MA to AZ and beyond

[rob cote]

Sunday, we had a slow morning, which was nice. Checkout isn't until 3:00pm. We spent a while trying to figure out a plan for the day. By the time we did, the day was getting on, and we realized it didn't much matter if we moved from the region Sunday or Monday. So, we decided to save the plans for Monday, and instead stick around Holly Point another day.

We used the time instead to take care of some other chores. Firstly, we both showered. We haven't really used the shower inside the van much lately, and this was no exception. There are free hot showers at Holly Point Campground, and they were a very short walk from our site. So, we took advantage of that. Then, we packed up and went to the dump station to empty our grey tank. We had poured a couple gallons of white vinegar into the tank to help clean out any residue while the van was parked for a week in Florida. It would probably have been more effective if we had dumped it after only having the vinegar in there for a day or so, I don't really know. But anyways, we dumped it out, and I'm not sure how clean it came. Then, we left to get some groceries. Harris Teeter is just down the road about 10 minutes, so we went there and came back. We picked out a different site for this night's stay, number 122. 122 is a waterfront site, but the price is the same! It has an awesome view of the water and easy access about 20 feet from the edge of the site.



Loki did his "swimming routine" after we got parked in the new location. We hung out a while and threw the frisbee at each other. Mandy and me. Not Loki. He doesn't have thumbs. You need at least one thumb to throw a frisbee. Mandy reminded me that we do, in fact, have tape in the van. A fact I have completely ignored for weeks. I've been wanting to fix the antenna for the cell booster for a while now but put it off to not buy a whole roll of tape. I've had some black RTV silicone, but I didn't want to have to stand there for hours holding the wire in place. So, I put a few dots along the body panel seam and taped the wire along the line. Now the black on black disappears instead of looking like janky wiring draped across the van body.



I left the tape in place for the night, and we just hung out in the chairs outside again reading for a while until the bugs started to come out and pester us. Then we shut the doors and moved inside. If we leave the rear doors open, the temperature in the van cools off nearly as quickly as the air outside. But without those doors open, it will stay warmer than outside all night. It seems like the sliding door plus the windows plus the fan should be enough area for airflow, but the rear doors make a massive difference. Anyway, we closed up and got into bed to go to sleep after that.

 

[rob cote]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOKI!

Monday was his birthday. We told him when we woke up, but I don't think he understands. We hung out for a little while, and then we hit the road. We found some remote-seeming campsites in Harrisonburg and there were a handful all nearby-ish to one another, so we headed that way. I had been looking at an alternate route that was mostly off-highway to get there. When we punched it into the van, we never really looked at the route, we just started following. Mercedes took us towards the capitol, but we didn't really think about it enough to notice until we were already nearly there.



We found a park downtown to hop out and walk around a bit around lunchtime. There were some clouds rolling in, but we went for it anyways. Halfway around the park, when we were as far away from the van as we were planning to get, the clouds opened up and started raining on us. Instead of hurry back, we waited under an overhang until it was really pouring down, and then we walked back. Brilliant! We didn't really care though. The rain doesn't hurt or anything. And once you're drenched, it's just a constant amount of wet anyways so there's no change. You care even less after that point. We got back inside the van and peeled off our soaked clothes and put on dry stuff and dried the floor. Then we sought an alternate spot to stop for the night. It seemed pointless to drive all the way west to Harrisonburg, just to stay the night and then head east again Tuesday.



We made our way to Battlefield Country Store after finding them on Harvest Host. This was a strategic move because of Loki's birthday tradition. He doesn't ONLY get ice cream on his birthday, but he does get ice cream every birthday. And Battlefield has an ice cream stand. It was a pretty cool spot, and it seemed to get quite busy after 5:00-ish. We each got an ice cream and enjoyed them on the patio swing. Loki struggled with his a bit because there was so much in the tiny cup that it kept flipping over. It was only $10 for a milkshake, dog's ice cream, and Mandy's scoop. We thought that was pretty cheap. Afterwards, we cooked some dinner and hung out in our chairs in the grass behind the van. We propped our tablet on the rear bumper and watched a show, enjoying the sunset and the warm evening air together. Loki plopped on his bed between us on the grass. It wasn't an extravagant birthday, but I think he was content and happy with it.

 

[rob cote]

Tuesday, we walked around the country store in the morning, and then hit the road. We aimed for Pennsylvania, which would have put us right through DC, so we added a waypoint west of the national capitol in order to avoid any traffic and the terrible roads around DC. We stopped for fuel just before we left Virginia and entered Maryland, because it was a fair bit cheaper south of that border. The station we went to had a pretty extensive liquor store attached, so we picked out a couple local items for family that we thought will be enjoyed by their recipients.

We continued driving to Michaux State Forest and arrived early afternoon and parked in a gorgeous site. It's 9-Haunted Hollow. That's the name of the specific site. Pennsylvania DCNR manages a whole bunch of free campsites all over the state. You have to submit a request for a permit online, but the whole process is free. I believe their website says to allow up to 3 days for processing of the request, but we received the permit after about an hour. It just comes in as an e-mail with a .pdf attachment. You can stay up to 7 days, I think. We just did one.

Since we've been back east of the Mississippi, the views are less than stellar. There's always trees in the way. But we agreed this site would have a good view if you could see it. I put forth that that meant there is not a view, since the ability to see it is what makes it a view. Otherwise, it's just the geometry of the land and trees. We only talk about super important stuff while we're hanging out, as you can see. We walked down the road a ways with Loki until he didn't want to go anymore, and then we returned. The road was gravel, by the way, but it was really well maintained. Only a few divots in places, but no washboarding at all.



It was pretty toasty outside, so we decided it was best to build a fire to cook over to keep the van temperatures low. Especially because we were having pasta. Boiling a pot of water puts so much heat into the living space, it's crazy. Even if you're in a house you know what I'm talking about. That's why soups are such a winter food. I found some sticks that were on the ground and started breaking them up into appropriately sized pieces. Mandy prepped all the food stuff and the cookware. We got the fire going together, and then we started the pot of water first. That would probably take the longest. Then we laid down some spiced chicken thighs and chopped broccoli. Once the water was boiling and the chicken and broccoli were nearly done, we threw the fresh pasta into the water. It only takes a few minutes to complete. We drained the pasta and added pesto sauce. Then we put it all together and it was delicious. The chickens had a very subtle char that was perfect. The broccoli was still a bit crunchy but not overly so. Just the right amount.



