Who are you?

This is a question I was asked recently when I was riding my bike one evening in a Texas state park. It was very dark, as most state parks are, and my bike was lit up all over the place. There’s a headlight, taillight, and bright lights on the wheels. I also had a headlamp on because I was returning from trying night photos. It was a full moon so the shots didn’t come out as good as I was hoping.

But still cool, right? This was an unexpected gem, called Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, Texas. There were some drawbacks I’ll talk about in another post but overall, I loved the park. So anyway, I’m returning to the camper which is a 3/4 of a mile bike ride. There was a guy and his two young kids walking in the road without any flashlights. As I passed, the young boy asked, “Who ARE you?”

I’m socially awkward, I’ll admit. Often times when I am approaching people I don’t know I tell myself, “Be ready to answer any questions!” What I’ve learned as I’ve been camping around the southeast (recaps here), I’ll get asked the most unexpected questions or people will say things I didn’t expect. I’m not quick on my feet in those moments, unfortunately. I always come up with great responses 5 hours later.

I should’ve answered, “Good question,” or “Who are YOU?” or “I’m Batman.” Anything would have been better than what I did… I didn’t answer at all! I just rode right by. Maybe it added to the mystery of who this superhero of a guy is (me, I’m talking about me). I had ridden around the night before with all the bike lights going because I was scouting out where I wanted to try my night photos. No exaggeration, my bike gets comments 95% of the time, especially when there are kiddos around. So this was the second night, maybe the guy with the colorful bike was a mystery among the campers here. I don’t know.

But I know this… I never have the right response at the right time. Maybe next time I’ll have a good answer, or ANY answer, next time.

Thanks for dropping in…

-Out of the Wilderness