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By Dan Avery
The death of a loved one has a profound effect: For Mikah Meyer, the death of his father in 2005 was a source of motivation for a trip of 75 000 km over three years: the visit of the 419 sites of the National Park Service the United States.
"It was not that my father was a big fan of national parks," said Meyer, who will finish his tour Monday, three years after the start of his career, at NBC News. "But he loved traveling by car. And his death taught me that if you dreamed of a dream, you should not postpone it to retirement, because it could never happen. "
Since he had lost it, he had traveled by car to his father's Hyundai Elantra every year. The first had taken place a few days after the burial. The trips became more and more ambitious until, during a trip, Meyer lived out of the car for nine months.
"It was during this trip that I realized that I could do something very daring," he said. "I knew I wanted to do something big for my 30th birthday. It seemed like a significant age, as if I were young enough to be crazy but old enough to be smart about it. "
His father, Larry Meyer, was a Lutheran minister and, in addition to the travel virus, Mikah inherited his love for stories and inspired others. "The goal was to take something recognizable – the National Parks Service – and use it to reach people with this" carpe diem "message because you can not delay things."
So, after months of planning, he bought a two-year-old Ram ProMaster van in 2016. He named it "Vanny McVanface" and converted it into a home for the next three years.
The van without window was equipped with a queen-size bed, a desk, a refrigerator and fans. The electrical energy came from solar panels that Meyer drilled into the roof.
The source of the money for this venture, however, was a little less clear.
"Honestly, I started this as a millennium of Pollyanna," Meyer said. "I saw people on YouTube who all had these referrals and naively thought" I could do it. "I did not know you needed tens of thousands of subscribers to get that kind of support . "
There had been talks with corporate sponsors, but they were generally afraid to support a homosexual man with a significant type of online followers. A non-profit outdoor organization has given up their support, they told him, because he was doing too much LGBT awareness on social media. "Basically, I was too gay," he said. "So I had to decide at different times:" I'm not going to tell these people that I'm being followed by a lot of LGBT people. "
Nine months after the beginning of his adventure, with no regular source of funding, he was ready to give up. But then he met a pastor who invited him to sing in his church. Then Meyer preached this week's sermon and a basket of offerings was adopted. This pastor sent him to another congregation and since January 2017 he has spoken – and sung – in more than 100 churches.
"Half of them publicly affirmed the LGBT community and saw it as a way to advertise," said Meyer, with a postgraduate degree in musical and vocal performance. "But the other half were pastors who had never had this conversation with their congregation before and who wanted to open it – those who had the most impact. People came to see me after crying while talking about their LGBT family members. "
He had hoped to encourage people to seize the day, but unintentionally, Meyer taught them that growing up gay in the heart of America did not prevent people from finding love. and the goal – or to know God. The ongoing conversation around the faith, he said, was one of the most unexpected parts of his trip.
"In the Lutheran church, we have this idea of vocation. This is where your greatest talents meet the most pressing needs. And you can not just decide what your vocation is, it must be yours, "he said.
All along the way – in person and online – people were telling him that it was the first time that they saw anyone who was maintaining his faith after going out. "They were people who felt rejected by their families," he said. "And here I am, this pastor of Nebraska, fair and white, and they say to themselves, 'He is like me, he is a Christian like me. And he loves national parks. And he happens to be gay. "
He sometimes felt isolated: Meyer had started his journey with his boyfriend, but the two separated after about a year. "I've never had a free second: I was always busy finding logistics or money," he said.
But there were also moments of pure happiness. One of Meyer's favorite sites is not even a big park. It is the national dinosaur monument near the border between Colorado and Utah. It is a breathtaking rugged landscape with desert, colossal river valleys and late Jurassic fossils buried in the exposed rock. "It's one of the most amazing natural landscapes in America," he said.
It is at Dinosaur that Meyer has lived a religious experience. During a rafting trip, his group attracted the attention of a wild goose from Canada. "We nicknamed him George," said Meyer. "He just followed us everywhere – swam along our boat, accompanied us on hikes. He even slept next to our tents.
When Meyer told the story of George the Goose on social media, one of the followers insisted that this bird was actually the spirit of the late father of Meyer, who wanted to be part of his son's trip.
The Aniakchak National Monument, located on the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, is another memorable stop. Aniakchak is a volcanic crater of a width of 6 km and a depth of 2,000 feet, accessible only by bush plane. Seats cost thousands of dollars and flights are often canceled or deflected by thunderstorms. Meyer had spent a year planning this trip.
Beyond the natural beauty of the caldera, nothing more simple: there was "a spectacular moment when something so little was done," said Meyer. "So many times, I had the impression that an angel was watching me."
Fortunately, he was never threatened or abused, but there were many homophobic online abuses. "Unpleasant comments in capital letters, without punctuation. Like the guy who wrote, "Now, I'll have to be careful when I go to the toilets in the national parks."
Meyer was keen to continually assess his environment and remain vigilant. "Whenever I made a speech, especially in a church, I was looking for outings where."
When Meyer embarked on his quest, Barack Obama was president, the equality of marriage was the law of the land and the future looked promising. In fact, one of the objectives of the National Parks Service for its centennial 2016 was to encourage more LGBT people to explore the park system. When he finishes his trip Monday at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, it will be in a very different America.
"I am both very terrified and hopeful for this country," he said. "It's scary to see Americans consume different media that put them in different worlds. What gives me hope is that in most cases people come from the same place – out of a desire to be loved and to love others.
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