The Spirit of Adventure

I have been living nomadically across the United States for much of my late twenties and early thirties now. There have only been a handful of tales and fails that I will remember forever. This is one tale that occurred in the spring of last year.

The drive was to take a little less than a week. I like to travel slowly. Living in cities and places for a few months at a time. Driving through backroads and skipping the super highways. The trunk of my car is filled with a bunch of supplies in case I ever break down somewhere. I also recently installed a local LLM onto a usb stick that doesn’t need internet in case I ever need to do some emergency DIY car service in worst case scenarios (or so I tell myself).

I found myself on a Sunday evening driving through De Soto, Iowa. I drove past an idle car on the side of the road. A few miles later, I saw someone walking –

Her name was Amy. Which felt like a good sign because that is my mom’s name as well. Amy was driving back from North Carolina to her home in Nebraska. I told her she might’ve met the only person in Iowa heading through Nebraska and that I was on my way to Colorado.

Amy packed up some things from her car, and I sent my friends and family a quick text saying I had picked someone up off the side of the road, and that we were driving back to her home in Nebraska – five hours away.

towing car off somewhere safe to leave for a few days

Amy was a fighter pilot in the Iraq war, but later became very against the war. She had a husband, Ivan, a 14 year old boy, and two younger twin daughters. Amy and her family lived on a cattle ranch in Nebraska. Amy said where they live is one of the darkest places in all of the United States at night. There is such little light pollution you could look up and see the Milky Way.

We arrived at the ranch close to midnight. Amy’s family and home was so welcoming. They had cooked up some venison for us and gave us a glass of milk. I then got a midnight tour of the ranch.

All of animals had jobs. The cats were good guides.

homemade welded cannon

Checking on the horses

old bones

They asked if I could spend the night, and help Ivan out as a ranch hand the next day.

6 newborn calves that morning

Protective mommas giving birth where it is safe

bringing the calf back to its momma

mythical creatures

cow army

Ivan and I had some deep conversations that day about life. In 2001 he almost lost his life when one of the horses kicked him in the back of his head. He had emergency brain surgery and had to relearn how to read, write, and move. He said he felt God gave him a second chance of life, and he met Amy shortly thereafter and they started a family.

We talked about our respective travel tales and fails. How it feels like a very interesting time to be living nomadically across America. It feels like an important period of history, and many things are changing.

We talked about America, and the idea of America. America to Ivan and Amy is a different America than the one I know. Reality to Ivan and Amy is a different reality than the one I know. We knew of these differences, it wasn’t something that need to be said, only listened to.

We knew underneath these abstracted realities we shared a lot more in common than our differences. That is the beauty, and the spirit, of America.

I ended up making it to Colorado. I lived in Denver, Colorado for a few months that spring, and Salt Lake City, Utah for the summer. Along my travels now, I will periodically go to UPS and send Amy and Ivan a postcard. Every time I smile when the cashier rings me up and says they have never seen a letter cost so much to send, and that a special trip would need to be made.