Speaking of two cyclists: thanks to my lack of social energy, ironically, I was getting kind of lonely. At the New York state line I met another cross-country rider for the first time since Illinois. I was a little anxious about talking, but I didn't need to be, as Takahashi didn't speak much English. I knew he was going cross-country because he had written "LA -> NY" in sharpie on a white cloth hanging from his bike. He introduced himself by pointing to himself, saying his name, thinking a bit, and then announcing "I like beer." I knew we would be good friends. We worked out that he was aiming to end in the same place I was today, so I called my next Warm Showers host and confirmed that Takahashi could stay there instead of camping out.
Then came the part where I tried to explain the Warm Showers host via charades while he politely tried to express that he not in need of help. Eventually he understood that he would be able to sleep in a house and get free food, after which he got excited. Understanding thus achieved, we took off. I enjoyed that conversation with Takahashi was an intellectual puzzle instead of a typical social interaction -- an intelligence roll instead of a charisma roll, to use gaming terms. I always have the energy for puzzles. Not jigsaw puzzles, but real problems, and in this case I had the added motivation of actually being able to help someone. That might be the best way to put depression aside for a little while.
It turned out that our host lived about 800 feet above the actual town, which was the first real test my knees had faced in a long time. They didn't like it. It seems inappropriate to call this a good thing, but perhaps luckily for me, Takahashi had a spoke break on the way up the hill. I had a spoke wrench, so I lent that to him and gave my knees a rest while he worked on it. I was glad to have a way to help, because I assumed that I'd probably just get in his way if we couldn't actually communicate. He indicated that I could go ahead and he'd catch up, but I stayed in case he needed a translator. We stayed on the side of the road until it got dark, but he finally got it to be at least somewhat functional. I lent him one of my lights and we carried on up the hill.
I let our host know what was going on, and he actually drove out and found us a few miles from his place. Knowing how cyclists are, he went on ahead and said he'd see us there. We headed deeper and deeper into the forest, eventually discovering that his house was really a large cabin in the middle of the woods, completely off-grid. We met his dogs, he showed us a bunk bed in his basement shop, and brought us large plates of pork chops, mashed potatoes, and steamed vegetables, along with a few cans of Bud Light. Takahashi was very excited about this, and I went ahead and dug into the porkchops. I was very happy to see food and didn't think I had much to gain from rejecting meat that was already made. After the fact, I realized that I could have packaged up some of it and stuck it in his icebox to delay whenever he would next have to buy meat, and would have possibly felt better about sticking to my newfound principles.
Takahashi and I had managed to make some conversation while he worked on his bike, so I tried to relay what I learned about him to our host, who seemed a little weirded out to host someone he couldn't talk to. Takahashi and I filled out our host's log book, he in Japanese and I in English. There were only maybe six entries in there, as this place was pretty far out of the way.
Looking through the logbook revealed that, amazingly, Hamish and Angus, the Brits I had met in Yellowstone, had actually been here a few weeks before we arrived! I tried to express to Takahashi how crazy this was, but I don't think I was successful. I couldn't contact them about it, of course, because there was no cell service. That also means I couldn't translate it. Takahashi and I tried to talk about what we like to do in normal life and discovered that we're both bass players. It was a little difficult to go too in-depth about anything, but we both kept trying whenever we thought up a concept that we thought we could express. We had some success and talked for longer than I thought we would before finally going to sleep.
Lots of images today. Apparently I take more pictures when I don't talk to people as much: a turkey family in Geneva; one of the few sandy beaches on Lake Erie; a drawbridge outside of Erie, PA; obligatory state line photo; an old Mountain Dew ad; a vineyard on a hill; the peach stand; Takahashi at the next state line; sunset climbing the mountain (my phone isn't great dealing with varying light levels); our accommodations for the night; and our dinner.
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