Our one-year journey on the road has been filled with nothing short of the amazing. Mostly the amazing encounters we have had with Mother Nature in our national parks. We have been treated to the absolute best that nature in America has to offer and its effect on us has been profound, inspirational, and transformative to say the least. The other aspect of our trip that has been amazing though is the truly wonderful people we continue to meet. We meet them in gas stations, in campgrounds, on the trails, and in restaurants and there is a certain camaraderie that seems to attract us to one another. It’s a sort of brotherhood of the road or of the trail or of the park it seems. You immediately share a common experience and bond. You’re members of a certain fraternity. You don’t know when it’s going to happen or who you’re going to run into and then all of a sudden you’re having a conversation with someone as if you knew them your whole life and you’re sharing and comparing and their giving you their address to come visit them when you’re in their state. It’s really amazing but quite common. It has a renewing effect on your faith in humanity and often leaves me wondering why more of us can’t be sharing our common experiences more often instead of our differences. That brings me to the current point in our journey which is about 3 hours east of Denver in central Colorado. We spent a day and a half in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and then drove a few miles to the town of Montrose, Colorado. Montrose is a big town although I wouldn’t go so far to call it a city. It’s full of the flavor of cowboys and the west and country music and pick up trucks. Big wide streets and open skies. It’s a community you immediately feel comfortable in. We knew we were going to be missing Thanksgiving with Mike and Matt and the rest of our family and that was a little depressing. We decided that it would be a good way to spend the holiday to see if we could volunteer at a soup kitchen for Thanksgiving. Sort of give thanks for all we have by giving some help to some others. That desire put us on course for a meeting with a truly amazing group of individuals and an experience with this town and community called Montrose that we won’t soon forget.

It was the day before Thanksgiving. We made a few phone calls to food banks and soup kitchens but just got recordings. No luck. Is it possible that we can’t get to do this? We even called some other towns that were close enough to drive to and the same thing. It’s the day before Thanksgiving. This has got to be the biggest feed the less fortunate day of the year and we can’t even get someone to answer the phone. Finally we gave up and decided to just drive to one of the soup kitchens and see what was going on. “Christ’s Kitchen” was located in a strip mall and was a pretty roomy place and that’s where we met Jeremiah. Jeremiah was not only in charge of the soup kitchen; he was also the cook and the pastor. He was eager to talk, eager to smile, eager to converse, and welcomed us in to help, even though they probably had enough volunteers for this particular meal. The other volunteers seemed to be regulars there and knew exactly what to do. They were welcoming to us and interested in our backgrounds and travels but mostly, they were all individuals who were committed to helping those less fortunate, and Montrose isn’t unlike most other towns and cities who have some citizens who can benefit from a descent meal. Like I said, Jeremiah was a real conversationalist and was more than willing to share his story after listening to ours. He grew up in New Bedford, Massachusetts, which used to be a major whaling town before whales lost their usefulness to us and then it became a major textile town until the mill owners realized there was cheaper labor down south and moved their factories there and then unemployment and poverty hit the town and all the side effects then came along like and crime and substance abuse and…well, Jeremiah fell into the dark side of this cycle eventually, but here’s a brief summary of his somewhat amazing story: started cooking in his Dad’s restaurant at the age of 10; went astray and joined a gang, the Vipers, and was quite a delinquent with fights/knifings and drug and alcohol abuse, etc.; spent several stints in juvenile detention; a judge saw some possibilities in him somehow and granted him parole because he asked the judge if he could join the Army as he was smart enough at this time to realize he had to get away from all of the things that were pulling him down in the wrong direction; found religion; became an Army Ranger and Drill Instructor; was injured and lost a finger and part of his hand which led to an honorable discharge with a disability; became an LPN but had to give it up as he couldn’t lift people with his hand; became a minister and moved to Colorado; and is extremely committed and involved in helping community members who are less fortunate. Great guy and a real inspiration. So we helped him out that afternoon and when we asked if they would be serving the next day on Thanksgiving he answered no. Now at first we were surprised because again, wouldn’t this be the big day for providing food to those in need. Then he explained. All of the social services support organizations, at least for providing food and meals, would be closed as all of them would instead be coming together for one, huge, community Thanksgiving Day meal at an airplane hanger sized building in the towns fairgrounds. The meal would be free to anyone in the county, regardless of your financial status. We would see the next day that there were a number of people attending who definitely benefited from this amazing meal and that included many small children, homeless, old, and otherwise in need of the meal. All of the food would be provided by donations and all of the preparations and serving would be handled by volunteers. Jeremiah would be working there as well and he told us to go over and speak to John, the guy running the whole event, and see if he needed help. This would put us in touch with another amazing individual. So, we followed Jeremiah’s directions to the fairgrounds, entered an enormous building and quickly located John. You could see that John was the man in charge. He had a number of people around him who were asking questions but you could also see that at the same time he was keeping a watchful eye on all the bustling activities that were taking place. He was standing outside the enormous kitchen. I walked up and introduced myself and told him that Jeremiah had sent me over and did he need any help. John was somewhere around my age, a grey goatee and a baseball cap and someone you could immediately