In real life

Four years ago I read this article about a guy boondocking with a Geo Metro. I wrote a blog post about it. A little later, the man in the article and in my post, Michel Herrmann, started commenting on this blog. So I started reading his blog.Then we started exchanging email.

One day, totally unplanned, our wanderings had us passing just feet from each other. I was camped at Buckeye Hills Regional Park (back when you could do that) and he was looking for a spot. (By then he had exchanged the Metro for a Tracker.) He didn’t stop because, I learned later, he was experiencing extreme intestinal distress and needed to, um, be alone.

He has been temporarily housed in Albuquerque while his rig undergoes repairs. When he learned I was in New Mexico, he invited me to visit and discuss weighty topics.

There are risks bringing people from the virtual world into one’s real world, but I had a good feeling about Michael. So I was there last night.

He took me to dinner at an Albuquerque institution, the Frontier Restaurant across from UNM. I had a carne adovada burrito (thumbs up) and he had a breakfast burrito, wet. And we talked.

This morning we talked some more, about life, death, cancer, aging, purpose, meaning, therapy, validation, opera, espionage, lies, love, sex, careers, contentment, heater cores and a lot of other stuff. It was fun and enlightening. I still have good feelings about Michael.