DAY 693: Detour Yields New Friend

A two and a half hour drive turned into more than five hours. I never made it to 74 Firefighters Memorial Dr, Highland Falls, NY all because I was on a road, Seven Lakes Drive, I apparently was not supposed to be on. I’m not a commercial vehicle, but the police officer who pulled me over said I still count as one because I’m not a passenger car. He told me how to avoid getting in trouble by rerouting me, only without a GPS signal, I got lost, doubled back so many times trying to find the truck route, I ended up seeing parts of West Point USMA three or four times. When the signal came back, it tried to send me down government roads. When I was getting low on gas, I gave up trying to find where I hoped to park for the night and was forced to go over Bear Mountain to find a station with diesel fuel. It was the worst drive ever, but there was a happy ending. I met Prasant who came to the states from Nepal six months ago. He was working at the gas station. I saw him taking pictures of my bus. I ended up in the park across the street that did not have signs indicating no overnight parking. He came over when he got off work and we friended each other on Facebook and then shared pictures of our family and home. I watched a video of his two day mountain bike ride and two days of hiking to reach the top, and saw pictures of he and his brother in NYC.

Look on FB for a video he took of my bus.