an author in the shadows

A week or so ago, we ran out of gas again at a truck stop about 45 minutes outside of Vegas. Having no gas gage, odometer or speedometer on our bus this has become a regular occurrence on the road - so, while Duncan put on the yellow gloves and began cleaning the fuel filters, I wandered over the the local truck stop diner for a bite.

I quickly realized this was your quintessential middle America truck stop diner - I was met by a smiling 60 year old woman who handed me a menu featuring the $4.95 Pork Chop dinner and was led to my plastic covered seat among the many Truckers. I noticed one waitress in her 40’s was especially bubbly as she took orders among the grumbling drivers and did her best to make everyone of her patrons smile.

I asked her what she wanted to do before she died and she said, ” I want to finish the book I’ve been writing for 10 yrs”. I asked her what was stopping her from finishing her book and she replied that she didn’t know how to type. She then explained that she had purchased a computer but had passed it on to her daughter because “she wasn’t very computer savy”. She had just recently bought a typewriter for $100.

I pulled out a $100 bill from my pocket and and asked her if I gave it to her would she promise to take typing lessons and finish her book. She answered yes, and promised to put it in an envelop when she got home - she then explained to me that the past 3 weeks had been very hard for her and that she was beginning to think that the world was becoming very mean and that nobody cared. She said thank you, gave me a hug and started to cry a bit. As I waived goodbye to the 60 yr old hostess, I overheard the waitress tell her friend, “something amazing just happened”.

I left the truck stop feeling fuller than I had felt in a long time. I got a hit of nostalgia and realized that it was the same feeling I got when we gave Brent the Truck last year. When I look back over the 18 months since this project began, these are the moments I’d like to remember.

Looking forward to reading your book Sandra.

ben

ps. the $100 bill was given to us for gas by a man named Lee who we met on the first day of our Tour. He told us to keep paying it forward, so we did.