As I was standing in line to check in at the rescue mission that night, I received a call.  I saw it was a local number and picked it up.  “Hello, this is Karen from CouchSurfing.  Are you still looking for a place to stay this weekend?” Success! Although I would have been perfectly content staying at the rescue mission, I much preferred the idea of staying in a house for the weekend and not consuming the resources of these people that need it more than I do.  I told her I was and asked if it was alright if Raymond tagged along.  It wasn’t a problem so Raymond and I grabbed our things and Karen came and picked us up.

That night we stayed at her boyfriend Eric’s house.  Eric has hosted over 600 CouchSurfers over the years and was a really awesome guy.  We were told that two other surfers would be joining us this evening and that another would join us the next night.  When we arrived Eric was in the middle of grilling some food for dinner and his brother and a co-worker were hanging out on the patio.  Raymond and I mentioned we already ate, but it was no matter.  We were going to be having a second dinner.

Soon the two other CouchSurfers arrived.  They were sisters from North Carolina on a road trip around the country.  It was interesting to find out that their upcoming itinerary was quite similar to my first road trip and their budget was $15 a day each, which was quite similar to my budget as well on my first trip.  We discussed pretty in depth their route and I gave them suggestions on things to do, see, or even do differently.  They told me about how they planned to take Route 1 from Eureka to San Francisco and I warned them about how terrible of an idea it was.  It’s a coastal route and an uneducated person (like myself the first time) would think it’d be an awesome way to get to San Francisco.  An educated person (myself and also Eric chimed in) would say “NO NO NO NO! That route is boring with little to no view of the ocean, extremely windy, and awfully tiring.”  I really hope they took that advice.  Everything else about their intended route got Traveler Gerik’s Thumbs Up of Approval.

It was soon dinner and we all munched away at the delicious food.  We all got to know each other for the next few hours and eventually everyone went to bed.  In the morning the girls left bright and early and Raymond intended to get to a truck stop to meet a trucker he had gotten in contact with.  The trucker was able to get him somewhat close to the Rainbow Gathering.  Eric took him up to the truck stop and while there noticed two vans clearly going directly to the Rainbow Gathering.  He talked to them and got Raymond set up with those guys.  It was clearly I was getting closer to the Rainbow Gathering.  I decided I should put up a Craigslist ad about offering rides to Rainbow on Monday when the car was fixed.

That day I helped Eric put up a fence in his back yard.  It was nice being able to help out my host because he was taking good care of me all weekend.  In the evening I met up with another CouchSurfer from Canada (Vancouver I believe) who was busing across the US to New York.  He was a quirky character, but we got along pretty well.  Karen brought two of her sons over and we all interacted into the evening.  It was a laid back evening and I enjoyed it a lot.

On Sunday I decided to head into town and check it out.  When I arrived in Downtown Rapid City I was met with a wine tasting and arts festival. I spent a few hours there and enjoyed the environment.  I checked out all the tents with various artist’s work and was surprised by the amount of interest there was in my travels.  My shirt definitely got a lot of attention here.  After telling my story for the eighth or ninth time I was walking past this one tent when I got a “Hey! Traveling on Kindness, come here!” The woman behind that announcement was one of the CouchSurfing hosts who I put a request out to but was unable to host me this weekend because she was out of town. The evening before she got called home because they needed her to work this tent.  We sat and spoke for awhile and I thought it somewhat ironic that I ran into her, but I was getting used to these strange coincidences.

My favorite part of the day turned out to a performance by a local dance studio.  I was a little skeptical at first because it was a group of younger girls and they were doing this performance with buckets of paint and I had a feeling it was just going to be a goofy experimental dance attempt and not be all that great, but I was so glad to see differently.  These young performers were quite good and their incorporation of the paint into their performance was awesome.  I left the festival after that satisfied with how I spent my day.

Afterwards I was contacted by two separate parties hoping to travel with me to Missoula.  Two of the people were looking to go directly to Rainbow Gathering and two were hitchhikers from Chicago who were just looking to go west.  I told them all that I would be able to drive them all as long as they were cool with being a little close and having a very packed station wagon.  Everyone was cool with the option, so it was set.  I was definitely utilizing this car to the max for this next stretch.

My last evening in Rapid City I spent at Karen’s house.  Eric was going out of town and although I was welcome to hang out there alone, I’d rather spend time with Karen and her kids.  I hung out with her youngest son mostly who loved playing Legend of Zelda.  I watched him play until it was late and I was off to bed.  That night I got to sleep in Karen’s Westfalia out back.  I was super excited.  I made sure to sleep in the pop up section and slept like a baby.

On Monday I spent the morning help one of Karen’s friends install some screen doors on Karen’s house.  I called the mechanic every few hours to make sure progress was being made on the car.  Around 3:00 the car was finally all fixed up and Karen took me over to the mechanic so I could get going.  I thanked Karen for her awesomeness as a host and soon I was off to pick up my new friends.

A short time later I picked up my fellow Rainbow travelers.  The first was a girl in her mid-twenties.  Her name was Jessie but her nickname was Strawberry.  The second was a man I’d guess to be in his sixties who went by Giver.  He had been going to Rainbow Gatherings since 1976 and he lived to go to Rainbow Gatherings and spend the rest of his time floating down rivers in various vessels.  Jessie had picked him up as she was traveling out to Rapid City the day before.  They were both quality individuals, so we packed up the car with their stuff and headed to the other side of town to pick up the two hitchhikers from Chicago.  They were two dudes in their early twenties and looked as normal as I.  Their names were Elan and Justin.  They were college students who wanted to go on a unique adventure.  We got along well.  We packed the car to the brim and were on our way.  It was going to be about 14 hours and we decided I’d just drive until we arrived in or near Missoula.

The ride was filled with interesting conversation.  We learned about Elan and Jason’s adventure and Giver told us about his experiences at Rainbow Gatherings.  We drove for quite a few hours and finally took a break as the sun was setting over Montana.  The view was beautiful and we all stood around and enjoyed it.  Jessie and Jason did some yoga as Giver continued to tell us tales from Rainbow Gatherings.  It was really great seeing how this group of travelers who had all just met so quickly felt so comfortable around each other.  Anyone passing by would have thought we knew each other for years.

Before we left someone discovered there was sage growing in the field next to us.  It was explained to me that sage was special and was used for cleansing so we all picked some and made sage bundles.  Shortly after we were off again and the sun finally set over Montana as the scent of sage filled the car.  Shoulders soon became beds and the car got quiet.  I drove until about 4:00 AM and got to about 45 minutes outside Missoula.  There was a rest stop coming up and none of us had a place to stay at this hour, so I stopped at the rest stop and we all got comfortable.  I snagged two or three hours of sleep and we arrived in town around 8:30 AM.  I dropped off Jason and Elan at their friend’s place in town and Jessie, Giver, and I ran some errands in town before I dropped the car off with Scott. I was so glad to have had the opportunity to help transport five people.  I got to be a hitchhiker picking up hitchhikers for awhile.  My time with the car was done, and it was time to work on getting a ride the rest of the way to the Rainbow Gathering.