This beer was wicked good. I was pleasantly surprised.

We cleaned up and put everything away which takes a while sometimes. Especially with the griddle and the Dutch oven out, I end up doing the dishes in batches because I run out of room inside the sink, even as large as it is. Plus, I don't like to use soap on the cast iron. I just use a plastic and silicone scraper and a little bit of water to soften stuff up. It works pretty well. Anyways, after all that which felt like it took forever, we just sat for a while outside and chilled. We watched the fire die down to nothing and doused it as the bugs drove us inside the van.

 

[rob cote]

Wednesday started slow. We took a walk after breakfast. It looked like there was a decent loop of roads we could walk in a large circle to get back to where we were. I had seen "Appalachian National Scenic Trail" or something like that on Google Maps nearby, and it looked fairly short. I was curious what that meant, exactly. It almost implies it has a view OF the AT. But on looking at it again, my maps loaded more fully, and showed the trail much longer than at first glance. So now I'm thinking that's actually the full and proper name given to the Appalachian Trail. Who knows? Not me. I've never heard it called by its full name, but I guess Appalachian Trail is just a nickname. But anyways, our hike didn't go on the trail, but it intersected it. And some people were passing by following that trail. Eventually I realized that one of the roads I was planning to take us on to get back to the van was one we'd seen yesterday. It was impassable from the other side. Well, not impassable, but it was FULL of tall grass, and we just assumed it to be tick city, so we weren't interested in dealing with all that. We walked a ways further along the road and eventually turned about face and went back along the same way we'd come.

We were allowed to occupy the site for 24 hours from noon to noon. We didn't quite stay that long, and we left sometime late morning once we were good and ready. After we packed up all our belongings, we took a lap around the site to pick up trash. There wasn't a lot but there were a few larger items. Usually, we see bottle caps and cigarette butts and lots and lots of small things like that. Tiny pieces of food wrapper and whatnot. This site was actually really clean of stuff like that, but there was a plastic bag with something in it, tied off and I wasn't interested in finding out what it was inside. There was also a dog diaper and a ball of aluminum foil. That was pretty much it. So, it was easy, and it left the space better than we found it.



We hit the road and headed towards eastern PA. Right in that point where it meets Jersey and New York. The tri-state area, I suppose. Is that a generic term for any region containing 3 states? I've always been afraid to ask, but I'm really trying to conquer my fears this year. I initially set our navigational system to a spot just over the border in New York, but along the way, I found another free site in Pennsylvania. I submitted a request for 026-Fire Tower and adjusted the navigation. We made it almost all the way there and I still hadn't heard back on the permit front. I tried calling, but there was no answer. I sent an e-mail to the address given on the phone. Perhaps they were utilizing that full 3-days period for responding. Mandy called and got an answer although our service was pretty patchy. While she was on the phone, it occurred to me to check my spam folder. Success. They sent it twice; once for the initial request, and then again in response to the e-mail I'd sent. They're very responsive, I just wasn't receiving the messages. I felt like an idiot, especially since the call dropped before I could apologize for the mix-up.

But the point is we were approved to stay the night, so we did. There were a lot of sites along this road. 026-Fire Tower is the only one we saw that wasn't immediately on the road. It has a fairly long driveway type thing, so that you can't even see the road once you're parked in the campsite area. I thought that was pretty nice. It felt very secluded. We had to stack some stones to park the rear tires on, because the driveway has a pretty decent slope to it. We didn't get it perfectly level, but it was a large improvement. A shorter wheelbase requires less height adjustment to achieve level, so if you're considering a short or long wheelbase van, you may want to factor that in, I dunno. It's not a major deciding factor, but it might be something to think about.

We walked around with Loki for a bit and then came back to cook some dinner. It was pretty buggy outside since we were inside a pretty humid forest. So, we opted to cook inside the van and forgo building a fire. We made stuffed poblanos which are a favorite vegetarian recipe of ours. It's just onions, corn, black beans, and cheese with a bunch of spices. They're super tasty, and filling. And they're pretty simple to make, too. Just preheat the peppers in the oven for a bit first to soften them up. It makes the stuffing part much easier. That way they don't tear open.



We were kind of party-poopers this night, mainly because of the bugs. We wanted to hang out outside, but we would have been annihilated by mosquitoes and it just wasn't worth the itchiness. Our screens have been working fantastic, though. We can work with the doors wide open and usually only one or two bugs get in on a night. Loki makes quick work of them, sometimes.

 

[rob cote]

Thursday, we woke up and walked around with Loki some. I think the mozzies like to sleep in or their alarms hadn't gone off yet because it wasn't as buggy as the previous night. There were some early risers flapping about, though. We didn't walk too far, because that would be too far. We walked just the right amount to land us back at the van. We made breakfast then ensured everything was stowed.



I drove us clear through NY and into Connecticut. We were able to skip over buying fuel in New York, which was good because it was more expensiver. We made a pit stop for cheap diesel in CT, and then kept on motoring. We got into Massachusetts and made our first New England stop outside of fuel. Treehouse Brewing in Charlton, MA. It's been so long since we had such excellent beer, we were excited for this stop. If you've had Treehouse beer, you know. If you haven't, it works kind of strange so let me explain. So, they don't distribute at all. If you want it, you have to go there. When you get there, you can purchase tickets online for draft pours and/or you can order case(s) to go. What we chose to do, and I think what a lot of people do is order one or two beers to have on site while looking at the list of cans to decide what to bring home. Their outdoor seating area is really nice, there's probably a couple hundred Adirondack chairs and dozens of picnic tables. There are a couple large stone outdoor fireplaces, a pizza oven, biking trails. It's awesome. They're super dog-friendly, too, which is huge. Loki is even allowed inside with us. So, we had our draft pours and looked over the list. I have a few friends that I always reach out to whenever we're there to see if they want anything. I was given a list of (4) 4-packs to pick up, which took up most of our available refrigerator space. So, we just picked out a small handful of things we wanted for ourselves to go. It's honestly for the best that we couldn't fill the fridge with our own beers because we'd just take everything on the list. Their beers are that good. And then we'd be broke.



We made some lunchtovers (that's leftovers eaten around lunch time) at the van. That got Loki inside, so we shut the door after we cleaned up, and hit the road. From Treehouse, we went to visit my sister and BIL in Nashua, NH. We spent the evening outside under the pergola catching up and relaxing. It was nice to see familiar people and hang out outside the van. Loki was pumped to see his pal Scooter, who is their dog. They ran around the fenced yard and laid in the grass all night. As the evening wore on, we moved into the van in their driveway for sleeping.



