Rescue Mission (Part Deux)

Be sure and read the August 13 Part One post first, so this will make sense.
Part One was written BEFORE I got to Boise. In other words, the real trials and tribulations lessons were just beginning. About twenty miles outside of Boise I called my friend Jonathan to tell him the road was really rough and it was shaking my van so badly that all the stuff I picked up from the floor (after the near catastrophe at Bernalillo) was falling out again. The pavement was in that grooved/pre-prepped condition you've seen before the asphalt is added. I couldn't believe how badly the van was vibrating. I thought it would fall apart!  I told JC it felt like the rutted road to Chaco Canyon (one of the worst.) 

Truly "riding the rim" 

Izzi wonders "WTF?"

When I finally pulled into the Riverside RV Park in Boise, I told the office manager I needed to go to Big O Tires before I even set up. I wondered if the rough road had damaged my tires or if one or more of them were low on air.  She said I was in luck because there was one close by (less than 5 miles.)


 I navigated there with my GPS phone and just as I was making the turn into the Big O lot 
 I heard a loud explosion.

My van lurched to the right because the back right tire literally blew out at Big O in their parking lot!  STOP and really think about how incredible that was. Part of that rough ride was because my tire was "going south" at 75 mph!!  After driving one thousand miles at freeway speed, going through FOUR mountain passes with sheer drop offs, rough roads (sometimes gravel at the RV parks) and much of this in 90 to 100 degree heat, the tire blew pulling in to the Big O. What a blessing!  I wanted to prostrate on the spot.  Truly a miracle that it happened in such a perfectly safe place and seemed related to my Mercy Mission to rescue my long lost "brother." 

The next morning (August 14, at 10am) Jeff was released. I don't think I'm up for posting all the details of that, but it was extremely emotional.  Since then it's been both fabulous and challenging. This is not going to be an easy adjustment for him.  He will continue to be on parole for a long time (several years) and required to stay in the Boise district. I don't see how anyone coming out of prison can make it without help from a friend or family member. He was released with just 66 cents --  not even a buck for bus fare. He is totally indigent.  He had a box of papers, books I had sent him, and a few toiletry items. That was it. He had a distant, vacant look in his eyes when I first met him.  Amazingly, just hours later, after a shower and change into street clothes I brought him, he looked great at our reunion lunch.  


Since then I've taken him to get more clothes, groceries and supplies, signed him up for food stamps, got his one month voucher for a sleezy motel, been to Parole and Probation (twice), taken him to other required locations and today bought him a used (but very nice) Trek bicycle. He's going to have to figure out how to navigate Boise by bike and bus to get a job and continue making all his required meetings. I hope he's lucky and he can get a job before his voucher expires. Most  importantly, I hope he can stay away from his former vices and the kind of seedy influences that got him in trouble in the first place. To me, all the junkies and addicts hanging around these required meetings are a huge problem, but apparently "the state" thinks the problem is allowing him to bike with his family on the famous Boise greenbelt bike trail / River Run.  THAT is prohibited. No wonder prison recidivism rates are so high.