He told me 2009 is already shot and that I might as well start looking to 2012...
...then he started opening up his backpack to show me what all he packed to travel.
The Pad Thai was steaming when it reached my table. In the next booth he sat his backpack down and unzipped his thick jacket. He wore a Wilco t-shirt.
We started talking immediately. He was going across America roughly via Route 66 from the East Coast. He was about 33-35 years old, if I had to guess. He looked a lil' like a cross between Kevin Bacon and Edward Norton if you can imagine. He told me his mother passed away and left him a little money so he hit the road.
I told him I was thinking of doing it myself, but was kinda scared.
"You HAVE to do it!" he said.
He told me how he just dived in without much of a safety net and he wasn't going to stay in any corporate hotels or motels. He was going to go overseas and backpack, but stayed to watch Obama move in.
He had a laptop he carried to email friends, but ended up selling it along the way because the desire to use it faded away as he moved on across the country.
I asked what was the wildest thing to happen to him on his travels and he told me about stopping in at a cafe and the waitress was a girl he dated in high school from half way across the country.
"2009 is shot. Obama won't be able to fight all the power the Right is building against him this year. Change, the change we so desperately need won't even start for us until at least 2012. So you might as well live the way you've always wanted. If you are going to be homeless, unemployed, poor, worried... Beat it to the punch while you have control. Sell everything and hit the road. Go back to school. Drop all the friends that became a drag and go make new ones. Look at this..." He pulled out a notebook with all these addresses and names. He said these were all the people he's met traveling that he wants to keep in touch with, or send a postcard to. There had to be over a hundred names.
He looked thin.
"Oh you will lose weight being on your feet! I used to be fairly fat, but it burns off pretty fast on the road." He showed me snacks he carried in his backpack; Peanut Butter and crackers, nuts, raisins, jerky...
He added my name and address to his notebook, we shook hands and we parted. Good meeting you Joel.
