Mikah Meyer's record-breaking road trip took him on an adventure to see all 419 US National Parks service sites in one trip. Since then, he's used his platform to promote LGBTQIA+ inclusivity in the outdoors.
Mikah Meyer is a record-breaking road tripper. His cross-country adventures started at 19 years old when his dad passed away. On Mikah’s first trip, he traveled for 260 days. Five years later, he spent three years living out of a van, venturing to all 419 U.S. National Park service sites. As he documented his trips online, his following grew and he realized he had a platform. He now travels with the goal of promoting LGBTQIA+ inclusivity in the outdoors with his Outside Safe Space Campaign.
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Mikah Meyer:
Instagram van life is bullshit. It's pure 100% Nebraska cow bullshit. I planned my national parks journey looking at Instagram and van life blogs and was like, "Oh my gosh, it's so dreamy." And I sold my significant other on it. I was like, "Look at this, it's going to be so cool." The reality of van life is spitting out your toothpaste in a Walmart parking lot, sitting in libraries for hours to get air conditioning and Wi Fi, and sharing 70 square feet with someone you're dating if you're going with someone else.
Shelby Stanger:
Mikah Meyer is practically a professional road tripper. He spent three years living out of a van and visiting 419 U.S. National Park Service sites. On that trip he became the first person in the world to travel to all of the sites on a single journey. For the past 15 years, Mikah has dedicated himself to going on a road trip every year. Some of them have been pretty massive. We're talking multi-week, multi-month and even multi-year trips around the United States. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living. Mikah Meyer has dedicated a lot of his life to traveling by land. Along the way he has documented his road trips online, and he's built an incredible following. It's been a wild ride for Mikah but he hasn't lost sight of where it all started. When he was 19, Mikah's dad passed away from esophageal cancer. Mikah turned to road tripping as a way to honor his father.
Mikah Meyer:
For me, it was this moment of seeing him pass away at age 58. After being taught all through my life, K 12, we're sold this idea of go to school and get good grades so you can get into a good college, and there you'll meet your spouse, and then you'll get a good job. And you could do that job until you're 65. And then when you're 65, then you can do all these amazing things you've been dreaming about your whole life. And when I saw him pass away at age 58, not making it to that aspirational retirement age, I realized that he didn't get the American dream. And whether you miss it by a year or seven years or 20 years or whatever, none of us is guaranteed to make it to 65. None of us is guaranteed to make it to a time in our life that's 'the right time'. And so it really taught me I can't keep kicking the can down the road, whatever I want to do with my life I have to do it ASAP because tomorrow could be too late.
Shelby Stanger:
It's interesting. When my dad died, I took with it the need to live life to the fullest because for me it was sudden. Your dad probably didn't die suddenly, but regardless, why did you decide to take a road trip after that?
Mikah Meyer:
We were not a wealthy family. My dad was a campus minister, which they make even less than regular pastors. My mom was a high school music teacher. So to fly was out of the question growing up. And so all the traveling that we did was road trips. And my dad's dream actually was to retire in Florida. We grew up in Nebraska and he hated the cold. And so when I was eight, he reconnected with some old lady he'd met when he was in the navy. And she had bought a retirement plot for all of her kids in the middle of Central Florida. And none of them wanted it because it was not desirable Florida. And she connected with him and said, "Hey, I'll sell you this plot of land for the same price I paid for it in the '70s if you'll just use it. And so we had already gone to Florida. It was sort of like our annual trip just to go somewhere warm. And my dad would do the entire drive, 28 hours straight through all by himself. But somehow we always made it. And somehow I always felt safe when he was driving. And so we ended up building a house on that plot of land together as a family in the very first summer because we would go in summers when university wasn't meeting because he was a campus minister. He and I got in this 1980 something Dodge van and I watched Star Wars on a VCR connected to the cigarette lighter. And we got down there and together he and I took axes and chainsaws and cleared this plot of land in Florida. That's just one example of road trips that became our annual family road trips, was going down to work on the house but for me my dad was... he was a really good minister. In fact, at one point his campus ministry was the largest Lutheran Campus Ministry in America and he won the award for being the best Lutheran campus pastor. You've got to be good at preaching and talking to people to do that. But my dad was also super stoic and was calm and very mild mannered. But when you'd get in the car with him, he would become so much more chatty and he would become alive in a way that he didn't in regular circumstances. And so for me, those road trips, a lot of it was a chance to get to know my dad in ways that didn't happen every day. And ultimately, what really makes road trips so powerful for me is that my first ever independent road trip I took just a few days after his funeral. And I used his car which he'd given me permission to use before he passed away. I had this trip planned already. And it just so kind of coincidentally happened that he passed away just before it started. And so I climbed into this hail battered Hyundai Elantra and it still smelled like his pipe fumes and his sunflower seeds were on the floor. And his atlas was what I used to get from A to B. For me it was this moment to leave a town that for three years had been nothing but chemo and radiations and surgeries and wondering any day is today the day that cancer takes him. And just this ability to get into the car and go to a different physical space, I think opened up healing spaces in my heart and my mind that I don't think would have happened if I hadn't gone on the road. And even at 19 I realized how special that was. And I committed to myself that every year for the rest of my life around the time of his passing, April 29th, I would take a road trip.
