After we last spoke I got a ride to Portland, ME. from a woman who worked in the motel I was staying at in Rangeley. That's a 120 mile trip, 240 for her, and she did it for gas money. Again I'm humbled by how much help and support the locals give to the nutters that pass through their towns.
From Portland I went to Boston by Amtrak. I paid the 8 dollars for the Business Class upgrade because I needed power and WiFi to setup somewhere to sleep in Boston. As it turns out Business Class gets you a nice chair, a news paper and a coke. Everyone gets power and Wifi. You live and learn.
Boston was fun. It's a great city that, for an Irish guy, I've spent a very small amount of time in.
While catching up with the citizens of Boston that knew my name, I drank a lot of coffe, some beer and went for a run around the bridges near Cambridge. In sunshine, running in parks along the water with the sailboats shimmering in the breeze, that run would be a reason to live in Boston. I did 7 miles and stopped because I ran out of time, not breath. It turns out that hiking professionally for a few months does wonders for your cardio.
When notice of the evacuation orders for NY reached me I got on a bus to NY, reasoning you can't evacuate if you're already outside the city.
The hurricane was very quiet where I was in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. A walk around the following morning showed a couple of downed trees, but little in the way of disruption or property damage. Most of the devastation seems to have been emotional. Brooklynites, reduced to making their own brunch, gathering around the last mimosa for warmth. I shed a tear.
That makes a hurricane and an earthquake I've slept through this week. But when you say 'Tiarnan, the earthquake was at two in the afternoon', I say to you, 'I'm just that good'.
More seriously on the hurricane, I still have friends on the trail hiking through all this, my thoughts are with them, and I wish them well.
As I was walking around Brooklyn I heard my name being called, looked up and it was a friend from the trail. Walking around a city of nine million people you're bound to meet someone you know, right? This happens to other people? Right? Anyway, he joined the lovely people I'm staying with for breakfast and he and I excitedly failed at inclusive conversation. It was fantastic to see him, a reminder of the trail and a reminder that the friends I made there will continue to be friends after the hiking stops.
Now for my next adventure. So far this year I've crossed the US by plane, train, and on foot. Clearly there's one missing and it's the most American of them all. Automobile! (Those of you that answered 'Kite Surfing', I like where your head's at, but no.)
While in Boston I was spotted by a New York friend who was working there for the summer. (He spotted me using the map on my blog making it cool, but not as cool as the random street walkup.) After a pint it turned out that he's to get his car back to Texas and my plan for this week was 'Do something cool'. So I'm driving to Texas.
How far away can it possibly be? You can walk across this country you know.
Finally, as there will be fewer tales of the great outdoors, I suspect I'll loose a couple of the readers that were here for that. Thanks for reading along, and I hope you get your fix somewhere else.
Talk soon.
T.
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