PDX

I'm at Serenity's. It is Monday afternoon. I'll soon start packing up to head off to meet Mom and Dad in Washington for some camping, and then that will be that. This trip is coming to its close. And it is closing in a great way. These past few days in Portland have been wonderful. I met Trillian V.G. for brunch at City State Diner for brunch. I had french toast. We talked Trillian things and art and similarities and puns and other things. We had a brewski at Beulahland and arrived right as some sort of sports was finishing up. There were sketchbook drawings and a photobooth photo was taken to commemorate the event of the first Trillian Summit.

I met up with Mel and we roamed this vintage store, then we went to her place and I met her dog Rita. We went over to the west side and got Sushi Ichiban, which is the sushi that arrives on train and you pay by the plate. We played tic tac toe with someone else by putting the game on the train as it went about and they would pick it up and make a move and put it on the train and it would make the loop around all the tables. Very fun! Powell's remodeled the front, so I got to check that out. It's much more shiny and ... well shiny. I oogled the books but did not buy any. Mel got some great deals on books of various collections. We headed back to hers and hung out there for the rest of the evening. Had brewskis. Tabitha came over. I met Alain, Mel's boyfriend. We all watched Drunk History. I returned to Serenity's late, but that was okay because I met Toon (my first roommate) at 1pm for brunch the next day so staying up didn't affect my timing all that much. Toon and I caught up over more diner food, which is the best food let's be real. Then we watched Drunk History and I saw Ibanez, who has gotten a bit paunchy over the years. She showed me the light show backdrops she has been working on.

At 5 I met Chris at Roadside Attraction. Chris moved out of my Newport house in Santa Cruz when I was moving in, and we've stayed in touch because he is a cool dude. It was an open hang out invite, but he was the only one who hung out. And he was invited along to a pasta dinner at Serenity's. Jessica, Wintry, Serenity, Turner, Me, Chris. Good bunch of people. We watched Little Shop of Horrors because it is the best movie.

I'm currently a bit on call to maybe give a life to Morgaine to take her dog to the vet. I met BT for coffee at Courier Coffee. Put gas in my car. Well didn't put gas in my car because you can't pump your own in Oregon. Someone else put the gas in my car, and he liked my ice cream sandwich sticker.

So soon I'll be heading out and up and over into Washington and this chapter is wrapping up.

the good times in the ever changing city

8/18/2014 3:30pm a rest stop on i15 Montana

I swung through Butte and saw BT’s show (BT and Tina’s show). I had to sneak into the gallery a little bit, but Tina arrived and turned on the lights. Sneaking meaning I went in through a back door (the gallery is in a sort of mall space, but not really, but there are other shops in the building and a back hallway opens into the gallery). Anyway, I wasn’t nagged for being there early than opening. The show was lovely! I’ve always dug BT’s type and design. That’s why I commissioned a wall mounted bottle opener from him. I gave him the type I wanted spelled out and said “do whatever, I trust you!”. I can’t wait to hang it back up in a more permanent spot (i.e. Pulali Point).

I left Butte at around 1pm and filled up my tank and got one of those .99 cent Arizona iced teas and ice for my cooler and some Sriracha flavored sunflower seeds. I’ve driven for a few hours, though I’m in no hurry, so I think I’ll hang at this rest stop for a bit. My phone continues to have trouble charging in the car adapter (did I mention it was doing that?) so I’m getting it to 100% here. Same with my mp3 player. Oh, I fixed my L key. I just pried it up and removed the dust blockage and popped it back in. This rest stop has a weather report going on loop, but now I’ve heard it so many times that I’m unsure if the weather is actually going to be good or bad. Rain showers likely. Lows 45 to 50. Chance of precipitation 50%. I should find out what the weather will be like before I camp in Glacier. I’d really like to camp, but again: getting rained out of my tent will suck.

Looking at the map, I’ll enter Idaho through Missoula and… pretty much go right across it into Oregon. I’ll probably just drive on. I’ve been to Idaho before so I don’t really have any intrigue to do something within that state. I just wanna get to Portland and see my pals.

8/20/20143:51 pm a rest stop on i90 nearing the Idaho border in Montana

I am on my way to Portland Oregon! I have many more hours of driving to do, but I have a place to crash so it’s all good. I’m taking some time to charge my phone because it continues to be weird about charging while I’m driving. This rest stop has a large amount of outlets. The previous one had zero that worked.

Sherri and Scott told me to say hi to Kelsey if I saw her in Glacier National Park. She is a seasonal ranger there, and lo and behold she was the one giving the ranger talk that I saw! So I said hi and marveled at how wonderfully small the world can be sometimes.

I departed my lovely little rest stop at 7amish. Filled up my tank and got some tea and then headed west to Glacier National Park! I came in the St. Mary entrance, got my junior ranger booklet and map and hike ideas and set off the make the most out of my day.

Right off the bat: I was correct to forgo camping because the weather was no good. Thunder erupted in the afternoon, and rain & hail came down as I was getting sworn in as a Junior Ranger. And it rained occasionally through the day after that, and when I was heading to Kalispell in the evening, thunder and lightning was seen on my right in the park all through the drive (I took 89 then 49 then 2 when I left, so that I went around the bottom of the park and not through it). It really is a park you could spend a week in, doing all the different hikes. Lots of nice long hikes. I did the St Mary and Virginia Falls hike, and met a nice guy named Daniel who did a through hike of the Appalachian Trail a few years back. We talked National Parks and travel and doing something big when you come up against a wall in your life. Nice fella. I met another nice fella earlier today. I should really go to parks more often to pick up dudes.

Anyway, Glacier! Absolutely beautiful. I loved how the Rockies rose in the distance and continued to dominate every view. Sad to think how the glaciers will be gone by 2030. That feels so soon in my life time. I drove all the way down to Apgar and back up to St Mary and up to Many Glacier for the sunset. There was road construction, so it was two hours to do the ~60 miles of the Going-To-The-Sun road. I got my St Mary stamp first, then cruised down and past Logan Pass and stopped for some photo ops, and went more and more down and down and down into the valley. At Apgar I got another stamp and saw the wildlife Ranger program and got my book signed by Kelsey and learned that deer eat 5.5 pounds of greenery a day! That’s a lot of salad. This was a relatively easy Junior Guide book to fill out. Theodore Roosevelt really made me work for it, with drawings and hike descriptions. I got my badge, and a sticker, and my feet got absolutely soaked by the rain (I tried to avoid it, but the water was a couple inches around my car!). I put on my flats that I’m so going to throw out once this trip is done because they smell and are worn mostly out. They were cheap to begin with, so I’m not surprised they haven’t survived the torture I put my shoes through.

I drove slowly back up and stopped often for pictures. Logan Pass was full of people avoiding the rain. I got my WPA postcards and the Logan Pass stamp. If you don’t know what stamps I’m talking about, I mean the National Park Passport Cancellation Stamps. The dated thing you put in your NP Passport, if you have one. I don’t, I just put them in my travel journal.

From Logan Pass I did the waterfall hike. No bears were seen, but I made sure to jingle jangle my keys as I walked due to the bear warnings that are everywhere in the park. That is where I met Daniel and since we were walking back at the same pace, we struck up a conversation.

The lodge up in Many Glacier is nice. Has a great view of the water and mountains. I got a hot dog and a ginger beer and sat in one of the lounges while the sun left the sky, then I drove on for two and a bit hours. Very miserable hours of driving. It was dark, but that absorbing dark. Not the clear starry skies that were above me when I left Yellowstone for Bozeman. I drove a few hours that night, but they were not bad at all, but this time! And the weather was spotty and the roads varied in condition. All in all, not a fun night drive. But I got to my precious Walmart parking lot in Kalispell, Montana, and slept pretty well, and all the way in to 10! I normally don’t sleep that much in my car. I filled my tank in Kalispell and drove south on 93 to Missoula, then got onto i90 heading west. I stopped at this small used bookstore I saw a billboard for and it was one of the best used bookstores I’ve been on during this trip.

Hypothesis: small town used bookstores will have better browsing selections because they haven’t been picked over like the larger second hand bookstores, which have to also cater to people who buy new books.

At this book store I found two Winslow Homer artbooks for 6 bucks a pop. They are a bit dated, but he isn’t exactly contemporary. One was his woodcuts, the other was a book about him with black and white reproductions. Yes I got them. After frowning at $30-$50 Winslow Homer artbooks present at bigger stores, of course I did. I probably could have browsed more and found further treasures. The basement was a treasure trove of paperbacks, but I didn’t want to stay too long. So on I went clutching my precious books to my chest. Homer and Eakins are two artists that really came to my awareness on this trip, thanks in large part to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

At the previous rest stop I got some refreshments from the nice church people who volunteer to give people coffee and cookies. I’d like to see Atheists do the same thing. That’d be nice. So, onwards to Idaho and Washington and then down into Oregon and Portland!

8/22/2014 Serenity’s in Portland, Oregon

I have some major catching up to do! I got to Portland than I got to hanging out with people and I only just now got my computer hooked up to Serenity’s wifi. The absolute sweetheart has let me call her home my home for the next few nights. And even let me unpack some things into her space in the living room, so my car isn’t so burdened down/obvious target. How wonderful! I got in late to Portland on Wednesday night. 11:30ish and after some chatting got right to bed. In the morning BT picked me up and we went to Pine State Biscuits, where they had cheerwine! Hurray! I got the standard biscuits and gravy and we starting catching up. From there we went to Magnetic North, which is the studio space he and many others occupy in Portland. Wonderful space, it has several presses and lots of room and much art all over the place. No one else was there at that time, though Phil Bone swung by with his brother and dad. BT and I grabbed lunch at the nearby brewhouse and then went to walk Carnegie, BT’s dog. It was great to catch up and also to converse with someone who is also well travelled. And it is just nice to spend time with an old friend. I was returned to Serenity’s at around 6:30 and Heather and Daniel came over and saw the place and we four chatted, then Serenity stayed home and we three went over to Division and The Woodsman Tavern and got some fancy ham and cocktails. Division Street has seen lots of new building and restaurants and development. Money is just being thrown into Portland right now, and the rent is going up as well as many people getting booted from houses because the landlord wants to sell.

