Gray

Our lovely hosts in Jackson gave us ample time getting up this morning and offered us cereal and toast, specifically some Lucky Charms, which I was all too happy to enjoy. We all had a late start, leaving the house around 12. On the way, we had our first flat tire in a graveyard, which we were able to take care of with relative ease. We were riding through the rain for most of the day – at one point, we stopped to check for directions – that was when it really down poured. We had a nice meal in Albion before riding into Battle Creek at the end of the day.

We found an old abandoned park that we choose as our campsite. After resting up a bit and splitting up to do some individual work on the bicycles, we noticed we had a visitor. Gray didn’t say much and wasn’t very trusting of us. It looked we had intruded on his resting place. We weren’t very trusting of him either, so after I had done my last stitch on my handlebar bag, we started packing up to leave. It was already dark at this point, so we knocked on a door to see if our luck with our Michigan benefactors would continue.

Greg answered and, as Lee remarked, it was obvious he was going to let us stay. “You guys on a bike tour? That’s cool!” We started talking and he mentioned that Gray had been walking around town for the last couple of weeks but no one had talked to him. He said the park we had been in had been closed up because there had been an oil spill in the river running through it. He showed us to the backyard and we were very grateful to start setting up camp, until he went ahead and offered us space in his garage. All too kind.

Looking back on today in this garage as I write this entry, I think about Gray. I feel like an actor who just met the real thing. I’ve been playing at being all anti-society on this trip and this loner, this potential fugitive, it’s really his life. It’s not some game. It kind of makes me want to take this trip more seriously and less like a joy ride. I want to see how far down this rabbit hole really goes. Then again, maybe I should just be grateful I'm not a Gray.