Talking with Strangers (bg)
“You’re not from here”
”Are you American by chance?”
We are getting a good amount of this in our encounters thus far. And to a person, everyone’s been a delight - whether Brit or visitor.
Let’s start with Karen. One of our new besties. What else would you call someone, who when asked about the location of the nearest laundromat suggests “would it be OK if I just took it home, washed it, and brought it back tomorrow morning?” Ummm, YES please! I also shuffled down early this morning before the restaurant opened in desperate need of coffee. Who was already there but Karen who hands me the bag of our freshly cleaned laundry only to follow with “would you like two cappuccinos to take back up to your room?” Karen….you and the entire Lion Inn staff rocked !!
And right after Karen came two other Lion Inn guests, senior hikers Bob(Mill Valley, CA) and Marilyn (Chicago), who were hiking in the opposite direction back to Broadway. Nice morning chit chat with them.
And then there was Michael (Scotland), and Lewis (New Zealand). We met them on our hike today and after quickly ID’ing us as Americans, wanted to talk politics. I’ll spare the details, but yeah we were on the same page. Two damn decent gents.
And then there was Jon and Louisa, who we came upon frolicking in a playground area with a couple of children. They explained that their organization works with autistic and other non verbal youngsters. He’s from Ireland and I think Louisa is from the UK. They too wanted to talk politics - to which we responded “Yeah - we’re getting a lot of that so far”. While of like minds we were all also glad to discuss the subject to travel. Jon strongly recommended the Great Atlantic Way on Ireland’s western coast. Could be the site of a future Bill and Michelle blog!
And once again, even our four legged strangers are simply looking for a little friendly “good morning”, to motivate them to get off their backsides and venture over for a little greeting. Here’s the “before” picture:
…and the “After” a friendly “good morning everyone” greeting. Thanks, Bill (and Michelle)
