We're in New York City!

Tuesday morning in Toledo (really, Sylvania) after we grocery shopped for bread and apples, a grapefruit and a mini-notebook for taking hitchhiking notes, Dan drove us out to an I-80 entrance. It was an entrance for both east and west, so we made a sign that said "EAST" and stuck out our thumbs at about 11:30am. It was a very low-traffic entrance, so after a few minutes we decided to walk a little closer to the actual turnpike and catch people coming from the other direction as well. Within minutes, a cop pulled up and very kindly told us we couldn't stand on turnpike property and hitchhike. He said if it were up to him, we were standing in a safe place and he didn't mind, but it was against the law. He directed to where we could legally stand. This was around 12:10pm.

We moved to our new spot, which seemed more promising, at least, than our original location. Here, though, we were greeted with the rudest responses to our hitchhiking that we've encountered. One youth flipped us off, another man made a crude sexual gesture, and then another person flipped us off. It was disheartening. At 1:13pm another cop stopped. He apologetically said he wouldn't normally hassle us, but Joe Biden was going to be passing near us on the turnpike, so we needed to move along. This is the first time we've been moved because we pose a security threat. Or maybe they just thought the vice-president would find us unsightly? Anyway, we ended up moving to our original location and its few cars.

It was very hot outside and when the few cars passing us kept on not stopping, we were growing a little dismayed. Then Adam came to our rescue at 2:13pm and said he could take us nearly all the way to Pennsylvania. We were with him for about two hours and learned that he repairs refrigeration units for major companies across the midwest. He is on the road a lot and said he gets tired of it, especially because he is married and has a young daughter at home. He told us about http://www.slacker.com/, a free radio website. He dropped us off just before I-80 splits with 76 at 4pm.

We spent nearly an hour at the rest stop there, fixing up sandwiches and resting. I had a horrible headache, likely from so much sun exposure and not drinking enough water, so I hydrated a lot and then we headed out to thumb. Around 6:25pm two guys stopped, but when we said we were trying to get to New York City, they said they weren't going that far, they were going to Penn State, and then they oddly and slowly drove away as we were telling them we'd be happy for any ride east.

The ways things work out while hitchhiking often seem meant to be, though, and it may have been because we need to meet Jake and Kati that those two guys drove away. Jake and Kati, on their way home from a day at an amusement park, picked us up at 7:22pm. They weren't going far, they said, only about 60 miles. To us, 60 miles is a decently long ride, so were quite happy. Plus, they were close to our age and seemed really interested in our trip, and were very interesting people themselves. Jake is a parks manager and gave us his card so we could contact him if we got into any problem at a Pennsylvania state park. Kati recently finished her degree in education and they'd been out celebrating that she had just gotten a teaching job.

They dropped us off in Barkeyville, PA, apologizing that it wouldn't be helpful to us for them to host us for the night because they lived another 30 miles or so off of I-80. We thought we might try to get one more ride after eating dinner at an all-you-can-eat diner there, but we were happy to pitch our tent if need be. After seating ourselves in the diner, though, we got a call from Jake offering to host us for the night, and promising that he and Kati could drive us back out to I-80 in the morning. We happily accepted and bought Subway sandwiches while waiting for them to return.

They made us feel so comfortable at their place, treating us like good friends, sharing wine that night and making breakfast for us the next morning. Our second night on the road, and we had another bed to sleep in. The kindness of strangers keeps astounding me and reaffirming my trust in people. We had a great time getting to know Jake and Kati and learning about their lives. And I think they enjoyed learning about ours.

The next day they took us back to Barkeyville at 12:30pm and after asking one trucker to no avail, we walked over the I-80 east entrance and stuck out our thumbs. At first, we weren't right by the entrance, so one kind woman stopped but wasn't heading onto I-80. After that we moved closer to the entrance so people wouldn't be confused about where we wanted to go. At 12:38, a trucker was getting on and seemed to be passing us, so we waved good bye. Lo and behold, he then slowed down and stopped for us!

Van, the 32 year old trucker, was heading to Waterbury, Connecticut, which is only 87 miles from New York City. He was happy to take us all the way there, or drop us off earlier, as we wished. We talked books and movies with him, and he invited us to come and play X-box with him if we ever pass his way again. I hope we do, because I think it would be really fun to play Rock Band with him. We asked him to drop us in Danbury so we could go to New Canaan for Mike Chmiel's show (Mike was a teacher and administrator at First Stage Milwaukee when I went there). The earliest train from Danbury to New Canaan didn't leave until 8:59pm, though, so we'd never have made it. From Danbury we took the train to New York City. By this time it was about 7:30pm or so. We'd spent the whole day with Van enjoying the scenery of Pennsylvania.

At the train station in Danbury while waiting for the train to arrive, we met a friendly, most thoughtful cop named David. He is from New York, and told us we've got to go to McSorley's, the oldest bar in the US. There's more I could tell you about David - his politics and his attitude towards the world were refreshingly down-to-earth, and he had interesting things to say about the history of Danbury and interesting stories to tell about his life as a cop, a carpenter and a human being. And I've got to tell you what we've done in New York so far, but I'm nearly out of time on this computer in the Rose Reading Room at the New York Public Library, and I still have to print our itinerary to Germany. So long, then, and sorry for any typos.