Shelby Stanger:
Mikah took his childhood best friend on the trip. They had such a good time that they decided to do it again the next year and the next year and the next year. Then when he finished grad school, Mikah took his road tripping to a new level. His goal was to cover over 16,000 miles around the United States. It would take 260 days. This was his first extended trip but it wasn't the record breaker. Still, it was a huge decision and it took a lot of preparation. So how did you get the wild idea to go on such a long trip?
Mikah Meyer:
The first really wild road trip that I did was right after finishing grad school. I'm super thankful to my mentors who encouraged me to do it because what I've learned is that a lot of people don't encourage us to take our wild ideas. But you're nothing until you're something and your ideas unfortunately are often the same. And so I was finishing grad school, I'd just finished my master's in classical singing from McGill University in Montreal. And most of my friends moved to either Boston or New York because those are the cities you move to to try to make it as a classical singer. And I had this itch in me and I was like, "I'm really afraid to move to Boston or New York because what if I like Salt Lake City more? And what if I'm 50 and I'm having some midlife crisis and I snap at my spouse and I say, "I would have been happy if I'd adjust gone and looked at Phoenix." And so
Shelby Stanger: Sorry, Phoenix is so random. I love it.
Mikah Meyer: You never know. And it was kind of this thought in me that... I grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. I never knew if I would even get to leave Nebraska. I religiously watched the travel channel as a kid, as my escape. And so it was a combination of that feeling of I don't just want to follow the pack just because it's what you do. And then also by the time I'd finished grad school, I'd had no money. And so I hadn't gotten to visit my family for years. And I realized that I had lots of aunts and uncles that were over the age of 70. I had cousins that had kids. And just knowing that people die over 70, and it's not a surprise, my goal was sort of two-fold. It was first to travel America and figure out the best smartest place for me to move that I had the freedom to do so. And then the other goal was to visit everyone I'd ever met who was still alive and lived in North America, every single one of my Facebook friends. Because that way, if they died, if they had an accident at 26 or whatever, I could say I got to see them one more time now that I'm an adult, or I felt like one after grad school, I don't know if I was. But it was an opportunity to see them one more time and have a shared experience in case they passed away and then I could say, you know what? I didn't miss out on that chance. And so the road trip had a bunch of meetings and I was running this by people and they were like, "You really should just go straight to New York. You saved up a little bit of money. You should take that and that's your first few months rent in New York." And then I have these two mentors that I called my Memphis dads. They were a gay couple that I had known when I was at the University of Memphis. And I ran my idea by them and they said, "This is a great idea because you're never more free in your entire life than you are right now. You don't have a house, you don't have a mortgage, you don't have a significant other, you don't have kids. You basically will never have this sort of freedom again. So if there's anything you want to do in your life now is the time to do it." And that was enough for me to do so. So I spent a summer working as much as I could to save up as much money as I could. And then in the fall of 2011, climbed back into my dad's same Hyundai Elantra that I'd taken every other road trip in, and set off for what I called my dream road trip, knowing that I just had to make it to the next summer and I had a summer job lined up. So if my money could last until June, then I could do this.
