Wandering White Crow
I went over to be a waitress on Friday night, leaving Clay to feed the horses now that Roger has departed for destinations unknown. I like to get there after the restaurant is closed and all clean. Nothing to do but sit around and watch the most recent DVD from NetFlix. John had "Fierce Grace", which is about the life of Ram Das. It was a great movie. If you are reading this, wondering who or what Ram Das is, well, what can I say except that is what most people wonder.
HOW COULD YOU HAVE LIVED THROUGH THE 60's WITHOUT KNOWING THIS?
Sigh.... anyway, great movie and you can't help but loving Ram Das if you see it.
Okay, well, John and I really got excited about some of the concepts in the movie which in part concerns how you interact with other conscious entities. It set the tone for the weekend.
On Saturday business started out really slow with only three burritos going out the door before 9 a.m. John had arranged for a cement truck to deliver the cement for the canopy foundation covers at 11 and for some reason he arranged Gayle to come fill in for him while the concrete was being worked. Gayle is the janitoress and keeps the place spotless, but she has never been trained to cook. But hey, it was dead anyway, so what the heck?
Well, it was dead until John walked out the door. Suddenly four people came in for breakfast, an oil field guy called up and ordered 22 burgers to-go, and just as we got the breakfasts out, hungry guys started pouring in for lunch. She started getting panicky, but I just tried to keep her focused on turning out one thing at a time. I wrote LIMITED MENU on the special board and explained to the customers that hamburgers or BLTs were their only options. I helped with the big to-go order by putting the lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, and onions in their own to-go boxes, then sacking up the 22 cartons. We were cranking out food as fast as we could go. She rued ever agreeing to try cooking and kept wanting to just walk out the door, but I kept giving her all the positive outlook on the situation I could muster. The customers weren't complaining, and in fact, when all was said and done, we made really excellent tips. It was phenomenal for two non-cooks, we cooked $500 worth of hamburgers in a couple of hours! When the customers were paying their checks, I reminded them that the food and service would be back to the normal high standard on Monday. They laughed and said we did just fine. Finally the cement was finished and John put back on his apron. Gayle bolted for the door, but she stopped in much later in the afternoon and talked like she was game to try it again.
The afternoon was quiet again, so I had time to attend to my closing chores early. It was just a matter of waiting for the five minutes to pass before we turned out the OPEN sign, when a tall man with a big packpack walked in the door. Jesse Whitecrow had just walked 6,000 miles to get to the Navajo City Roadhouse in time for a burger. He sensed we wanted to close, but we knew that not feeding this wanderer was not an option. We pulled out a little skillet and fried two cheeseburgers for the man, while he started telling us his story. He set out from Maine 20 months ago and he'd walked down through the Appalachia country, down through Louisiana, across the corner of Texas, through the side of Oklahoma, across the Panhandle of Texas, and up across New Mexico. His ultimate destination is Washington State and he plans on taking another year to get there. Simply amazing.
In his normal life, he was a college art instructor, but he realized that if he was ever going to realize the dream of walking across America, he had to get it done. He has had an amazing adventure to be sure! We looked at him and suggested that if he didn't mind taking a day off to rest, he could go home with us and see our place. He is nothing if not an adventurer, so it was just a few minutes before we were all in the jeep heading to Largo. I called Clay and asked him to get a room ready for a most interesting guest, so when we got here, we dropped Jesses stuff off in his room then headed to the parlor to listen to road stories around the wood stove. Jesse and Clay are kindred spirits in having the wandering bug. They seemed to fascinate each other and now they have a plan that Jesse will walk to where Clay will be herding cattle in July (Utah/Wyoming border) because one of his dreams has always been to experience the life of a cowboy.
We had such an interesting time listening to his tales. People in Tucumcari shot at him (a bunch of rounds from a rifle), the police in Oklahoma seemed to take particular pleasure in harassing him (over and over and over), and he's been the target of aggressive motorists many times, but over all he says that people have been really wonderful to him. I was glad to hear that America is not all mean (even if Oklahoma is 85% mean). The Jicarilla Apaches had been taking special care of him, driving out to bring him snacks and water, but he says the Native Americans almost always help a person out. He says that when people have nothing, they will give you whatever they have, but when you are in an affluent community, you will not find any help.
He keeps a blog at WhiteCrowWalking.blogspot.com We will be following along with him in the remainder of his journey. If you see him walking, he almost always needs water. Stop and give him a gallon.
John took Jesse back to Navajo City this afternoon after John and I came back from a glorious mule ride. John is on his final details to get the gas station open, and Jesse will be making his way towards Blanco tomorrow after loading up on a few of our RoadReady breakfast burritos. I hope we see him again in his post walk-about life.
He has a webpage too: http://www.whitecrowwalking.com/, but it is really out of date.
HOW COULD YOU HAVE LIVED THROUGH THE 60's WITHOUT KNOWING THIS?
Sigh.... anyway, great movie and you can't help but loving Ram Das if you see it.