Friday morning, we woke up and I set to work taking care of some minor fixes on the van. Firstly, I setup the hose to fill the water tanks. I figured there was all the time I'd need, so I set the nozzle to a tiny trickle so both tanks would be completely filled. The hose holds itself in the fill hole, so I just let it hang there while I did other stuff. There's been a couple teensy leaks during very heavy rains, so I wanted to address those. The first one was where the wires for the awning pass through the roof of the van. These were installed with grommets to protect the wires, but the grommets don't fit tight enough to seal out water. When I installed them, I applied some RTV, but there was a tiny pinhole in the seal, so I added a little more over RTV over both grommets to resolve that. While I was up there, I added a couple dots to hold the wire in place for the cell phone booster. It looks much neater now that you can't really notice it, and it doesn't flap around in the wind anymore. I climbed back down to address the other leak. This is another one that only happens during very heavy rains, and it seems to be coming around the rear door seal. I haven't been able to actually pinpoint it, as the seal always appears completely dry, but a tiny dribble of water runs down the rear door screen. It has to be coming by the seal somehow. So, I loosened the latches at the roof and moved them forward a tiny bit. Probably less than 1/16". It hasn't rained again heavy enough to confirm if any of these are resolved, but I remain optimistic. [Update: This fixed the leak]



Afterwards, we hung out for a little while in the yard with the dogs and the people. Eventually, we began packing up so we could hit the road again. We drove over to Rindge, NH to visit my mom. She has a cabin on a lake there and this was the first opportunity we had to check it out. So, we took the full tour, and then hung out outside mostly since the weather was pretty decent. My sister and co. arrived sometimes after us so we all had dinner together. After we took the golf cart to RiteAid for a bottle of wine and nearly killed the battery (we made it back with only three percent remaining!), we spent the night hanging out around the fire pit, although we didn't light a fire because it was too warm, really. It was nice just hanging out with nothing to do. We stayed up way too late and then crashed in the van in the driveway. Well, the dirt area that serves as a driveway, anyway.

 

[rob cote]

Saturday morning was pretty leisurely. We showered inside the house, which was great. We walked Loki around and mostly just relaxed. My aunt and uncle came by to visit for a while and stayed for lunch. We had tacos, and then we had to split just after noon. From Rindge, we cruised to Ipswich, MA, our old stomping grounds. We actually don't stomp that much, but that's like a saying or whatever. We had loosely arranged to meet up with some friends in the area. On the way, Cate wasn't responding, so we stopped by Chris' first. He was working on his Wrangler, so we watched. He was pulling the fuel tank out to install an aftermarket fuel cell which would provide more ground clearance and reduce weight. I eventually had to get in there and help out. It's too hard to just stand there and watch. I also took his electric mountain bike for a rip since I'd only seen it in pictures before. It's a Sur Ron somethingorother, and it was a blast to ride. Very tempting, although I can't afford it now. It wheelies right out of the box. Which is THE metric by which I judge everything. Can it wheelie? Yes. I want one.

So anyways, we got the fuel tank out and empty and then we finally heard from Cate. She'd been napping, which was not at all surprising. We were discussing the finer points of the e-bike, and I mentioned how it would only wheelie from a stop, not a roll. Chris was like, "Sure it will, watch" and proceeded to wheelie across the yard and then over-rotated and landed sideways on his leg. We didn't know it for certain at the time, but we just found out he did pretty extensive damage. The MRI showed torn ACL, fractures, torn meniscus, more ligament tears, and a sprain. I felt partially guilty for mentioning wheelies in the first place. I still do. But I didn't MAKE him do it. It's crappy all around because he's had a torn ACL in the other leg before, and now he's just got two junk legs probably forever. I think they don't ever heal 100%.

But anyways, we were supposed to hang out with him and Cate, but he needed to just lay with ice on his knee until Tuesday so he could schedule an MRI. We made sure he was setup, obviously - he was at his parents' place so they could help him out - and then we left to meet up with Cate. We tried to figure out what to do with the night before us and ultimately decided to get takeout and watch Office reruns. We drove to Rusty Can which is still some of the best BBQ we've had. It's in Byfield, MA and it's fantastic. If you're ever nearby, highly recommended. They have a chalkboard of daily specials - order from that. You won't be disappointed. We've never been. I got a Cuban sandwich. It's not an authentic representation of the sandwich, but it's a wicked good sandwich. Anyways. We headed back to Cate's and ate and just hung out in her place for the night until we all got tired. We slept on the street in the van, since her driveway is kind of wonky and small. It's a quiet street anyways, so it was perfect.

Sunday, we woke up and walked Loki around downtown from where we were parked. It's not very far. It was early, and so the town was still pretty quiet. It's generally pretty quiet anyways. But it was nice to be some of the only people out there at all. We made a big loop and ended up back at the van. We hopped in and drove to a park so Loki could hang out outside the van while we worked on stuff inside. We tied him off and made sure he was content, and then took turns showering. We also chipped away at editing some video while we were there. We're a few weeks behind, which is frustrating. We (Mandy) did a bit of cleaning as well.

Eventually, Cate reached out. She was awake. Finally. We told her where we were at, and to come meet us so we could go for a walk. She brought her dog, Murphy, and he and Loki had a grand old time doing their old walking route through the woods. They did some swimming, too. Loki only likes to swim, apparently, when other dogs are around. He'll go into water on his own, but he only goes about up to his chest unless it's really hot. But if another dog is around, mainly Murf, he'll full-on swim. He's weird like that. I dunno. After we walked, we gave Loki a bath because he had rolled in a couple dead things that he found in the woods.

Then, we cut across town to see yet more friends. Lexi and JJ were having a party for the 4th, so we stopped by there for a while to meet up with them. We spent a couple hours there, then went back to our old neighborhood. Our former neighbors had a massive party every year for the 4th, and it was always a "bring whoever, everyone's welcome" type of thing. We rarely brought anyone besides ourselves, but the invitation still stands, even though we don't live there anymore. The whole neighborhood are awesome people, and we miss being around them. But that's part of van life, I suppose. We were excited to catch up with everyone, though. We arrived way too early for the party, somehow. I thought it started around noon or one, or something. But apparently it was to start around 5. We got there sometime around 3:30 or 4:00pm. The house next to the one we used to own had been sold recently as well, but we spotted the neighbor that sold it in his former front yard. So, we stood in our old front yard while he stood in his old front yard. It was weird, but kind of funny. We met the new owner, Russ, who was awesome, and chatted with the new owners of our old house too. Everyone around there is just so nice, and we were totally welcomed. Eventually, we moved over to the house hosting the party, which is just across the driveway and a strip of grass. All the yards are open to each other for the most part, so the party doesn't really have clear boundaries. It's just people hanging out all over the place and it's always a great time.

