DAYS 56-59 - CASPER, WY - 1106 miles from home

Esther Lisa Tishman
Aug 31, 2025
4 min read

It's been a busy time.

We've just spent four days in and around Casper, Wyoming. We've replaced a ceiling fan and airconditioning unit in Libby (ouch$$). We've been photographed and interviewed by the Casper Star Tribune. We've gotten soaked in thunderstorms, had to dry out our gear twice, and then were doused in synchronicity and serendipity - what some would call "trail magic." For instance: we ate lunch at one cafe - only to be recognized a day later in Walmart by the people who had been eating lunch next to us. Or an even more striking example, also food related: we had an astonishing breakfast at another restaurant - Eggington's, a Casper institution - and then discovered a few hours later that our chef was in fact the fiancé of our host for the night.

Most of all, in Casper we began to get a sense of how and where the West is thriving - drawing in young newlyweds and families, mingling sensibilities, forging new connections and identities. Our host, Jamie, is the church administrator at St. Mark's Episcopal Church - that was how we first connected with her (she answered the phone when we 'cold-called' the church, and then opened her home to us.)

Jamie was born and raised on a ranch in Wyoming, with a love of children and teaching, and a huge respect for the world of social work and healthcare: her mom is the director of Case Management and Quality for a hospital system in Douglas, her brother a resident in neurosurgery at John's Hopkins, and other family members work in healthcare as providers and caregivers. Jamie's fiancé Jared has launched a new business in sandblasting and industrial cleaning called JKK Equipment - but he's also just finished culinary school. Their friends, Kristin and Josh, are transplants from Oklahoma and Texas - and Josh, too, is a fine cook - as well as someone with a love for gunsmithing and a degree in the fine barrel work known as bluing and color case hardening.

And so there we were, unofficial aunties and uncle to this thirty-something friend group. Invited to Kristin's thirty-third birthday party. Surrounded by three dogs, including one with a serious exposed-skin fetish (Ned! stop licking my leg!). Feasting with the birthday girl on smoked bologna and deviled eggs and brisket, at a party that boasted more dogs (Yoshi! Bear!), along with adorable kiddos - including three under the age of 10, each of whom owns their own pet ball python (the pythons were NOT in attendance at the party). And then, this morning, we put Kate on an airplane back to Eugene, Oregon... saying goodbye after three wonderful weeks together.

And so Bob and I left Casper. We walked to Glenrock. WY today - where we are staying in an RV Park whose manager Kim, a longtime rider, participates in the annual Pony Express reenactment.

These past few days have not only been busy: they've been deep and intimate. What is it about intimacy - about kindness?? The way such things make the back of your teeth ache: so sweet, a little painful, so irreplaceably and indelibly precious.

It seems that we all long for connection. And so many of us bemoan that connection has been taken from us... has been stolen by our cell phones - or by an aggressively sour news cycle - or by a world that feels less safe, less familiar, less intelligible than ever before....

But the truth is that intimacy - connection - isn't easy. We're going to have to work at it! Intimacy aches - at least a little bit... and not just because our connections with others require our vulnerability and risk. Intimacy just aches of its own accord - a little bit all the time. It's simply hard to accept generosity - to experience kindness and love. It's hard to open the heart or the hand to the unknown and to receive the gentleness of a new friend.

I think most of us want more intimacy in our lives - but sometimes, I fear, it just feels easier to pick up the phone and scroll.

On this pilgrimage we're learning how to receive kindness.