Okay, well, John and I really got excited about some of the concepts in the movie which in part concerns how you interact with other conscious entities. It set the tone for the weekend.
On Saturday business started out really slow with only three burritos going out the door before 9 a.m. John had arranged for a cement truck to deliver the cement for the canopy foundation covers at 11 and for some reason he arranged Gayle to come fill in for him while the concrete was being worked. Gayle is the janitoress and keeps the place spotless, but she has never been trained to cook. But hey, it was dead anyway, so what the heck?
Well, it was dead until John walked out the door. Suddenly four people came in for breakfast, an oil field guy called up and ordered 22 burgers to-go, and just as we got the breakfasts out, hungry guys started pouring in for lunch. She started getting panicky, but I just tried to keep her focused on turning out one thing at a time. I wrote LIMITED MENU on the special board and explained to the customers that hamburgers or BLTs were their only options. I helped with the big to-go order by putting the lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, and onions in their own to-go boxes, then sacking up the 22 cartons. We were cranking out food as fast as we could go. She rued ever agreeing to try cooking and kept wanting to just walk out the door, but I kept giving her all the positive outlook on the situation I could muster. The customers weren't complaining, and in fact, when all was said and done, we made really excellent tips. It was phenomenal for two non-cooks, we cooked $500 worth of hamburgers in a couple of hours! When the customers were paying their checks, I reminded them that the food and service would be back to the normal high standard on Monday. They laughed and said we did just fine. Finally the cement was finished and John put back on his apron. Gayle bolted for the door, but she stopped in much later in the afternoon and talked like she was game to try it again.
The afternoon was quiet again, so I had time to attend to my closing chores early. It was just a matter of waiting for the five minutes to pass before we turned out the OPEN sign, when a tall man with a big packpack walked in the door. Jesse Whitecrow had just walked 6,000 miles to get to the Navajo City Roadhouse in time for a burger. He sensed we wanted to close, but we knew that not feeding this wanderer was not an option. We pulled out a little skillet and fried two cheeseburgers for the man, while he started telling us his story. He set out from Maine 20 months ago and he'd walked down through the Appalachia country, down through Louisiana, across the corner of Texas, through the side of Oklahoma, across the Panhandle of Texas, and up across New Mexico. His ultimate destination is Washington State and he plans on taking another year to get there. Simply amazing.
In his normal life, he was a college art instructor, but he realized that if he was ever going to realize the dream of walking across America, he had to get it done. He has had an amazing adventure to be sure! We looked at him and suggested that if he didn't mind taking a day off to rest, he could go home with us and see our place. He is nothing if not an adventurer, so it was just a few minutes before we were all in the jeep heading to Largo. I called Clay and asked him to get a room ready for a most interesting guest, so when we got here, we dropped Jesses stuff off in his room then headed to the parlor to listen to road stories around the wood stove. Jesse and Clay are kindred spirits in having the wandering bug. They seemed to fascinate each other and now they have a plan that Jesse will walk to where Clay will be herding cattle in July (Utah/Wyoming border) because one of his dreams has always been to experience the life of a cowboy.
We had such an interesting time listening to his tales. People in Tucumcari shot at him (a bunch of rounds from a rifle), the police in Oklahoma seemed to take particular pleasure in harassing him (over and over and over), and he's been the target of aggressive motorists many times, but over all he says that people have been really wonderful to him. I was glad to hear that America is not all mean (even if Oklahoma is 85% mean). The Jicarilla Apaches had been taking special care of him, driving out to bring him snacks and water, but he says the Native Americans almost always help a person out. He says that when people have nothing, they will give you whatever they have, but when you are in an affluent community, you will not find any help.
He keeps a blog at WhiteCrowWalking.blogspot.com We will be following along with him in the remainder of his journey. If you see him walking, he almost always needs water. Stop and give him a gallon.
John took Jesse back to Navajo City this afternoon after John and I came back from a glorious mule ride. John is on his final details to get the gas station open, and Jesse will be making his way towards Blanco tomorrow after loading up on a few of our RoadReady breakfast burritos. I hope we see him again in his post walk-about life.
He has a webpage too: http://www.whitecrowwalking.com/, but it is really out of date.
posted by Patricia Barlow-Irick | 7:07 PM
4 Comments:
Yet again, you simply wait & the most interesting people come to you!
What a great story! Thanks for telling it in detail.
We met Jesse when he came through Tupelo, Mississippi. My husband saw him walking on the Natchez Trace and invited him to our home. That was a surprise. We really enjoyed visiting with him. We got a card from Jesse saying a mountain lion has visited him one night. Can't wait to here more stories.
After 8,000 of walking and nearly 3 years of walking this one journey is over. I work on the book now and stare at my boots by the door that are too clean. What was domestic is broken. I write the book, but I keep one hand on a new map.
Jesse WhiteCrow
And thank you so much for the stay.
The problem with walking is that sooner or later you'll arrive.
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