I think I must have heard my mother tell me this a thousand times when I was young. After repeated scolding for talking to anyone that we did not know personally. So I learned at an early age not to trust strangers or speak to them.
As I grew older I began to think about this statement and challenge it. Any of you that know me will agree that I am usually the first to speak to a stranger or as I like to think, a friend that I haven't met yet.
Meeting folks along our path over the past two months has been one of the greatest parts of our journey. Sure the countryside is awesome, but somehow those pictures don't stick in my brain like the memories of sitting at a gas station in Ritzville, Washington, chatting with a guy that loved our truck and wished his Dodge had the white gold trim and then learning about the wheat harvest from this man that worked for the railroad in the area. We learned about a one mile circle of track that is used to fill the grain cars during wheat harvest because there is so much wheat being brought into the silos. Amazing trivia.
Or meeting Bill and Alene in Lethbridge, Alberta at the RV park. Bill is legally blind so Alene does all the driving. They live 6 months in Canada and 6 in Arizona. What I remember about them was their generosity. They offered us coupons for discounts at the food mart and gave us a voucher for two free nights stay at an RV Park near Vancouver ( which we used and got three free nights and saved us over $150 in fees).
Or Dennis the manager of the oil changing operation in the back of Walmart who told me all about his love for Dodge trucks. We chatted about how Canadians and Americans view each other based on the media and not on first hand experience.
We met Peter at a laundromat in Kimberly, British Columbia and found out he and his family had lived on a sailboat for 10 years. He told us of live on Vancouver Island and the hefty price they charge you to ferry your RV over and back. We also learned that his son Dillon was on his way to becoming a world class mountain bike racer and had is eyes set on the Olympics at some point.
Last night we spent time with Tony and Annie, two amazing people from Boise, Idaho. We talked about everything from how to back up a 5th wheel trailer to how to use enriched uranium to replace the aging dam systems along the Columbia River. We are both proponents of setting intention and how it shapes our reality. We were definitely kindred spirits. Tony is currently learning how to teach folks to play gold using a different part of their brain! We know we will see these folks again someday on the road of life.
So the life lesson for me in this is to trust your gut when going through life and don't allow your preconditioned notions control your behavior. Challenge your thinking when you notice yourself following some set of rules that were poured into your brain many years ago.
It's been said that life happens while we are making plans to do something. So today, allow yourself to meet a stranger along the road and maybe you will find a kindred soul.
Andiamo!!
Coy, Charlotte, and Jojo the pretty good dog
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