“Excuse me– are you really walking across America?” a bright-spirited woman asked me, as I was shuffling my way through downtown Spartanburg, South Carolina, last November.
“I sure am.”
“May I ask why..?”
A journalist by trade, Emily Carter Dodson was attending a nearby conference, and using her free time to roam downtown Spartanburg before dark this cool autumn evening. Though we only spoke briefly, she told me she was a writer, and that she planned to look me up online and potentially write a story.
This was the beginning of dozens of e-mails over the course of the past couple of months. Emily wrote a full-page article about the Walk for Forsyth Woman magazine, and invited me to stay with her parents upon arriving to the Chapel Hill/Durham area.
Last night, I finally met her parents, Winslow and Harriet, and I also caught up with Emily again for the first time in months. They all have such sweet souls!!
Winslow & Harriet have hosted many exchange students over the course of the years, and given that I spent a year as a high school exchange student to Brazil, it was quite easy to quickly form a bond with this shiny pair of ultra-kind, veteran hosts. And how could I do anything other than smile widely at being invited to a Fat Tuesday parade with them on their first night?!?
I won’t be leaving North Carolina’s “Triangle” (Chapel Hill, Durham Raleigh) anytime soon, and they are in the process of organizing speaking appearances for me before I leave the Triangle.
Great times keep getting better– I love this family!