I wonder if I’ve become that weird guy in town. Every town has at least one that you see now and again. A guy that looks like he just walked out of the woods after a month without a shower or laundry.
A wheel rim cover flew off when road construction forced me to buzz down a California highway’s rumble strips. It soared along side me for a brief moment, like a Frisbee thrown vertically, then became just another piece of roadside litter.
The record-breaking summer heat, combined with a lot of time parked in the sun at trailheads, has rapidly caused the clear coat to peel off. And I think someone keyed it recently, but there are so many cosmetic problems, it’s hard to remember if the scratch was already there.
What I’m trying to say is, my car is a junker now. And between National Parks, I can be seen sleeping in it, reclined in the driver’s seat, with nearly all the possessions I have left packed neatly in the small space around me. Or you might see the car parked at a rest stop, walk into the restroom, and see me at a sink washing my hair, cleaning my cook pot, or brushing my teeth.
I’ve lost more weight on this trip, so like the hiking shorts before them, they have begun to slide down my waist. I fixed this by making a makeshift belt out of a rain tarp guyline.
While I waited for him to come to my table, I thought of how I’d tell him I didn’t want one without hurting his feelings. I thought I might just say, “Sorry kid, I’m homeless.” and then say, “Have any spare change?” It wouldn’t feel like a lie. Afterall, I am the guy that slept behind an abandoned bank in New Hampshire, in a baseball dugout in Maine, on the loading dock of a Vermont Big Lots store, and inside a concrete whale in Oklahoma.
He walked toward my table, but sat down in the adjacent booth and never asked me. A minute later, the taller boy returned. “They didn’t want one. Did you ask him?” he said, not quite soft enough to keep me from hearing.
The boy got up from the booth and quietly said, “He didn’t want one either.”
But that’s not why I feel like the weird guy in town.
No, what leaves me with very little doubt about being the weird guy is that, not only do I not care about any of these things, I’m thoroughly enjoying every moment of it.