Facebook freaky fantastic finds friend

On June 17 2010 I was sent a message through facebook, from someone I did not know at all:

‘Hey there. As a kid in New Jersey, I had a friend named John Goldie. I stumbled on this picture at my Mom’s house. Any chance that’s you?’

Here’s the picture:

With the photo I came face-to-face with a rare sight of me when I was young, during a period of my life that passed by without it seeming to be able to be real. That’s because it was a period of only 3 years when I lived in the USA when I was very young and that I have not had any connection to in any way, ever since. That was well before the era of digital photography too, so I have next-to-nothing to look at to help me ‘picture’ my existence there. Suddenly I had a glimpse of myself and I had just heard from someone who I was a friend to, all that time ago. Amazing! I had to meet my ‘ol’ pal’ again, and BikingtheUSA was the facility to do that. Today was the day!

My old friend now lives in Virginia right near Washington DC and the plan for today was to ride right to his front door, all the way from Pittsburgh. Just as soon as I set off I remembered how much I love riding that motorbike! I had the benefit of cool weather to be really comfortable as I sped off along the busy and dense road network that fills this area of the USA, right through to New York. The ride set me in a very familiar situation. Like at home the air was cool, the sky was full of thousands of fluffy white clouds, the traffic was quite dense but fast flowing and was made up of European sized cars rather than the usual predominance of big pick-ups. I stopped at a ‘Service Plaza’ for a break and found it was just like a ‘Service Station’ back home. Across the USA I have found that ‘service’ provision on the road networks tend to be individually located fuel stations and franchise restaurants and many independent ‘Diners’. It was a lovely day riding to my old friend but I was feeling too much like BikingtheUSA was nearly finished, or at least that little more would excite and please me as much as every other day had so far. I was mighty wrong!

Meeting my friend and his family, in his own family home, having steak on the barbecue there and staying the night was absolutely fabulous. I had such a great time. It was just so lovely being with him and his family but even better I was even able to learn even more about what I had been experiencing and been curious about out here. Brilliant. Life’s surprises can be so utterly fantastic!