Below is a piece I wrote in 2005, it best describes how my small recluse world was brought out of the dark. This was the incident that would forever change the way I thought and would open the doors to the way I view our world now.I was 16 years old and it was the middle of summer I'd guess a couple weeks before July 4th. Anyways in my Little town of Mountain Home in Idaho a bunch of friends and I had converted the back of my Friend's family pet shop into a pretty cool hangout complete with couches and stereo and even a 4 foot mini half pipe for skateboarding. The place was trashed at first and my friend and I spent the better part of a month cleaning it up, turning it into the paradise it was for us at the time. Since school was out and we were a bit crazy, we pretty much lived there all summer long. Now my town has a population of about 10,000 people and very small. Small enough that when you see a new face in town you take notice. Now one night around 10pm when the sun was setting we were all hanging out outside of our retreat when we noticed a group of people walking down the road, 5 of them all together. 2 girls and 3 guys made up this group, all about our age and one of the guys might have been very early 20's. But out of curiosity I approached them and said something like "Hey you guys aren't from around here huh?" They laughed and replied "No our car broke down and we can't get it fixed for few days so we though we'd scope out what your town had to offer" We laughed and my friends and I replied "not much, its pretty lame around here but you guys can come hang out back here with us if you want to" They agreed and so the adventure began. One thing led to another and they said that they were on their way to the Rainbow Gathering, I remember I said "you mean the gay people?" "Oh no not like that but their are gay people there" one of the guys replied. They went on to explain how people all over the country gathered in one spot in a national forest once a year and it happened every July 4th. They called their Clan the MAD TEA PARTY (side note if anyone knows of a MAD TEA PARTY at the Wyoming 94 national I would love to talk to any of them again!!!!) They stayed with us for about 3 or 4 days, they went on to explain that life on the road was a sense of freedom for them and they were always talking abut how beautiful everything was. Kinda silly at first to me but something stuck, all the things they talked about made sense to me. And it also made sense to one of my other friends (who I had gone with on my first hitch hiking trip). On one of the nights they were there we took them way out into the desert, nothing but sage brush and mountain tops in the distance surrounded us, and we all watched the sunset together. The sunsets here in sothern Idaho are very colorful, reds, oranges and purples all flow together as mother nature is dancing in front of you. And sitting there with them as they talked about this life. This way of living that was so foreign to me, but also sounded so right and true. I made the decision to go check out this thing they called a "rainbow gathering"... My life has been different ever since that evening sometime in June of 1994 sitting in the desert with Friends I had just met a few days before. Finally their car was fixed and they left but I and a friend promised we'd see them again, hopefully at the gathering. We never did.Makes me smile to read that again after so many years, but that was the start of it all. I guess it never hurts to say hello to someone. You never know if it will change your life forever and for the better. This single incident in my life is where a fork in the road was put. Since then I have dreamed and dreamed of getting out of this rat race and just being free on the road, choosing what I want to do and not being tied down to a rent or morgage payment, or a shitty boss that says I have to be HERE at X time.... If you feel the same way. this group is for you. Maybe one day we will be free...
