Post 6: Fredericksburg - Richmond - Williamsburg

I only wanted to do 1 more thing in DC: party!! :) so on Saturday during the day I started asking some girls what the hotpots were in the city. After asking 3 this very simpel question I ended up with a phone number, an invite and a phrase: Sorry I already have a boyfriend! :p haha! Eventually I had some addresses/streets and decided just to go. Along he walk I saw some girls sitting outside on a terrace and I asked them a bit nervously whether it would OK to join.. haha..  and they said yes.. apparently Americans love European accents. I can assure you they do since they took me from the one place into the other all around the city. Awesome! :)

Left DC with a great feeling and had found a host in Fredericksburg. She was a 63 year old woman (Danielle) who first declined my request but eventually felt too guilty and took me in anyway :p haha! God bless she did that! What an unbelievably wise human being! She told me so many stories about the travels she made, the things she has been thru,... very special.. In the end she took me for dinner cause she had earned a coupon of $100 which she wanted to share with me. So a 100 dollar dinner it was (picture on FB) with even better stories. She showed me around to the most beautiful places (river with rocks) I must admit, I felt a little sad to leave :).

Richmond was my next stop. The rides are getting a bit harder since my shoulders are tired of carrying my bag. Stopping every 2 hours to relax a few minutes was the best idea I've had since I initiated his trip :p. BUT the views! Oh god just wauw! Too bad I was not able to take more pictures since the nice places are between a hill and a downhill, and believe me you do not want to stop on a one - gear bike before climbing a hill! :p Anyway Richmond had let me down a little bit.. it's the capital of Virginia  (pretty big) but I had higher hopes. It wasn't like people had discribed it as this most amazing city that I would get to say. Which was the case in my next stop: Williamsburg

Here a Bulgarian girl accepted my invite on couchsurfing and told me to meet her at the restaurant where she cooks. So I did, she gave me her keys so I could drop off my bags and walk around a little bit.. hahaha! OOH God! :p as I had gotten to the car, I opened the trunk, picked some new clothes out of my bag and decided to change on the backseat of the car. Closed the trunk and there I was on the sight of the road with my pants in my hand completely locked out of the car! :D haha!  Forgot to take the keys and couldn't open any doors.. so no wallet --> money, ID,... just my phone and pants.. haha! Called this girl again, met her at the restaurant where she bought me a burger (since I didn't have any money) and ended up talking to Graham (71 year old eating his burger and sitting right next to me).

Now Graham is the a game changer on this trip. He is moving to Naples (170 km from Miami) on Tuesday and is willing to give me a ride. He is willing to stop in a few places so that I don't miss the pretty towns and ride me all the way up to his place. I am planning on taking his proposal and start continuing my trip as from there. The direction: I have no idea. Or I go to the West or I go further down and do all the Islands of the Caribbean.. BUT I will have to leave my bike in Williamsburg and so my travels will continue on foot. This desicion was not easy but I get to see more places in the States and I am sure that this opportunity was meant to happen. I do not have to pay him for the ride nor any accommodation, so my initial plan is still intact. I will arrive in Miami next week without paying for transportation or accommodation. I wish I could inform you with my plan on where to go next. But only time will be give me that answer. :)

This is a very strange feeling, although I never really had a full plan just a destination, yet now my destination is unknown. How I will get back to Miami will again only time be the answer. I trust myself and have complete faith that something/someone will cross my path to give me that answer/solution while I again traveling to: nowhere :).

Thank you all so much for your support until now. This trip is definitely not over yet so wish me luck with a smile :)

Greetings,
Lenn

Post 5: Baltimore - DC

Philly was kind of the real big start. From hereon of my biking/hiking trip really stared. I sold my ticket to the first lady I offert it to and started my long ride to a  host I found in Newark (between Philadelphia and Baltimore). She was Belgian and was very exited to host me. As was I since our county is already rediculously small and still I bumped into to another Belgian.

It was very clear to me why she moved to this enormous property (4 soccer fields big in size) 15 years ago. It was "cheap" ( 300 k), absolutely beautiful, nice and quiet.. A place to come to peace. She lives there with an American 26 year old guy that could be the twin brother of Chris McCandless (Into the wild). Both for the looks as well as for his personality. Together they want to start a commune, have a sustainable garden farm and some animals.

Anyways these nice people hosted me for 3 nights, showed me around and gave me a small job where I made 30 dollars just for 2 hours of work. Also did "Chris" taught me how to dumpster dive. So there  we went to a supermarket at night and just opened their dumpster. INCREDIBLE how much food they throw away. We found 40 energy bars of Kellogs, 10 cases of tomatoes, lots of other vegetables that were not bad at all, sealed popcornbags and so on.. Crazy!  We had free food for a week! You would have paid at least over 100 euros for these groceries this supermarket threw away just like that.

