Marilyn Puts on Her Backpack

I'd made my way to the northeast, now awaiting Marilyn's arrival to kick off our summer adventure together. We planned on hitching all over North America for a few months before she had to return to her work in Indiana. In the meantime there were some family and friends I wanted to catch up with in the area, including a wedding I was going to in Boston.

I'd just been hitchhiking with Rebecca, our last ride together coming from a truck diver that dropped me off in southwest Connecticut and her further up to New Haven in the middle of the night. I'd spend a few days at my mom's place, then a couple more at my dad's just over the border in New York.

Soon I hopped on the train down to the city, spending the night catching up with some good friends. An easy morning, then a subway ride into Manhattan from where I was staying in Queens. I wandered about taking in the city until at last heading to 34th street where Marilyn appeared out of the crowd, backpack on and ready for adventure.

I'd met her a year prior, we were both staying with a girl from couchsurfing in Louisville, Kentucky for the night by chance. I'd been hitchhiking from west coast to east coast and landed there that evening after a long ride, she was staying there as a halfway point between her home in Indiana and Nashville where she was going to see her sister. After a night of laughs and conversation she dropped me off on the freeway, saying I should drop into her Bloomington home if I was ever nearby. A month or so later I was heading back west and made a point of dropping in on her. We hit it off and then throughout the next many months we made a point of crossing paths again in Indiana, California and even New Mexico. Eventually she made the decision to get some time off work, a three month leave of absence, and then travel together full time. This was the start.

We spent a few days there in the city catching up with various friends, sampling brews and showing her some sights she wanted to see. We headed up to my dad's house for a day, then back over to Connecticut to my mom's for another, then it was time to head up to Boston.

Marilyn and I drove up with my brother to the hotel in Boston. Soon enough we hopped on the shuttle and arrived to the spot where my cousin was getting married. The ceremony went by quickly and I was happy to catch up with him and some other family I hadn't seen in a good while. We ate well, drank well and danced through the night.

A hungover morning arrived, my brother took off in the thick of it to head back to Connecticut, Marilyn and I slept in as much as possible. Eventually we had to get up, we dragged ourselves out of the hotel and on to the streets of Boston. We wandered a bit and then met up with of Marilyn's friends in town so they could catch up a bit. Shortly after it was time to get moving, we'd gotten a bus ticket up to Portland, Maine where we'd truly start our adventure, out in the open, ready for whatever.

May 28, 2013 to June 9, 2013