Shelby Stanger:
Okay. So you decided to go. What was the experience like for you?
Mikah Meyer:
Honestly, it was the happiest I'd ever been in my life. I still don't really know how to scientifically explain this, but I had two really mystical experiences. The first was, it was early on in the trip, I was in Watervliet, Michigan at a Taco Bell. And I came out of the Taco Bell, I had my atlas, I'd been looking at my route. And I'd always remembered my dad said, "You need to check the air pressure in your tires because a lot of people don't do that and then that's how you have issues." And also I was so frugal that I was like, "If my tire is at peak air pressure I'll get the best mileage and I can save a dollar." And I've been on the road for about a month and a half and I hadn't checked my air pressure. And I was like, "Oh shit, I really better check this." And I got through tire one, tire two, tire three and they were all perfectly air pressurized. And got to the fourth tire, and I don't even know physically, metaphysically, whatever, how to describe what happened. But I had all these questions about if I was doing the right thing or not. If I was making the right choice and still doubting myself a month and a half in. And I put that tire pressure gauge on the tire and it shot up right to exactly the perfect PSI. And in that moment, I had this warm blanket of energy feel like it came over me and enveloped to me and shot from my head to my toes and back all in the same time. It felt like it lasted 10 minutes even though I know it could only have been seconds. But in that time I felt like my dad was saying to me... I heard it, I heard my dad saying, "Mikah you're exactly where you're supposed to be, doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing." And I pulled the tire pressure off and just sort of stood there in this Taco Bell parking lot like, "Did what I think just happened, happen?" And I called my sister too. And I was like, "This thing just happened, I don't really know how to describe it, but it's the most mystical experience I've ever had in my life." And I talk about parking lot in Waterford at Michigan.
Shelby Stanger:
I think that's how it's supposed to happen. I'm writing about this right now. And that's what happens with wild ideas. I've talked to many people like you who will have a sign that comes to them when they're doing something that makes zero sense on paper, but it will only come in a language you speak. And for whatever reason, this tire pressure in a Taco Bell spoke to you. I am so stoked that that happened to you and that you told me that story because... I don't know, I believe in that. And I think that's really cool. So you didn't have a lot of funds to do this trip and you didn't have a lot of experience? Anything you've learned that you would want to pass on other people doing a road trip that became valuable?
Mikah Meyer:
The biggest thing that I learned from my trips is that grand adventures can happen inexpensively. My nine months that I lived on the road, on that first dream road trip, I did for under $8,000. Now I ate a peanut butter and banana sandwich every day
Shelby Stanger:
Best sandwich ever though, especially if you had honey.
Mikah Meyer:
Elvis agrees. Yeah. I think I paid for college on my own. I worked multiple jobs through it, I got scholarships, but my parents didn't give me a dime for school. And I think if there's one lesson I can impart, it's that you don't have to be rich to do these sorts of things. You don't have to be the epic outdoorsman. I'm a male soprano classical singer who funded my own way through college. I had many privileges. Both my parents had master's degrees so I'm not not acknowledging that. And I know everyone's situation is different. But I think even growing up, I thought like, "I'm just a middle-class kid, I can't do things like that." And so I hope that that through sharing my story, people can see what I have been able to piece together on a shoestring and a prayer and know that it's possible themselves. It might not be easy. It might not be glamorous, but if you change your mindset on what travel is and don't think of it as like, "Well, I have to stay in the nicest hotel. I have to whatever." Sleeping in your car can provide just as many magical experiences. In fact, if it's one thing that I've learned more than anything, it's that people are actually the most interesting part of any road trip, never places, and meeting people is free.
Shelby Stanger:
After Mikah's epic trip at age 25, he realized that on top of his annual road trip, he wanted to do a massive trip every five years. In fact, his next trip was so big that he broke two world records. When we come back, Mikah tells us all about it. He also talks about running across Minnesota and Mississippi, and the work he's doing to make outdoor adventuring more inclusive to LGBTQ+ communities.