So I had a good wonderful evening with the amazing Heather and Daniel. I hope to host them at my place in the future so that they can be all hosted and pampered.

In the morning, I finished The Marriage Plot. Such a good book and an amazing ending! Can’t wait to loan it to Mom.

I met up with those two favorite hooligans for brunch at Zell’s. I got eggs benedict and it got all over my face and a bit on my skirt, which I washed out later at Madeline’s. Tasty food! I loaned them my copy of Lost for Words. I’ll get it back some day. BT loaned me his copy of How To Win Friends and Influence People, so I’ll need to get that back to HIM some day.

After brunch I went over to see Madeline and I hung out with her in the super way of old! Two years have passed, and we caught up and Jackson is taller, and she’s working as a supervisor at Macy’s and working on art and stuff. We watched several episodes of The Strain, which is a super gross show and also SUPER AWESOME! And we went for a walk and walked Pepper and chatted and talked some more and watched Halt and Catch Fire. A good mellow day with a great friend.

Tomorrow I meet the other Trillian and we shall see if the world collapses.

Grand Tetons & Yellowstone

8/14/2014 Chadron State Park, Nebraska

For the conclusion of last night’s thunderstorm…it missed us at the park! There were some light rain sprinkles but I was able to sleep comfortably in my tent! Actually I had to do some yoga before I could sleep comfortably because my back was twerked. Just some crocodile twists and plow position and my back was much better. Unfortunately the person camping next to me was an exceptionally loud snorer. Still, I got some sleep. Proper spread out sleep. I woke up early due to it being REALLY HOT in my tent. Packed up, had some bagel and shmear, showered, and now I’m at the Trading Post using their wifi. Haven’t organized my travel photos since Iowa, so I’m getting on that.

I’ll probably go find an oil change before I head out to Wyoming and Tibby.

8/15/2014 Riverton, Wyoming

I made it into and halfwayish across Wyoming! It was a good long drive, but wow was it ever scenic! Mountains in the distance rose and fell, the clouds were jagged and soft, and in the distance I could see the little spots where it was raining. I drove through those spots of rain and into sunshine. I saw lightning in the distance, then lightning up close, and then lightning in my rear view mirror. I drove past Douglas and Casper. I filled up my tank in Chadron before going west on 20, then north on 25, then onto 20 and then 26. Today I am much in need of an oil change. It will be the first thing that I do in Riverton. Oil change. Then find a post office and drop off letters. Tibby is letting me crash here an extra night, so I’m going to pop up to Thermopolis and check it out and come back down here in the evening.

Tibby and I took an animation class together. She was a semester behind me and I went to her Thesis proposal whilst I was defending that focus week. She works for the local newspaper as a photographer, and freelances, and is generally a badass. She treated me to dinner, which was awesome. I ordered the pear and gorgonzola salad, because helloooo vegetables!  She took me on a little driving tour of Riverton. Reminding me of Bremerton in scale and entertainment provisions. I drove through some towns that had single digit populations listed on their sign. Riverton is around 10k.

I’m wondering if I will be able to camp at the Tetons and Yellowstone, so I’m going to plan to arrive at both in morning times. i.e. drive all day, get close, sleep, get up early and go into the park then. That worked out well for Badlands. And I need to remember to keep an eye on the weather, because Chadron was a close call and driving through minor storms reminded me that hey, the weather is different out here.

8/16/2014 Riverton, Wyoming 8am

I’m leaving Riverton today for Tetons National Park! It’s the weekend and it’s a popular park so I’m planning on not being able to camp. I’ve had a few good nights of rest, so I should be good for a few nights in my car.

Yesterday I went to Walmart and got my oil changed, and my tires rotated, and new windshield wipers. I’ve been needing new wipers for a few states now (well more than a few states). No Jiffy Lube presented itself nearby, and I get free rotation on half my tires because I got them at Walmart. Anyway, that was more morning/midafternoon (took longer than I expected). Then I drove up to Thermopolis, where you can have a free 20 minute soak in this hot sulfur bath. So I did that. Very warm, very eggy smelling. I wandered around the two blocks of downtown and drove on back to Riverton. There is a nice section of the drive that goes through Wind River Canyon (Wind Canyon?). It is a winding road that goes down and through a canyon, which is true to its name: windy. The drivers were nuts! Passing dangerously, and going over the white line to peek ahead to see if it is passable. Thankfully there were many pull outs, so I was able to pull off the road and park for a bit to let people pass.

I mellowed out at Tibby’s (who was gone working) for the rest of the day. Washed a few things. Watched a movie. Generally relaxed. Nice to just kick back on a couch for a day with no requirements for further activities or driving or anything. But now it is the morning and I must hit the road once again! A pitstop is needed to replenish my cooler of ice and food, and then it is off to the National Parks of Wyoming! Then Montana! Then across Idaho and to Portland and then Washington and then I am done…

That came rather suddenly, but then again it is the 16^th of August. I have probably two more weeks of travel to do? Week and a half? But I’ll be back in Washington by the end of the month, so that is good on the timing front of things.

8/16/2014 8pm Signal Mountain, Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming

Up at the overlook watching the sun set behind the Tetons. So beautiful. I am in the company of Sherry(Sherri?) and Scott up here. The sky is fading from blue to orange behind the peaks, which are soft grays with mottling of white. The mountains are very jagged and looming. A bit unreal considering how flat the rest of the landscape is. They just pop up in the horizon, and come more into focus. I wish I had a better camera so that I could capture the details. The little trees, the jagged rocks, just the beautiful faces of the range. Can’t wait to come back! Had a good full day today! I got into the park at around noonish. Got my visitors center stamps and postcards, then I drove down to Jenny Lake, ate, filled my water bottle, and hit the path! I did the half way around Jenny Lake walk to Inspiration Point. The walk was pretty flat with a few ups and downs. Inspiration Point was up some fairly steep switchbacks. You can take a shuttle boat across the lake if you want to skip the walk, but I didn’t want to fork over the cash so I just walked the wak. About 6 miles of hiking? At least 5. Took me four hours, though I spent some time sitting atop Inspiration Point hydrating and catching my breath and reading. A good solid hike. I passed a hiker who told me a moose was on the side of the trail, and there it was! Just sitting and munching. I told the next few hikers I passed to keep an eye out for the moose. I did a drive down to the bottom entrance, and then worked my way back up as the sun was going down. I took plenty of pictures, and went up to Signal Mountain The summit faced away from the Tetons, but a point down a ways faces toward it. I struck up a conversation with the others up here, all waiting for the sunset.

I could have camped here, but I opted not. A bit too expensive. Easier to drive to the nearest Walmart. Then I’ll get an early start on Yellowstone!

I wish I had more to say about Tetons. Looking forward to visiting it again!

7/17/2014 6pm Mammoth Springs Visitors Center, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

A wonderful thing happened! As we were saying our goodbyes, Sherri offered up the spare twin bed at their Tetons rental cabin for me to sleep in! I accepted their offer and I had a nice rest in cozy National Park comfort, instead of hours of driving out and sleeping in my car discomfort. What wonderful people Sherri and Scott are! Thank you so much, if you are reading this! I hope you have fun in the San Juan Islands.

And thus I was enabled to roll into Yellowstone early in the day. I came up the south entrance and found out Old Faithful was going to blow next at 10:30 and it was 9:50 when I was in the Grant Village VC. So I drove on to Old Faithful, and I don’t know if it was exactly 10:30 but it was blowing as I was walking up to it. The next scheduled eruption was noon. I hung around the VC, filled my water bottle, got my WPA postcards, and got a chocolate milkshake. By this point time had went by pretty fast, so I grabbed a spot for the noon eruption, which after many false starts blew at 12:13. Pretty great to have the reaction of the many MANY visitors when the little burps of water come up, but not the whole shebang, and finally the satisfaction of the whole thing. Pretty snazzy!

I did the shorter geyser loop, and returned to my car. Onwards towards Madison. I went to the Grand Prismatic Spring, which was indeed grand and colorful. I parked outside of the parking lot and walked in. I do not like the crowds, not one bit! I like to hike and see nature, not crawl through lots looking for the first spot available and then deal with the throngs at the scenic vistas. It’s well visited for a reason, but dang did I enjoy my time at Theodore Roosevelt more largely due to the lack of crowds. This National Park really needs a proper shuttle system.

Anyway, I drove on up to Norris, where there was no parking so I continued east to Canyon Village, where I loitered at Artist Point and checked out the canyon and falls. It continued to be lovely but the hustle and bustle blocked me from really being able to relax. I’ve been feeling antsy all day, like I can’t wait to be done with the park instead of sitting back and enjoying it. Tetons, despite crowds, somehow thinned them out in a more palatable way. Same for Zion.

From Canyon I went north and then west and here I am at Mammoth Springs. It was a glorious drive, and some of my fuel economy has recovered on the way down. I’m going to do some late afternoon hiking around the springs, and then I’ll be heading North into Montana towards some sort of something. I’m seeing more and more Washington license plates every day.

