Subes for life!

Sitting at my favorite perch in my favorite coffee house* in my second favorite little nothingness blip of a town on Hwy 395, I overheard the barista say, “Even on these cruddy rainy days, we still get travelers rolling through.”

It was indeed a rainy, blustery, crummy day. Though, there was no one named Alexander around**, and no one appeared to be having a terrible, no good, very bad day. And, she wasn’t talking specifically about me, either. I sat for a couple of hours for their free wifi and charging and for the greatly enjoying of their cute little fireplace, and sure enough there were dozens of van-lifers coming through. The place was hopping.

And that’s what she was getting at. Even on the stormiest days, they will be churning out the latte(‘)s*** and breakfast burritos and smoothies and everything else. One of the other baristas commented that her last job they sold even more shakes and cold drinks on the dreary days. And they could never explain it.

What a world.

Everyone needs a downer day where you hang out at home in your PJs eating chocolate and drinking tea and clicking through channels on the TV until you realize there’s nothing on. But, most days are not like that — rain or shine, we get out there and git ‘er done.

Travelers be travelin’.

It reminds me of when I was having an eye rest a few months ago, at some city park somewhere. It was a pleasant, warm afternoon, so I had the back hatch up and my feet were dangling out the back of the Subes4Life. A man and his daughter walked by, and she said something I couldn’t hear. He replied, in a kind and compassionate voice, “I think he’s a traveler.”

[Full disclosure: I may or may not have had laundry hanging in the sun to dry, shoes dropped haphazardly on the ground, random gear strewn here and there inside the rig.] I always try to imagine what she said. “Look at the worthless piece of shit homeless bum, daddy!” she might have shouted gleefully. Or, maybe pointing in shock at the scene splayed out before her once-innocent little eyes. Or, it could have been just a questioning glance shot up at her dad: “Are you seeing this? Can you believe this guy?” One glance says it all.

But, no matter. He could have said something blunt or rude or condescending, but he explained it perfectly to the little kid.

And, there were no further questions.

We’re all travelers in the world.

Some have their act together most of the time; some don’t. But nobody has it all tidily tethered together all of the time.

Rain or shine, get to it.

Whatever it is, make it better.

See you at the coffee house.

See you on the road.

*There’s only one. But, it’s a good one.

**Small town, so everyone knows everyones’ names. And I am an unapologetic eavesdropper, so I know them all now as well.

***We saw it spelled with an apostrophe once, so it’s a throwback LOL to simpler Idaho tymes.