Looking outside the window of his room, smoking, he thought about the whirlwind he'd been through over the last few years. In his efforts to understand his direction, wild ideas came to fruition.
Riding a second-hand decades-old bicycle 150 miles into the coastal mountains and setting up a grow operation.
What a crazy thought. He'd just found stability, working two jobs, getting his driver's license back, and renting a room. It wasn't much, yet better than the homelessness he experienced before.
Soon enough, he got the seeds, quit his two jobs, moved out, and sold his car. Now, he was riding his Univega bicycle down the blue highways toward a vague destination around 150 miles away.
Saddlebags full, he peddled down the road slow and steady enjoying the view. Once he got to the coastal mountains from the big city, he set up camp, planted his seeds, and relaxed with chili.
Soon enough, it started snowing. It was a prolonged winter in spring and within two days there was a foot of snow; the man nearly froze to death. He had no tent, no sleeping bag, and only an emergency blanket he made into a tepee around him all night sitting crosslegged -- with cooking cubes and firestarter bars burning in the middle.
To survive, he abandoned his seeds, his camp, and his harebrained idea, and started walking his bike through the snow going back down the road he came from, thinking, that was the dumbest idea I've had yet.
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Originally published at Vocal