We made it to Lander, WY- Which we've heard very good things about. It took us two days to get from Yellowstone to Lander, and in the mean time Andy had a rough day and the group split up once again...
Anywho, we arrive in Lander for a long awaited rest day at 4p.m. In the first ten minutes we found a place to shower, do laundry, camp (for free in the city park) and a Dominos (which has a 3 for $5.55 deal- sweet when you're on a budget)... Andy and Matt ended up making it to Lander by 7:30p.m. (after riding 113mi) and we'd accomplished most of the Chores that needed to get done.
The real story comes after we saw "Wanted" (which I worked on (as a PA)for a Day- its a crazy movie, but I was entertained, movies are great when you're biking 80 to 100mi a day).
Anywho, we go back to camp around 11:30p.m, talk with Andy a little bit and start tossing a frisbee (since there's a light in the park and no one was really tired). We're about ready to retire for the evening and a girl walks over. Everyone sits down and begins to talk with the girl about nothing special. Stu and Andy were just talking (about nonsense mostly: I'm pretty sure Hand-Underwear was discussed) and the girl (Afton) was laughing at the extremely strange conversation.
After about 15 or 20 minutes I realized we still had no idea of her story. Apparently her bike had just gotten stolen and she is in the process of running away from the "group home" (I don't really understand what that means). Someone asks, "So what brought you this way" and she responds "I was hoping to find a place to sleep tonight."
At this point I see everyone's face droop a little and no one really knows what to do. We're all tired and soon enough Andy says he's going to his tent, and Scott and Stu do the same. I see the girl curl up against the tree to go to bed... I didn't want her to freeze and since I was kicked out of the three person tent 'cause I roll and kick so much, I had room in my tent. I gave her my sleeping bag for the night and bundled up so that I wouldn't freeze either.
She was kind of bummed about her position in life right now because she has no family to go to but is trying to start a life of her own. I told her if she starts looking at it like and adventure then she's set. She's so FREE! No financial responsibility, no home, all she has to worry about is eating- she can do whatever she wants! (I was kind of fascinated about the whole situation).
So the conversation ends and we're about to fall asleep when we hear whispers (I assume its Adam and Mark setting up the their tent). All of a sudden somebody jumps on my tent. I holler, "What the f*ck?" and get out of the tent as quick as I can unzip and climb out.... problem was my glasses weren't on so the sounds of people running are not accompanied by images so there was nothing I could do...
My tent poles are bent and everybody gets out to search for the culprit... Probably some punk kids playing a joke. Then, Afton explains that the first of the month is "Gang initiation day" (which in a town of less than 7000 people is a strange thing to think about)...
The rest of the night we hear noises of horses outside (and keep thinking its the punk kids coming back)... then it slowly gets colder and colder and I become more aware of how much I like my sleeping bag and how I only have so many layers to put on to make up for lending it out for the night(tonight I'm wearing socks)...
The next morning, everyone wakes up and attempts to wake me up. I only had about a half hour of sleep so once the sun came up and it got warmer I just wanted to keep sleeping... sure enough there's construction right next to the park. go figure.
So today my fingers were crossed that she finds somewhere else to stay so that I can actually sleep somewhat before we ride tomorrow. Then we find out another factor to the story. A woman approaches Adam and asks him if that girl had a bike, he says "I think she did, but it got stolen." At his point Afton sees the woman and begins to walk away. The woman sees this, says, "She's on the move," and snaps her fingers. Two other girls (who are pretending to rest in the middle of the field) start to head her off...
I haven't been back to camp yet, and I don't know the whole story, but it looks like Afton is no longer there. She has, however, left us with a Crazy night in Lander and an unexpected experience.
Long blog. Thanks for reading...
Ryan C. Kolegas
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7 comments:
Love your blogs. Keep em coming.
You are a sweetie pie. I miss you! How's your knee?
A group home is where minors end up after being taken away from their parents during abuse, neglect and abandonment proceedings. Most kids in these situations end up in foster homes, but the kids who go to group homes usually have some combination of severe behavioral problems, personality disorders, violent tendencies (against themselves and others), and drug problems that make them a risk to potential foster families. The worst of them are sociopaths.
Usually, these kids face expulsion from school, arrest, being confined to the group home, intensive psychological evaluations, legal difficulties, assignment to a Juvenile Probation and Parole Officer, etc. Running away from a group home is fairly common, but the kids are often tracked down and brought back.
The girl you ran into is probably a lot less free than you think she is, and realistically speaking, she's probably in for a very difficult life. If she remains homeless, she'll be vulnerable to all sorts of dangers on the streets (including the gang members in that park); if she gets a job and a home, she will have all the financial responsibilities and none of the privileges many of us have by virtue of our upbringing, education and lack of preexisting psychological problems. Many don't finish high school and, even if they do, they've had so many problems that their education has been fragmented. You can bet that very few, if any, get a college education. Their earning potential is low.
Many of these kids ended up where they are because they don't have a strong support system to get them through the stages in life that they don't have the maturity or life skills to get through on their own. They also have needs that they can't address on their own and that the state's resources often don't provide.
Before you form some romantic idea of what someone's life is like, you should probably find out what it is really like for that person and explore all the implications of it. There are several signs here that should have suggested to you that something fairly serious was going on--for example, the facts that she must have been under 18 years old and homeless, she said she was running away from the group home, someone was looking for her, etc. If I were you, I wouldn't imagine she's living some sort of beautiful, free Bohemian lifestyle that you can build up in your mind as a profound comparison to the average American middle-class lifestyle. The reality of her situation is quite different.
Greg, I agree with your assessment of this young girl. It is very likely that, as a runaway from a group home, her life up to this point has been incredibly difficult and that she's a victim of institutionalized neglect.
However, to be perfectly fair, I don't believe that Ryan is ignorant of this fact or that he's romanticizing this girl's plight. Ryan is an incredibly positive and profoundly dedicated person. You only have to spend five minutes with him to learn this. By believing that each individual has the power to take control of their own situation and can choose to think positively about life rather than negatively, he is engendering a spirit of freedom which is meant to inspire and encourage.
Being a romantic and an idealist may seem stupid to some, but that does not by default make him stupid.
I didn't at all mean to imply that Ryan is ignorant or stupid, only that his post seems not to understand the severity of the girl's situation.
Positive and optimistic or not, one has to admit that it's extremely difficult to take hold of your destiny at that young age and when you have so many factors working against you. When the conditions of someone's life are analyzed in an abstract and fragmented fashion as in Ryan's post(e.g., no home and no money = independence and freedom; therefore, Afton can live however she wants...which is good) it often creates an unrealistic conception of reality. It conforms the world to a preexisting schema so that instead of learning from new and diverse experiences, he is only reinforcing preconceived notions.
I support Ryan and his positive, optimistic outlook. I would not, however, like to see that optimism blind him to the misfortunes of others. Believing in a just world may make us all feel better, but it does not necessarily encourage us to dedicate our time and resources to increase our understanding others, and to dedicate our time and resources to helping them.
Ryan can be an extremely positive person and still have a more complete and nuanced analysis of the things he sees on this trip and in his life, and I would encourage him to do so.
I want to clarify that I did not mean my post to be discouraging or insulting. I intended it to inform Ryan of certain factors he overlooked and that would perhaps make him see his experience in an entirely different light.
Keep up the good work, guys!
Whoa... intense blog discussions! Either way I found the post interesting.
Greg, I don't know who you are, but I want to get to know you. What you said is what these guys are searching for and trying to understand. thank you for your insight and I love Ryan so what you say to him you are saying to me. I'm Stuart's dad but I feel I'm connected to all of them.
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