Greetings from Antioch College,

We're here in Yellow Springs currently living on the good graces of the people at Antioch. They've put us up in a dorm and fed us an enjoyable meal with live entertainment (akido demonstration) during dinner! After having to cook our own meals everyday, and clean utensils with our own saliva, it is good to be catered to in this manner. The people here are strange, but very friendly and amusing. At our own risk, we are considering spending Halloween here. As one student put it, "You can stay here for weeks, they won't mind," although we need to escape before the snow flies.

So far, our method of travel has proven to be a disillusioning experience. People told us all sorts of scary stories about hitch-hikers being eaten alive by various well-disguised psycho criminals and getting cornened by lonely sexually deprived hominids. But rather to the contrary, we've found that people are extremely kind and have gone out of their way to help us get where we need to go. Here's a list of our benefactors up to this point.

1) Miesville to LaCrosse

Ex-cop, Aerial Photographer, Life Insurance Salesman... A very nice guy, but small car.

2) LaCrosse to Madison

Two green-eyed girls going to a Dave Matthews concert. Named Amanda and Jamie

3) Madison to Beloit, WI

Livestock Tracking System Salesman (don't ask.) Nice, big minivan. *yeah*

4) Beloit to Niles, IL

A man named Ray, hauled auto glass. Oh, what can we say about Ray? He was nice, but perhaps a little neotenic (had quite a difficult time grasping directions). Anyway....

4.1) Niles to Evanston, IL

'da bus. Driver gave us kleenex; he had lotsa soul. Seriously.

4.2) Evanston to Chicago

Metra. Dimly lit and shakey.

4.3) Chicago station to ET train station.

Our own four feet, collectively. Met a vegetarian bum who refused our offer of pita bread in place of change. Said he wanted fish??

4.4) ET train station to Gary, IN

Despite animated warnings of certain death; "It's night out, I wouldn't even go there in the day!", we parted ways with our worried conductor and concerned mothers and entered Gary, like an acrophobic opening an unmarked door on the 61st floor of a skyscraper.

5) Gary to Medaryville, IN

After roaming Gary a bit, and seeing one too many burnt-out stores, we declined the 20 dollar bus fare to Indianapolis and started walking down I90/80. Got picked up by a born-again Christian trucker in on of those car/truck things with a NRA sticker in the back window.

6) Medaryville to some rock quarry on hwy 421

DNR trucker.

7) Rock quarry to Lafayette, IN

Guy working in the livestock feed industry.

8) Lafayette to Flying J, Indianapolis, IN

Big '85 Ford semi driven by Julie, aka Yummy (her CB handle). We were the first hitchhikers she'd ever picked up. Called around on the CB to get us a ride east on I70, but all she received were lewd remarks.

9) Flying J to E I70, outskirts of Indianapolis

Two good ol' boys in a rusted out chevy pickup that burned oil.

10) I70 to Yellow Springs

Waited until night at an on-ramp for a ride with our sign for Dayton, but noone was willing to give two Goliards a ride. Frustrated, we ate. Hiked east on I70 for over 4 miles. Counted the number of footsteps in a mile: 2079. Fatigued, we resolved ourselves to camp at the next exit, named promisingly Mount Comfort. We never made it; instead we were picked up by Oren Browning, the serendipitous spirit of good fortune. About him, there is more to say than we have space for here. Suffice it to say he brought us within a stone's throw of our destination, providing nearly a story a mile and wisdom like fruit roll-ups for us to chew on.

10.1) Yellow Springs to some clearing in the woods

Thanks go out to the County Sheriff K9 unit, and Yellow Springs City Police for sneaking us into an off-limits clearing in the Glen Helen park reserve.

Note: Our strange numbering system is based on how many rides we got while actually hitchhiking. If you don't understand, we still love you.

Moving forwards, sideways, sometimes backwards, but still moving. Your friends en route,

- Goldie and Pedro.

[Continued....]

Back to Wanderlust