like. Easy to smile and engaging too, straightforward, nothing pretentious, and bubbling over with positive energy. He somehow got to asking me what we were doing and I briefly told him about our trip and being from New Jersey and his eyes brightened up and he said he had lived in Pennsylvania by Yardley for awhile and I told him that was where my wife was from and I think that got us in. We went outside where Laurie was walking Jackson and he smiled and said he heard she was from Pennsylvania and they talked briefly about their common backgrounds. He told us we could work with Jeremiah the next day doing the mashed potatoes and asked if we could be there by 8am on Thanksgiving morning. No problem we told him. We’d be there whatever time he needed us. We were excited to be part of something that was not only so big but was helping a large number of people from the community. There was something more though. It was community. I mean, it was community with capital letters! It was the whole town coming together to put something on that not only benefited some who were less fortunate, but, made everyone equals. It brought neighbors as well as people you may not otherwise see in your daily life, together in one place, seated next to each other, all happy, and all enjoying a reason to give thanks. The positive energy in the room was like a fever that everyone relished. I believe they had been doing this for upwards of 20 years straight and the coming together of the community in support of it was now a tradition. John had a daunting task in front of him. The logistics of the endeavor were overwhelming. They were expecting over 2,000 people to show up for the dinner as well as 430 individuals who were to have their meals delivered because for whatever reason, they couldn’t make it over to the meal itself. Some of these individuals for sure were aged, shut in, members of the community who would now be having a wonderful and hot Thanksgiving meal delivered to them. John explained that of the hundreds of volunteer drivers that would be heading out at 9:30am with the meals, they could only give 2 or 3 deliveries to each driver as the individuals they would be dropping off the meals to, often invited the drivers in and wanted to talk to the them and if they had any more than a couple deliveries, the drivers wouldn’t be able to make them on time. It literally brought tears to my eyes to think of old community members who were shut-ins and who relished the opportunity to talk to someone, to have some human interaction, as much as they did the meal that was being delivered to them. For those who did come to the fairgrounds building for their meal, the doors opened at 12:00 noon and serving ended at 3:00PM. The meal was really extraordinary. The menu consisted of turkey (151 total), thick slices of ham, homemade stuffing, mash potatoes, gravy, corn, string beans with bacon, rolls, drinks, and a multitude of different pies. The crowds started lining up outside the building at 10:30. There were 4 different serving lines so no one had to wait to get their food. At noon, the festivities kicked off with the Pledge of Allegiance, the singing of the National Anthem (which everyone did), and then a prayer. Again, very moving. Throughout the three-hour meal, there were a number of musical acts to entertain the attendee’s, mostly country music. Laurie, Jeremiah, Rich, and me were on mashed potato duty outside the kitchen door. We had cases upon cases of pre-made mashed potatoes in plastic bags. We had six propane tanks and individual grills with large pots to heat up the bags of potatoes. Once heated, we cut them open, empties them into serving pans, covered them with aluminum foil and brought them into the kitchen and put them in warming ovens ready for serving. We prepared close to 600lbs of mashed potatoes and sat down for only 20 minutes to scarf down a turkey dinner during the 8 hours we worked. It really was a great time and throughout the day we met and talked with numerous people, all of them reaffirming our faith in the goodness of people. Dan and Rich were dishwashers who had been manning that station for a number of years. Great guys with big smiles and engaging personalities who scrubbed pots and serving pans for 8 hours straight without a break. You couldn’t give them enough work to do. Another woman came out and started talking to me only to find out she was originally from Dover, New Jersey but always knew she was really a country girl and moved to Colorado. Broke her front tooth cap off that morning and put it back on with Crazy Glue! Smile, smile, and smile. So many people who came up to us to just talk and be nice and were sincerely interested in who we were and what we were doing, and even though John was running the biggest event imaginable he continued to chat with us and never ran out of energy that was needed to keep this whole thing going. And there was a horse tied up out front, apparently from a guy who goes around town on it everywhere instead of a car so we took a big carrot out of the RV to feed it and he was immensely appreciative of that! And you didn’t have to tell anyone to do anything cause everyone was helping and if something needed to be done it was just that everyone did it cause damn it, we’re all here helping the community and each other and getting a great meal and whatever you need done we will do and if that doesn’t say Thanksgiving, then I really don’t know what does. And between our trips bringing the mashed potatoes in and also pots of hot water we heated for the kitchen cause the water heater couldn’t keep up with the pot washers, we continued to have conversations with Jeremiah and Rich about life and helping and the community and their lives and our lives and damn it if at the end of the 8 hours we were pooped and felt that we were part of this amazing community and that was a reason to give thanks. It certainly gave us a Happy Thanksgiving. We made one last stop to help Jeremiah unload some leftovers at the soup kitchen that he would use to make meals with during the next few days and he stopped us and said how much he appreciated all that we had done and though he may not be showing his emotions on the outside, inside he was very emotional and said he couldn’t thank us enough for all that we had done. I think Laurie summed it up best though when she replied, “Thanks Jeremiah, but we definitely received more than we gave today”. These two days definitely put the happy in our Thanksgiving and it’s funny in how short a period of time we had been allowed to pass through a window into the heart of this community. It was an amazing two days that touched us and will be a Thanksgiving experience that we will remember for a long time.