Relocating to Maine… and other updates from the road

Three weeks ago, while in Massachusetts, we were requested by a good friend to update our blog on more of a schedule, because the whole irregular update thing, “wasn’t really working for me.”  In retrospect we realize that there’s a whole lot of October left out of the narrative and we weren’t keeping up with the “where are we now” vibe.  I’m not sure that we can keep up with that, because writing sometimes just has to flow and you can’t force it.  Spend too much time writing about what you’re doing then you’re missing the very stuff you came out here to do.   In the spirit of recent political pontification we suggest a compromise; we will update more frequently and ask you to keep dropping by this little blog.  Will that work for you, Jim?

We’re nearly 3 months out since we left Boone.   Part of us feels as if it’s been only a few days and part of us feels like it’s been a whole year.  So much has happened; while our lives haven’t changed much, our daily life has, not to mention a big helping of perspective.  To bring you up to speed on where we’ve been here’s what the last 6 weeks looked like since the accident.

October 13:  Took a 25-hour bus ride to Gary, Indiana to get ourselves a new (used) truck and drove 12 hours back to North Bay, Ontario where we had stored our stuff with our new friends.  The new truck has a name now, Billie Jo, a small nod to Bill (the nice gentleman at Bosak Honda who helped us get her), but also embracing the more feminine vibe we were feeling from this one.  We can’t put our finger on it, but all of our cars have had a gender vibe and this one is definitely a lady – a tough lady.   So far, she’s living up to the challenge.

October 15:  Packed everything (including the custom truck-bed cover) into the new truck and hit the road to Algonquin Provincial Park.  Two days here took some great autumn pictures, did some good hiking, and a bit of paddling, and reclaimed the spirit of the road.  We couldn’t have made it happen so easily without the support of Andree, Daniel & Sonia -- our new friends in North Bay, Ontario.  We were so lucky to have met them!

 

October 17:  Arrived in Ottawa, Ontario at the home of Cathy & Silvano, cousin of Paul Orkiszewski who is lead guitar of “The Henhouse Thieves” and Todd neighbor.   They were absolutely fantastic hosts!  We got to spend time with their great kids, and see a lot of the city and surrounding area.   After a 38 mile bike ride from Ottawa to Gatineau Park in Quebec, we came home to a home-cooked dinner.  We can definitely get used to that.  Beautiful place, Ottawa, we are sure to go back as we hear they have the world’s longest outdoor skating area, the Rideau Canal.  Pretty damn cool.  

 

 

October 19:   Fly to Nashville, TN.  What?!?  This bears some explanation because it was a great lesson in grace, gratitude, and generosity.  Way before we let our friends and colleagues know about our plans, Hutch was asked to speak at the wedding celebration for Aaron Headen and Lexie Heilman, two students he really got to know while they were in school at App.  They were two of “his kids,” so he of course said he’d do it and would figure out a way to get there later.  For a few days, it was looking grim that we would be able to get the new truck in Indiana and make it to Boston, with all of our stuff, for Hutch’s flight on the 19th.  So, he told them the bad news – they were pretty bummed because he was a bigger part of their ceremony than even he knew at the time.  To the rescue came Aaron’s father, Richard, who had enough frequent flyer miles to “get an army to Africa” and got both of us a round-trip ticket out of Ottawa.  We had an amazing time with the families of these two special people, and seeing old friends from Boone and Outdoor Programs.  We are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to share in their special day and contribute our little bit to their ceremony and celebration!  It was one of those moments where we simply had to say, “Yes” and it worked out beautifully for everyone. 

October 25:  After crossing the U.S./Canadian border for the 6^th time in 3 weeks, we headed to Burlington, Vermont to visit our friend Betsy and enjoy the delights that Burlington has to offer outdoor enthusiasts.  After some great time catching up with Betsy, we headed off to paddle on Lake Champlain and cycle our way around the city.  Ended the visit with a return trip to Magnolia’s for breakfast, what is it with these “M” named breakfast places in cool named “B” towns?

October 28:  Conventional wisdom typically suggests that if a hurricane is heading your way, you don’t drive into it.  But that is what we did, with projections of Sandy hitting somewhere along the east coast the next day.  Prior to the destruction of our truck we would have been a bit more cavalier about this sort of drive, but now we’re a little more conservative when considering issues of risk.  We thought it over and over about heading to the Boston area, but after looking at the scope of this storm we realized that no matter where we went on the east coast – we were in this storm.  So, off to Norton, MA we went… we were welcomed by our great friend, Lee Burdette Williams, and a very large pot of very yummy soup.  After assessing the tree fall potential in her yard, we parked Hamlet and Billie Jo as strategically as possible and huddled up inside the house.  We worked on our Peace Corps applications, drank tea, kept checking the Weather Channel for updates, drank tea, Shari opened up her redbubble online photography shop (http://www.redbubble.com/people/galiardisl  -- don’t forget the holidays are coming up & nothing says “Christmas” better than a hand-made gift from someone you know and love... ; -)   We were spared from Sandy’s wrath, but our friends to the south were not quite so lucky.  

October 31:  Drive to Northampton, MA, arriving just in time to join our friends Dale and Hannah and their 4 kids (all under the age of 5) at the local Halloween parade.  Watching them feed 4 children dinner and get them into their various costumes, all in a matter of 30 minutes mind you, was nothing short of a miracle – but this is the sort of thing they do all the time.  It’s truly amazing how much gets accomplished when there are two mommies in the house.  Six meltdowns later, it was time to get everyone home and to bed after a long evening of parading and trick o’ treating.  After 3 days of fun with this crazy gang of kids – chasing them around playgrounds, watching them at their first gymnastics class, and jumping with them on the backyard trampoline – we headed north to southern Maine, to find our first WWOOF site and do a bit of farming at Rippling Waters Organic Farms.  

 

The Farm was an excellent experience and deserves its own blog post – stay tuned!