wayfaringwordhack | Cruising down the highway

Julien and I are on the Dartmouth Coach, leaving

rabiagale and her lovely, welcoming family behind and heading toward Boston where we will spend the day. (No, photo with her,

navicat. Sorry. Just kididing; only it's on her camera.)

NYC went by in a blur of subway rides and long, long walks to check out, among other things, the New York graffiti scene, East Village, tattoo shops, the Brooklyn Bridge,

musicians in parks, the American Museum of Natural History, where we met up with

mindseas.

The visit with her was enjoyable, my scatterbrainedness was not. I left a $4400 camera and lens in the ladies room and only realized it once I was on the other side of the musem. Needless to say that was a black moment, and my heart was racing faster than my feet as I fled back to the restroom, only to find the camera gone. Naturally. Still, in a shaking voice, clutching m shaking hands, I asked if anyone had seen it. Blank stares and denials all around. Except for a security guard. One of her colleagues had found it and taken it to the main desk!

After showing ID and answering some questions, it was restored to me. The lady, Johanna, who found it wouldn't (couldn't) accept a reward, but I so dearly wanted to give her one. I'm going to write a commendation for her to let the museum know how wonderful and honest she was. She says she was just doing her job, but I know for a fact that not everyone would have done the same.

So, mille fois merci, Johanna!

In Vermont, the weather was not very cooperative (the best weather is the day we leave, and the road to Boston is filled with beautiful sights I'd like to photograph), but the foliage was still gorgeous and Rabia's home and family so welcoming that going up to see them and pick apples and go walking in the autumnal woods made the trip up worth it.