RVC’s Finnegan nears Ohio border during walk across U.S.

Rockville Centre native Daniel Finnegan and companion Abby Bongaarts are about to finish the Pennsylvania portion of their walk across the United States and are starting to master the art of yard camping as the towns they entered became less populated.

According to a blog on the Walk Across America 2017 web site, Finnegan and Bongaarts finally made it to Pittsburgh on April 2 and are about 30 miles east of the Pennsylvania-Ohio border. The next leg of the trip from the Steel City to Columbus, Ohio, after cutting through West Virginia, is about 182 miles.

During their trip, the pair mainly slept in the home of friends, family friends and couch surfers, who offer their homes to travelers who need a place to sleep. But now, they are resorting to yard camping, where they knock on the doors of houses, explain to the homeowners what they are doing, and ask if they can use their yards as temporary camp sites.

“Of course, there is the obvious complication that yard camping requires an enormous amount of trust between strangers,” Finnegan wrote. “There is no review system for someone showing up at your house. There is no exchange of monetary goods like there is at a motel. There is no implicit understanding that you won’t kidnap a person’s dog, like there is when you stay with a friend. Needless to say, our first time yard camping, we were nervous.”

After a misunderstanding caused them to miss out on the first house, Finnegan and Bongaarts tried another in Everett, Pa., that had a welcome sign in the front, a spacious backyard and a small dog barking at them from the window. The two travelers explained to the woman who answered the door what they were doing and included phrases such as, “I know this might sound kind of crazy,” and “We would totally understand if you say no,” during the negotiation. The family reciprocated by offering them hamburgers for dinner, ice cream at the local parlor for dessert and their garage for them to spend the night.

“We all have that dinner table that we break bread with our loved ones at,” Finnegan wrote of the experience. “On this trip, complete strangers have opened their doors for us, and welcomed us to break bread with them like we were family as well.”

In Central City, Pa., Finnegan and Bongaarts stayed at the home of an elderly couple that were with their two grandchildren. The following day, the mother of those children contacted them through Facebook and said the kids had a special gift for them, Gatorade and fruit.

Finnegan said that he and Bongaarts each brought two pair of shoes on the trip and they rotate them every week to keep breaking them in and avoid overuse.

Those who would like to support Finnegan and Bongaarts on their journey and make a donation to JOIN, a non-profit organization that assists the homeless, can visit their Fundly page at https://fundly.com/a-walk-across-america.