 "Photo: Kosuke Koiwai")
He’s seen most of the United States from his driver’s seat window – attempted hijackings in Houston, shootouts in Chicago and a little sightseeing in between.
Gaylen Leick, a wanderer with a penchant for storytelling, needs about $1,000 to get his blue pickup working again. Then he can skedaddle out of Lincoln and onto another adventure.
Leick has lived in his pickup for a few years; he’s what most people would call homeless. He’s never had a place to call home besides the road.
Leick grew up around Columbus and went to school in Humphrey. Growing up, he spent a lot of time drag racing cars, avoiding getting beaten up when he won.
These days Leick spends his time at the Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach, 1911 R St., when he’s not working maintenance at the Clyde Malone Community Center, 2032 U St.
“Just got that job around Thanksgiving,” Leick said. “Working half days. Fixing bulbs, sweeping floors.”
After work, he heads over to Matt Talbot, where he helps out by scooping snow and tidying up.
Sometimes he enjoys Matt Talbot’s food, but not all the time.
“All pretty decent meals, most of the time,” Leick said. “If I can’t eat something, I just wait until the next meal.”
Occasionally, he goes on foot to the Burger King on O Street. He’d take his pickup, but it’s still busted.
Leick said he called Southeast Community College to see if students could fix his pickup, and the college accepted. They’re going to “experiment” with it, he said.
“If I had a place to work on it, I could do it,” he said.
Before Leick bought his pickup, he was a truck driver, hauling other people’s wares all around the country. Three years ago, he almost got hijacked at a Houston truck stop over his load of beer, he said.
A few individuals went to the back of the truck and tried to take his beer, he said. After Leick yelled for help, a new buddy came and shooed the troublemakers away.
It was a good thing Leick fixed the guy’s Harley earlier that day, he said. Or else he probably would have gotten knocked on the head and his load of beer would have been stolen.
Leick’s experiences on the road continued in Chicago, where he witnessed a shootout a few years back, he said.
“There was a bank holdup, and I was delivering in that area, and I got caught with a load of explosive paint,” he said.
One bullet in the right place and he would have been blown sky high, Leick said.
Leick had to quit trucking because of an eye injury, and his vision hasn’t been the same since. He had a surgery to fix it, but it’s still not the greatest, he said.
“Sometimes I can see real good,” he said. “Other times I can’t.”
He got out of the trucking business alive, unlike one of his good pals who met his end in Pennsylvania, he said.
The man was on his last shipment before he planned to retire when “somebody drove by and shot him,” Leick said. “They just drove by and shot him.”
Leick wouldn’t mind getting back to trucking, but he’s waiting for that problem eye to get better – and he’s making a little money in the process.
“He’s a good one,” said Sarah Fentress, an outreach coordinator for Matt Talbot. “He’s a good egg.”
She said Matt Talbot is helping find him an apartment this month, and the kitchen has a caseworker helping him make a list of goals he can accomplish.
Leick doesn’t know where he’s going to be in 10 years. He said he could retire right now and collect disability, but he doesn’t want to do that.
The important thing, Leick said, is he works for his money. He doesn’t panhandle or take handouts.
He’s just motivated to get his 10-year-old truck running again, and he’s still got that vagabond spirit left in him.
“I made enough money so I can stay on my own,” Leick said. “That’s what I work for. Fix my pickup and go back on the road.”