A bag full of bars, a new bike (I traded with them for my old one) with a wooden basket attached to the front of my bike,  very big and better tires and a lot of wisedom from "Chris" was the result of staying with them. Thanks again guys! ;)

Further down to Baltimore (the city everyone I talked to feared as hell) was not so bad at all.. I felt safer here then in Philly to be honest. Sure you've got areas but just don't be stupid :) don't go out at 2 in the morning going for a nice bike ride, I mean to me that is just comon sense right? In Baltimore I stayed 1 night on the  couch of a few college students. I can confirm, any movie you have ever seen about college and what happens in their houses is very much reality :p haha! No details, feel free to use your imagination ;)

The trip to DC was hell! Newark - Baltimore was 108 km (in 6th gear since I only have 1 gear) and Baltimore - DC 77 km the next day, I must admit it was tough. 1 suggestion: go to Pizzahut 30-45 min after the buffet is closed and ask for a pizza of 5 dollars. In my case the manager just let me eat the rest of the pizzas on the buffet for free! Haha damn was I a happy man! Anyway I made it to DC and stayed (currently still am) with a friend of Jordyn's (NY host). That guy is Sheldon! :D I swear to God it's his brother :p haha! As in the series 'The big bang theory' they play this game Dungeons and Dragons. Well he goes out to play it with his friends :p he even is the dungeon master! Haha so funny.. He has an enormous collection of comic books, fantasy games on his Xbox and Wii and he goes to a shop to play board games. But don't get me wrong, he is a very nice guy with a heart of gold. I am not trying to make fun of him, but you must admit it is a bit funny..

I will be staying in DC until Sunday. Plenty of stuff to do here so I decided to be a tourist and go visit museums. Haha! Oh god did I make a fool out of myself. For starters, everyone was wearing shorts while I was wearing pants (I was sweating like a pig) on the first day. The second day I was wearing shorts while everyone was wearing pants and man that wind was cold :p. Guess my weather app wasn't really working with me. As if this was not enough I tried something new and went into an art museum. Nothing really fancy but than I saw this really nice object on the wall. I was looking for the name of the designer and had almost asked a guide. Hahaha until I realised it was not part of the art :D it was the stupid heating system!!! Hahahahaha thank God I didn't ask..

Ok guys wish me luck with a smile, next stops are Fredericksburg and Richmond.

Talk to you soon!

Greets,
Lenn

Post 4: Philadelphia

Cause one of my great friends asked me today about the next post (which gave me an absolute boost to keep on going), here you go man ;)

When I was about to leave NY, Jordyn was persistent on buying me a ticket to Philadelphia. He said it was way to dangerous to go there on foot and with the hurricane coming, he literally said: you are not gonna die on my watch. So he bought me a ticket to Philadelphia and ask me what my next location was. I replied DC.. He immediately bought me a second ticket to DC since it was even more dangerous to pass thru Delaware on foot he explained.. I wouldn't have expected this when I started this trip. Really nice!

So I took the bus to Philly. Upon my arrival I already had found a couchsurfing address (Norristown) that was 28km on foot from the city. So I knew what to do.. I must admit that Philadelphia is actually a really nice city..  with nice big buildings and a huge hospital.. that was pretty noticeable since you see one white coat after the other.. :)

Eventually I found a grocery that was kinda like an Exki. All organic BUT really cheap (in contrary to exki :p). I bought some pitta bread for 2 dollars that could still my hunger for the next two days or so plus some cream cheese with leek. DISGUSTING!! But I was hungry so no other option but eat it all up..

Of the record, I am sitting in a McDonald's in the city while I am writing this and a guy just came to me and offered me a pizza.. Wauw! Instead of giving people burgers, now I am the one who gets to experience the other side of the deal. Guess 'you get back what you give' is really in place here. Awesome!!

Anyway, on my way to Norristown I crossed a really bad neighbourhood.. it started off from one street into the other which was a bit weird cause all of sudden the nice buildings and houses were gone.. replaced by old and left alone stone made things. You can't even call it buildings cause the only things left were walls.. I felt my stomach getting worse and worse while I was walking.. just a strange feeling. But I had to pass thru. I was walking for an hour and it only kept on getting wurse.. it was what we Belgians would call a getto (as it is not really since there are even worse places).. I also asked to some people if it was getting any  better the further I walked, but it seemed that they were all stuck in time and just wondering around without realizing a thing of what they are really doing.. not easy to discribe so I'm trying my best here :p.

Every time I saw a cop car I tried to hichehike but even they wouldn't stop.. Mom I don't want to scare you here ok, just trying to explain what I saw ;). After an hour of walking I was past the bad nabourhood. The same way as I entered, all of a sudden the houses were pretty again.. so so so weird.. BUT a must see I would say.. A lot of people would finally open there eyes and realise in what kind of luxury we are ALL living in.

After a 6 hour walk I finally arrived in Norristown. I tried ringing the door but nobody was there... I rang the neighbour' bell to ask whether she had some more contact info or maybe call them to see where they were.. Again a stunning exemple of how you welcome people you don't even know. You offert me tea and a blanked, and to be honest with you I STANK LIKE HELL! So she probably had to wash that one after :p.

