How I Met Young Captain America

I, Bernie Harberts, did not use generative AI to write or illustrate this article. Spell check and grammar check, yes. AI, no.

The mules and I are in Quincy, Illinois today preparing to cross the Mississippi River in the next day or two. I’m sorting photos. This photo I took a few weeks ago caught my eye. I thought you’d enjoy knowing how it came to be.

I was holding Cracker in a Tennessee pasture and looked up and there stood young Captain America. Dressed in a red and blue outfit crowned with a spiked helmet and straddling a bike size I outgrew decades ago.

“What’s his name?” he asked looking at my mule.

“Cracker.” I said.

Cracker looked the boy dead in the eye. Rolled one ear forward, one ear back.

“We’re traveling in a bus,” he said.

I met his parents Keesa and Christian Robinson over at their rolling home. They’re traveling the land with their dogs and kids looking for a place with trees to settle down in. They gave me a baggie of ground coffee.

I hope young Captain America’s family finds a place to land. I hope when he grows up he still wears that spiked helmet and pedals around on a bike asking folks what their mule’s name is. That would make the man traveling with his mule and a top hat smile.

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