Shelby Stanger:
I love listening to music while I make dinner or when I need to fully focus, which is a lot of the time. So I was stoked when Sonos sent me the new Roam portable speaker. I bought a lot of portable speakers and this one is superior to anything I've ever had. It was easy to set up with my phone and it automatically switches from Wi-Fi to Bluetooth wherever you go, so you don't have to think about your speaker, just your playlist. It even tunes itself to your surroundings. So the sound is always clear and perfectly balanced like you're in your own recording studio, which is very cool for a podcast person who loves good sound like me. Best of all, this thing is durable and waterproof. So be coming with me to the beach this summer, you can discover sound made easy @sonos.com.
Shelby Stanger:
When was the last time you went for a hike and took a second to appreciate the trail and the work that went into it. It might seem simple but things like trail maintenance ensure that our national parks will be around for generations. That's exactly why parks project was founded with Rad products that give half of the profits back to the parks. Parks project is a small business with a big mission. Whether it's planting trees in Joshua Tree, or funding the Native America Speaks campaign in Glacier, every item purchased supports vital programs within our parks. Parks project was founded by Keith Eshelman and Sevag Kazanci after a day spent volunteering in California's Santa Monica Mountains. To date they've contributed over 5,000 volunteer hours and $1.3 million to support conservation efforts, educational programs, and habitat restoration. If you ask them why, they tell you it's all about their motto, leave it better than you found it. Find more at parksproject.us or shop their product at your nearest REI or online @rei.com.
Shelby Stanger:
Five years after that 260 day trip, Mikah turned 30 and he hit the road with an even bigger goal in mind. He would travel to all of the National Park Service sites and he'd live out of a van the entire time. A cliff note here on the national park hierarchy, the federal government owns and maintains a lot of public land that isn't officially considered a national park like monuments and historic sites. The umbrella term for all of these, including national parks is service sites. There are 419 of these and Mikah traveled to every single one. It took him three years. He became both the first person to visit all the National Park Service sites on a single journey and the youngest person to visit them all. His intention was to live out the message that he learned from his dad's passing. Tell me about that decision to go to all the National Park Service sites. What was your why?
Mikah Meyer:
What I learned from traveling throughout my twenties was that most of my peers seem to think they were guaranteed to live forever or at least until 80. And as I would tell people about my experience with my dad or as we had classmates that committed suicide in their twenties or got in car wrecks or whatnot, I kept thinking like, "Surely this is enough to teach people this lesson." But it didn't really seem to be doing it. And so I sort of thought... I had already had this idea of what if I do a big epic road trip every five years, with the idea being that if I took my retirement years from age 65 to 75 and sprinkled them out every five years, so took one year off at 25, one year off at 30, one year off at 35, then by the time I turned 75, I'd have caught up to my peers who retired from age 65 to 75. And so I had already had this thought of like, "When I turn 30 I'm going to take a year off and do another epic road trip." And as I was contemplating what I would do, I realized that I could use this road trip to positively share this message, to not have it be tragedy that tried to spark this realization for other people, but to use something positive to pull in their attention. And age 28, I was like, "All right, you got two years to figure this shit out. You better start planning." And what I realized was that the one thing that everyone I know loves, whether they're the most conservative politician or the most liberal politician, whether they're rich or poor, the one thing that everybody I know loved, national parks. And my college pastor had a life goal to visit all the national parks. And I thought that was really cool. And so sort of inspired by him I thought, "Well, if everybody loves the national parks and it's a life goal to visit them all, then I can do one of my retirement goals, which would be visiting all the national parks now at age 30, in case I die before retiring. And I can do something that probably a lot of other people want to do, and I can get their attention that way and then share with them this lesson I learned from my dad's passing."
Shelby Stanger:
Okay. How did you prep for that trip? That had to have taken some serious planning.
