Nobel Prize
Today is a red-letter day in my life. Earlier this afternoon, I was thumbing for a ride just outside of Wilson, Wyoming when this SUV pulled over onto the shoulder. The lady’s name was Ellen Lederman and we had a great talk all the way over Teton Pass to Victor, Idaho.
Ellen told me that her husband was a Nobel Prize winner in physics. I told her that I had never met a Nobel Prize winner before and that I had never met the wife of a Nobel Prize winner before. She said that her husband was Leon Lederman and that he won the Nobel Prize in 1988. She said that Leon also wrote five books. One of the books was entitled The God Particle; I told her that I had heard of this book.
We then started talking about John Nash and the film A Beautiful Mind. I told her that I thought it was a very good film. I had also read twenty pages of the book A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar. Ellen mentioned that she and her husband once had dinner with John Nash.
I told Ellen that I had an English professor at Iowa State University who later won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1992 (Jane Smiley, A Thousand Acres). Ellen said that she thought Iowa State was a very good school and that the state of Iowa was very beautiful: rolling prairie and clean and tidy farms that dotted the country side.
Ellen drove me to Victor and dropped me off at the laundromat so that I could wash a load of clothes. After the laundromat, I went to the library and read a couple of important emails that I had received from a publishing company in Maryland. These emails were about a manuscript (Writings from the Road) that I had been working on since the summer.
Wikipedia–Leon Lederman
Never the Same–Michelle Krubeck
Blaise Pascal
Prophets and Quantum Physicists
Time, Timelessness and Jesus Christ
Dimensions 1–Heavenly Coordinates
“The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.”
–Werner Heisenberg (Father of Quantum Physics; awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, 1932)
The Road 
Wow, you certainly meet interesting people on the road!
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What an experience. I can’t even imagine your life, but I really like seeing it through your words.
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Hi Tim, good writing as well as interesting, as usual. But hey, if you ever decide to settle down, I wish you’d come down here to Truth or Consequences, NM and start a homeless shelter for the LORD, We sure need it. So many homeless souls in need of deliverance, a roof over their head and a hot shower and a hot meal. I’d even cook for the shelter. There are lots of vacant buildings that could be had. One warning though, this is an occult stronghold…and very little true Christian influence. Please pray about it. Don’t know why I thought of you on this…just did!
In any case, prayers and blessings out to you in Jesus Name,
Scarlett
Thanks, Scarlett. When you wrote about Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, I immediately thought of Tucumcari. So I looked up T or C on the map. I know that I have hitchhiked through T or C once or twice; I have hitchhiked through New Mexico many times over the years. I once worked on an apple farm north of Santa Fe—a place called Embudo—back in 1986.
Right now I am staying with some friends in northern California. I am not sure how long I will be here. Maybe I will hit the road when it gets a little warmer. We got a lot of snow here near the Warner Mountains back in January.
I have stayed in a number of homeless shelters over the years. I even worked at a homeless shelter in Riverton, Wyoming for several weeks back in 2014. I am not sure what the Lord has planned for my immediate future—if I am supposed to stay on the road or if I am supposed to settle down for awhile. My Father works and I work.
___
Here is a short story of my hitchhiking in New Mexico twenty years ago:
Two Nights in Fort Sumner, New Mexico
Getting a ride and helping someone haul railroad ties.
I was hitchhiking in southern New Mexico and ended up somewhere near Las Cruces. It was probably back in 1997. I headed north on I-25 and got a ride or two to a little town called Mountainair on Highway 60. I ducked into this gas station and got something to eat. As I walked east on Highway 60, I had this peace in my spirit that surpassed all understanding. I knew that something good was going to happen.
I walked for a while and this four-door pickup and trailer pulled over. I got in the back seat. In the pickup was a man, his wife and two kids.
He worked for the Santa Fe Railroad as a welder. It was his day off, so he was going to drive some place and pick up a load of railroad ties (I believe these are also called “sleepers”). He asked me if I could help him out. I said, no problem.
We drove for a while and then turned off the highway onto this gravel road. We drove close to these railroad tracks to a pile of railroad ties. He bought the used railroad ties from the Santa Fe Railroad and then resold them to people who did landscaping work. We loaded his trailer with railroad ties, strapped it down and headed out.
We got to his home in Fort Sumner that evening. We had a nice supper and then watched a movie. They had this couch that folded out into a bed; I slept there that night.
The next day we delivered and unloaded the railroad ties some place. Then we drove to another place and loaded up his trailer with some more railroad ties. I think we hauled two or three loads that day.
After we were done with the railroad ties, we picked up his wife and kids and visited a friend and his wife. This guy also worked for the Santa Fe Railroad.
As a welder, he worked on the railroad tracks. He welded “frogs” on the tracks (I am not sure how to describe what a “frog” is, but they are made out of steel and go between the two rails). He told me that it can be dangerous work because you can’t hear the trains coming down the tracks. The diesel engines are built behind the cab, so the sound of the engines goes out from the sides, not from the front. Once he and his fellow welder were busy working on a “frog”. This train almost ran them over because they couldn’t hear it coming down the tracks. They barely had time to throw their welding equipment off the tracks.
He said he liked being a welder. He made enough money to take care of his family. I was grateful that he picked me up. He gave me a ride even though his wife and kids were in the pickup. Some guys would not like the idea of having a hitchhiker and their family in the same vehicle. Staying with that family for two nights was a pleasant memory.
My second evening there, the welder and I practised hitting a target with his bow and arrow. The next morning we had breakfast and his wife gave me some food for the road. I thanked them for their hospitality and hitchhiked to Lubbock, Texas.
[Published by Digihitch—submitted December 27, 2011]
Hitchhiking Stories from Digihitch
https://hitchhikeamerica.wordpress.com/2014/03/31/hitchhiking-stories-from-digihitch/
TorC as they call it now…yeah, it does need a homeless shelter. I believe every town should have one, and this town needs one in the worst way. It hurts my heart to see so many without a roof over their heads, and empty stomachs. God’s will be done…I just throw ideas out there and the wind of the spirit takes them where they need to go. If not to you, brother, then to someone else. Your place may still be on the road, and he will let you know. We don’t have the right, as bond servants, to choose our own paths.
That was a great story about the welder and his family. I do seem to remember you had another one about NM…only one that could have ended badly, but didn’t,
Peace,
Scarlett
Scarlett: I believe you are talking about this story:
The Only Time Someone Pulled a Knife on Me
https://hitchhikeamerica.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/the-only-time-someone-pulled-a-knife-on-me/