If you haven’t checked out the first part of this story, I will highly recommend reading it as it is one of the most emotional roller coaster experiences of my life. Now, let’s get to the second part of the story.
The second part of this story starts with the struggle.
As soon as I came out of the district court, the next big question that I had was how to get home and I had no answers. It was time to get to work.
The first thing that we did was to get back to motel and pack our stuff. Once we packed everything, it was time to do research and explore options to get home. The emotional basket that we had was that my roommate, Ravi, was ready to drive to Newberry once his work finishes to come pick us up; But, we didn’t want to trouble him, so we thought if we could get a head start and meet him somewhere in the middle, that would be awesome.
We glued ourselves to our phone screen (thankfully, the Motel had a good WiFi). I checked at least 10 ride sharing apps. Unfortunately, none of them had a service in the remote village of Newberry, MI. I tried calling several taxi or transport services in Newberry and surrounding areas and they also said they have services only in Newberry and not outside. We spent a good 60 minutes doing this, which clocked in at the checkout time. Unfortunately, we had to leave the Motel at that time; so, we got the brilliant idea to hitchhike to our place, or at least to a close spot somewhere.
I tried googling a department store nearby and fortunately, a Dollar Tree was minutes’ walk away from the motel. The struggle was about to get real. I purchased necessary supplies to come up with a sign to hitchhike. It felt so surreal when I was writing on that green fluorescent paper. As I couldn’t find a place, I went to the only bank I could find, hoping to find some surface to write my sign down. I saw many people entering and exiting the bank, hoping that someone would notice and pity on us and give us the much needed ride to our destination; Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
After struggling for a good 10 minutes, the decision was made to shift our base to the nearby Gas station, which was much closer to the State Highway and had more foot traffic than a bank. As we were walking from the bank to the gas station, I didn’t know how much time and effort we would have to put in this venture. It was a big unknown factor and we were scared because of it. We had kept all our friends updated on the progress and have let Ravi know that we are trying something so that he doesn’t have to drive 10 hours for the day, after working for the same number of hours.
Little did I know that whatever efforts that we had put so far, all of those were going to bear some fruitful results.
Remember when I told you that when I was writing the sign, I hoped that someone would notice. Well, as it turned out, someone did notice; And, the same person noticed us when we were at the gas station. When we reached the gas station, a person walked up to us and asked where exactly we were headed. I wasn’t sure how much he knew about the Lower Peninsula or Southeast Michigan for that matter, so just told him that we were heading south. I turned out, he was heading the same direction and asked us again to give us the city name, to which we responded “Detroit”.
The next words that came out of his mouth, I will never forget in my life. He told us (these are his exact words) “I can give you a ride until Lansing”. Oh My God!!!! I couldn’t believe my ears. I asked him was he sure and how much he would charge us to drop us off at Lansing. He was so sweet, he said there was no need as he is heading there anyway. Man, each word that I was hearing were giving me better news. I just couldn’t believe it. He was kind enough to help us during this time and he went a step further and helped us load our bags at the back of his pickup truck.
I just couldn’t believe my luck, we didn’t even had to stand outside the gas station for a few minutes and were already on our way home. As kind as he was, I just didn’t want to take any risk, so I quickly snapped a picture of his license plate, just to be on the safe side. And, the journey to our home bagan.
I told my friends that I got a ride until Lansing, and they were equally surprised. I shared my location with them and asked Ravi to head to Lansing whenever he is done with his work.
The guy who gave us the ride to Lansing was really sweet. As it was going to be a long drive, we started talking about our lives and friends and families. He was very considerate of the fact that we might be uncomfortable riding in a stranger’s pickup truck through the empty roads, so whenever he took a turn which was not recommended by Google Maps, he clearly explained it to us why he was taking that turn and how much time it would take to get back on the State Highway. His kind demeanor and soft voice helped me relax a little bit and I felt like he was really a savior for us during these tough times.
After talking to him and sharing each others’ stories, I got to know that he was a veteran and was working to help other veterans who were struggling to meet their ends. I found it extremely commending, which justified his helping nature. We stopped a couple times. The first time to adjust the cover on his exposed pickup truck bed and the second time to fill in gas. I offered to pay for the gas, to which, he kindly denied.
As we continued our journey to Lansing, I got to know more about him and how his family members are scattered across the Upper Peninsula, which I found fascinating and adventurous as it is my dream to have a beach house by Lake Michigan, especially near Munising.
When the Google Maps showed that were an hour away from Lansing, I called Ravi to let him know that he should come to the Indian Restaurant (the name of which I am blanking on right now). He called his wife, daughter, and her boyfriend to the very restaurant so that all of us can have dinner together and spend some lovely time with each other.
It was an awesome way to conclude the evening.
I met his wife, who used to work for the state of Michigan, inspecting the piping infrastructure across the city and county, to make sure the residents get clean and pure water supply. His daughter was also working and her boyfriend worked for a contractor in the nearby area. When we all met and sat down for the dinner, it felt like such a blessed evening to me. I was happy that we could reach our destination without much hustle; But, more than that, I was happy with the fact that I got to meet this wonderful person and his entire family. This lovely evening is etched in mind forever and I am and will be forever grateful to this wonderful person.
I knew that he would not take money from me, so I requested our server to bring only one check and directly to me. That’s the least I could do.
I was glad that I got to spend time with this wonderful person and we bade goodbyes with the hope that we would meet each other soon.
Before I close this second part of the story, I know what you must be wondering – what’s the name of that person. Well, his name is “Steve“.
Next stop: Columbus, OH, USA
stochasticity 