Galavanting

* We liked the pictures-driving-story model from last time, so we're trying it again. It's much less work for us and hopefully an easier thing to consume for you guys. Karol typed just about the whole post, though we still worked on it together *

Day Twenty Two (Wednesday, September 21^st)

We awoke to a very pretty sunrise, said our goodbyes to our wonderful hosts, and set off to Salem, Massachusetts.

Dat swanky ass walk

We found the visitor's center in Salem, puttered about inside for a little bit, then decided to just go for a walk around. We didn't feel like going to museums (certainly not paying for them) and we didn't want to pay for a guided tour.

There's this statue of some guy who had something to do with witches, I imagine.

This is as close as we came to finding witches. Very disappointing.

Crushed, more like, with a boulder.

The memorial for the victims was interesting to see, especially since we were apparently a day early for one of the anniversaries (a couple days late for some others). Karol remembered Giles Corey's name from high school – what a way to fucking die, holy shit. Charlotte remembered most of the names from reading The Crucible in school (that's probably what Karol remembers as well).

Here's a pretty sweet door.

We really like this fence and we want to build one like it someday.

Charlotte had the idea to make seven of the sticks the colors of the rainbow, but maybe we'll just make the whole thing rainbow. Why settle for a little rainbow?

This is a really old fire alarm!

This water was boring. Charlotte really wanted to go see the water and got bored in five seconds.

Idk, it's like The Scream (painting) except branches? in the vague shape of a stupid house?

So yeah Salem sucked. It's the worst laid out city we've probably ever been in. Confusing to drive around and to walk in.

We went to Providence, Rhode Island because hey that's probably a cool place, right? Well, we had burgers there after sitting in the car looking up places to eat (we were both tired and hangry at this point). We were near the colleges there and everything was expensive which doesn't make sense. This place is called Luxe Burger Bar.

Pretty much the first thing you see.

A build your own burger ordering card! This is what Karol had.

It was delicious despite how gross it looks. Why put it up if it looks gross? Fuck yeah food that's why.

Leaving Providence, there's a big Macy's! ...and who gives a shit what else, it's a big city and we really don't like those I guess.

What is there to do in big cities? Shop. Eat. Get drunk. Bored. (Except eating is good) (Unless it's really expensive)

After dinner we decided to just drive another couple of hours west to cut down on the drive to Maryland. We originally planned to sleep near Salem and go back the next day before checking out Providence. Then we decided instead to sleep in Providence, but we couldn't find great options for sleeping so we just drove further.

We drove into the sunset, with a huge splatter of either an enormous bug or bird shit (probably bird shit) on the windshield. :]

We slept in the car at this rest stop in Connecticut.

Karol has relatives in Connecticut but this was completely unplanned so we didn't think about asking them to sleep there.

Here is the surprisingly well maintained bathroom.

If you ever need to sleep in your car at the western edge of Connecticut, I highly recommend this place.

Day Twenty Three (Thursday, September 22^nd)

We got up around seven, pooped and brushed our teeth, and were on the road by 7:45.

We stopped at the last rest stop on the turnpike in New Jersey for a snack and to get gas before we got to Baltimore. 

This is the last time we'll be in New Jersey for a while.

Then we were in Delaware.

And then Maryland.

There was plenty of time before Charlotte's friend in Baltimore got off work, so we stopped at Verizon to change Charlotte's plan. Instead we just put her on Karol's phone plan. Now we're on a plan together! (This means a lot to me for some reason, it's like a really intimate thing. I guess because (smart)phones are such an important part of our lives. I feel like Charlotte is significantly more integrated in my life now.)

That Verizon (which was actually just an authorized retailer which meant we still had to call customer service to complete the service combining) was in Baltimore so we drove a little further to what looked (on Google Maps) like a park and we cooked some ramen in our bush pot.

It looks almost like it's at the edge of the woods...

...but it was actually a driving range.

After eating ramen (with our own blend of seasonings because those packets are terrible), we went back to a place with a gazebo that we passed on the way.