They always have fireworks, and this year was going to be no different. When we had a house, we'd put Loki inside before that began, but even that was sometimes too loud for him, and he'd get scared. Once or twice, we put him at a different house further down the street just for the fireworks portion, so he couldn't hear them so loudly. But these options were no longer available, so we had planned to just leave around dark. We drove down to Salem, MA to drop off the Tree House order and reclaim our refrigerator space. We had originally planned to hang out with our friends Nick and Melissa for the night, but Melissa was feeling unwell from too much drinking the day before. We still dropped off the beers, but we only chatted with Nick for a little bit before moving on. We will plan to see them a different day when they can handle company. From there, Mandy was feeling up to the drive, so she pushed us on to Nashua, NH again to park for the night. The ride was pretty uneventful, and we just parked in my sister's driveway again. We got there well after they were already asleep, and we were exhausted so we just went straight to sleep, too.

 

[rob cote]

Monday, we had plans to visit my dad and company. We took a morning walk with my sister and BIL and their dog, Scooter, and their kid, Max. We wandered around their neighborhood, letting Scooter and Loki pick our route. Although, eventually, we had to rein them in and show them how to get back. I'm sure they could figure out how to get back, but they'd probably have walked for several hours before deciding to return. We weren't inclined or equipped to walk for the entire day. We took turns showering inside and then headed over to my dad's just down the road. Actually, down the road, not Alabama "down the road" which means about an hour away.

We hung out on the deck pretty much the whole afternoon catching up, relaxing, hanging out, eating grilled meats and accoutrements. As evening rolled around, we moved the van into their yard and parked next to the brook. Then, we built a fire in the pit. We hung out around the fire for a while just visiting, until it burned down, and the flies mounted their attack. This drove us inside the van to sleep after we extinguished the remaining glow in the pit.

Tuesday, we woke up and hung out a little bit until I had to be in Manchester, NH for an appointment. I had scheduled to donate plasma and so went to do that. It took a few hours, which worked out, actually. We'd forgotten a couple things that we wanted to bring with us, so Mandy went back to grab them while she and Loki were waiting. After the donation, we headed towards Bangor, ME. Just outside of Bangor, actually, to a town called Hermon.

Mandy's sister and family live there, so we stopped by to visit with them. We arrived around dinnertime-ish, but weren't super hungry, so we just had some snacks for dinner. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out with them and visiting in their living room. It was nice, and relaxing, and we were having fun, so we ended up staying up late before finally crashing for the night.

Wednesday, we spent the day in Hermon. We had a slow, chill morning. Around lunch time, we headed to Mason's Brewing Co. in Brewer, ME. We sat outside along the river and had a delicious lunch. We also walked Loki along the riverwalk which was nice. The weather was decent, save for the high winds. But we made it work.

In the afternoon, Mandy's nephew had a baseball game, so we went to spectate that. Her parents showed up for the game as well, so we got to chat with them. Unfortunately, they lost the game, but they had fun anyways, I think. It was fun to watch. Afterwards, we went back to Mandy's sister's place to finish out the night.

Thursday, we got up and took Loki for a walk around the neighborhood. After that, we made breakfast. Then we packed up and said our goodbyes and headed north. We went to Patten, ME, which is Mandy's hometown, and where her parents still live. If you haven't heard of it, that's okay. It's a tiny town of like 1200 people in the middle of nowhere, essentially. They have a pretty nice spot on a dead-end dirt road with a large yard and a huge barn full of tools. We visited with them for the afternoon and evening.

We stayed with them for almost a week. Hopefully you guys understand the lack of writing and pictures, what with all the family time we've been spending. Not that I have to explain or justify, really. But I figure it's probably nice to know why. Anyways. Over several days, we knocked out some work on their house which needed to be done. The sill was partially rotted so we removed the soft bits of wood to replace it with pressure treated stuff and sealed it really well. Hopefully it doesn't happen again. We installed most of the ceiling in their porch. We also washed, clay-barred, and ceramic coated the whole exterior of the van. That's always fun. NOT. They also invited about everyone they know over to their house, so there was a constant stream of people with which to visit and showcase the van to. It was a lot, and it was exhausting. But it was nice.

Tuesday, we woke up super early. Around 4:30am. We made coffees and brought Loki inside the house. We hopped into one of Mandy's parents' cars and hit the road. Unfortunately, the van wouldn't make this journey. We went south to Millinocket and then cut over to Baxter State Park. We arrived at the gate around 6:30 or so, checked in, and then proceeded to the trailhead. There is a 9ft height limit on vehicles in Baxter. I think for low-hanging branches.

We started hiking Katahdin up the Appalachian Trail at 6:55am. It starts off pretty easy, and then gets more and more difficult as you go. The total distance to the summit is 5.2 miles, I believe. The first one is easy; nearly flat. The second through fourth are progressively more and more difficult, until you're scrambling over boulders with hands and feet. There are a few steel implements installed for climbing aids. Sort of hooks, I guess you could call them. They're just fancy hand and foot holds, but absolutely necessary. We continued scrambling a while after that through a boulder field. We were approaching the clouds, and I should mention that there was a decent chance of precipitation, and we'd read mixed reports on whether there would be lightning or not.

Somewhere in the boulder field, Mandy decided she was quitting. At various points, she said both that she was done, and that we should turn back. I was way too close to turn back at that point. Then, Charles and Carson caught up to us. We didn't know them, but somehow that was all she needed to keep moving. Peer pressure or whatever. So, we all trudged along together from that point into thickening clouds. As we crested the hill, we found that it was only a false summit, and that the actual peak was over a mile away yet. But we had entered the Table Lands. It's a large plateau adjacent to the summit of Katahdin and
was very easy walking. And the sun came back out! And the winds died. Not actually, though. They were blowing pretty strongly, but due to the shape of the land, the winds were blowing over our heads, and we were nestled in a pocket of nearly-still air. It was weird and cool to see strong winds blowing thick clouds 20 feet off to our side, but to be in still air and direct sunlight.

