- Home
- Experience Taylor
- Taylor Stories
- Empty and Fill
Empty and Fill - from one adventure to another
by Jim Garringer
On Saturday, Kyle Holloway and Alex Esclamado graduated from Taylor University. On Sunday, they left on the adventure of a lifetime.
The two grads are on their motorcycles for a two-and-a-half month trip through much of the continental United States for camping, sightseeing and sharing their faith with whomever they meet. They have titled the trip Empty and Fill. It wasn't just gasoline the two were thinking about when they chose the name - there is a spiritual meaning as well.
"As we empty and fill our gas tanks along the way, we are also going to empty ourselves and make sure we are releasing our plans and expectations to God and asking Him to fill us up," said Holloway. "There are different people we respect - we want to see needs of their community and see how God is working through the church in their areas."
With their bikes equipped with the barest of necessities, the two have already made it to Detroit. From there, they will travel to Washington, DC, with stops in Toronto, Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore. From there, it is on to Durham, NC and Greenville, SC. Next the two plan to travel through Memphis, Little Rock and Waco.
Then they will visit a number of cities in the Western U.S. that include Colorado Springs, Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Redding, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Spokane before turning east toward Bozeman, Milwaukee and Chicago. Holloway and Esclamado expect to return to Upland in early August.
While they are on the road, they also anticipate stops in a number of national parks including Glacier, the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. Holloway estimates they could travel as much as 13,000 miles during their trip.
"At the very least, I'm going to come out of this with an appreciation of God's creation in the United States," stated Esclamado. "One of the things I'm looking forward to is visiting all the national parks in the country. I think that being full of the reality of God's creation is something I would like to come out of it with. I don't think of it as being a spiritual journey, but as an opportunity to go and see our country - to reflect where we are coming from as we move onto the next stage of our life."
For Esclamado, the next stage of life will be marriage to his fiancée, fellow Taylor senior Alyce Robertson. The two have planned a September wedding, about a month after he returns from his adventure.
"When I asked her Dad for permission to marry her, he said there were three conditions: he wanted us to be engaged for a year; he said we needed to have pre-marriage counseling; and I still had to go on my trip," Esclamado said. "I think she is very excited for me to take the opportunity. At the same time, you don't ever want to be away from your fiancée for that long."
One obvious question was: will it be safe? "My Dad has had a bike his whole life and never had an accident," Holloway stated. "We both will wear helmets (and) we've taken safety courses to reduce chances of an accident as much as possible. But it is definitely a risk. It is helpful that we are riding together.
"Riding has always been an exciting thing," he added. "The main hesitation was that we wanted the trip to be something where we were just driving around aimlessly, but to have a purpose for what we were doing and define that - that was the biggest thing to overcome."
Holloway said any butterflies he and Esclamado have about going on the journey have taken a backseat to their anticipation of the experience itself. "We are so excited to meet people and share God's love," he said. "When they see people with backpacks just trekking around, hopefully it will start conversations."
For more information, to host Alex and Kyle, and to follow the tour, visit: http://www.emptyandfill.com.