Yeah, I occasionally open Pokemon Go whenever we're in a city (Karol)

Quarry Lake

This is where we sat and called Verizon, actually, and then worked on the previous blog post. It was pretty and nice.

A little path.

There were a shitload (heh) of people when we came back to the park the second time (that driving range was FULL of people shortly after four holy shit (went back there for the potties))

Beth's apartment! (taken on the way out because we forgot)

I went to high school with Beth and despite having mutual friends and some classes together, we never hung out.  I always got the sense that she was someone I would really like and could be friends with, but for whatever reason it just didn't happen.  Then after high school we became Facebook friends and we realized we had very similar musical tastes. She would post a song she was obsessed with and it would be one I was also obsessed with or vice versa and this happened over and over.  This led to us actually messaging each other and chatting via e-mail.  I even mailed her a book I thought she'd enjoy.  We were like virtual pen pals.  I knew we would be visiting another friend in Maryland so I really wanted to hang out with her in person finally, and we arranged that and here we are! -Char

We had a nice time hanging out with Beth and her boyfriend and another friend who came over that night. We planned to go to a park to grill but realized the coordinating of vehicles and transporting food was just too much effort so we stayed in and they cooked the yummy food on the stove and we played Scattergories until we went to bed.  This was a pretty awesome way to meet someone and we can't wait to see them again! 

Day Twenty-Four (is there supposed to be a dash? Friday, September 23^rd)

Really long bridge. Maybe the bay bridge? Idfk

We got to Chester, Maryland around nine, went straight to PRS to get a spare key from Jason. We got inside and cooked the rest of our ramen to hold us over until lunch at five guys. It was so delicious. Jason met us there right as the food got to the table so we sat around a little until he had to get back to work. We went back to his house and worked on the blog some more.

We had a companion, one of his housemate's cats Coraline (Cora for short)

When Jason got home, the hilarity ensued. Karol bought Just Cause 2 on steam because it was on sale last week for under $4. We played this game in college on Tyler's laptop until he got so mad about how terrible the game is that he deleted it. We had so much fun that obviously it was going to be a great time. Well, there's apparently a multiplayer mod now and one of the servers we found had some kind of mod or something that let you go really fast if you pressed L1 (LB on xbox controllers). So this happened:

700 km/h in a boat means you can fly.

Just about every time we went into a vehicle we immediately went up to 700 km/h. Boat, car, motorcycle, plane, helicopter, who gives a shit. Immediate blast off. We lost our shit every time. So much that Charlotte kept looking and just being like oh boy here we go. It was a lot of fun. That's how we spent a lot of the weekend, just hysterical laughter.

Poople Joon's for dinner was nice, we were all so lazy. We didn't feel like making anything, pizza sounded great. We hadn't gone shopping or anything anyway so whatever.

Day Twentyfive (Saturday, September 24^th)

In the morning Karol skyped (finally, right before not having internet again) with his mom and sister for a while and then we had breakfast burritos that Jason made us. Karol wrapped it into an actual burrito thing which Jason apparently had never done. Woo innovation!

It's weird not having any pictures of a day..

We played some other games like Age of Empires II even though we couldn't play online (probably because I have a cracked copy since my laptop doesn't CD at all, but whatever still fun. We played some Castle Crashers and a little bit of Terraria. Chick-fil-A for dinner because it was Saturday, not Sunday, a regular enough day for christians to make me sandwiches yay! We accidentally went through the drive thru (NOT A FUCKING REAL WORD) so we quickly grabbed some food from the grocery store after getting chicken and fries and shit. Obviously more video games and relaxing after we got back.

Daytwentysix (Sunday, September 25^th)

Again no pictures, so shameful...

Tyler was gonna visit Jason's since he was in DC this weekend! We had bagels with cream cheese and some tiny tomatoes for breakfast then played games until lunch. We thought about going to Olive Garden on Saturday, but nah, so instead we went for lunch on Sunday. Tyler texted asking for the address while we were at Olive Garden and then we unfortunately were still there when he arrived at Jason's... Which was half an hour away at best from Olive Garden. So we just continued eating while he read a book in his car (I felt bad for making him wait but at least he had something to do..?)

