The talk of the valley

"Meanmean"

This is a true story. For the last several weeks, a mysterious lady has been moving slowly east on foot over the North Cascades Highway, pulling an overloaded shopping cart full of belongings.  John and I saw her on the shoulder of the road near the town of Mazama when we were driving home a couple weeks ago.  Many things have been hauled over the North Cascades, but as far anyone knows, she is the first person ever to pull a grocery cart.  

Her journey has gone viral on the Methownet bulletin board, igniting discussions about social freedom, mental illness, spiritual quests and personal choice.  Many people have stopped to chat and have given her food, water and sometimes money for supplies.  Everyone says she is friendly and does not appear to be especially unhappy or confused.

She was seen eating a caramel apple outside the Trails' End Bookstore in Winthrop last week and a Good Samaritan put new wheels on her shopping cart when she wasn't looking. She's received offers for free shelter, but she chooses to camp out along the road, which seems just fine with folks over there.  (If nothing else, she picked the right Valley to drop into.) 

She says her name is "Meanmean."  She told the Methow Grist she is 53 and her life “is a little thin right now.” She said she left with her cart from Belllingham over a month ago, and that she is a writer looking to get somewhere where she can stop and write her story.

In downtown Seattle, Meanmean would be nearly invisible. By crossing the rugged mountains, she’s a sight so bizarre that Amanda says she's become a topic of conversation everywhere in the Methow Valley.  If the Guinness Book of World Records creates a category for pulling a shopping cart over the North Cascades Highway, who knows? Publishers might fight each other to get her book rights.
 
I especially liked this observation from the Methow Valley News: 

As one person ruminated aloud last week, isn’t it amazing – here is this 50-something-year-old woman pulling that cart more than 100 miles over the pass, sleeping out in the cold. Compare this with those with $1,000 bicycles who pedal the same route, and are followed by a van with a support team equipped with spare parts, tools, food and water and first aid.