Shout out once again to Sherri and Scott.

8/17/2014 9:24pm an overlook in Yellowstone

After wandering around the many boardwalks around the springs, I found my way to an overlook to watch the sun go down, now I’m waiting for the stars to fully come out. The L key on my keyboard is taking more effort to use than it should. There is a line of cars. The road between Norris and Mammoth is under construction, so I’m guessing these cars were behind a slow/stop person, and they were allowed to proceed.

I made a wish on the first star I saw. The first star that wasn’t actually a satellite.

8/18/2014 8:30am a McDonalds in Bozeman, Montana

The Walmart I slept in was the most populated one yet. There were several clusters of the now very obvious to me campers and over night sleepers. I pulled in across from a truck and near a medium sized motorhome and a truck towing a trailer. Safety in numbers! My phone is having issues charging from my a/c adapter in my car. Really annoying when one is relying so much on their phone, but I knew how to get to Bozeman (really easy, just north on 89 out of Yellowstone then west on 90 when one gets to Livingstone). And I just kept an eye out for the Walmart sign and there it is. So now it is charging and I’m starting the day with 3$ of junk food. I need ice for my cooler. So after I do the internet rounds, I’ll fill up my tank and get some ice and then Butte to see BT’s show, and then upwards towards Glacier National Park. I’m planning on today being a driving day, so that I can pop into Glacier early instead of late. So I’ll be going scenic and slow. Bummer I won’t be hanging with BT himself in Butte, but plans change and one must change with them. I’ll see him when I get to Portand.

can I have another pasty, please?

7/30/2014 Interlochen State Park, Michigan

Back on the mitten part of Michigan after two full days of driving around Lake Michigan. After that McDonald’s I continued up. Through the forest, across the forest, up into more forest. It’s very nice and wooded up in northern Wisconsin, and it would probably be nice to camp in, but I went through many sudden rain storms, so it would not be fit at all to camp in. I continued east into Michigan as the sun set and camped in a Walmart parking lot. I’m trying to think if there is anything more I can say about the drive. The roads were pretty good, not rough like Maine. I stopped by a restaurant called “The Stand” which was a drive up sort of place, but they were cash only and I had no cash so I continued on.

Had an okay night sleep. It was cold, which was refreshing. Nice to not be sweltering in a car, because it’s really not safe at all to sleep with the door/window open. In the hotter areas, I just dealt with the climate, but I was very comfortable with my blanket and pillows. Had some very vivid dreams that involved travel and friends. Haven’t had any dreams in a while.

I departed the parking lot at around 7:30 and got to the camp ground at 5ish, though I crossed a time zone, so an hour was lost. Highway 2 across the Upper Peninsula (the UP populated by yoopers) was lovely. The woods gave way on the right to Lake Michigan, with beaches and dunes and tourist towns. And side of the highway shops offering pasties. After passing a few, I finally gave in and pulled in to procure the local dish. I ordered it with gravy, which was a good choice. A pasty (plural: pasties) is a pastry filled with meat and potatoes. Sort of like a potpie sealed up. The serving size was perfectly filling, and I bought a Great Lakes sticker for my cooler. I could absolutely go for another one right now. But I’m in a rustic camp site and it is late at night and I don’t think any restaurant would be open right now. Well.. maybe, but then I’d have to change out of my pajamas.

Filled with warm food, I set out once again. I paid the $4 bridge toll at St Ignace to cross south onto the main peninsula part of Michigan. A little bit on i95/i75/iwhichever and then at Grayling right on 72. Followed 72 for a longish while (lots of 23 miles to the next town signs with many more towns to go) to get to Bear Dunes National Seashore, or whichever it is called. I’ll look at the pamphlet in the morning. The campsites in the park were full, and I felt like camping instead of national parking, so I went on to the nearby but not totally near Interlochen State Park. Got me a rustic site with a view of Green Lake, and I put up my tent. Didn’t set a new set up record, but I came in pretty low. I spent a little bit of time on the narrow strip of beach reading and looking out at the water.

Tomorrow I’ll go see these dunes, probably read some more, then head south to Grand Rapids, where I’ll be for a few days, and then I’ll be booking it west properly this time.

8/1/2014 Grand Rapids, Michigan

I am writing quietly from Megan & Eric’s house. The other six people crashing here are sleeping. I was sober by the end of the night, so I’ve had an easy wake up. I don’t know when people will start waking up. I may head off to the venue and set up my tent there and help out if it seems like it’ll be a while. I don’t know what the morning plan is, I know there is a rehearsal dinner but as I’m not actually part of the wedding, I don’t know what I’ll be up to. Go with the flow.

Back to Interlochen State Park: had a lovely sleep in. No rain, just cozy warm goodness! I packed up and went to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. I did the scenic loop and climbed up the dune. How odd to see such big dunes on a lake shore. Beaches, sure, but huge dunes? And I swung by the maritime museum and looked at the old boats and the old house where the lighthouse people stayed while watching to make sure boats didn’t crash.

Then at 2:30ish it was time to depart for Grand Rapids. It was a nice just under 3 hour drive. I arrived at the venue, and gave Cally/Kayleigh a life to Megan & Eric’s as that is where the Bachelor/Bachelorette party was starting from. We were the first to arrive, and Ryan, Lauren, Stefan, Andy, and a whole bunch of other people arrived. There were cocktails and beer and egg salad and eventually sausages and burgers and homemade hummus. I ate and ate and drank a semi respectable amount. I joined the bachelorette party for a little bit of bar hopping, though I didn’t drink as I felt like having my wits about me, and I might be driving later so yeah. We met up at Pyramid Scheme, which is like a mini Ground Kontrol (barcade b/arcade). I chatted mostly with Eric’s sisters, over Megan’s cousins. We walked over to Stella’s and grabbed a table. I wish the TVs had subtitles on, so that I could follow the very weird old school The Incredible Hulk show. Why was he massaging that guy? What was that stuff in the container? I just don’t know. Then we went to Rumours, a club, and I tried to dance on the dance floor but I’m too self-conscious about my rhythm. Still, I tried!

We called a cab (we cabbed in) and the first one to arrive was stolen by another team of people! Boo!

Back at Megan & Eric’s I pitched my tent on their lawn, and after having another serving of food, I retired to my tent. So I suppose I could have drunk more, but I’m glad I’m feeling fine in the morning now as I plan to lend a hand in wedding prep today.

So yeah! It’s August now! The final month of this journey begins. I’ve got a good amount of National Parks to visit coming up, I can’t wait!

Chicago & cheese

7/28/2014 6:17 pm, Peninsula State Park, Wisconsin

I’m out on a peninsula that is its own county! Just like home. Except this is a peninsula out into a freshwater lake, so…not like home. The weather has cooled down a bit in this region, which is awesome. I can wear pants, I’m not sweating through everything, and just all around it is better. I am not a hot weather gal. And now I’ve hit 38 states. Ohio was 35, Indiana 36, Illinois 37 and Wisconsin 38! I have two more nights of camping, then come Thursday I set up my tent in Grand Rapids for a few days and enjoy the wedding shindig! Then I shall properly book it west. No more lollygagging! I brake for parks! Also there is only Tibby in Wyoming and BT in Montana and the crew in Portland to hang with. And just generally…being done with it all! I’m ready to retrospect.

I got up and showered in Indiana, had a little breakfast, and hit the road. Only an hour to get into Chicago. I parked my car in a garage that seemed pretty secure (it was in a basement garage and off the sidewalks, so I doubt many hooligans would be scooping in for stealing, and my car was fine at the end of the day) and heading to Portillo’s on Jeff’s recommendation. There was a line out the door, and the line extended far into the establishment, but the line moved fast. There were many people on the grills, and they got the lunch rush system down! I ordered the Italian beef and it was hot and steaming and filling and very good.

Chicago has so many big huge looming building with dynamic architecture. I was kinda amazed by just how big they all were. The sky was blue with moving, fluffy clouds which was just great to see peeking in the skyline gaps. I liked the look of it all more than New York. Pictures will show it better than I can explain. It was just a cool city, and while crowded there was enough space for people to walk about. Though damn the drivers and pedestrians were mental! Everyone was more gungho than they ought to be.

It was easy to walk from Portillo’s to Millenium Park, where I saw the Cloud Gate. AKA that shiny bean thing. The park had lots of interesting sculptures. Good for a city to have an open park with fountains for kids to play in. All city all the time isn’t good. Gotta have some green.

There was a line out the door for the museum and they needed more people selling tickets, but I got through in a generally decent amount of time. I used my student ID again. And it worked again. The museum had the usual: Renoir, Sargent, Monet, Manet, Degas, Picasso. More notably it had Picasso’s The Old Guitarist, Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, which was great to see up close and to look at all the dots and colors and the monkey! Grant Wood’s American Gothic was more textural than I was expecting, and Hopper’s Nighthawks was lovely. The layout of the museum wasn’t all that great, and I found myself backtracking to get to rooms. I like a museum that flows, so I can walk in one path and see the work, and go from era to era, instead of getting thrown out here and there and having to cut across and down and up stairs just to get somewhere else. They do have a huge collection, but still!

There was a Magritte exhibit, though I’m unsure how I feel about Magritte. Surrealism is hard to look at sans contemporary context, I feel. It’s such a different era. Still, now I’ve seen Treachery of Images, The Human Condition, and Not To Be Reproduced. I’m sure there is a 1001 Art Pieces to See Before You Die book, I should get that and get to checking things off. Just for bragging rights.

