Could anyone rely on the kindness of strangers these days? One way to test this would be for a person to journey from coast to coast without any money, (1) ___ solely on the good will of his fellow Americans. The idea (2) ____ me. So I decided to make a trip from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic Coast without a (3) ____. I rose early on September 6, 1994, and headed (4) ____ the Golden Gate Bridge. During the six weeks’ journey, I hitched 82 rides and (5) ____ 4, 223 miles across 14 states. I was (6) ____ with kindness in every state I traveled across. I was (7) ____by the stubborn capacity of Americans to help a stranger, even when it seemed to run (8) ____ to their own best interests. I found that people were (9) ____ passionate. Hearing I had no money and would take none, people in every state bought me food or shared (10) ____ they happened to have with me. In Jamestown, Tennessee, a science teacher (11) ____ me to talk to her class about my trip. All the kids were well-mannered and (12) ____. Their questions kept coming. I told the students how proud I was to live in a country (13) _____ people were still willing to help out a stranger. I told them, “No matter who you are, you can still depend on the kindness of strangers.”