Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
with his cool mirrored sunglasses and a white towel inexplicably thrown over one shoulder
like a boxing coach (which in many ways he was for me), Dwight noticed me sitting on the
bus-stop bench and nodded in my direction.
That was enough interaction for me. I jumped up and hastily explained my adventure:
“I'm driving across the world, on a yellow motorbike, basically, well, on the kindness of
strangers. This is my gas can. I need gas. But I won't even be able to leave my house if I
don't get this first tank of gas.”
I'm sure that elevator speech would have gotten me an “F” in any Marketing 101 class,
but it caught Dwight's attention. “You are traveling around the world on kindness? On a
yellow motorbike? Really?” he asked, repeating my story.
“Really,” I confirmed.
“
Really
, really?”
“Yes, I know it sounds nuts, but I am, and I need help.” And then I waited.
“All right,” he said with a shrug.
I jumped and hugged him, nearly knocking us both off balance.
“I could kiss you,” I cried.
“Please don't,” Dwight laughed as we walked to the pump with my empty gas canister.
The irony was Dwight was not even getting gas. He didn't even have a car. But what he did
have was a dream. I found out that Dwight had once worked as a truck driver, driving all
over the country, but never had the chance to stop and get to know the cities and towns that
dotted his route.
“Man,” he enthused. “I just wish I was doing something like you. I always wanted to
just get out there, you know. Just take off, travel, see the world.”
“Why don't you?” I asked, although I already knew the answer. For so many, finances
trap us in worlds we can't escape and deny us worlds we might never get the chance to
know.
“It's just hard, you know,” he explained. “You have to work to travel and then you can't
travel because you have to work.”
Dwight shrugged the statement off as though it didn't mean anything to him, but I could
see his mask drop for a moment, just long enough to see the yearning pass quickly across
his eyes—a desire for the freedom that I was about to experience, especially now that I had
my first tank of gas.
I took down Dwight's details so I could share with him my trip across the world. It was
why I had brought along the computer—to blog for anyone who wanted to listen, and to