The Edward Steichen exhibit was neat, but the Taller De Grafica TGP print exhibit was where it’s at. The Leopoldo Mendez prints were so detailed and bold. I also saw some John Sloan, William Glackens, Ferdinand Hodler, Daumier, several Goyas that I nearly had my nose against the glass with, Boucher, Elbridge Ayer Burbank, Thomas Sully, Max Beckmann, and many others! The highlight for me were the Goya prints. And Lautrec’s At The Moulin Rouge. You know, the one with the blue faced lady. That one took me aback. I did not expect to see it, and there it was, and there I was! I love art so much. Seeing that was just such a treat.

And I saw my old buds Thomas Eakins and Winslow Homer in the American Art Before 1900 wing, which is fast becoming one of my “go to” wings. I like older, representational paintings. Portraiture.

Oh! And the Mary Cassat painting with the woman bathing her daughter, that was in the museum too! So great to spend time with art.

I left the museum at 5, which was when it closed, and got a deep dish personal pizza at Lou Martino’s Lou Mazello’s Lou… something. Andy recommended it. It was tasty, sure, but I like thinner pizza. I had left overs, which I have consumed today. I was given a table for four, thankfully I arrived when there was no wait because there was, once again the theme of Chicago, a line of people going outside when I left. I returned to my car, and off I went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

I could spend so much more time in Chicago. Well a few more days at least, for museums and food and architecture. It’s going on the “must visit for a long weekend” list.

My phone died when I was leaving the city, but I got enough of a charge back to find out which interstate out of the city wasn’t a toll.

Andy was a master’s student at PNCA during my first two years there. Me hanging out with him is somewhere in the archives. His girlfriend Lisa is also an artist, and they had a nice little bed for me to sleep on. They taught me how to play stump, and we played a few rounds (it’s a drinking game involving a hammer, nails, and a stump, and it’s less dangerous than it sounds). We all commiserated over art and collections and snooty people making art inaccessible.

They worked early, and the house doesn’t lock behind someone who lacks keys, so I left early too. But leaving early got me up to Door County (which Stephen and Erin recommended) early, and into my site before 1pm! So I’ve had all day to relax, rest, read, and organize. It was a straight shot up north, with little traffic. Camping was cheap ($17) but then the out of state vehicle fee ($10!) made it not cheap. Come on Wisconsin, give an out of towner a break! You are worse than New York, which only charged $5 for being out of town. Thus far Missouri is still winner for cheap camping and being welcoming to people from out of state. Said it before and I’ll say it again: I’d totally camp in Missouri again.

So today I set up tent, then went to the beach and sat and read and soaked up sun until the sun went behind clouds. It’s yet to come back from behind the clouds. I used the shower facilities. I organized my paper souvenirs into: tourism brochures, museum guides, maps, camping guides, and park pamplets. I should collect more state maps, that would have been a good thing to nab for each state I entered. I’ll make an initiative to do that at future rest stops. State maps are good to have on hand.

So now it is 7ishpm but my body thinks it is 8. I’ll eat something. Read more. Check out is 3pm, which is nice. Dunno where I’m off to tomorrow. Somewhere more north and east.

7/29/2014 3:38pm McDonalds in Rhinelander, Wisconsin

Taking a driving break. I’ve been on the road for a few hours now, though it has been scenic and lovely with many turns. The interstate stretches with no turns for 120 miles are the real drags. Switching it up every 30 miles is much better. It’s raining off and on, so I’m not going to set up camp. I had a dry night out on Door County. Not a drop of rain, though it never did get warmer than hoody weather. In the morning I heard a kid proclaim loudly “WASHINGTON!”. I assume he saw my license plate.

I packed up a bit early (well 10ish) and hit the road. I swung through Sturgeon Bay, dropped off some mail, and went to Renart’s for cheese. I sampled the curds and wensleydale and gouda, all was tasty, and bought some fancy string cheese for $2.99. It was several sticks, not one thing of string cheese. And it was so good. Very happy with my Wisconsin cheese.

I’m heading northwest for a bit, then I’m going to head east into Michigan. Dunno where I’ll stop. Like I said, weather is no good for camping. Two nights till I camp in Grand Rapids!

fire breathers, Canadians, old friends, new friends

Greetings from a house referred to as "The Bunker". I'm in Detroit, staying with some friends of Toon, my first roommate in Portland. One of those full circle moments in life. It's called the bunker because the walls are cement reinforced. Toon's art is on the walls, and it's nice and cool. In a few hours I'll head out to Grand Rapids to see my school friend Megan, and stay there! But I'm so far ahead of where I last reported, and it's only been a few days! I love it when this trip accelerates. I'm getting my wind back and it is blowing me west.

My Day in Toronto

I set out at around 10amish. On foot. I had drawn up a few maps of where the comic shops are and where the St. Lawrence Market was, and I looked at the map of Toronto and knew it would be a walk, but hey! Gotta see the city! It was less hot today than it was when I arrived. Perfect for walking! I went down Avenue and turned right on Bloor (rhymes with door). I walked past the Royal Ontario Museum, which had a funky architectural construction. The mix of people in Toronto was refreshing. Not overly suited like DC, not obviously students like Burlington. Just a good blend of all sorts in all ranges of fashion.

I swung by Little Island Comics, which was cute and all ages. Then I wandered into Honest Ed's, which is this massive store of discount goods of all sorts. Wonderful signage throughout, hand lettering and slogans. You gotta go upstairs through a room of bins of men's clothes and cut across and go down into the basement to get to food. And lots of that backtracking. It isn't easy to get around, but damn it was fun. I bought some snacks and headed out to the brilliant light of day.

The Beguiling is the best comic shop I've been in since Floating World Comics in Portland, Oregon. That's saying something! Indie shelves, foreign comics, zines, and knowledgeable staff. Made my heart swell to be in such an awesome spot, and really made me realize how far out of the comic loop I am. I was so into comics, what happened? I'm still into them, just not as much and not as actively.

South on Bathhurst was my next course of action, and I consumed my snacks (a canned iced tea and some chocolate) as I strolled down to downtown. Through a park. Past huge buildings and so much road construction. There is a lot in Toronto, but it doesn't have the hustling feeling that other cities have had, but it doesn't have the same concentration of stuff that Philadelphia had when I walked several miles through it. Caroline and Gary said it's a good city for food and beer. And the beers we had at the little pub last night were very good. And the beers we had tonight were also good, but that is jumping ahead!

So I wanted to grab lunch at St. Lawrence Market, which is a huge closed market with tons of stalls. And after walking for ages to get down there, I found it closed! It closes on certain days! Damn!! All that walking! Had I known, I would have stayed up around Bloor where it was more trendy. But also if I had an operational smart phone (mine doesn't work internationally) then I could have Googled stuff.

As it was, I just found a park and stretched my aching feet and read and ate snacks. Then I found my way into the Subway station and looked at the map and figured out roughly which station would be best to get off on (not many lines in Toronto, so no transfers!). Paid by $3 Canadian (Uncle Mark gave me some Canadian dollars) for a token, dropped the token in the thingy, and got on the train. Easy! And while I overshot the return to the apartment, I overshot it going uphill, so it was an easy walk down. I was loaned keys, so that I didn't have to coordinate with them when I was going out and about.

I lounged in the apartment for a bit and Caroline came home and I threw my shoes back on and off we went downtown to meet Gary at Wvrst for sausages and beer. We got on the bus, got a transfer slip, got off the bus and on the subway, then off the subway and onto the trolley! Such scooting about.

Wvrst has a great menu with interesting meats. Kangaroo. Guinea fowl. I went with the wild boar. And Caroline got some duck fat fries. Oh so good! Such carnivores. I'm glad that I can travel and consume with no allergic limitations. And as it was Monday, all Ontario beers were $5! Tasty tasty. Time flew by at our long bench style table. And oh the sausage was fantastic. We grabbed a subway back and arrived home after dark, and we all went to bed properly tired.

Escape from Toronto

You know how hard it is to get out of a city when you don't have any GPS and your printed out instructions end up being useless due to road constructions? Very. It's very hard. I said my goodbyes to Caroline and Gary in the morning, and loafed around a bit in the apartment before packing up. I dropped Caroline's loaned key off at the front desk of her work (which was really difficult to find due to it being on the second floor of a complex with a not so obvious elevator). My car was in a parking garage, which had decent rates. No harm was apparent on my car, hurray! I didn't think it would be. So I loaded up and put on comfy shoes and drove off. I had printed instructions for how to get to Detroit, but the route was blocked to construction, so I decided to get on Gardiner and hope there would be a turn off to 401, which I seem to remember seeing. But getting to Gardiner was tricky, and I ended up at the entrance to an airport or something. But the attendant at the gate and a truck driver gave me instructions (go out, second right, first left, right on this, then there is Gardiner) and I followed said instructions, and they were perfect! Mind you well over an hour has passed from me leaving the garage to this point, and I've only covered a few miles of distance across Toronto, but despite the congestion it was better than Nashville, which was heinous for driving.

And Gardiner did have an exit for 401! And thus the hours of driving began. The windmills were cool, but it was a whole lotta the same. Vast, sure, but no scale besides the windmills for the expansiveness of it all. A hill would have been nice. I took a mininap at one of the "ONroute" rest stops and spent some of my remaining Canadian coins on an iced coffee.

I crossed the border by way of the Winsor Tunnel. The wait to get to the customs agent was less than it was getting into Canada, but they made me park and leave my car so they could check it. I guess I haven't crossed the border into America on this passport, and the car isn't in my name, and I've been camping. I can see why they'd search me, and I have nothing to hide except carrots and a mallet. And even that I was honest about. So I sat in the waiting area and read and then struck up a conversation with some of the other waiting people about border crossings. I explained myself to the agent, the trip I was on, who the car belonged to, in all honesty of course. I'm not good at lying. And I was good to go! Nothing in my car looked ruffled. I was worried I might have to reorganize, but I didn't. Whooo!