Mikah Meyer:
That's why when I say I started at age 28, I mean it, because I spent a solid year just researching weather patterns and reading blogs about other people who had visited parks and figuring out their routes and how they did it, and what it would cost and just all this back work to look into that. And then from age 29 to 30, I basically tried to live the millennial dream. And I drove to Hershey, Pennsylvania, and I pitched every single RV brand and I said, "Do you want a photo of your RV at every national park service site?" Also the year that I turned 30, just so coincidentally happens to be the hundredth anniversary of the National Park Service, what a great way to celebrate that. And they all said, "That's a really great story. We'd definitely be interested if you had 100,000 social media followers, but you don't, so have a great life." And so I spent a year thinking I could get Subway to pay for all my food and Winnebago to put me in an RV, and all these brands to sponsor this because that's what I'd seen on YouTube and Instagram, and I thought it just sort of I Dream of Jeannie happened, which is not the case. And so I sort of begrudgingly two months before launching this journey realized nobody gave a about my journey. Nobody was going to sponsor me. And I just had to take the savings that I'd built up. I'd lived in a boarding school for four years. But by living in that boarding school I was able to save four years worth of rent. And that was enough seed money to buy a van and to start this journey, hoping I'd figure out a way to make up the rest of the money along the way.
Shelby Stanger:
What was it like living in a van?
Mikah Meyer:
Those photos that you see, I tried to take some of the back doors of the van open with the big scenic viewpoint in it and working on my computer. And it's so fake because I'm like - there's so many pictures, I feel like beautiful blonde girls in bikinis working on the beach. And I'm like, "Okay, number one, your van is probably too heavy to go onto the sand. Number two, you can't actually work on your computer with the sun out because the glare makes it impossible. Number three, how does your hair look that good? Where was the last place you showered? Because I know out in the middle of nowhere, there ain't one."
Shelby Stanger:
Wait, hold on. But there must be something about it you do like, because you keep doing it.
Mikah Meyer: It wasn't all bad. Sometimes I actually fantasize about going back to my van life just in the sense that I remember that feeling of climbing in the front seat and driving to the next park, and knowing everything I need for the next three years is in the back. And so now when I plan for trips, I'm packing, I'm like, "Oh, do I need this? What if I forgot that." And that was probably the best part of van life, is just having all of my adventure needs in storage under my bed. And being able to just get in the van and go and not have to worry about reserving a hotel ahead of time, not having to wonder about the camp sites because I could pull over and sleep in a Walmart parking lot or a hotel parking lot or the side of the road, anywhere. And so the beautiful thing about van life is it gives you flexibility and affordability in a way that very few other types of road travel could never offer.
Shelby Stanger:
When Mikah embarked on a huge trip, he wanted to share with people that life is short and that we have to live our wildest dreams now. That message resonated with people. Even though he didn't start with any sponsors, over the course of his national parks journey he picked up some support from brands. He also gained followers and traction online. Then about a year in the Mikah's trip, he got a message from a fan in the LGBTQ+ community that made him to rethink his focus.
Mikah Meyer:
I sort of purposely tried not to mention that I'm gay in our past conversations because when I do public speaking a lot of times it's a reveal, gays love a good reveal. And it's a reveal because I really see my work as a bridge builder. Well, and so whenever I share my story I always start out with the things that are the most relatable. And I don't know anyone who's going to be offended by losing somebody to cancer. I don't know anyone who's going to be offended by the national parks or by road trips. And so for me, it's really important to talk about those because I want people to connect with me and see how similar we are and see our shared humanity before they find out that I'm gay, because that might scare them off before they ever get a chance to know me. And so I ended up coming out about a year into my journey only because I heard from so many LGBTQ+ people who Googled me and found out I was gay, and then wrote me and said, "It means so much to me to see someone like me." And whether they were a park ranger or just an outdoors fan from halfway around the world. And people just said, "There's nobody out there like me and I stumbled upon you. And it makes it easier for me to be me." And so after getting a number of those messages, I didn't do anything about it until I got one from a kid who said, "I'm 15 years old. I go to a private baptist school in Texas and I'm not out of the closet to anyone. But I read about your park journey and I looked you up. And I just want to thank you because now I know when I grow up I can be ordinary." And he continues and says, "And now that I see you're setting world