First Time Free Boxer, Eric Heiden

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I met Eric on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela and we kept running into each other at some point every day for a few weeks.  I really enjoyed his company.  Eric is from New Orleans and told Sarah and myself of his great love of Snowballs.  Apparently it's a delicious treat that you can get in New Orleans.  I had never heard of it.
I don't believe New Orleans has yet experienced the free box phenomenon unless you consider the abandoned houses of the Katrina disaster a giant free box, but that's another story...

If you have Issue 13, then you have read the story of one of my favorite Camino moments, which was the sudden appearance of the vegetarian oasis otherwise know as The House of the Gods, which was this amazing spread of vegetarian and vegan delights along with hammocks and benches and just a wonderful environment to hang out in.

This is a photo that Eric took and I absolutely love it because it shows the absolute bareness of the path at that point and then this little heaven in the middle of it all.

Sarah and I literally spent two hours that just hanging out with other friends we'd met.  Eric happened to be one of the folks we were hanging out with.  I pulled out the remaining issues I had brought along of Free Box the Magazine and shared them with Eric, Alistair and Gabriel.  Alistair was blown away and said he would become an International Free Box Correspondent. 

Apparently at The House of the Gods there was a take something, leave something pile and Eric decided to check it because apparently he needed a pocket knife.  Sure enough, there was one!  He traded it for a book he had read.  I then made sure to capture the moment because this was Eric's first free item experience and it was just too cool to pass up.

We had to take a few photos of Eric displaying the knife because it's a bit of a challenge posing with a knife without making a person look crazy or threatening.

Eric said, "it's just like Christmas morning."  I couldn't agree more.