As promised in a recent post I want to tell you Faulker's story about the kindness of Americans. He is a Norwegian travelling the Trans America Trail by himself.
Outside of Portland on one of it's typical rainy days he was setting up his tent in what he described as a sketchy area. His tent pole broke and duct tape did not work for the repair, so he headed off to find a hardware store. The first store was a bust but arriving at his second store he was told by the owner to follow him down a certain aisle and he was given a pipe that was the perfect diameter but needed to be cut to length. The owner said, "no problem" and directed him to a pipe cutting machine where Faulkner made his cut. Standing by was the owner's daughter with whom Faulkner shared his concerns about the area and she gave him three possible accomodation options to consider. Upon doing his due dilligence he was not satisfied and headed back to the hardware store in the late afternoon. The daughter was nowhere to be found but the owner was. Faulkner shared his story with him and he walked out from behind the counter and said, "follow me." They ended up at a key cutting machine where the owner made him a key for the store and told him he could spend the night and leave the key under the mat or keep it. Faulker showed me the key with a smile of someone who had just won the lottery. What a souvenir and a testimony to the kindness of this country. Both Sarah and I have been reminded every day that we are so fortunate to live in the United States. Loving your neighbor as yourself still seems to be alive at least in the countryside we have visited so far.