records, I know when I grow up I can also be extraordinary." And it was sort of this moment where everything pivoted for me and I realized because of the media attention, because of the world records, I now had a chance to be that openly gay traveler, that openly gay adventurer that I always wished I could see on the travel channel. And so as a result I started talking more about being gay, taking pictures of the rainbow flag in front of America's most iconic National Park Service sites. And it was in October of 2018, after about two and a half years of traveling that REI reached out to me and they asked if I wanted to be part of their Opt Outside campaign. And we did some research. And if you're listening to this and I'm wrong, feel free to send me a message and tell me so, but I've been sharing this since then and have not found any research to prove otherwise. But we did our own research and we figured out that it was the first time in the history of the outdoors recreation industry in America that an openly gay man was featured in an ad campaign. And I say that in the sense that outdoors culture is not viewed as being LGBTQ+ friendly. If you are an ally, if you are a welcoming person, you have the power. And so sort of realizing my own privilege of having enough Instagram followers, that brands take me seriously of having enough of a reputation because of my parks journey world record that people will listen, that I needed to do something to make the outdoors better for all these people who would share their stories with me. And so I'm inspired by the upside down pink triangle that you might've seen growing up on some of your teachers' doors. The safe space symbol is that upside down pink triangle, which basically means, I'm a safe person that you can trust talking about sexual orientation with and I won't negatively judge you. I took that design and I turned it into something that is essentially a tree that's designed out of triangles and within that tree, it's got the rainbow flag, the trans flag, the bi flag, and then a trunk made up of all different skin tone colors. And the goal of that symbol is that anyone who is not straight can see themselves in one of the flags or the triangles, and that people know that whoever they are, whatever their background is, they're represented by the symbol. And then after consulting with people from all the letters of the LGBTQ+ community, I released the symbol in July of 2020. And basically the goal of the program is asking people who are allies to wear the pin on their backpack or wear the sticker on their water bottle. And it's an easy way that somebody can help make the world more welcoming and outdoors more welcoming to queer people because none of us can solve homophobia on our own, but we can wear a pin. It's really easy.
Shelby Stanger:
Mikah's symbol is now printed on pins and stickers that are sold online and in REI stores across Minnesota. His campaign is called Outside Safe Space. When Mikah first became more vocal about LGBTQ+ representation in the outdoor industry, he lost a sponsor. But that was just a signal to him that more work needed to be done. With the launch of Outside Safe Space, Mikah is building bridges between communities and he's trying to make the outdoors a more inviting place for everyone. During the pandemic he biked across Oregon and ran across Minnesota and Mississippi to raise awareness for his cause. So let's talk about those trips. You did them during the pandemic. What were some of the highs and lows?
Mikah Meyer:
Oh man, so many. Each trip within its own was like a whole... It was an entire adventure. I remember I was just a few days into my run across Montevideo, Minnesota. And I turned to my friend that had come along with me and I said, "I'm getting some of the same adventure feels that I got when I was traveling through Europe a few years ago. I'm in random Minnesota, but I'm meeting new people, safely wearing masks. I am trying to figure out where I can shower, trying to figure out where to eat, trying to figure out what the next town is going to hold. And I'm doing this all in random rural Minnesota." Who would have thought that you could have an adventure that felt like going somewhere epic and popular in your own backyard? Which I guess is a fitting tie into my parks journey because we've all got a park service site in our own backyard. But I think the coolest parts of that run across Minnesota, that first journey in this across series, the whole purpose was to launch the Outside Safe Space. And so the Outside Safe Space didn't become this viral overnight success. It didn't get as much media coverage as I'd hoped. But I was a couple of days into the run. I had ended that day's run at a Dairy Queen, because it felt like every small town had a Dairy Queen. And so I decided to finish it there. And my support person was biking back to pick up our RV where we had parked at the beginning. And so I was waiting in the Dairy Queen and one of the employees looked at my shirt, which I had purposely just covered in Outside Safe Space symbols just to get it in the photos and get the attention for it so people would ask what it was. And she asked me what was on my shirt. And I explained to her what the symbol meant and why I was doing what I was doing. And she said, "I don't understand you all in the Twin Cities, your politics, your Black Lives Matter. You're just so different than us out here in