Notes From The Road

Every year on my Long Ride I make it a point to search out and stay at non-chain motels – the mom & pop places, the slightly seedy but clean trucker habitués – all for the opportunity to chat with folks I don’t see so much in my day to day life.

Throughout my travels I had noticed far more folks at truck stops and gas stations than I have ever seen in all my years on the road; they were all moving from here to there looking for work. Throughout the day I chatted with them and wondered at this fact.

On one particular day I was bone-tired after having traveled 844 miles and badly in need of getting off that bike. Moments later I saw a sign for a motel: “Under New Management. Truckers welcome.” Cool - truckers know value.   As I pulled in I noticed there were plenty of cars, some very nice but some ... not so much so, and only a couple of trucks. Nonetheless I asked about a room, was told there is one available for $30 and I quickly forked over the cash. Only then was I told my room was “around the back.”

Oh-oh.

I pulled around and was shocked by what I saw. All kinds of rattle-trap cars, about 15 poorly dressed little kids running around, and a scene right out of Grapes of Wrath. I got off the bike and chatted with some folks and found a world most of us don’t know about ... the world of the working poor. These folks live in this dump (clean, but VERY well used) because that is what they can afford. Hard working folks ... low-skilled laborers, waitresses, you know the type. All of them were looking for work, migrating from here to there, trying to take care of their kids.

There was no restaurant within miles, so I broke out my emergency MRE (the Boy Scouts trained me well … Be prepared) and ate it, sharing the gum and cookies with some kids. Dirty and dressed in raggedly clothes, they were normal kids just trying to have fun. And very polite - “Thanks, mister.”  Their parents were good people – maybe not college grads, but folks with integrity who expected no one to take care of them.

My wife wondered if since it was Friday it would be party night, but these are folks with real family values and at dusk the kids were herded inside and by 9 PM it was quiet. The AC in my room was a joke so I had the windows open all night, and my room was on the second floor right next to the stairs. I didn’t hear a single footstep all night. These were decent, hard-working folks who just wanted to do an honest days’ work, get paid a fair wage, and take care of their families.

I continue to spend a great deal of thought on this experience. I read that the market has fallen and I have lost most of my 2011 gains .... and I have three motorcycles in the garage and plenty of cash to take a two week wander. In fact I have enough cash that I can choose to spend $70 a night or $30 a night. I am so privileged ... these folks don’t have that luxury.

Our so-called leaders argue and fuss based on ideological perspectives and the latest election popularity polls instead of considering how this great country wastes such precious human resources. I heard a politician at his prayer rally claim America is a Christian nation, and I almost threw my coffee cup at the TV. How can we call ourselves “Christian” when we refuse to adapt to new economic realities and help the least among us find jobs and take care of themselves? Biblical morality is not the nonsense about individual rights or so-called family values so loudly proclaimed, but about taking care of the poor.   Jesus made it very clear: only when we do it to the least among us have we done it to him.

Makes me kind of hope there is a judgment day; some arrogant folks are going to be mighty surprised when they stand before the Throne …

See you in Church.

Kevin