We hung out with him and had some whiskeys and cokes during the afternoon/evening. It was a really nice, albeit quiet, time. We reminisced and talked about other shit that's going on now and so on. Tyler left soon after it got dark because work and he lives far away. After that we continued to hang out and play video games until beddie bye.

D27 (Monday, September 26^th)

We said goodbye to Jason in the morning as he was going to work, laid around for a little before getting up. We had a quick breakfast of eggs and bagel before heading off to West Virginia. We stopped at one of those pervasive McDonalds to deposit urine before continuing the drive.

Oh hai Mark

"Wild, wonderful" according to their license plates

View from Old Pike Road, a dirt road off highway 250.

The Laskas' driveway, a long one you actually have to drive along.

A view from the Retreat

A view in the Retreat

Just some teasers as you wait until next week for a post about our first week here. It's really gorgeous, we've been taking pictures in the morning and right around sunset. We're very excited to be here, this is the first place I (Karol) ever WWOOFed, right after I left college. This was meant to be my first stop on my trip west before I realized I was too depressed to handle traveling alone. These are some of the most intelligent people I've ever had the pleasure to meet and spend time with. We're both ready to learn a whole lot about land and food and herbs and plants in general while we're here.

The Adams Family

* For this post, again something different! The previous posts have all been horrifically long (to write and to read) so we're gonna focus on the pictures this time. We will basically have pictures tell the story of this week with words taking a supplementary role. Also, we will both type this post together. *

Day Fifteen (Wednesday, September 14^th)

We got groceries and shit for some munchies we'd have later when Jamie (Happy Belly) and David came to play card games. Eventually we realized that we would need more olive oil so Karol and Darrell took a ride back to the grocery store, stopping to get gas. Karol took these pictures of a logging company across the street:

Lotta wood

So much wood

Charlotte helped Lorette prepare a smorgasbord of snacks: chips (bought) and salsa, pea (not pee) pesto, crostini, caprese salad, jezebel dip (cream cheese with hot pepper jam (makes your tongue crisp up a little)), crackers, cheese, pepperoni, and then some holy shit fucking good spinach and artichoke quesadillas, and chorizo quesadillas. We played the card game Spoons first, had snacks, then played the fuck out of cards against humanity. We played until there were no white cards left. It was a wonderful time!

Yeah this is a terrible picture

Day Sixteen (Thursday, September 15^th)

Tree choppin. Before going outside, Karol took some pictures of these birds eating sunflower seeds. 

Blue Jays, one caught in flight

He was surprised that they produced so many seeds (there were birds eating them daily), but he never managed to go outside quickly enough to grab some. This was his morning. He took the picture and shortly thereafter went outside and stole some seeds. Later in the day he finally asked and found out Darrell has like a barrelful of them... Anyway. Then we went out to make more branch piles.

Polesaw, pre-chain-tightening

We had to stop the day before because of hornets, but Darrell sprayed their little asses and took the whole nest down to the brush pile this morning:

Humans: 1 Hornets: 0

On we went then, gathering branches, avoiding apples and insects. These two mushrooms started out much smaller and much whiter when we arrived:

Mushrooms grow huge here 

At this point, we had 5 feeder piles around the main burn pile

Gotta avoid the apple diarrhea

Near the property line, there are some of these things with blue stuff that rubs off to reveal the green stalk.

Yet another load brought the total number of branches even higher.

After we gathered enough to tire Darrell out, we started to get ready to go golfing on a neighbor's private golf course!

I guess this was after a shower

He's had the course for about 20 years, just recently expanding to 12 holes from nine. It's a really nice course, especially since he maintains it himself.

GOLFING I'LL TAKE PICTURES WHAT IS CAMERA

After the first tee off (which of course I forgot to take pictures of)

Lorette giving it the old college try

Hole 4? idk. This is Charlotte's favorite picture of the course

Darrellino's up!

