Seeking An Extraordinary Life

A good night's sleep, and first thing I packed up my gear and went looking for net access before my Servas visit tonight. I decided to walk up from Maryland to the public library, which turned out to be a long hot stroll of over an hour. Halfway there I stopped to sit on a shady wall and enjoy one of the best burgers of my life from the stall of the friendly and quirky Mr Mike, who, when he found out I was from England, insisted on giving me a free Dr Pepper and that I try the Canadian delicacy Squeeze Cheese; "The England-Man must try the Squeeze Cheese!"

Fortified, I carried on to the library where I found internet access but no facility to upload my photos. Before leaving again to find a net cafe (I wasn't sure how much time I had or I would have updated the blog at least, a choice I later regretted), I ran into a fellow hitcher from the US, Frank, who was on a limited visa (due to lack of funds) and visiting Canada in his school holidays. A veteran hitch-hiker, Frank had a wealth of great and fairly disturbing hitching stories, including being stabbed in a bar in Mexico after trying out a Spanish "pickup line" his friend had told him - the girl's boyfriend had been violently unamused, and Frank never found out what he'd said to her.

After a fruitless search of the area for an internet cafe I was sweltering, and I collapsed in a Second Cup cafe for a strawberry lemonade smoothie (the best possible thing on a hot day) and to wait for time to get a bus to my hosts. When I arrived in their house on a beautiful TV-perfect leafy suburban street the Kirby family made me enormously welcome, treated me to a delicious meal of bison burgers and fresh salad (mostly from their own vegetable garden), a long evening of great conversation (and vicarious Nintendo with their two sons), and a comfortable bed in their cool basement.