I have been (happily) sleeping on real beds and spending most of my time in places other than the van for the last two weeks, but today I’m getting back into the road rhythm a little bit.
The day looked pretty gray staring up through the skylight(*) today, and sure enough, it was soon raining pretty hard … a cold, 34-degree rain. Sort of depressing actually. I cranked up the van and drove downtown to avoid getting wet, but parking in downtown Montpelier was such a pain in the ass that I drove back to my spot and broke out the umbrella and walked, which was all around better as it happened.
(*) actually, just a clear plastic roof vent, but really, doesn’t skylight sound so much better?
Today was the Democrat breakfast place (Capitol Grounds), definitely much cuter servers, and wifi. When I was done, the rain was lighter, and the world was a different place! It was gloomy and depressing when I went in, and very pleasant and uplifting when I left; glad I walked! Shows what some calories and caffeine will do for ones outlook on life!
Leave town around noon, take Vt 100, the scenic route, which was indeed very scenic, in a cold and wet kind of way. But it was also very long, so about 4pm I’m sitting at an intersection planning my end game for today. I just drove through Bennington VT, which is just my kind of place, a college town, and a girls college at that. It has memories for me, and if I had this day to do over I would have stayed there.
I really should read the details of these campgrounds more carefully. This was the second time on this trip that I’ve end up driving after it’s way dark with the darned iPad in my hand to try to find a place because what I’ve aimed for all day isn’t happening. All the campgrounds where I thought I would stay were, on closer reading, closed for the season – dumbass! Then Plan B, a 12 mile detour into the countryside, was tent camping only – dumbassdumbass.
But … iPad to the rescue! At Dave’s urging I had loosened up and invested in an app that tells me where the free Walmarts are. So here I am in Pittfields MA, parked in a too-exposed part of a busy shopping center, killing some time before I walk around and look for a teevee with the Giants game. This has none of the esthetic qualities of my previous Walmarts, but dang, it sure is handy to be able to pull in somewhere and just chill out and sleep.
I grocery-shopped, wifi-ed at the Barnes & Noble, watched the Giants lost game 5 at the Applebee’s bar fell in love with the cutie bartender(*) (in only an hour!), and drove alllll the way back across the parking lot to my corner of the Walmart lot and slept.
(*) fun facts (unverified) about Massachusetts bars:
- happy hour not allowed.
- pitchers of beer not allowed.
- but … you can be a bartender at age 18, said my 21-year old server, so she should know.
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