Put a little bit of gas in my car and headed to Cyphar's. Cyphar being a friend of Toon. He, Mishiu, Eric(Rick?) and I went to get Lebanese food and oh what a platter of tasty meats that was! And tabuleh and rice. Shwarma. Mmm. We ate our fill and then some. My jaw is still giving my trouble. Have to eat slowly. I'm trying to feel out if my bite feels crooked, like my jaw somehow is a little out of sync. The alingment of one's jaw is really something taken for granted.

After food, I got a bit of a driving tour of Detroit (and we picked up Steve). And we stopped at an abandoned building and walked up the stairs to the roof and looked at the city from that vantage point. Gorgeous view. The light of Detroit obliterates the stars in the skies, and there are many buildings lit up all sorts of gleaming colors, but there are also dark patches where there are no lights, where there should be. It's a strange city, and very much on the surface how it is perceived: graffiti, obviously bad neighborhoods, deconstruction, abandoned buildings with shattered windows.

I have a bed to my own here at the house in Detroit, and I slept well in it. Now to go to Grand Rapids and see Megan!

Michigan makes 34. 14 to go!

Buffalo to Toronto

I totally neglected blogging in Buffalo. I thought, oh I'll do it tonight. Then oh I'll do it in the morning. Now here I am in Toronto, Canada!

I am in Toronto with Caroline and Gary. I've known Caroline online for well over 10 years. Probably the oldest online friend pen pal. We've been through so many stages of life together, and fluxes of conversation and no conversation. Seeing her in Toronto was one of the main uber goals of this trip. One of those "if I can accomplish this, it'll be amazing" and here I am without a hitch! My phone does not work in Canada, but I let her know before hand it might not so we just planned for me to park nearby and for me to hollar at her through open window and she came down and I found better parking for my car and yay here I am in Toronto! There seems like much to do, and I'm only here for one full day and Caroline and Gary work that day (Gary is Caroline's boyfriend, who is really nice), but we'll have the evening and I get time to roam but it also might be raining. Still, I'm here. Toronto is one of those cities I should visit again on its own for a few days properly. But driving up was painless. Just over two hours, and that was more due to a weather delay than traffic. Crossing the border was all sorts of questions about how I know Caroline, how much money I have, what sort of trip I am on, what I have in my car, who the car belongs to, does this person know I am visiting. I told the truth but it was one of those things where it's like, dang, I should have just lied. "Oh we went to college together". Boom! Easy! But I was let through and on I went. I was treated to dinner and we had several pints and gabbed (the three of us) and it was perfect. Like old friends catching up, which it was in a way. I'm wearing my most American shirt, which is a graphic of America where each state is represented with typography of the state name.

I don't know where to state with Toronto! It might be easier if I had good access to my phone and maps, but I don't. So I'll probably just walk a whole bunch tomorrow and draw a map. I don't know what exactly I want to see, but then again that would be better probably for a Toronto specific vacation.

But yeah! Whooo, Canada!

So, Buffalo? I guess I'll sum that up.

I got in to Janet and Mark's house and was let in by Maddie who is a friend of Kat, who is a summer intern of sorts who is staying at their house. Janet and Mark were else where. I took a shower and put on pajamas and M & K left, so I had the house to myself. I snacked and relaxed. Janet and Mark came back and we ate popcorn on the back porch while catching up. Janet and Mark, for the uninformed, are the parents of Leanne who I stayed with in Florida. Family upon family. Roaming the country.

Breakfast was aebleskivers, a Danish food, with bacon and eggs. Perfectly delicious! After breakfast, we three went to Niagara Falls. We parked on Turtle Island and walked, for we are good walkers! And we arrived during a perfect break in the rain. Well, it still rained, but lightly. I got some good views of the falls, and ANNDDD they treated me to a ride on Maid in the Mist, the boat that goes to the falls. We all got commemorative ponchos...which were needed to keep our torso dry in the mist, which was really just rain from the waterfall. My feet and pant legs got soaked. Still, what a blast! Just torrents and wind and mist and the falls RIGHT THERE! It was great. Absolutely wonderful. And Mark provided lots of insight about the falls.

We slogged our wet togs to Anchor Bar and met Kat and Maddie, and we were treated to a bucket of wings! Legit Buffalo wings. Mmm so good. That sort of usurped dinner plans, so hours later at home we went straight to dessert with strawberry shortcake, and card games.

Come morning, Mark picked up Great Aunt Doris, and we all went out for breakfast. Doris remembers that the last time she saw me, I was playing with Beanie Babies. I got some good stories about Grandpa, and just life way back when. Doris at 95 is still sharp and very mobile. There is a strain of longevity in this family, well a strain if we try to take care of ourselves. So I guess I need to start doing that.

After breakfast, I cleaned my car. I took everything out of the front seats and vacuumed. I reorganized. I tidied up. I made an effort to not make my car look totally shady when it comes to border watchers. Was there ever a time when you didn't need a passport to get into Canada? Seems like there wasn't, these days. There was some lunch after I cleaned, and then I packed up and off I went! Weather was good, but there was a bit of a storm, but it cleared up when I got into Toronto proper. Now I'm here! And that was what you've been missing. It's a top floor apartment and it's very warm.

But it isn't Florida.

sweet tooth

I'm sitting in a Dunkin Donuts in Rutland, Vermont. I'm charging my phone and mp3 player and killing time. I want to camp but the weather reports haven't been good...but it hasn't been stormy. I think if the weather looks good, I'm going to camp tomorrow night somewhere in Vermont. It's a beautiful state, I'd hate to dart through it. I'm meeting Caroline ... oh I already mentioned that. But yeah, I have a few days to spend in the area. After Toronto, I'm looking forward to doing some more long distance driving. Listening to stuff, covering ground. I'm getting tired. I don't like being on other people's schedules, though of course I respect their time. I'm the guest.

Okay so after Plymouth, I continued south to Manchester, where I oogled books in a used book store. Except the books I really want (Edan Lepucki's California, Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation, Jojo Moyes' Me Before You) are all brand new and not second hand...yet. But cheaper on my Kindle. But I have other books to read already! The Goldfinch! N0S4A2! Biographies! I'll just add them to the Christmas ISBN list...

Okay where was I? Yeah I went to Manchester. Nothing really made me want to stick around, so I drove to Lebanon, where Dartmouth is. I dried some of my wet camping stuff at a 24/7 laundromat. A little girl gave me one of her Skittles that she got from the crank machine. One of her precious Skittles! She was only allowed a quarters worth and she gave me one with no prompting. I was originally going to sleep in the Walmart parking lot in Dartmouth but they had a no loitering sign and it was a smaller one, so it didn't seem as open as other, larger ones. So I continued into Vermont! 33rd state! I grabbed some brochures from the visitor's center and continued on to the Walmart near Montpelier and slept there. I went in in the morning to use the bathroom, but this lady was like "what are you doing? can I help you?" turns out they weren't open! Well then why was their door open? She was grumpy but the other employees weren't fussed. So I drove on into Montpelier, and used the bathroom in the City Center building and changed and sat in the little coffee shop and worked on my journal and woke slowly up.

Montpelier is so cute! Just a few streets of cute shops. Not a whole bunch of goings ons, but it is tucked in a nice bunch of green mountains. And it does have a cute little movie theater. My kind of little town! I surveyed the local books shops. Walked about. Then got in my car and went to the maple farm nearby. I tried all the maple syrups. 100% pure good shit, aww yeah. And the maple creme. I didn't buy anything to take home, because home is my car for the next two months or so...I've done a pretty good job of not buying souvenirs! I have a shirt from the Museum of Osteology, a bunch of crushed pennies, a Dunkin Donuts mug from Florida...yeah. And a few other odds and ends. The main thing are the stickers and those are going on my cooler.

And the memories.

After the maple farm and the maple creemee (sort of a soft serve) I continued North about 30 minutes to the Ben & Jerry's Factory. It was a lovely compound. Well painted and decorated. They had food, a tie dye stand, and cut outs to stick your head through. Cut outs are sad when you are by yourself because you have no one to take your picture...or no one to take your picture with.

I took the tour. Only four bucks! Though the tour is just a video, an overhead view of the production plant (which is relatively small scale, I think this is just a smaller batch one to show tourists), BUT you get to try an ice cream flavor at the end that is exclusive to the Waterbury location. This one was strawberry ice cream with white chocolate and a fudge swirl. Delicious! I didn't have any more ice cream after that because dang, a creemee and a sample size! That's already a lot for one day.

It was starting to rain. I drove towards Burlington and stopped at the rest stop and ate a bagel and tried to think of what to do. I continued on to Burlington. I saw the World's Tallest Filing Cabinet (it's pretty tall, but it's just a bunch of cabinets welded together, but I also guess any taller and the structure would break). I swung by the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory and got a crushed penny and a picture of the VERY CREEPY teddy bear made of hay that they have there. It's all falling apart and...very creepy looking. I got my oil changed. I ended up in the college area of town. It's amazing how readily obvious those sections of cities become. Flyers for concerts, more mixed crowds of people, gutter punks, upscale trendy coffee places, more little restaurants.

