I picked up a man at McDonalds this morning......

I met an interesting person this morning while eating breakfast at McDonalds.  He was so interesting in fact that I spent the next 3 hours with him.

He was traveling cross-country on a bike.  He flew from Boston, MA to San Diego, CA and had been on the road for one month and one day.  He packed four days worth of clothes, a tent, hygiene stuff, a cell phone, journal and a container for water.  Before he flew out he broke his bike down and put it in a box.  When he landed in San Diego he retrieved it from checked luggage, assembled it in the airport and took off headed towards home. 

He is a carpenter and business has been slow so he decided to live a life-long dream and take two months off and travel the country.  He said he almost froze crossing the Rockies,  had to outrun a tornado in Oklahoma and got pulled over by an Arkansas State Trooper near Ft. Smith for biking on the interstate.  The officer directed him to Highway 64 and he crossed our state in three days.  He told me he was headed to Nashville but wanted to see Graceland first. 

My husband Freddy told him that it would be difficult for him to cross either bridge on a bike and offered him a lift to the Tennessee side.  He eagerly accepted but instead of letting him off on Mud Island we offered to take him to Graceland.  During our drive we discussed his travels in Europe.  He has competed in many triathlons and biked from Budapest down to Italy.  His favorite country was Austria.  He has been to France and Germany even though he did not speak the languages.  I was in total awe of this man.

I would never cross the country alone.  I hesitate traveling to another country due to the language barrier.  There was much about him that appealed to me.  He carries what he needs on his back or bike.  Granted his bike weighs over 100lbs with all the gear on it but the simplicity of his life was alluring. 

I wanted his life. 

No one to answer to, no one depended on him, no schedule to keep.

He plotted his journey as he went.  Sometimes he got lost but he stated he just made sure his compass was set to east. 

However as we talked the more I began to understand he was not so different from us.

He is married and  has four kids ranging in ages 12-22.  They all still live at home and one is to be married later this year.  He said the last years have been hectic with the kids and their schedules.  He runs his own business as well and sometimes the job sites were miles away.  He explained how he feels caught in the rat race and that Boston at times seems like a success trap.  He said the people he has met on his travels are more relaxed and take time to talk with others.  He stated the fact that we talked to him in McDonalds this morning was a case in point.  Freddy and I laughed and stated our lives are a rat race as well.  We feel like we race out of bed to get everything done then fall in bed exhausted at the end of the day contemplating all the tasks we must complete the next day.  All three of us decided life is like a gerbil on a wheel and we have to determine how fast that wheel of life will spin. 

We let him off on Highway 70 in Bartlett, Tennessee.  We hugged and shook hands and exchanged email addresses.  I told him he needs to write a book when he gets home describing his travels because like us many people will find his story interesting.  He pointed his bike toward Nashville and stated it would take him three days to get there or more...depending on how fast he would allow that wheel of life to spin.