Of warm food and fresh air

Despite the fact that we have only been traveling for a little over two weeks, I have already gained an appreciation for things that i had formerly taken for granted. 

Foremost in this group would be, as the title would suggest, warm food and the ability to not smell like a highschool locker room. Previously, the most effort required of me to produce a hot meal was a six foot walk to the microwave. Now, in order to aquire a nice warm cup of noodley stuff, I have to scour various building for an available outlet, plug in our electric kettle, and hope no one noticices me crouching in the bushes before the water starts boiling. Needless to say, scrambling to find an outlet so I can eat is not something I've had to deal with before. 

As for the stench, having been a teenage boy for most of my life, I have grown used to some pretty bad smells. The difference between then and now, of course, is the fact that now I can't take a shower to feel squeaky clean. Today i took my first shower in about a week and a half by the grace of a friend my father had in Boston, and to loosely quote Emie, turning off the water sucked. Now some of you may be thinking, 'But Jackson, it's only been two weeks! Surely it can't smell that bad already.' And let me assure you, it does not feel like it's been two weeks, and it certainly doesn't smell like it.

Hopefully Emie will post on this subject later on to discuss it, as she will be far more eloquent in her explanation. I just wanted to update the blog, as one of our friends thought we were dead. So yes. Still alive, still smelly, and still not fond of the Boston street planners. Will update the vlog soonish, but until then, may the force be with you. -J 

Who even knows what day it is anymore - Boston, MA

Well, we're in Boston.

We'll be leaving soon, hopefully. It's really kind of awful here. The traffic is honestly the most confusing thing either of us has ever had to deal with, and everything is crazy expensive. We paid $10 to park for the first hour, with $14 for three hours or less as the next step up. Not only were those the lowest prices in Boston, they were also the reduced weekend prices. It's really pretty here though, and it seems like it'd be a great place if you had a large amount of expendable income or don't mind wasting gas driving in circles, two categories we fall far outside of. It was even hard to find a place to spend the night, and we ended up camping out in a hotel parking lot for the night. We'll have to find somewhere else for tonight, but we've got a few more hours before that's really a concern.

We spent the last couple of days in Conway, NH, where we had a lovely little public parking lot next to a patch of grass with an outlet - practically everything we could ever hope for. We hiked around the mountains and the tiny tourist town for a couple of days, and then headed out last night, when we were tired of the little strip of New Hampshire we'd acquainted ourselves with. Suffice to say we're missing Conway pretty hard right about now.

Jackson has a few historic sites here he wants to see, and I'd like to stop by Salem and see what it's like. Maybe we can hunt down the statue of the founder I'm related to and take a photo or something. I'm hoping there'll be some free museums there we can peruse. I've never really been taught much about the Salem Witch trials, and that's always bothered me, so perhaps this is how I'll learn about it.

There's a couple of topics I've been wanting to write about recently, but I think it'll take me a while to be able to phrase what I want to say in a way that will aptly convey my ideas, so look forward to a few posts about fear and change, because they'll be in the works sometime. I've always thought the hardest part about writing for yourself was starting, so I'll let you know when I figure that bit out.

And to reiterate, AVOID BOSTON (unless you're rich, in which case, would you like to sponsor us?).

Day 7 - Portland, Maine

`This blog post comes to you, thanks to free Wi-Fi in a Portland Starbucks.

Yep, we made it to Maine as of roughly Friday. We spend the last two days in a Podunk little town called Byron, where the main attraction is its absolute lack of everything. We found my friend Tori, and her friend Aly, who was incredibly kind and hospitable for just having two startled teenagers show up at her campsite. We were allowed to spend the night by the campsite matron, and it turned out that some of Aly's other traveling friends showed up the exact same day. They were fascinating people to talk to, and Jackson and I both learned a lot. The three of them, Dylan, Emily, and Zeke, had all been leathertramps or freighttramps at one point or another. Predictably, they had some great stories and everyone seemed pretty impressed by our set up in the van, which is really good, because we didn't know what we were doing when we started off. (We barely do now, honestly. We're only a week in.) They don't recommend freight hopping to everyone, but they really loved it. You could tell that that was what they wanted to do, and Dylan and Emily both plan to head back out when their daughter is on her own, even though they'll both be in their 40's.

It was really interesting to be accepted so easily into their little ragtag group. They sang a lot, and introduced us to some great new bands, but the interesting thing was that through the singing, they established an intense feeling of community that might not have been there otherwise. If you've never belted "You are my sunshine" at midnight in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of drunk travelers, I sincerely recommend you try it out. There's not a particularly good way to explain the bond they shared, and how they extended it out to us. Watching them interact and listening to them share their stories made me realize we'll both change a great deal on this trip which, while terrifying in its own right, is not guaranteed to be a bad thing. Good vibes, happiness, and all accepting love were very important to them, and as we continue to run into people and travel, I can only imagine it will become even more obvious as to why.

The goodness of other people is near crucial to travelers, especially if you travel on foot.

Speaking of which, bare feet are always recommended, and so are rivers on chilly nights.

They also talked about the importance of keeping the things people give you, and by the time we left the campsite, we'd been bestowed with quite a few keepsakes.

They taught us quite a bit, left us with some very fond memories, and instilled us both with a good deal of hope. I mean, if they can tramp around on trains and hike through multiple states, we can live out of a car for a couple months.

Everything always works out if it's meant to. I wish all of our friends the absolute best - in moving, traveling, and love. (Dog rescuing included.) I hope we run into you all again soon.

Other than that, we haven't really had much happen. We spend our nights in Cracker Barrel Parking lots with other RVers, and when we want hot food, we hunt down an outlet and ignore the weird looks. Rest stops, Walmart's, and the back of Cracker Barrels have all provided us with a nice hot serving of cup noodles. It all works out somehow.

After Portland, we'll probably head to Boston, but we plan on haunting around here for a few more days at least. There's an art museum we're going to tomorrow, and hopefully a festival on Friday. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

E