Mike And I Grew Up Together—Best Friends

July, ‘82

I'm presently waiting for Mike in the town of Brookfield. Today is another hot one,
and I think Mike is having a hard time with the heat. I asked the
Brookfield dairy truck driver if he had seen a guy on a bicycle, and
he said "yes". He was putting air in his tires just outside of town at
a gas station. I took that to be Mike, so at least I know that he's in
the town somewhere and it's only a matter of time before we meet up.
All things considered, this trip has been fault free. An interesting
sideline is about to take place, though; in a few days I'm going to
meet up with Bill, another friend from Michigan. He made arrangements with Mike to
meet us, or at least me (Mike will soon be boarding a train and heading back to
Michigan soon). Bill wants to bicycle back to Michigan with me. He is
presently in St. Johns, Newfoundland, doing some sightseeing or
whatever. One never knows what Bill is up to. Anyway, he's an old high
school buddy of mine. In fact, Bill and I hitchhiked to California together back in ‘69. I'm somewhat apprehensive about this rendezvous, though. One thing is for sure, whatever happens will be interesting—Bill is always interesting. It's starting to rain, so I guess this is the end of this journal entry.


July 20

I'm In Baddeck, Nova Scotia, on the Cabot Trail, drinking coffee in
Wong's restaurant. Mike and I ran into two more bikers, Dave and
Shannon. It was getting late, so after drinking a few beers in a bar
with our new found friends, Shannon suggested that we set up camp in
the backyard of the little church across the street. Everybody liked
that idea except Mike. Rather than camp in the church backyard, Mike
headed out of town to camp in the woods.

As I'm writing now I see no sign of Mike, which, it seems to me,
requires a few words of explanation. Mike and I grew up together. He
was and is, by far, my best friend. Up until the late `70s, the "free
spirit" in both of us had always kept us close. That said, however, it
is apparent that we have grown apart. I suspect it's like when two
lovers grow apart and end up in a messy divorce. Mike and I are
feeling that kind of pain. Our values are different now. My interest
in God probably has a lot to do with it. Mike's spiritual side never
strays far from the earth. Here's an example: Yesterday, after I
bought some food and walked out to the end of a pier to eat, I noticed
that Mike stayed behind. When I walked back past him, I said, "This
sure is a beautiful place to eat lunch, eh!" He replied, "When I'm
hungry I don't look around, I just eat." That pretty much sums up the
distance between the two of us. I don't know what happened (Vietnam
probably had something to do with it.)