds around it. I think the way we’ve lived in the last two months has been right on. I’ve never once felt like ‘I’ve got to get out of here’. It sucked a lot, and there have been a lot of times that I have been so angry and so hurt, but I think that is due to the intense nature of what we are doing, and trying to find the best way to live.

Stephanie: It’s weird I see pieces of what God is like. This constancy, these trees that have been constantly growing for thousands of years, and this creative power in people we’ve met, and the selflessness and the generosity and THAT is divinity. And I see Tim put his hand over on mine, always first to apologize and THAT’s divinity. I feel that I want to see that presence all the time. I find it frustrating that sometimes I don’t see that. Ask me again when I’m fifty. (laughs)

TCM: Is there a stopping point?
Stephanie: We’re going to be back in mid September for our friend Burt’s birthday party. We’re definitely going to spend some time with Tim’s family at that time. As of right now that’s the stand we’re taking. Who knows what will happen then. Today, one of our friends offered us to stay with him for a week, a month, 6 months or whatever. So, we know we have a place to stay if we don’t want to stay in GR Forever.

TCM: So, how did you make this work financially?
Stephanie: That is a question that gets asked of us all the time, and at first I found it a bit irritating. When we told people that we were doing this trip, one of the most blatant responses was from some friends in Michigan. “Do you guys have the means?” It’s like “oh, money? Duh?” I mean, if we couldn’t afford it, we wouldn’t have done it. Now that doesn’t mean that we’re just throwing money around. Tim came up with this metaphor that we have used quite a bit on this trip… ‘we don’t want to scramble our nest egg’. (Laughs). But we live pretty frugally anyway.

Tim: Our gas budget was for 8000 miles at $5 per mile. We had no idea how high gas prices were going. What we are paying for in gas is what we were paying for in rent. We very rarely pay money to stay somewhere. We’re extremely cost conscious. We almost always cook our own food. There are certain supplies that we splurged on before we started. We probably spent $1500 in gear and $1800 on the van. It needed some things. So we tried to spend money on those type of things while we still had jobs. Other than getting the van in tip top shape, we spent money on our tent which was an unusually big expense for us.

TCM: My guess on the money question is that the majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and can’t imagine life without a job. It’s unfortunately unusual to live like you do. I’m really proud of you for that.

TCM: You mentioned telling your friends and family about this trip. What has been the reaction from people?
Stephanie: There’s really no middle ground. People either think it’s the greatest thing they’ve ever heard of, and say things like “please tell me what you’ve learned”, and “I’d love to read your blog.”
Or, they don’t get it, they don’t understand it. It’s annoying to some of them. We ran into one couple that had 2 kids, and they had done this a lot. They packed the kids into the van and done this. You can do it with kids, or at any age, it’s just a different set of circumstances and issues to handle before you leave, but you can figure it out.

TCM: What does the future look like?
Tim: Well, I have the money saved to start my own woodworking shop (business) and I’m looking forward to that. I would like to do that, but at the same time, enroll into a program so I can learn more.
Stephanie: It’s really weird because my identity used to be tied to what my professors, mentors and bosses would say to me, and about me. I had a very narrow definition of success. Now I don’t really think my job accolades and accomplishments is necessarily success. I do not really understand what’s happening to me in a lot of ways. The ambitions I had are not the same anymore. I don’t want to be defined by what I do. I am learning to be ok as a ‘human being’ and not a ‘human doing’!

My time with Tim and Stephanie was too short. They are so genuine and peace and love oozes from them. I think we went 4 days with no tv. Every night after work we spent time outside, on the deck talking about life, God, our past and our futures. My family was so blessed with this visit, and I hope this interview challenges you to examine your life and dust off those crazy dreams you have laying around.

You can read about their trip from the beginning by going to their blog “Futon Quixote” here, and Transparent Christian Magazine will be checking in with them from time to time.

Jason