Lusk, Wyoming

Custer, SD Sturgis Bike Week

We had a great trip in Custer, South Dakota.  Now, our trip took us south west to Lusk, Wyoming.  As we were pulling out of Custer, we squeezed our truck and camper and van and trailer through the streets crowded with motorcycles parked in the sectioned off area in the middle of the street.  It was quite a sight to behold.  I know my sister and brother in law would have loved to have been there for Sturgis Bike Week.

Our camper squeezing down main street during the preparation for Bike Week.

The drive to Lusk brought my first, small mountain pass.  Since this drive, I have done much bigger, but at the time it seemed huge.  I got pretty nervous as we got to the summit.  All went well and we headed down the busy road full of motorcycles on our way to Lusk. We saw all of these fences along the highway. I found out later they are to block the snow. They said the snow blows sideways because of the strong winds.

Shae head of me with the camper and all the motorcycles heading to SD.

Driving over the pass!

The day after we got there, there were three bikers that broke down. He and the two ladies with him were sharing the gospel up at Sturgis. They gave us a bunch of bible literature for bikers. The are with Christian Motorcycle Association.

What a wonderful place. Most people would say I was crazy saying that. I heard more than a few people say Lusk is a nasty little town, there is nothing there, they said they would never live in Lusk. As we drove in that Saturday I thought it was pretty blah. But, I also have learned that the seemingly nothing towns always have something. Every city has a past that is worth learning about. The town was just an average country town, but the people are anything but normal. They are absolutely wonderful.

We went there to volunteer at a church. We wanted to be a blessing to them. I called them and told the pastor all we could do was clean, he said, that is all we need! It is amazing how God works.

View down the hwy in Lusk, WY

The church is a remodel of an old bar and restaurant. It is beautiful inside with a wonderful kitchen and a great youth room. We washed windows, wiped the ceiling, walls, counters, lights, and everything else. There was a layer of drywall dust on everything. Shae and Cody tore apart a furnace and hauled it off. We vacuumed and helped with the sign. It was a great experience for all of us. We were very thankful to get to help out Pastor Dale and Janna.

These are pictures of our family cleaning at the church.  It is always amazing to see how excited even the young ones get to help others.  A spirit of volunteerism is something that needs to be instilled from a very young age.

It seems like whenever we try to do something nice for someone, we get blessed even more than we blessed them. This was the case in Lusk, also. Pastor and Janna took us out to a ranch. It had over 5000 acres! Well, to people in Wyoming that is pretty average. To those of us in Missouri, that is huge! It was hard to even imagine what that much land would be like! We enjoyed riding our ATVs through the dry yet beautiful country. I smiled the entire time I drove, it was so wonderful. They took us to all of the water. Cookie said that water is something special in this part of the country. There were active windmills throughout the property that actually pump water up out of the ground for the cows.

The clouds in Wyoming are astonishing. They tower above us like they are going to produce a horrible storm, yet, very little if anything comes out of them. The first big clouds I saw I told the kids to get in the church, but I was told "You're not in Missouri anymore!"

We were thankful to get to spend time with a wonderful family. They have kids about the same age as ours. Cody and Jesse had a blast with all of the livestock, especially their oxen. They also rode Jesse's racing lawn mower. The kids all went to Jesse's house to get it when some cops showed up wondering if they were a bunch of kids getting into trouble! They talked with them and made things alright.

Jesse pulled back on racing lawn mower to make it do a wheelie.

Cody feeding an oxen.

I wouldn't get any closer than this no matter what anyone said!

The guys had a blast on the lawn mower. It flew! Hanna drove it and about lost control. Jesse ran up to turn it off when Hanna couldn't. I didn't know he was playing a trick on her and made it go faster! She screamed her head off! Shae had to drive it and then I knew something funny would happen. He did not let us down. The guys had been doing wheelies with it, so of course Shae had to top that. The guys leaned on the back to make the front go up when Shae tipped completely over, backwards with the lawnmower landing on top of him. We laughed so hard. Shae loved it of course.

Pastor Dale and Janna are such nice people. Pastor with his cowboy boots and hat was a dream for Gabriel. He followed Pastor everywhere. It was so sweet and very wonderful.

We love Lusk, Wyoming and hope to go back someday.

sheri