I headed south on 7 to Rutland. Beautiful drive through more rolling hills. I arrived at the Dunkin Donuts. Ray, a customer, gave me some camping tips. There is a Walmart nearby, so I'm off to there. It is raining. Hopefully the weather is better tomorrow.

risdiculous

I'm heading out to Maine tomorrow! Going to go over New Hampshire. I'll get to there and Vermont on the way back and up to Montreal. It helps to actually look at maps.

I drove down to Providence, Rhode Island. I'm officially up to 30 states! I don't like calling states I cruise just over. So Maine will be 31, then New Hampshire 32, and Vermont 33. So close to 40! I still have a ways of travel left, but I'm almost heading west. Returning to the Pacific. I have a lot of ground to cover, but it's ground going to where I am from. I'll back to distances and camping. And there are a few more people to visit with. BT, Tibby, Megan, Caroline.

So! Providence! I found parking on the hill in the midst of Brown University. It said two hours, so I set my phone alarm. Brown has a lot of nice buildings, all up and down hills with winding climbing stairs. I like houses stuck higgelty on a hill like that. Not all gridded out on a plane. RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) was also there, but I didn't feel like paying to see their museum for a short bit. I did feel like taking a picture of their personal emergency vehicles with RISD vinyl wraps. Vehicle wraps are costly! It looked so silly, and then RISD alumni retweeted my photo! Did they know I was making fun of them? What kind of school has that?

I checked out the little anthropology display, and this historical house. But I wasn't really feeling Providence, so I continued on south and east. I cruised out to Sakonnet Vineyard to buy a bottle of wine for Darrah as a thank you & birthday gift. Getting to the vineyard took me back and forth between Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Kinda funny that Rhode Island even bothers being a state.

After the wine was procured, I returned to Gloucester. My GPS took me through Boston and I was reminded that I was only there for one day and I didn't see so much of the city, but I did have fun. Boston will still be here. It's a big city. I'm not too fussed that I didn't spend more time there. I'm excited for nature and being on the road and knocking off states and seeing a bit of Canada.

Darrah made a tofu and veggie dinner. Now it's time to sleep. Tomorrow I head off. Gas & food and northward ho!

the road most traveled for years

These past two weeks I've driven the least of the different 2 week chunks. When I have a chance to rest and stay over, I certainly like to take it. Averie is going to be in Boston soon, not for long, but I am dragging my heels. Right now it is six more days, but that is so long in road trip time! But I suppose I could go up North, camp, and come back, instead of home basing it, which is what I have been doing. Darrah is very kind to have me. And Jill, who is also staying here. Both very kind, lovely ladies!

Now I'm finding things to do in Rhode Island. Yeah, I think I will go camp up north for a few days. I miss camping. Except there are tick warnings and I don't have anyone in my life that could check me for ticks. Decisions.

Well, whatever happens will happen. I don't want Lyme disease though. That isn't something that needs to happen.

So on Tuesday I drove down into Connecticut, nice and proper this time so now I can count it in my state count: 29! Rhode Island will bring me nice and neat to 30. Then it is 18 to go, and that is hardly any number! I want to get to Butte before BT leaves.

I got a medium morning start on driving, but it was still a bunch of driving. Several hours. But it went well. Lots of zigzagging to avoid tolls. I wish telling how much tolls will be was a readily available part of Google Maps, because it just warns of tolls but doesn't say how much. Will it be 6 bucks? 17? 2? If it is 2, I'll pay 2, because I burn more gas driving around, but it if it's a lot then well, screw that.

So I drove to New Haven, where Michael recommended going for art museums, and Yale's art museum was FREE! So that is a done deal. There was street parking readily available, and it was only a buck fifty an hour! But limited to two hours, but that only shaved half an hour off my time at the museum, because parking was covered till 4:30 and the museum closed at 5. They even had free lockers! So I could stroll with just my notebook. And it turns out ~2 hours was perfect for the collection. They had a nice Stubbs, I really dug this Winterhalter. They had a few Eakins as well. I guess Eakins is very East Coast. There was a west coast exhibit with some Thiebauds. Love his work. There was a collection of miniatures and they even provided a magnifying glass to really peer at them. So cool! I love miniature portraits so much.

I drove a couple blocks and parked again and went to the uber Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. A pleeb like me couldn't touch the books, but I could walk around their glass enclosure and look at a Gutenberg Bible and Audubon Folio (also behind glass). It was a very cool building. The exterior was made with some sort of marble that didn't let light in, but sort of glowed in the sun. Very...epic.

I got an iced green tea from Blue State Coffee and sat and read for a bit, then I drove to Mystic, and walked around the seaport a bit. Unfortunately I couldn't get near the wooden boats without breaking and entering. But it was a nice place to watch the sunset. It was an easy drive back. I'm getting an earlier start today.

On Sunday I caught a matinee of Snowpiercer, which was all dystopian and neat and claustrophobic, though it had some shakey cam. Good casting with Alison Pill, Tilda Swinton, Chris Evans, Ewen Bremmer, Jamie Bell, Luke Pasqualino, and others. There were pancakes and chicken too. And we went out for fish and chips on Monday. It was a big platter type meal, instead of individual plates. The sunset in my eyes, but it was still pretty. It's nice out here in Gloucester. Quiet, yet established. It doesn't feel empty like so many towns I have driven through. These East Coast towns are too close to establishment and money and work. Schools.

So. 10am. Rhode Island. But first I must shower.

bawston

Boston! Boston was super fun. I popped around and had lots of ice cream and took the subway and saw fishes and... I guess you'll want more description than that.

Darrah loaned me her commuter pass, which was all trains and what not included! So I could do the bus or the train or whatever with no worry of cost. How great! And it covered the train ride in from Rockport, which was an hour and some change to North Station, Boston. I read and wrote in my journal and watched the scenery go by. Very nice and effortless.

I opted to wear pants, which was a gambit because it was due to be warm but not 90 degrees. I could have probably been fine in shorts, but I wanted to wear pants. And I was fine! Got a bit hot here and there, but nothing too bad. With the pass and the public transit option in Google Maps, it was easy to get around town. I hopped on the subway to the aquarium, and thanks to a free pass Darrah gave me (Darrah is all kinds of great) I went through the shorter pass line and was in lickety split! The New England Aquarium was crowded, but - oh! I forgot a bit.

The subway let me off near this square where there were food markets, just a row of indoor stalls a block long, so I went up and down it and went with chicken teriyaki and ate that on the steps. THEN I went to the aquarium. Which was crowded. But of course it was. It was Saturday on a holiday weekend. Lots of families. Lots of accents. I don't think I've seen a bigger density of tourists than in this part of Boston. Even New York I think they were stretched out. Or maybe less obvious.

Anyhoo! The penguins sure were cute. Lots of different kinds all sitting about. And they had good fishes in the tanks. I really liked the big central aquarium and I spent a lot of time watching the fish go by. There were some big ones. And one fish pooped and another fish at the poop. And a scuba diver in the tank accidentally thwapped the turtle in the head with his fin, but the turtle didn't seem fussed. After an hour of navigating crowds, I left to get ice cream!

A guide pamphlet listed two places: Picco for well known flavors done right and Toscanini's for funky interesting flavors. Picco was a bit closer, so I hopped on the subway once again, transferred, and bam! Picco! I got the caramel swirl and it was indeed tasty. I ate it while walking about, and sat in the park and read for a bit while watching people in swanboats go about. There were a couple violinists dispersing music through the air. It was a very nice day. Perfect warm weather.

I got back on the subway and headed up into Cambridge for Toscanini's. I overshot the place and ended up at MIT. There was a bit fancy building with columns. I debated hanging around to procure a husband, but I think I was wearing too intimidating of a shade of lipstick, so I continued back and got to Toscanini's and their array of flavors did not disappoint. I went with the Gianduja, which is chocolate and ground hazelnut and it was some of the best ice cream I have ever had. And I've had a lot of ice cream! It was perfectly smooth and edible and good and mmm. Good choice!

Sated, I set about returning to North Station. In the subway this musician, Sergei, was playing some low tempo synthy stuff that gave the wait this amazing soundtrack. I gave him a dollar. Life and travel can have some interesting soundtracks.

I only had to wait 20 minutes to board the train back. A good thing because they left just bout every hour and if I had missed it, I would have been sore. I read mostly on the way back. I had parked at the station, where there was free parking, and my car was unmolested. Though the only stuff that is visible are camping supplies. No bags or wallets. A bonfire was burning to the right as I drove back into Gloucester. What a lovely day! I've never spent much time on subways. Getting the hang of it. It's easy when you pay a flat fee/have a pass to get into the system. I don't know how I'd deal if I had to pay for tickets that depended on the number of stops I had to take (i.e. Japan if I recall correctly).

This morning there were pancakes and I sat out back and read. I don't think I'll go back into Boston. I'll just relax up here.

into Brooklyn. into the storm.

I'm in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Oh how I move around! But it's easy when you chug it out of one place to avoid city traffic in a storm. And it's easy when the states are so much smaller.

So Carly stayed home whilst I went out to explore Long Island. I've found that I miss the long drives. The time to settle in and snack and listen to several podcasts in a row and not think about turns for a while. It was nice to drive out to Montauk point and see the lighthouse and the ocean and avoid the bushes because there were tick warning signs. Not camping in tickville, that's for sure! Just had some time to myself to drive and all that good stuff. But then it got dark and rainy and lightningy. And Carly said I was welcome another night, so I took her up on it! And her dad bought us breakfast when we all eventually woke up. What good, kind people! I hung around for a bit and then plugged in Elnora's Brooklyn address and headed off hoping that free parking would be available and the traffic wouldn't be a nightmare. And while it took me a while and it was slow in some parts, it wasn't heinous, and the Park Slope area of Brooklyn had plenty of street parking in neighborhoods. And free parking! It just had some street sweeping restrictions, but I parked on a Thursday, and Thursday was the day for that street, but it had already happened. So hurray! And being residential, I felt that my stuff was relatively safe. And with a thunderstorm going through the night, I'm sure no one would bother breaking into a car. Still I covered up my stuff.

