into the life

I met MAel at the KOA in Rawlins, Wyoming -- a rail town in the middle of an eerily desolate stretch of high desert interstate.  We had driven that day down from Jackson Hole for an overnight layover before heading south into the Colorado Rockies.  As we checked in at the campground the host asked if we would mind camping next to a lone traveler, a young man from France who was travelling to Alaska ... on a scooter.  I guess she thought he might like the company.

It was my ever gracious mama who struck up the conversation by offering him a glass of wine.  I returned from the bath house to find them sitting at the picnic table, taking in the view and discussing the details of our travels.  We compared entourage and outfitting, his -- none and what would fit on the back of his tiny scooter, ours -- an intrepid, if somewhat unlikely threesome, in a VW Jetta bursting with everything we could carry, and then a few more things for good measure.  Our intentions were the same -- an American romance.  To take on the road and wander the wide open miles.  To be one of few instead of one of many.  To breathe in the enormous space of the wild west and feel very, very small in the presence of such greatness.  To experience life as great adventure.

Into the night we sipped beers and chatted -- France, U.S., family, school, work, food -- life.  MAel had come to Rawlins via New York and Denver where he had purchased a small scooter.  That day he had driven over Rocky Mountain National Park.  He was headed for the Tetons, Yellowstone and into Canada through Glacier.  From there ... possibly Alaska.  We had come south from Montana and Yellowstone/Tetons and would head the way he had just come, but ultimately bound for home.  A lot of road lay ahead yet of MAel; much of our road was already in the rearview mirror.

The postscript is one of my favorite kind of surprises.  I was checking my e-mail at work this week and found MAel's name in my inbox.  He looked me up to write that he was back in France and that he remembered meeting us and sharing conversation.  He also shared a link to the blog he began writing shortly after we met.  Read his epic and see the rest of his amazing pictures here.

Thank you sun, sky, clouds, mountains, wind, bears, buffalos, dears, trees, rivers, roads and of course the Chinese scooter! I had some pretty good time...

Thank you, MAel.