rural Minnesota. But my daughter has special needs and whenever we go outside the house people laugh at her. When I take her to the playground, the other kids look at her weird, adults say things. So I know what it feels like to be in your position. And I know what it feels like to have people judge you for something you don't choose. I hope that people listen to your message and I hope they take you seriously." And it was this beautiful moment to realize that here's somebody who according to every pollster, every politician, I should not connect with at all. I'm a gay urban bubble resident and she's a small town Dairy Queen worker, but it made sense. And through sharing our stories, through being vulnerable about it, she got it. Again, it was just this realization that through honey not through vinegar, you catch more flies. And rather than telling people you're homophobic, you're horrible, you're a bad person, you didn't post the correct thing on social media the exact right way. That's not going to bring people to the tent. Through sharing our stories, through showing humanity to people, that's how they're going to connect with our humanity. And so with that in mind, as the run across Minnesota was finishing, I knew I wanted to keep going. And I asked my followers where the Outside Safe Space was needed the most. And the question I asked was, what's the most homophobic state in America? Because we still couldn't travel internationally with the pandemic. I needed some way to again make running interesting. And my followers voted Mississippi as the most homophobic state in America. So I got a car and I drove down along the Mississippi River to the other end of it from my downtown Minneapolis home that sits on the Mississippi River. And from February 1st through 28th, ran across the state of Mississippi. And it was a lot different than Minnesota. One of the most heartbreaking experiences was when I was in Oxford, Mississippi, and I was speaking to the local rotary club and I was giving my talk about my parks journey. And as I told you earlier, I always start out with the stuff that won't offend anyone about my dad being a pastor, and national parks and cancer. And I got to the part where I share that I'm gay and one-third of the people who were looking up at me smiling and beaming as I showed national park photos, slumped their heads down and got on their phones, didn't look at me. And I had a photographer with me from Minnesota who said, "I've never seen anything like that. They just 180'd on you." It was a tough trip. In Minnesota I think there were two dogs that chased me. In Mississippi it was two dogs per house. I had a filmmaker with me and he said, "Mikah at one point you had 12 dogs surrounding you." And he actually drove up in the vehicle to save me.
Shelby Stanger:
That must've been devastating. I can't even imagine. What advice you have for those of us who want to promote inclusivity in the outdoors? What can we all do?
Mikah Meyer:
This is going to sound maybe too simple, but just don't be a jerk. It's amazing how many people, they hear a story that's different than their own lived experience and they can't believe it. Why? Once again, you would believe Tom Brady if he told you what it's like to be an NFL quarterback, you'd believe Serena Williams if she told you what it's like to win the French Open. So why not believe a Black hiker when they tell you that people give them weird looks on the trail? Why not believe a queer adventure when they say that the people next to them in the KOA give off vibes that they really don't want you to tell them who you are. Just believe people, it's not hard. I don't know when we stopped empathizing, when we stopped assuming that our neighbor was good and was part of our community, because it just feels like we're becoming so much more polarized. And I know news pundits will say the same thing. We just seem to be so focused on what divides us. Mother nature is a great equalizer. Again, whatever political stripe you come from, whatever demographic, rural, urban, rich, poor, you pick it, we can all enjoy the outdoors. So let's be more like mother nature. Let's not judge people. Let's treat people equally.
Shelby Stanger:
Mikah has built a unique life for himself. After his dad passed away, Mikah promised himself that he would live in the now. You have to pursue your dreams because you never know what the future will hold. And hey, taking a year off every five years sounds like a pretty great plan. It's also inspiring that Mikah has used his online platform to advocate for LGBTQ+ inclusivity in the outdoors. It just goes to show you that you can make your wild idea a reality and make a difference. Mikah thanks so much for coming on this show. I loved hearing about your amazing road trips and I'm excited to see what wild ideas you come up with next. To follow along with Mikah, you can go to mikahmeyer.com, that's M-I-K A-H-M-E-Y-E-R. You can also follow him on Instagram. He has an amazing Instagram @mikahmey, M-I-K A-H-M-E-Y. Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI podcast network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, written and edited by Sylvia Thomas and produced by Chelsea Davis. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby. As always we appreciate when you follow, rate and review the show wherever you listen. And remember some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.