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