bob

on my way up highway 1, i noticed a hitchhiker walking on the shoulder.  as i passed by i considered weather to pick him up.  i turned around and tossed a few things from the passenger seat to the rear.  when i got back to the man, he was seated on his few belongings.  i beeped at him and pulled over.

as we shook hands bob told me his name and hoped in.  i asked him where he was going and he said lubec.  perfect, that's at least how far i was planning on going too.  we chatted and laughed as we shared conversation.  

we noticed a cool model railroad that was on someone's property, slowing just enough to glance at it as we passed.  then we came to a divide in the highway where taking route 1A was an option.  we decided to go on 1A to get the more scenic route, then it connected again with route 1.  then we passed... another? model train settup...   wait, that's the same one!  oops, we had taken a 15 minute loop on 1A that happened to be going south instead of north.  oh well.    having seen the train the second time, we decided to pull over for a closer look.  my next post will describe what we did while we were there.

anyway, bob and i got back in the van to continue north.  bob offered to buy me a coffee, which i accepted.  we sipped away and enjoyed chatting all the way to lubec. 

very curious about his lifestyle, i asked him about what he ate and where he slept and other things like that.  he'd hitched hiked all over the us with in the previous 30 years.  in the recent weeks he had walked most of the way from massachusetts only finding a couple of short rides.   he just sleeps against trees when he's tired.  so simple.  he often just eats various plants and herbs that he finds.  so natural.

i pulled over within feet of the canadian border and let him continue his journey.  his plan was to walk all the way down the coast of maine, new hampshire, to plymouth massachusetts.