It wouldn't last, though. As we made our way closer to the summit, we began to feel wet. It wasn't raining so much as we were simply inside of a cloud. It was grey everywhere we looked, and visibility reduced to only about 30-40 feet. The air was water and it accumulated on our skin. It was such a weird experience! To get wet without it actually raining. That was a new one, I think for all of us. We finally saw the sign for the summit, not a moment too soon. We gathered around for pictures of ourselves, to prove we made it, and then we hurried back down to where it was warmer in the Table Lands. Except first, things had to get way worse. The winds picked up even more; I'd estimate we felt some 60mph gusts up there. Oh, and there was sleet. Or hail. I'm not sure. At the first feel of actual rain, I waffled for a moment - should I put on my raincoat, or no? I decided to and I pulled it down into place the instant that it opened up. And then it was just hell. The sleet/hail/rain/whatever was coming in sideways at 60mph and felt like needles piercing the skin. The temperature dropped to about 40F according to the questionable thermometer on my hiking poles. Mind you, we were still in a boulder field, essentially. So, we hustled carefully, if that's a thing. The rocks were soaked, but for the most part, our shoes provided great traction. We each had a couple slips here and there, but nothing catastrophic, which any type of fall has the potential to be when everywhere are boulders.

We made it a mile and reached an intersection where it was decision time. Would we take the same difficult trail down that we took up, which would lead directly to the cars over 4.2 miles? Or should we try Abol Trail, which was only about 2.6 miles, and then 2 miles along the road to the parking lot? We took a vote and decided to take the AT back down. Devil we knew. None of us were looking forward to it, but we did it anyways. It was slow going for sure, but eventually we made it out of the weather, somewhere in the middle of the rock scramble. That was a big help and lifted the spirits some. We made it through the monkey bars, as we took to calling the steel footholds, and breathed some relief. We knew the hardest part was behind us that point. Then it was a short distance to the tree line, which would help stave off a bit of any severe weather that might come in again. We took our time hurrying to the bottom from there. I think we were all feeling some pain or another from the day's effort. But no real events to report most of the way down. Once we were back in the final mile or two, the skies opened up again and it began raining. It had been thundering for the previous hour or so.

 

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The rain brought darkness and a renewed sense of urgency. I hustled and paused to check on Mandy, bringing up the rear. Hustle and pause. We nearly needed the headlamps as it got dark so quickly! But our eyes adjusted with the diminishing light, and we made it out to the car without so much as a stumble. We signed out of the trail at 6:20pm. Almost 12 hours. What a day! We hopped in the car and headed back towards Patten. Almost as soon as we pulled out of the parking lot, the drizzle turned to a torrent. It took 110% of my focus to monitor the road ahead. It was mostly impossible to see for much of the drive. We stopped at Millinocket House of Pizza for a quick dinner and then drove the rest of the way through downpour to Patten, the van, and Loki. We showered in their house and pretty much crashed immediately after. We were exhausted and sore as heck.

Oh, so, I don't mean to cast blame here or anything. I know it was a total accident. But Mandy pulled the bed down a few days ago and my phone was under it and got crushed. So, I'm on an old standby that we brought with us for exactly this purpose. It doesn't take photos quite as nice, so I've been slacking in that department. But also, because we've been with friends and family a lot, and not really seeing sights per our usual. So anyways, I hope that catches you guys up, isn't boring, is informational, and kept you at least somewhat entertained. I'm going to try and get back into the routine now that we should be in a routine again.

 

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Wednesday morning, we took fairly slowly. I finished up clay-barring and ceramic coating the last couple panels of the van. The section above the windshield is the hardest to get to. I kept telling myself I didn't need to finish while we were at Mandy's parents' place, but then I realized I wouldn't be able to get the top sections done without a ladder, or it would be really difficult and awkward sitting on the roof to do it. So, I knocked that out. It looked SO CLEAN that I didn't even take any pictures. You're welcome. It actually always looks great in pictures anyways, so you wouldn't be able to see much difference. The camera hides a lot.



Her parents insisted on buying us lunch before we said our goodbyes. We got some food at Craig's, and it was surprisingly good. I hadn't eaten there before, but I'm sure Mandy has; she used to work there. Way back in the day, even before Craig owned it. When it was just "THE" clam shop. All in all, though, it seems like Patten is actually turning itself around. It used to be primarily a logging town; that was the major industry that employed the locals. But since logging has slowly died out with the increasing popularity of digital media, the town has lost a lot of income. But in the past few years, new businesses have sprung up that are actually quite good. There's a BBQ joint, Flatlanders, that's excellent. The brewery was surprisingly good, and that just opened this year. Curious to see what happens in the future up there, though it's still a bit too remote for me on a permanent basis. It's nice to visit. But it was time to go.



We set out sometime in the early afternoon and headed north. Which was weird. We're so used to going south to get back home. But we were already home, in a way. We cruised through Houlton and went straight to the Canadian border. We've crossed the Canadian border before by car, so that was not new, although it's always slightly uncomfortable for some reason. We never know if they're going to opt to do a thorough vehicle search, which could take hours depending how thorough. But this was the first time we've crossed any border with a dog. So that added a little bit of anxiety, though we had everything we understood we might need. Except a destination address, really. We weren't sure exactly where we'd stay, and they don't really ask how long you'll be at the address you give or whatnot. But we picked a campground to give that was our top pick at that time. As far as dog is concerned, all we needed was his rabies certificate. And the only other thing of note is that you have to use a cell phone app called ArriveCAN. One of the people we met hiking told us that, which was super helpful, because we were able to enter all our info ahead of our arrival, so that saved us a ton of time at the border. Once we were at the border, speaking with the agent, the whole process took about 3 minutes. We answered the questions asked, our passports were scanned, and we were waved through. That was it. We changed the van display settings from mi to km and continued driving.



From there, we drove to Moncton, but along the way we stopped at Home Depot. The orange buckets there have maple leafs printed on them which I thought was interesting. I just wanted to get some sticky-back Velcro to stick our laptop charger to the wall. We always use it in the same place, so this alleviates constantly having to wrap and unwrap the cords for storing it and taking it out. Now, it's stored location is out, but it's not just loose on the floor. In Moncton, we stayed at New Brunswick Casino. If you're a member, you can stay for free in the designated parking lot. We weren't members, but membership is free, so now we are! Our stay here, though nice, was boring. Which is totally fine. Sometimes boring is perfect. The weather was ideal, so we put our chairs next to the van and hung out outside with Loki and read our books for a while. We reheated some chicken parm and pasta for dinner that we'd made in her parents' kitchen. (We chose to make something there that we wouldn't make in the van; frying in oil inside the van would make SUCH a mess!) As night wore on, we eventually packed up and headed in to bed.

