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TIFU by running out of gas in the middle of the Sonora desert on my motorcycle. 100 degrees, no cell reception, no one around and I got in the first car that stopped...

I was too busy thinking about how I wanted to look like a hitchhiker you’d actually like to pickup without thinking about who was doing the picking up...

My presumed kidnapper got off the highway where I didn't expect. He said this was the closest gas station. We began driving 45 minutes down a dirt road towards Mexico.

I wasn’t too concerned. We were going a whole 10 miles an hour and he was old so I figured I could duck, roll and run. I was tense but also in a "let's see what happens" mood.

It wasn't until we got to his house and he was showing me his artichoke plants when I finally thought to ask “why are we at your house?"

He looked confused then said, "the gas can!" and went to grab it. I felt relieved.

We were about to leave when he stopped said, "you see that?"

"The windmill?" I said. Looking outside.

"No, the snake in the windmill… "

There was no snake in the windmill. I looked at him both afraid and confused. He looked concerned as well and took my expression as agreement as he said, "I know right? I’m writing a book about it."

We get gas from a pump with no attendant in sight.

Now I'm thinking great, got the gas and I've got this great story about this crazy guy. But then he started to open up.

He told me he needed to go chill out in the desert for a decade... Who measures chilling in decades???

It got real though. His wife died. She got sick. And he couldn’t hold down work and care for her too but he didn’t regret his choice on that that’s for damn sure. He spent the time he could with her and suffered the financial consequences.

He missed her more than life though, that was clear. Isolated away. I learned that day that you can hear love in the tone of a voice that’s lost it.

I thanked him for the gas.

He thanked me for, "letting me be a human being." that's when I choked up. The whole time I was judging him until I listened that's when I started to understand.

He hugged me, slipped a few joints into my hand (despite weed never being a topic of the conversation) and I watched an angel drive away.

Tl/DR: Life is impossibly hard at times but love makes it worth it. Loneliness and isolation can do a lot, and no one deserves that burden. More humans than you think are good people that want to help. I messed up by judging before knowing. It sounds cliche, but this exprience changed my life and my interactions with strangers have been different ever since.

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