My Doppelganger and an Invitation to World Youth Day Mackinac Island, Michigan Day 41-42 - July 13-14, 2002  Back   |   Next

My Doppelganger One evening I am sitting in the park reading Wordsworth. Jeremy sees me and sits down next to me. He tells me that he met another cyclist walking around where he works on the West Bluffs, and invited him to stay at his place. I am thrilled because I remember hoping to run into another touring cyclist as far back as the Colonel Drake Highway in Pennsylvania. At that time, I had thought it would be so cool to meet another cyclist in Erie and together we would journey together for a time. I went up to Jeremy's barn where the cyclist was staying. His name is Rich Gallagher and he too is on a solo cyclist tour of the US. He rides from Rochester, New York, and we have the same route plan. We are college graduates of 2002, both liberal arts majors (he is an Anthropology major) and both have sisters who are entering college as freshmen this fall. When I meet him he is outside, using the last rays of the setting sun as a reading lamp. He is reading A Walk Across America, which I remember Enos Hilty once recommended to me one early morning so long ago. We decide to head west together on Monday. An Invitation to World Youth Day Day 42 - July 14, 2002 St. Anne's Steeple Val and Br. Jim invite Rich and me to come with them on a pilgrimage to World Youth Day in Toronto, where thousands of Catholics from around the world will be led by the Pope to celebrate the Mass. It just so happens that they have two extra openings and plenty of room on the bus. I accept and try my best to talk Rich into coming with us, but since he is leaving to join the Peace Corps in September, he is understandably anxious to renew the journey. We decide to explore the Upper Peninsula together for three days after which he will continue west, and I will return to the island and join the youth of St. Anne's for the pilgrimage.