 

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Thursday, we did a short walk around with Loki and then we set out. As we were doing our morning routine, our neighbors were as well. We quickly remembered that some French Canadians do not like you if you speak English. Or, at least, they don't speak to you. I dunno if they didn't like us. But we said hi, and they all but ignored us thereafter. We have experienced that before, but we had forgotten. I don't really know what that's about, but there it is. They were in a Safari Condo, which I'd never heard of. On doing some internetting, it seems they're a brand of campervan. This one was an older E350 or something, with a popup roof, like a Westfalia. It looked pretty nice, but we were surprised to find they fit five people in it. They seemed to be having a good time, so that was great. Though they ignored us entirely, one or two of them were totally fixated on Loki.

We left without another word and headed towards Truro in Nova Scotia. That means New Scotland, in case you didn't know. We wanted to check out the Bay of Fundy. I kept calling it the bay of fundip. Remember fundip? It definitely wasn't dip and the fun was subjective. Anyway, we went to the Fundy Discovery Site. This is where the bay necks down to the wide Salmon River. It's a really interesting spot to check out if you're there when the tide reaches its minimum. The whole Bay of Fundy is actually just the right length to match the resonant frequency of the tides, so when the outgoing tide hits the continental shelf, it creates a returning wave just as the tide shifts to begin coming back up. This wave travels the entire length of the bay and marks the incoming tide shift. What's neat about the discovery site is you can actually see the wave when it travels up the river quite clearly. It's not huge; probably 6-8 inches tall or so. But one moment the water is clearly pouring out towards the bay, and then the wave passes and it's a whole other thing. The wave moves at a decent rate upstream; I think they said 20km/h? And the incoming tide follows it that quickly. Within a matter of minutes, the river is at its peak. The Bay of Fundy has the tallest tides in the world, around 50ft at their maximum. But the river has quite a lot of drag, so it doesn't experience as much of a change. But it was wild to see the water fill it up so quickly anyways. Definitely check this spot out someday.



After that excitement, we headed over to Pictou. We found Caribou-Monroes Island Provincial Park and reserved a site for the night. Once we parked, we hopped out and took a walk to the beach. It was nice to be done with driving for the day. Loki was glad of it, and he was happy to be allowed on the beach. It was a bit rocky, but overall, quite nice. Of course, it had cooled off quite a bit, but I still went into the water anyways. It was pretty chilly, so I didn't stay in long. Just a quick dip, but it was fun. A fundip, if you will. I dried off, and we walked along the beach until Loki wouldn't allow us to go any further. On our way back, we stopped to chat to some locals who were packing up to leave as well. We didn't get a lot of useful info from them, but they were super nice. A couple of them were from Cape Breton, and they said it was great, so that was encouraging because we were planning to go there already.





I took a shower at the campground, which was free and hot, so that was awesome. Then, we built a small fire to cook dinner. We had peanut butter chicken, coconut rice, and carrots. I always spill a few of the veggies whenever we cook over a fire. It's just too tough to keep them all on the pan; the walls are so short. Casualties. I also caramelized some onions to later stir into the chicken and sauce. The sauce for the chicken kept burning to the pan - I suspect Mandy added some sugar perhaps. It sounds bad, but I just had to keep scraping it off the pan. In the end, that crunchy burnt sugar mixed into the peanut sauce with the chicken is just perfect. Without it, the texture isn't quite as good in my opinion. Anyway, we ate it and packaged the rest that we couldn't finish, cleaned up and then sat by the fire. Until the flies came. Once the sun starts to go down, it's game on for the bugs. They drove us inside because we were sick of getting bitten. So, we extinguished the fire and moved inside for the rest of the night. Since we finished Better Call Saul, we're working on Breaking Bad. I've already seen it, but Mandy hasn't. It's worth rewatching, and in that order, because of the chronology of events.

 

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Friday, we tried to walk Loki around the campground. We got part way, and he decided, nah. We turned 'round and headed back to the van. After breakfast and warm showers, we packed up and hit the road. We made our way up the west coast through Port Hawkesbury and on to Cheticamp. I'm sure it's wrong, but we've been pronouncing it "chetty-camp". We're probably mispronouncing just about everything up here. Neither of us knows any French besides bonjour, oui, and no. And I'm not even sure no is French. But anyways.



The ride was so pretty! Even at sea level, which we were at for a lot of the way, it feels like approaching the tree line. The trees grow so short in Cape Breton. It's like a global tree line or something. I don't know. It's neat though. We found a little spot on a rocky beach and parked there. We walked along the beach for a while, but it was pretty overcast, so we didn't swim. Other than that, we mostly just relaxed. Mandy's been working on CE credits, and this was one of the last days for her to submit some modules, so she crammed on that. Loki and I hung out outside the van to just be for a while.



Some locals came and went over the afternoon. Some swam. Some didn't. A truck with a slide-in camper in the bed pulled up. They asked, through a thick French accent, if this place was okay for camping. I said we believed it to be, and they drove away. They parked well away from us, and we never spoke to them again. Perhaps they're just private people, or maybe it's more evidence of that French Canadian dislike for English-speakers. I don't know. A van showed up and parked next to us, and though they spoke French amongst themselves, we talked for about a minute in English with one of the four occupants. He seemed friendly. Maybe the language barrier is just difficult.





As the sun approached the horizon over the ocean, the clouds broke up. We were treated to the most beautiful sunset. We sat in our chairs in the sand outside the van with Loki and read some more. Occasional glances up at the sunset reminded us just why we live this life. It was so nice. The ideal evening, really. We had to pull out some cold weather gear, but that's okay. I sat out there watching the sun go down with my slippers and coat and hat on and it was perfect. It cooled off quickly once the sun was gone, so we moved inside and watched the orange sky fade to black from the comfort of our bed. Our neighbors built a fire on the beach, and though they invited us, we were loners and skipped. We accept that that's on us; we just weren't feeling it this particular night. And that's totally fine. We loved it anyways, and we watched the fire from afar.