It was 91 degrees and humid and oh how I melted. I got some legit shaved ice, where they shaved the ice off a block and flavored it (I went for plum). And walked around the area. And went to the Brooklyn Public Library, which had a nice exterior, but inside wasn't anything to write home about (except that is exactly what I am doing right now). I ended up taking a bit of a nap in a second floor vestibule.

In the library I was able to cool down and hydrate and rest, and then I set out for Prospect Park! And it was lovely. Trees and paths and a big rolling field. I sat under a tree and read The Goldfinch, but then I overheard someone talking about a thunderstorm warning, and when I checked the weather report on my phone, sure enough there was a warning for one coming up! So I returned to my car and packed up my backpack with over night supplies. I wasn't sure if I was staying overnight, but if it were an option, I wanted my stuff. And my umbrella.

I wandered around some more. I grabbed a fancy burger at Burger Bistro in Park Slope. The menu had all these options you ticked off, so I went with sharp cheddar, caramelized onions, lettuce, and medium done. There were more, but I had to control myself. It hit the spot but didn't stuff me. Then I was off and walking again. Park Slope is nice. A little posher, but more neighborhoody. Lots of brownstones and brick buildings all sharing walls and crowded in on each other. I kinda like that set up. Elnora lives in an apartment in one of these, so I get the added bonus of being able to go into one!

Elnora is my friend from way back when I took the PNCA Pre-College Program. Haven't seen her since. She is such a snappy dresser, perfect for New York. And it was amazing to catch up and reminisce. We got a brewski at a nearby bar and played indoor bocce, as one does in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

The rain was just starting to come down as we returned, and it came hard not soon after we were indoors. Her apartment is on the top floor and lacks AC, so it was stuffy. It was okay for me to stay the night, so I slept on a pile of blankets on a section of the floor. Better than driving in a torrent and sleeping in my car somewhere unknown, that is for sure! And it wasn't so bad. My tent in Florida at that one campsite was much stuffier.

It was great to see Elnora. We had good talks about life, and she suggested hanging in places for a month, like subletting to really stay and see what's going on. Which would be an awesome option...if only my stuff wasn't in storage. But it's a good idea for when I am done with the trip. I'd like to spend more time in Philly and Durham. New York and Brooklyn are great but just so big...Philly is big too but a little more walkable.

I want the weather to improve so I can camp. Camping is no good in the rain. I would have gone to Connecticut and Rhode Island and camped, but tropical storm Arthur is making everything all kinds of rainy, so I called Darrah who lives in Gloucester, and headed on over. A good 5 hours of driving, but to go across 3 states in 5 hours ain't to shabby. Well from New York, across Connecticut, and into Massachusetts. I set my GPS to "avoid tolls" and "avoid ferries" and it only added about an extra half hour to the trip. Not too shabby! So I went up to 91 and 84 for a bit, instead of 95 and the turnpike. Or whichever.

I'll be needing spell check during my stay in Massachusetts. Yup needed spell check for that. Darrah has a nice home in Gloucester. I settled in and showered and Darrah put some sausage on a salad for me, and that was tasty. So I'm taking it easy right now. Want to go into Boston and check it out. Get some fancy ice cream. It'll probably be my last major city for a while. Want to camp and hike and sleep in my tent again!

But also Averie is going to be in Boston on the 14th...

New York, New York (and Long Island)

Where do I start to describe New York? Well no one pooped in the street, so it has that up on San Francisco.

I left Philly at 4ish, and drove towards New Jersey. Crossed the border and gas dropped a quarter, so I filled up and continued on a scenic route towards Atlantic City. Not much of a drive, about an hour tops. It really isn't a big state. I parked near the boardwalk (for free, points to Atlantic City) and strolled up and down it. There was a triathlon finishing up and there were some tired sweaty athletes, and lots of cheering families with sponsor logo cowbells that they jangled in support. It was hard to find a neon sign at the Trump Palace Whatever that didn't had a letter burned out. Lots of the neon was partially burned out. I recently heard a story that Showboat had closed down suddenly. I guess Atlantic City isn't doing so well.

After dark, I cruised up the Garden State Parkway, which was a toll road but the tolls ranged from seventy five cents to a buck fifty, which isn't bad at all compared to some that are six bucks for an hours worth of driving. Then BAM bridge toll into New York: $13!! Dang! And I got turned around and hit another bridge toll (there was construction on one bridge) (and it was actually the Holland tunnel, not a bridge, and I was deposited into New York, but it was 2:30am so it was mostly vacant streets and I just wanted to get outta there, but I got onto the Queens Bridge or something like that) and just all of it was bridges bridges bridges. When you go to an island, you gotta cross a bridge. But no more tolls! Hurray! I camped out in a Wal Mart and then in the morning I went to Carly's house (after dropping off my parking fee from Philly). Carly, like many, lives with her parents. But her ma Jeanette and pa Jim were very nice. Jeanette treated us to diner food even! I gobbled down some eggs benedict. Carly took me to Sunken Meadow State Beach Park Place Thingy and we walked along the beach and boardwalk. Then there was much lounging at the house and watching TV. Tomorrow we went into THE CITY. NEW YORK CITY. THE BIG APPLE PLACE.

8:30 get out of bed to get to the train station for the 9:30 into the city. It is a longish train ride on the LIRR (Long Island Rail Road), with a transfer in Huntington. They need a bullet train. And to think many people make this ride every day as their commute! But I drove from San Francisco to Santa Cruz for a few weeks....but that was until I moved. Most can't move into New York.

So! New York! We arrived at Penn Station, and it was hustling, but Carly lead the way and we met up with her friend Thomas who then lead the way. And being lead around New York is great, because people generally know where they are going and then you aren't just standing and looking at a map and wondering and trying to figure stuff out. A sense of purpose goes a long way. So we were lead onto the street, and in describing New York I can only really say it was a big city. Big buildings, lots of cars, lots of people. We went through a bit of Chinatown and there was a fishmonger with live crabs getting shuffled about in their basket, and a live lobster too, but not in a tank. And people selling toys from stalls, and souvenirs, and fashionable people were everywhere! Lots of ladies in dresses and men in suits. I was wearing my Arizona necklace (this nice one I got from a stand on the side of the road in Arizona), and a black tank and a bit of makeup, so I wasn't totally a ruffian, but still way outdressed by the hoi polloi.

We met up with a fourth friend, Denise, and we all went to Joe's Shanghai. Though there was some subway taking. Down into the subway! Metro card purchasing! Going through the turn thingy and going on one train then transferring! How exciting. And easy because Thomas knew where we were going. Joe's Shanghai was a crowded place and our six person table had two more people added to it, but that is fine. We ordered dumplings and some noodles and food and gobbled the tasty dumplings down. I burned my mouth only a little bit. The restaurant had photos of the owner with famous people who had eaten there: Jake Gyllenhaall, Jessie Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Cera. A very nummy experience. Juice was procured, though I opted out. We stood in Jamba Juice for a while enjoying the A/C. New York was hot today. High 80's. Though not as bad as Florida. Nothing will ever be as bad as Florida's heat. How can people stand it? My bug bites are still healing, but are almost gone.

Denise was walked to work and then we parted ways. One more subway later and we were at The Met! Which is an awesome museum because hey: suggested donation admittance! We each paid a buck and that was that. Oh what a museum! Thomas left at 3:30ish and Carly and I were ushered out at 5:15 at closing time.

I saw George Washington Crossing the Delaware, more Eakins and Homer, more Van Gogh, Matisse, Sargent, I discovered the work of Lilly Martin Spencer. Yay for a new lady in an art museum on top of the old regulars. We also saw some funny ugly renaissance babies. The Garry Winogrand exhibit was happening, and I saw the art book from the exhibit at Wilson's, so that is another example of repetition and foreshadowing in this journey of mine. It's building upon itself! The museum was even bigger than the Philadelphia Museum of Art, but with cheap admittance one could easily return many times...provided they live in New York. But yeah! I was happy I got to see that.

We got some snacks and walked around. Went into Cental Park for a bit and I was all "I'm in Central Park!" Though it didn't really hit me all the way that I'm in New York. Maybe because I was visiting with the confidence of my companions, so that it didn't feel so daunting and huge. It was still huge. I'll be back, but hopefully when I'm famous and invited to a convention or something.

On the way back both our phones died, but we knew enough to know where to get to a subway station and based on a map which routes to take, and then we undertook the 9 block hot trot to the LIRR station from Times Square. The train back left every hour on the :20 and last time we checked a clock was a while ago, so we weren't sure if we were going to miss it, or if we had half an hour. So yeah, we did a medium job to the station and arrived sweaty and hot and frazzled and it was 8 o'clock! And the train was delayed till 8:40! So we had plenty of time to catch our breath, grab some food at the station, and then call home via payphone to let Jeanette know what train we will be on. Trial and tribulations and it all worked out, hurray!

At home we sat and sat and then slept and slept. Jeanette went to a bakery and brought back this chocolate epic chocolate thing for me! I just said surprise me when she was making the order and she sure did. Later on we got McDonald's. Now Carly and I are going to drive out to Montauk and see whats up with there. It's a nice day for a bit of a drive. I'll be seeing Elnora soon. There might be some camping tonight. Or some sleeping in car... either way, I'll figure it out.

