9 days ago, I left Richmond. Well, to be more accurate, was trying to leaving Richmond, but couldn’t catch a ride.

It took all day for my Macbook computer to be “fixed,” (a week later it is back in the shop) so about 5:30pm, I stood on an off ramp near Downtown Richmond hoping to get a ride to Charlottesville.

I made a sign. It was bright orange.

“Charlottesville” With a Big Thumb.

Cars whipped past.

I tried another off ramp, near Staples Mill Road.

The cars whipped past.

As the sun went down, I gave up.

After sleeping at my good friends house, Anderson and Amy, I got up early and hit the road. This time trying to get as far EAST as possible on Broad Street.

At around 9am, I was again on an off ramp headed towards Charlottesville with my sign.

The cars still whipped past.

In a big city, it is hard to catch a ride.

UNTIL, Jason pulled up.

Jason and his girlfriend, Laurel (I lifted a photograph of his from flickr)

He was off to deliver some macaroons to girlfriend at work. She is a French Teacher at a local High school. They have been dating for about a year.

He had picked up these macaroons early morning from a local baker. “Come over before I start baking,” she says, which means before 8 am.

He sneaks them on her computer, while she is at an assembly.

Jason is a Romantic Dude!

“Well, I’ll take you to Charlottesville,” he says. He is not doing much today.

We drive. We talk.

Jason offered me his iPhone; “I know I don’t know you well, but…” he starts. I guess he is getting a new one soon and doesn’t need this one. We make tentative plans to send it to me in Jersey.

We couldn’t find parking when we got to Charlottesville. We drove around awhile.

Jason had ideas to get his girlfriend another present.

After finding a spot, we walked around the Downtown Mall and he looked up a place to buy a whole loaf of cornbread.

“Eppie’s Restaurant” in the Downtown Mall is the place.

“It takes about an hour,” he says.

So we wandered around. Charlottesville was hosting the Third Annual Look Festival of the Photograph. “3 Days of Love, Peace, and Photography.”

Jason just loves to give. He recently wrote me an email about how there should be a television program about giving gifts to others.

He is the man and a reminder to me about the fun of giving gifts!

Create our world,

ben.

“For it is in giving that we receive.” – St. Francis of Assissi

Tags: adventure travel, adventure travel blog, Benjamin Jenks, charlottesville, create our world, hitchhiking, jason lefton, look festival of the photograph, roadtrip around the USA, travel blog, vagabond, virginia
Categories: People.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 8:12 pm and is filed under People.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.