 

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Saturday morning, we walked the opposite direction along the beach. South-ish. Mandy's theory regarding Loki's aversion to walking (at least on the beaches) is that the rocks may be too difficult for his paws. I think he's just a lazy old man in a healthy body. He came with us begrudgingly for a ways, and then quit. But as soon as we change directions to head towards the van, he's all full of life with a spring in his step again. Who knows?

We hit the road somewhat early. Not crazy early, but just after our walk. Which wasn't long. We continued up the coast, which was still beautiful. We entered Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Petit Etang. "Pet-it ee-tang". We started saying Etang in place of eating. "What do you think we'll be etang for dinner?" They sound similar through our mispronunciation.

We drove through much of the national park, and it was just gorgeous. A lot of the Cabot Trail, that's the name given to the roadway that makes a loop through upper Cape Breton, is coastal highway. Mandy said it's what she imagines Hawaii to look like, but with more tropical flora. There's a lot of pretty steep mountain mountainsides down to the water. I thought it was awesome to see so much uninterrupted coastline. Usually, there are houses and restaurants dotting the coast where we're from. Not so, here. It's just trees, some sheer rock faces, and one road. And there were very few cars on it, which was awesome. We felt like we had the whole park to ourselves at times.



We tried to get to what appeared to be the northernmost point, the Cape North Lighthouse. We followed the directions Mercedes gave us, and as we went along the road turned to dirt. Then it got narrower. And narrower. And then it ended in a teensy parking lot. There looked like there may have been a hiking trail, and according to the internet, there was. But it looked like it needed some heavy bushwhacking to make it passable. And the internet said it was a strenuous hike, something like 10 miles round trip. We passed. We turned back around and found a small pull-off on the dirt road that had a fantastic view and made breakfast instead. Well, it was around lunch time, but I made bacon and eggs so what would you call it?



We continued along the Cabot Trail down around towards the eastern side of the cape. We cruised south a while, and eventually pulled off into a spot we'd found on iOverlander that was labeled as a free campsite. There was an awesome view of the ocean, and an easy walk down to the beach. We probably could have parked right on the beach, it appeared there had been some vehicle traffic out there previously. But it also looked like a bad idea. We'd probably have gotten stuck. It was all fist-sized rocks, and they were fairly loose underfoot. We agreed not to attempt it and we parked in a small clearing about 30 feet up from the beach. We relaxed a while and read, then Mandy started cooking us dinner. Tacos al pastor! They were delicious, but first, we had a change of plans.



As we were cooking, and by "we", I mean she, a kayaker hiked up the hill and notified us there were about a dozen of them that had obtained permission to use that space by the landowner. We apologized for not knowing it was private property, and we quickly packed up and moved out of the way. We drove the short way to the side of the road to eat dinner, since the cooking had just finished. Then, we packed up and drove some more. We weren't thrilled about it (and Loki least of all), but it was not a huge deal. They actually gave us a recommendation for a different spot just down the road that they had used the previous night. So, we headed there instead.



The second spot used to be a campground. Our understanding is that it was neglected, and kind of went to waste, and eventually closed. Someone bought the property and has a goal of reopening the campground. But for now, they allow it to be used for free provided you keep it clean. We walked around the whole ground and picked up any garbage that we saw, which honestly wasn't much. You can see where there were electrical hookups previously, but most of them are in serious need of repair. There are quasi-clearings where there used to be individual campsites, but they're mostly overgrown. There's a foundation that used to be a bathhouse, but the structure is gone. It's definitely a fixer-upper, but it has a fantastic oceanfront space. We parked ourselves in a decently flat spot, and there was only one other vehicle there. They said they were just sticking around for dinner and then would be heading out if we were interested in taking their spot. We actually kind of were, it was a perfect grassy spot in the corner right at the beach. So, once they left, we moved over a bit and setup there instead. By setup, I mean parked. That's most of our setting up. We chilled until bedtime, and then fell asleep listening to the waves. It was perfect.

 

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Sunday morning, we were greeted through our bedroom window with a gorgeous sunrise over the ocean.



We got up much later, as that was at 4:30am. Once we were actually ready to face the day, you know? Once we got to moving, we continued our journey south along the east coast. I never zoomed in on the map all the way, so what I thought was a bridge from Jersey Cove to Englishtown doesn't actually exist. I just assumed. If you look closer, you'll see that there's a short gap in the roadway. Maybe 100m, probably less. We didn't want to risk jumping it in the van. And the roadway didn't provide enough runway length to skitch it. So, instead, we waited for the ferry to come back and pick us up. It's free! How cool is that?! Once it unloaded its cargo on the opposite bank, it started winching itself back across towards us and stopped just a few minutes later. The platform folded down and Mandy was the first to drive on. Loki was a little concerned about all the noises underneath us, but he was actually pretty okay with being on a boat. A handful of cars got on behind us, and then we pushed off from shore. We landed in Englishtown a few minutes later and disembarked to continue our drive.



From Englishtown, we drove over to Sydney. We stopped in Sydney to get groceries. I saw my first bag of milk in real life and giggled to myself. I knew it was a thing but it's still hilarious to see one. I obviously poked it. We continued driving southeasterly and ended up in Louisbourg. Loo-wee-borg. We checked out the lighthouse there. For some reason we thought this was the easternmost point and then we got there and realized it's not. But that's fine. It was still a cool site to see. We spent a bit of time here walking around the trails with Loki, but it was pretty freakin' windy, so we didn't stay all day. Plus, we had other places to go.

We made a large push leaving Louisbourg all the way to Antigonish. We stopped for lunch at a park somewhere along the middle and each took a midday shower in the van. It was a small park, but a nice spot for Loki to hang out and for all of us to stretch our legs a bit before moving on. Once we arrived in Antigonish - we had a lot of fun with that place name, by the way - we stopped at another park. A local pulled in behind us and had a bunch of questions about the van and our travels. He was friendly and we had fun chatting with him for a few before he left us to head home. Columbus Field was a fair bit larger than the previous stop; it even has a dog park! We walked around the park and over to St. Francis Xavier University because the buildings looked cool. We made our way back and had dinner in the van in the parking lot.



After dinner we cruised a few minutes over to Walmart, also in Antigonish, to park for the night. The weird thing about this Walmart is there are no signs on it. We assumed they're working on replacing them for whatever reason, but it was still odd to see none. The strangest part was that we could still easily identify the building as a Walmart. Everything was blue and white, and apparently that's all they need to ID themselves. We parked and actually didn't even get out other than to let Loki pee. We just worked on prepping a flank steak for tomorrow's dinner; the marinade was a bit involved and took some time to put together. We cleaned up that mess and then climbed into bed. A crew worked on painting the building's exterior all night. I heard them.

