Tuesday, June 28, 2016

This Ain't No Dream

I stopped at the Boone Casey's to grab a pop the other day and saw this guy. He had his bike prominently displayed in front of the store with a banner tied to it. You know I had to talk to him, so I walked up and said, "Dude, you're living out my dream!" As in, the dream of recreational homelessness, cycling aimlessly, answering to nobody, scrounging resources, the list goes on. His response is where I took the post title from. He gave me the quick take what he is doing. He is 42 years old, had cancer that really beat him up, was paralyzed but came out of it somehow, and is now riding from Toledo, OH to Seattle to raise awareness for the causes that you see on his banner. He has a Facebook page under cctherider which is chronicling his journey. He is big on the love of people, strangers, and about how he's just taking it a pedal stroke at a time. Doesn't have much for gear. He is on a Walmart bike, has one extra shirt, a touring pump, a tarp, a rain poncho from the Indiana National Guard, a flashlight/stun gun from the Chicago
police, and ten bucks cash from yours truly. That's some raw toughness right there. Just following a lark. Not really a big planner, but he's getting there. He said others have given him lodging, food, showers, etc. But his main theme was love from people. Can you dig it?

1 comment:

NoVisibleLycra said...

Well, what can I say. You and me both share that dream, as you know, to sleep under the stars with only a bike to power us around the world or wherever we're going. Good luck to that guy. I hope he don't encounter any of that poison parsnip stuff you were talking about.