Kindness One: Nebraska shows a global wanderer the cowboy life

“What we need is an army of the kind.”

Cleveland Amory

Kindness One, my trusty motorcycle with the sidecar, has already transported me from Los Angeles to the cornfields of Nebraska.

In truth, though, it is not Kindness One that has been doing the heavy lifting. It’s the people I’ve met along the way.

People have filled the bike with gas, fed me and opened their homes on these first legs of my around-the-world journey that began Aug. 10. I have no money, no food, no place to stay, relying on the goodness in others to help me on my journey.

Kindness, compassion and connection continue to lift me. I arrived in the Nebraska town of Lexington and crossed paths with some bona fide cowboys. I approached them and explained my trip.

They offered to let me stay the night at their farm 18 miles away. I hopped onto Kindness One and drove to a beautiful place where the sense of peace was intoxicating.

What I wasn’t expecting was a crash course in the art of becoming a cowboy. My training included being kitted up in full cowboy regalia. I wore a Stetson and cowboy boots. Then it was off around the farm to learn how to ride a horse, fire a 1927 gun at rattlesnakes (luckily for the snakes, I missed) and—wait for it—pregnancy-test a cow, which meant putting my hands where the sun does not shine.

I learned how to throw lasso and was finally driven back to the farmhouse in an ATV by an 8-year-old girl, not something that happens every day.

After chowing down at a barbecue, I spent the night, once again blown away by the spirit of America.

Click on a point to read more about Logothetis’ journey. View larger map on latimes.comTwitter: @LATimesTravel | Facebook