I've now seen a part of John Wilkes Booth's thorax

My laundry is tumbling in a dryer upstairs. Once it is done, I shall fold it and put it away and ride off into the day...to a gas station.

I had a big day yesterday! Lots of walking around and enjoyment. I opted to try public transit, as Kathryn's house is near a train station, so that's pretty much the easiest and surefire route to get anywhere. Clearer stops and all that. And with my smart phone, I could Googlemaps public transit options. The train was more train than fancy light rail. I grabbed a spot and waited for the ticket taker to show up so that I could pay. I bought the all day ticket, so I could take any transport at any time with no worry. It was a very pretty ticket, with shiny logos and lots of colors and the date punched out. I love seeing the bonafide ticket punchers, it's so...well almost archaic now with everything being scanable and digital. So I got my pass, and got off downtown and walked in circles a bit before I figured out where I was going.

The start of the day was all about the Mütter Museum. It was a collection of medical artifacts, tools, preserved medical oddities, and just all around... gross stuff. There were many deformed fetuses in jars, fetus skeletons, a whole wall of skulls, an impacted colon, several skeletons including one with a very rare bone disease where the guy spent 15 years pretty much in the same position in care. The artifacts were preserved in a sort of sickly way. They looked more real and organic. Not very dried out and polished. All the bones in the Museum of Osteology were pristine looking. These bones were...not. And the jarred specimens. You just can't get past a cycloptic baby in a jar. Yeah. It was ... gnarly. But I enjoyed it! Because that is how I do. I did need a breath of fresh air in the Benjamin Rush Medicinal Plant Garden. And I caught the Brothers Quay weird art film they made in the museum.

From the gross glory of the Mütter, I walked to the Rodin Museum, which I got free admission for with yesterday's Philadelphia Museum of Art ticket. I checked out all the bronzes and admired the handiwork. Then I was getting hungry so I knew it was time: Philly Cheesesteak time.

I decided to go to Geno's, which I guess is the tourist option. It was a walk aways, but I had my walking shoes on and my mp3 player full of tunes, so off I went! Philadelphia has a pretty good assortment of shops. A lot of times when walking for miles through a city, it seems like once you get past a street it just drops to residential and then that is it. My path went through food stall streets, and upscale shopping streets, and just restaurants and smoothie places and galleries. It was a really nice variety, and I could see myself spending much more time here just eating and checking out art. Philly, parking aside, is great. I like it more than Austin, that's for sure.

So Geno's was across the corner from Pat's and I guess they have a rivalry? Each place has a long line, but I assumed the lines moved fast. Which they did. I struck up a conversation with the lady behind me in line, and she said I was her hero for taking this trip. A hero! Me!

I gobbled down my sandwich on some person's doorstep stairs. Very tasty, though the cheesesteak I had from that vendor in Portland was better I'd say. Then I plugged in the Reading Terminal Market into my GPS because I wanted ice cream, and I grabbed a bus nearby and waved my all day pass, and boom off I went! But oops the market closes at 5 as it turns out. So I just got on the train and headed back, because my dogs were majorly barking!

The train was different from the one I went in on, and it dropped me off at a different Jenkintown stop, so there was a moment of panic of "oh my god please let me be on the right train, please GPS don't have lied to me!" but I got there all right. No problems with public transit whatsoever! And it also made me aware of my skillset of just taking trains and dealing with schedules and all that stuff. I didn't grow up with public transit, so it's all been stuff I've learned in the past 7 years. Anyway, it's good to have a sense of capability, I think.

At the house I snacked and watched TV and slept pretty well, though I slept on my arm weird. It's fine now, but there was a painful bit of it just being sore and stiff.

So I'm waiting on laundry. Guess I'll start loading my car and packin' it up. I'll head off to New Jersey, but I'll try to avoid toll roads. Just go to the beach or something. Princeton's art museum is free, and only an hour away, but it closes at 5 due to it being a Sunday and it's 2:30 now.

Philly bucket list

If only I hadn’t gotten so lost in a meandering way, if only I hadn’t stopped to get something to drink, if only I hadn’t swung by Ross to get a replacement pair of cheap flats…I may have gotten to my car 11 minutes earlier and not gotten the $36 parking ticket for the expired meter! Damn Philadelphia, I was liking you but your parking is ridiculous and expensive. The downside of city visiting: gotta pay if you wanna park near & safe. Oh well. Could be worse. Philly is nice. Has a lot going on and tons of museums. I spent all day today just at ONE museum and there was still more I could see. Tomorrow I’ll go to the Mutter and get that Philly cheese steak, and then that is that. I’m staying with Kathryn, one of Celia’s friends. She is out of town for a bit of my stay, but I can still stay here! How nice is that? Very nice. I’ve also met her daughter Clare and her son Eamon. Their house is very nice, with tons of pretty rugs and nice tapestry on the couches and monkey wallpaper in one of the bathrooms. I love seeing all these houses.

It was an easy drive out here from Marietta, though I did have to pay a toll, though not the costliest of tolls. I sat at the house and hung with Clare and Eamon for a while, before heading downtown. I went to Reading Terminal Market, which was a block of food stalls under one roof. Tons of restaurants of all sorts, and the place smelled great. Very hustle and bustle. I eventually decided on artisanal grilled cheese. A brie and pine nut and cranberry grilled cheese. It was so good. And I finished it off with some fudge. I then wandered down to Mostly Books, a used book shop with other used stuff. I rifled through the antique photos. I sweated. And as I mentioned, after all my wandering and shopping I returned to my car just a bit too late.

I didn’t linger in the evening. I just went back to the house and showered and chatted and tucked into bed early. Big day tomorrow!

All day was spent at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was HUGE with a massive collection of essential fine art. I parked in their lot and used my Olympic College ID to get student discount. I peeled off the “fall 2011” sticker first. I have my PNCA ID, but I look younger in that. If I’m going to cheat the system, I might as well use the less obvious cheat. And it worked! Hurray!

I started with the prints and drawings. They had some WPA prints which were lovely, even if their registration wouldn’t have passed my standards. Then I went into the American Art section. I totally missed The Gross Clinic on the first go around, but I returned to it at the end of the day. Yes. The. Gross. Clinic. By Eakins. I’ve seen so much fine art in person now. And some of it was stuff I’ve seen when it was on tour at Portland Art Museum. I saw Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers in the European Art wing. Saw a bunch of Winslow Homer, who I didn’t know existed till now but damn I love him. In the Modern and Contemporary Art wing I saw a massive Alex Katz, instantly recognizable out of the corner of my eye.

The museum had the mandatory women artists: Alice Neel, Mary Cassat, Judith Leyster, and Berthe Morisot.

Duchamp had his amazing section at the end of the wing. I grabbed a selfie with Nude Descending Staircase. I think Duchamp would approve. There was The Bride Stripped Bare by her Grooms, Even in all its shattered glory. And a recreation of R. Mutt. And just tons of stuff I’ve seen in art books, but there! I didn’t know they had that much in one spot, but damn there it was. And Etant Donnes was there. Duchamp’s final piece. 20 years of work. It’s an installation that you have to approach. There are these bar doors and you peek through a hole in the door and you are looking at a reclining nude woman holding a glass lamp. It’s a sculpture in the scene, though as much as you lean over, you can’t see her face. And the figure is laying on a bed of sticks and the whole scene is painted in the background. It’s a bit pervy, amplified by having to peep at the art. I learned about this piece years ago and knew I’d have to see it one day. Philadelphia has been on my list for ages. Seeing this piece was on my bucket list. Was. I’m accomplishing on this trip things I’ve wanted to accomplish for so long. I’ll have a short bucket list when I’m done. I still can’t believe I’ve seen it, though I was pressed against that door for a good long while, gawking.

There is a Picasso Minotaur print exhibit. That was nice. I do like his line work and intuition. And a photography exhibit devoted to the use of flash in the medium. At the Perelman Building was a Patrick Kelly exhibit with lots of his fashion on display. Utterly delightful! I was starting to flag but getting outside and eating a bagel got a bit of pep in my step for the last leg of it. The museum was open late, but my energy ran out at 5. 6 hours!

But I’m not even done talking about the art that I saw. You see why I’m so tired? I like to take my time and look. There was a kid who powered through the Eakins gallery just snapping a picture of each painting and moving on, not even looking. And there was a cluster of loud German tourists. And a kid that was whining to his mom and wanted to go, even though it was like… noon so the kid couldn’t have been there long. Brat!

Saw an epic Rubens. The galleries have some exhibits that are set up like old rooms. Old Flemish rooms, Dutch rooms, Victorian rooms. So you can see some of the stuff in context instead of behind glass. I saw Frans Hals and a Vermeer, which was authenticated because the canvas came from the same bolt of cloth that another Vermeer was painted on. That is s ome CSI shit right there.

Here is a list of artists I made note of: Antonio Fransconi, Alfred Bendier, Jacob Eichholtz, Winslow Homer, Sir Frederick Leighton, Charlemont, Vuillard, Kay Sage Tanguy, Noel Mahaffey, Kamisaka Sekka, Collin Son(Sun?), and George Stubbs.

I feel like I’m forgetting something. But damn it was an epic wander of art. I got back to the house at 6 absolutely pooped. Now I’m just going to chill. Tomorrow: Mutter & Cheese Steak. And then probably more chilling. And then Sunday will take me to New Jersey. Taking my time. Eight weeks! I keep forgetting to reset my odometer, but I’m not putting on too many miles these past few days, so it shouldn’t throw the next two weeks count all that much.