P E O P L E

tj|tl|in|ca|st

P E O P L E
tj|tl|in|ca|st

I meet Patrick at Lindley Park in Bozeman, Montana, while shading myself from the hot, late morning sun. While cooking food inside the van, he pulls up alongside in his black VW jetta. I noticed his car is filled to the gills with biking gear, so I say hello and ask him if he's on a biking adventure like I am.

What follows is about a 3 hour conversation, mostly led by Patrick, focusing on his past biking adventures and life experiences in general. Having quit his warehouse job for a Yellowstone Park concessionaire a week prior, he has come to Bozeman and is living out of his car.

He gives me the nickel tour, shows me how he manages to stow all his belongings and still have room to sleep laying down on one side of the back seat with legs outstretched into the trunk. Fortunately, for him he is small in stature. I can't imagine me shoe-horning myself into the same space. Heck, sometimes I think my van is constraining, but after looking at Patrick's setup, never again will that thought cross my mind.

Fueling Patrick today are thoughts of exploring the biking opportunities in and around the Bozeman area, but he will have to wait, for he is currently on the mend. He quit his job after contracting bronchitis because his employer wouldn't give him enough time off to kick it. His job involved going in and out of a cooler, which further aggravated his already infected condition.

His plan is to rest up for a few more days then strike out on a job search. He's grown fond of Bozeman and wants to stay. However, he's concerned about the ongoing arrival of students in droves as the start of the school year at Montana State University is only a short two weeks away. He'll be in competition with them for odd jobs that don't pay well and will grow scarcer by the day.

Clearly, Patrick is addicted to road and mountain biking. He talks at length about all the single and doubletrack trails he's mountain biked and the miles upon miles of pavement he's road biked. I'm just amazed by his memory for detail, indeed I've met a hardcore biking guru. But, he wasn't always this passionate about bicycles. His current state of infatuation has been going on for the last 7-8 years. Prior to that it was motorcycles. Having logged more than 250,000 miles on a variety of bikes he's owned over the years (see pic above), it's easy to say he's seen a fair cross section of the country, far more than most of us ever will.

I like Patrick, he has an easy going way about him. After learning he's going to the shelters in town for food, I feed him lunch and give him a stockpile of vitamins. He then starts talking about his life, how it's been filled with many twists and turns of fate. You see, he grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. On his own at 15, he was one tough dude and frequently pushed his life to the edge of destruction. By the time he was 20, he had two accidents, the first in a car and the second on a motorcycle.

The bike crash maimed his left foot, seriously enough to lose his heel and part of his arch. He tells me he has to be extra careful of his skin grafts. The car accident took him out of action for a long while, during which time he experienced much pain. When the doctors stopped writing pain prescriptions he took up with the bottle for relief. It was a dark time in his life. But his indomitable spirit pulled him out of this hole. And it's the same spirit I can sense now. His current situation would certainly be a downer for anyone, but he exhibits hope that things would get better and a firm belief that things happen for a reason. I sense no bitterness in Patrick, never once does he blame anyone for his situation, he takes it all in stride.

Patrick has been homeless in the past. At one point, living in the back of a Nissan pickup truck for 1.5 years back in California. He shares with me many of his car-camping experiences and amazes me by his tolerance of discomfort and inconvenience.

Patrick tells me he is slowly entering a transitional stage. He feels the growing need to be more responsible, to be more available to his family (he is the youngest of 7 children). Promising his elderly mother he will go back east to see her in October, he thinks maybe that is the clean-break he needs to get a leg-up on life once again.

Before we part I take down Patrick's cell phone number. I plan to call him in a few weeks to check up on him. I hope the future holds new promise for him.

Good luck Patrick!