 

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Monday, we woke up at Walmart and walked across the parking lot to grab cream for coffee. I got Mandy a small ice cream while I was in there because she had just finished the previous one a few days ago. It's important to keep favorite snacks on hand. We drove downtown to Small & Tall Cafe to get oat cakes. We like to always try local foods when we're in new regions. Obviously, Nova Scotia is famous for seafood offerings, but we're not huge fans of seafood, and especially not for breakfast. The oat cakes are like a thick cookie. Or a tiny cake. Somewhere in the middle. If it's a cookie, it's extremely soft. If it's a cake, it has a slightly hard exterior and it's tiny. They taste like an oat-based cookie. Whatever, they're pretty good, just try one. You'll probably like it, too.

Then, we drove from Antigonish to Halifax, but we took the scenic route. We followed the coastal route because we thought it would be neat. But it was mostly bad pavement and fog. There were some breaks in the fog here and there which yielded really pretty views out to the ocean. But there were also billions of potholes and cracks in the road. We persevered, as we do, and eventually we made it. We parked in downtown Halifax and walked around a bit for ourselves as much as for Loki. He was happy to be out of that loud, bumpy ride.



We were both pretty hungry, so we popped into Pizza Corner on Blowers St. because it was right in front of us when we started looking. It smelled amazing. And they have pizza by the slice ready to go. So, we grabbed a slice of 'roni and ordered a large donair. Again, with the trying of local cuisine. Donair is a Halifax original food, as I understand it. A Greek dude opened up a restaurant and tried selling gyros back in the 70s. No one was really interested, so he switched to vertical-rotisserie shaved beef in his gyros and a sweet garlic sauce and boom! New food. It's literally just the shaved beef, chunks of tomato, and onion, rolled in a pita. It's freaking delicious!! By the way, their pizza slices are about a quarter of a pizza, and also wicked good. But the donair was amazing. We loved it. We sat on the wall across the intersection and devoured it all.



I had said before we started eating that I was so hungry and the smells were so delicious that I was going to eat something at all the restaurants in that area, which are numerous. But after that, I was pretty satisfied. So, we walked down to the waterfront to see what's the haps. We had paid for 3 hours of parking, so we used it all. We wandered the waterfront with Loki, and I called to reserve us a ferry ride for Thursday morning. We moseyed our way back to the van with 4 minutes of parking to spare. We hit the road and drove a short ride to Porters Lake Provincial Park. Mandy had reserved us a site for the night, so we checked in there and got situated. The site was actually like a double site which we didn't realize (or care!), so there was a family in a pop-up trailer in the same small clearing as us. As we pulled in, they were packing up to leave. We found it a bit odd, since check out had long since passed, but we didn't question it. They were really friendly, and we gave them a quick tour inside the van before they left as they were curious what the inside was like.





We still weren't starving, but we had to cook dinner anyways, since the meat had been marinated for at least 24 hours by then. I prepped all the veggies and ingredients, and Mandy handled the cooking. It was originally intended to be a beef and broccoli recipe that we've had before and love, but we added shiitake and carrots, so it was more like a stir fry, I guess. We each had a small bit because it's always best when it's freshly cooked, and then we packaged all the rest for leftovers. We walked Loki around the campground and to the lake and then circled back to head inside to bed. The flies here were out in full force.

 

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Tuesday was a poopy rain day. But we saw it coming, so we were planning on it. Early after midnight, it was raining pretty heavily. I reached over and felt the rolled-up rear door screens. In really heavy rains, they occasionally get a dribble of water in them, but I recently adjusted the rear doors to hopefully eliminate this leak. They were bone dry, so I went back to sleep. Eventually, we got up slowly but motivated ourselves a bit when we realized there was a break in the rain. The perfect dog-walking opportunity. We put our rain gear on anyways, just in case, because it was supposed to be off and on most of the day. We walked some trails through the park and ended up getting rained on for about half of the hour or so that we walked. Not heavily. Just enough to be thankful all 3 of us had our raincoats. Back at the van we did some miscellaneous internet-based work inside the van since we had a decent connection. I wrote to you folks. Mandy cleaned and organized. We listened to the rain fall on the roof. We checked out at 11 and dumped our grey water and topped off with fresh water. And we set off.



We headed towards Halifax because it was on our way. Since we were passing by, I demanded Mandy find us another spot to stop for Donair. It was close-ish to lunchtime so it seemed valid. We went to King of Donair just on the outskirts. It was pretty freakin' good, again. I feel like the first one may have been better by a tiny amount, but perhaps that's just because it was the first. Mandy had poutine, but I didn't partake. Miss me with all that gravy, please. No thanks.

We left Halifax with our full bellies and drove to Kejimkujik National Park. We hit some dirt roads along the route, but it was still raining off and on, so they were pretty soupy. The steering felt somewhat vague, so I slowed down and engaged 4WD. My only gripe with this van is that you have to stop to engage 4WD. Even my Jeep from 1997 could engage 4WD on the fly. Seems like we have the technology to make that work in a modern transfer case. But after that, the van felt much more solid in its course. Back on pavement, I switched it back to 2WD and continued the ride cutting across Nova Scotia's beltline, sort of. This national park sits pretty close to the middle of the hunk of land. Most of the time we've spent so far has been along the coast, so we were excited to check out some inland area.



We parked in our site and immediately met our neighbors who were out, and super friendly. This campground is gigantic, by the way. There's something like 350-400 sites including yurts and cabins and whatnot. We chatted with Gary and Charlotte a while, and then took Loki for a walk around to get the lay of the land. It wasn't a super long walk, but we followed the shoreline of the lake for a bit, and then cut back through a different loop of campsites and navigated our way back towards our own. I took some measurements around the outside of the van to try to support a working theory that I can fit it inside a shipping container. I made a post about it on a different forum, and the general consensus seems to be that it's a terrible idea. I'm not discouraged by naysayers. I hosed off the power steps since they were caked with mud that would just get tracked inside. Meanwhile inside, Mandy reheated leftovers, but we only had a small amount since we still felt mostly full from lunch.



We walked Loki again and caught an episode of Breaking Bad while we sat outside. We discussed how guilty it feels to go inside while it's still light outside. But at the same time, it's not sustainable to stay up so late every night, and also get up at 5am when it's light outside again. We stayed up a while inside but slowly wound down to sleep.