Today in Hanover…

Got off to a really late start today – 8AM PST but a horribly late 11AM in East Thetford, VT. Woke up and re-organized my stuff into my saddle bags and tail pack so that it’s ready to go tomorrow.

My friend and I then drove over to Hanover to see the street fest. I got to see Dartmouth College, the school that she’s been at for 9 years getting a PhD and doing post doctoral studies.

It was a pretty hot day but the festival was fun and lively and it was good to be outdoors. I ate buckwheat crepes for the first time. The taste was odd at first but the spinach, goat cheese and caramelized onions made up for it.

Afterwards, we drove to Quichee gorge and walked down to the water’s edge. The water feet wonderfully refreshing as we dipped our feet in. :)

Then for ice cream in sugar cones – black raspberry for me.

When we got home, I decided to conect the cable for my Slime air compressor on to the battery. When I tested it out though, it didn’t work! I heard a brief clicking sound after which it died. This time the fuse looked intact but it didn’t matter. :| I guess this POS is going back to Seattle with Sterling’s duffel bag.

The day came to an end too quickly. We ate quesadillas for dinner and looked a old childhood photos and giggled as we tried to remember old classmates’ names. She has a significantly better memory than I do.

As an aside, the beet accident from yesterday appears to have hosed my Panasonic Lumix camera battery’s charger. :| I am a little aggravated at this as the battery is a special li-ion one with a proprietary charger. The only thing I can think of is to order one online and have it shipped to a place that I am definitely going to be at on my route.

Landed in Lebanon …

My 3 hour layover turned out to be slightly less as they decided to fly out earlier (!). The plane – a Cessna – turned out to be the smallest one I’ve been in, outside of a small one I flew for 15 minutes in Portland, OR many years ago, and the air ambulance back from the Yukon last year when I was slightly more uhhh… Strapped in and supine.

It was rather charming and old world to get into a small plane that vroomed through cloudy skies high above impossibly green country. With a little imagination, I could very well pretend that I was in pre-WW1 times.

I felt slightly tired and worn out and disinclined to chat by the time we landed. Red eye flights really are rather hard on you and I’m not sure the saving of one day and a little money was worth it.

I’ve got to say that writing longer blog posts on the Samsung i760 is not too bad at all. The full QWERTY keyboard really helps. The only downside is that the battery gets depleted far sooner than I like.

I am now sitting in an Irish pub in Lebanon with my childhood friend whom I haven’t met in 8 years. We drove through charming, winding country roads to get here. The weather is perfect as was my lunch of roast beef and horseradish sandwich with homemade chips and an orange cream soda.

We are going to get coffees and go for a walk and catch up on the past 8 years. So far life is good. I think I like beng on vacation.

Heading out to Lebanon …

Slept through the flight to Lebanon too, thank heavens. Got in to Boston Logan at around 9AM local time – still around 6AM PST.

I had to go to another terminal to catch the Cape Air flight to Lebanon so I decided to take the airport shuttle. As I walked outside to the stop, I saw a bus stop with destinations like New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Rhode Island and the realization sunk in -I’m in New England! I’m in BOSTON! :) Can’t hardly wait to ge out of the airports!

I have a 3+ hour layover before the next flight and I feel tired. The blaring TVs and strange people all around are a bit much to deal with. It’ll be good to catch a bit of a nap later today.

It appears that the Cape Air flight is a 9 person flight – quaint! – and they are waiting for 5 more passengers to show up to get us out earlier. Here’s hoping.

Made it to Cleveland, OH

Slept through most of the flight, which is saying something considering I had middle seat, there was barely no elbow or leg room (such quaint demanding terms in the era of modern air travel!) and I was freezing because I hadn’t thought to bring a coat.

I seem to have crossed into another time zone as well. It is 6ish here but still 3:30AM in Seattle.

The flight to Boston I at 7:30AM. So here I wait. No point trying to sleep any more, I reckon.

At SeaTac airport…

My sweetie just dropped me off at the airport. Checkin turned out to be a bit complicated as the massive duffel bag he had lent me turned out to weigh 72lbs -11lbs over the 50 lbs limit. I took some stuff out placed it in the Ortleib bag and checked in two bags toal for $40 ($15 for the first bag and $25 for the second – $&*@# airlines!).

Security check went through smoothly. Now to wait for 1.5 hrs for flight CO 274 U to arrive. I feel really tired and hope I can catch some shut-eye on the various flights.