The girls were there, five in all, Giggling, snarking, being 13 The house was set, the games were planned All was well in birthday-land.

Johanna didn’t know who he was. But he joined them at the park one day about a week after her tenth birthday.

Suddenly, without much ceremony, in Sept. 1983, Cindy packed Johanna up and drove her to Dan and Brenda’s house...and left her there.

By the time I ran out of gas on the side of the highway in the Ontario mountains...according to google maps there was no gas for 40 miles...

Johanna was in heaven, and in hell. They went up the Empire State Building, all the way to the top, “Just like in 'that movie!'"

“Hey, it’s the truck that plays music!” Johanna cried.

Traveling solo on a journey like this is both exhilarating and daunting.

I thought my body was stronger than it was, literally. I went to stand on the bench...& failing, flailing, to the sodden concrete ground...

Almost 50 years exactly, I left my cozy home & set out in my dad's hitchhiking footsteps from Seattle to Nova Scotia. In December.