Withing the next 30 minutes the people got home and I have to say I was a bit suprised. Really cool and funky veggie people, with an extremely warm hart. I could do whatever I wanted. They had a shared fridge with all kinds of vegetables they had harvested themselves in there big garden farm. Also beer and other food was in the fridge, I could take and eat whatever I wanted. Or I could go take it myself in the garden. Incredible! I don't know a lot of people willing to do that
Notting but good words come to mind when it comes to discribing them. Just Wauw.  I told this guy named Tom (husband of one of the housemates) that I might work along the road. He just said, you're hired. Hahaha. I'm like, what? :p yeah you can earn some money tomorrow, I got a small job for you... so the next day I helped moving a guy out for 3 hours and made 60 dollars.. unbelievable..

It just kept on going better and better
I helped out on there farm, which was the least I could do in my opinion, and you could just feel how much they appriciated it.. Also did Tom trust me enough to let me help him out in his house he's rebuilding. I really don't know the name of what I was doing, not even in dutch, but I was kinda fixing he wall with cement. As a way of saying thanks for helping him out he took his wife and me to this awesome Mexican restaurant. The food reminded me so much of Guatemala. God that vacation back then gave me such great memories..

As if this was not enough Tom took me for breakfast the next morning too.. it just kept on surprising me how kind all of these people are.. than while I was preparing myself to go, they gave me a bike. :O just like that.. here you go, take this bike it will make your life easier.. besides the bike, Caleb (the house owner) offert me his camping stove which I have to send him by post when I'm done using it. Crazy how much trust these people have no? Ok I hear you thinking, it's a stupid stove, but really that's not the point... ;). The only thing missing was a chain to lock my bike with. So they gave me an address to go buy one. I asked the owner how much it costed and he replied 12 dollars. Hmm, as I explained him what my plans were I asked him if there would be a way of earning that chain instead of paying for it. He talked to the manager and after an hour of wiping the floor he gave me the lock.. haha so cool!

So new plan right? Tomorrow  I'll sell my busticket and start my cycling tour down to Miami :). Again thank you so much Tom, Caleb, Anja and Amie for your exquisite hospitality and your advise and tips for the rest of trip. it helped me a lot to get a little more secure and gave me strenght to just keep on going and stay really positive ;)

Talk to you all soon!

Greets,
Lenn

Post 3: NY

First stop: New York!

As I arrived at the Airport I met up with Jordyn (my host). We where heading all the way up north to the bronx which is about a 2 hour drive in total using public transportation.

During this long trip to his place we were discussing what I could be visiting, his experiences and so on.. Really cool since he was the one who kept on suggesting a bunch of places to visit..

So Thursday I started my day at 9 going to central park. First thing I see is a Wafels and dinges truck selling Belgian stuff.. I remembered this truck from a TV show my ante and I watched when I was in Guatemala. So I went and asked: Hey man, so cool to see a Belgian selling waffles and so.. (in dutch) he looks at me like what is this idiot trying to proof.. so I switched to Inglish and asked if he was the owner :p. To which he kindly replied: dude, if I would be the owner of a thing like this would you honestly think I would be selling this myself. Plus don't I look black to you, next time I suggest you use your brain before insulting me in a rediculous language that sounds like you're choking when you speak it, OK?
Euhm sure man :p

After this friendly conversation I had with this even more friendly guy, I walked around at central park. Just beautiful!! The smell when entering is just perfectly what I imagined it would be.. generally the smell of NY is a perfect match of what I thought it would smell like.

After central park I followed the plan Jordyn wrote down for me with the directions of how to get to certain places on foot.. just gigantic is what I would call it. Everything is just huge.. The weather was terrible but it didn't stop me from doing everything on foot. I just needed to see everything and everyone, inhale the air of the city ad enjoy every single second of it. And I did :) until I arrived at Times Square..

IT WAS CRAZY! You just don't know where to look first, there is so much going on at the same time that you just need to stop walking and look around for a while. Then I saw stairs so I thought it might be better to sit over there instead of blocking the road (explains the police officer horning and screaming at me for a few seconds :p) but I just didn't care. Sat down and let it all come to me. Sucked it in and couldn't stop for the following 2 hours...

Now as I was sitting on the stairs this girl comes towards me with a go pro. She ask kindly, hey man would you be interested in being in my commercial? I was like: what?? :p so yeah there I was with 20 other people on those stairs in a commercial that was going to pop up the next day on one of the boards at times square. Crazy!

My first time in the States, in NY very first day and I already had a very friendly conversation with a waffle guy, got yelled at by a cop and was part of a commercial that was about to be played on one of the boards of Time Square.. as if it was not enough I had to get used to the typical behaviour and so Jordyn kept on laughing cause I was being too polite.. exemple: we went to buy stuff to eat, wishing the cashier a good day, she replied and yelled: NEXT.. Hahaha!

So yeah good start of the trip! :)

Talk to you soon!

Greets,
Lenn