[Editor's note: This is the second part in a serialized story about they journey from Connecticut to Minnesota to pick up the bus for the Juan Way tour. Read the first part here.]

On March 6, about a month after John had purchased the bus on eBay, the trio began their journey to Minnesota. Ali and John took a late-night Greyhound from Hartford to New York City, where Max met them at the station. So far, they were making good time; it seemed like they would be able to get to Minnesota and back in under a week, before spring break ended. They boarded a bus to Pittsburgh, feeling good about their efficiency.

On the way to Pittsburgh, Ali noticed that the stranger he sat next to was writing with intense focus into a notebook. Ali discovered that the man, Jae, was writing lyrics. He was a rapper, tall, handsome, and fashionably dressed; he stuck out among the mostly impoverished and disheveled bus passengers. He said he was originally from Nigeria, and spoke English with a thick accent. Jae was studying at Boston University and was on his way to Minneapolis to visit his girlfriend. Ali, a guitar player and singer that wrote folk songs in his spare time at UCONN, was eager to spitball with a fellow musician. Ali rapped some of his own lyrics for Jae. Impressed, Jae agreed to travel with the three friends as far as Chicago.

Continue reading the story here.