    Swing batta batta    

Laugh it up fuzzball

This is Karol's favorite picture of the course

The hole is straight up from where the ball is, which is in the wrong fairway. Karol did a good job teeing off here.

Weird circle, I guess it's just aliens.

After we got back from golfing, it was finally time to burn. Charlotte and Lorette stayed inside, writing and resting. Darrell gathered some garbage while Karol fucked around taking more pictures (to give you an idea of how much there was to burn):

Pre-burn post-golf pre-sunset post-haste!

The pile was at least 10 feet high

Within seconds of lighting cardboard

This is three minute later. Karol and Darrell had to back up because of the intense heat of these twenty-foot flames!

It would take a swarm of people to feed it fast enough

15 minutes later

Lorette and Charlotte came out eventually, surprised to see the fire mostly burnt out (Charlotte didn't believe Karol when he said it was just about done). We hung out near the fire for a little bit - it was nice and warm. The smoke was curling curiously:

Within 20 minutes most of the branches were gone

Day Seventeen (Friday, September 16^th)

They have a hummingbird feeder!

On the way to Karol's tattoo, we went to a humongous used book store in Houlton. Charlotte could literally spend all day there. There were so many books. Charlotte bought two Richard Laymon horror novels. We stopped by the tattoo shop when we got to Lincoln to find out whether they accepted credit cards and to ask about a good place to stop for lunch.

DNA Tattoo in Lincoln, Maine

Food was okay. We had a wonderful time with Damien, the tattoo artist who worked on Karol's tattoo! We got along really well and it would have been nice to hang out with him and his family, if only we were in the area longer.

Before color - Karol didn't have pictures of the beginning of this travel tatoo because he didn't want his butt all over the internet (there is devil's ivy going down his leg which necessitates his ass being out for a good picture of it)

Karol is very happy with how this is coming along!

The moon was enormous on the way back, it was like a sun (as you can barely tell in this wonderful picture)

Day Eighteen (Saturday, September 17^th)

This is all that was left of the burn pile the next day.

We helped Darrell with more branches briefly in the morning. Then we went along to run multiple errands with both Lorette and Darrell. We ended up going to the Happy Belly for a delicious lunch.

MUST GO if you're near Caribou, Maine (he's closed for the season now though)

We went to the store for a couple things and saw this totally awesomely named chocolate!

We ended the night with a game of Chinese checkers and then some yahtzee! Not much dinner because our bellies were so happy.

Day Nineteen (Sunday, September 18^th)

We got up later because Sunday and started cooking bacon.

It was so good and there was so much. The bacon on the left literally melted, like butter.

Lorette made some more sausage, this time spiced apple flavored.

The pancake looking thing is a ploye, an Acadian crepe-like food-object. 

Charlotte intensely concentrating on her magic trick.

We hung out this Sunday. Watched a movie, played some yahtzee, had chicken parm for dinner (homemade sauce, organic thicken thighs, oozing mozzarella (sorry no picture)), and ate ice cream!

Day Twenty (Monday, September 19^th)

Foggy morning, taken at 7:05.

We took the car to the mechanic to replace the front wheel bearings (and days later started hearing two new sounds which just takes Karol back to the speed6 days). When we got back (Darrell gave us a ride), there were people working on the house (two rooms and some stairs that they've been sanding for weeks). We hung out while Lorette made brownies and zucchini-banana bread. When she was done, we started making dinner.

Bobblehead Charlotte picked fresh green peppers for sauce!!!!!!111!11!1

We made pesto porkloin, roasted buttercup squash, brown sugar carrots, and more chips of course!

It's kinda like the 3D Doiritos that they stupidly stopped making!

FRESH CHIPS ARE THE SHIT

It's a carrumpkin! (Carrot that had a mostly thin body, Karol bit that part off) 

This is all that was left of dinner, didn't think to take a picture of it because of how ridiculously delicious it was.

This is Charlotte's art.

Day Twenty One (Tuesday, September 20^th)

Though large and unwieldy (plus uncleanable), this window adds a gorgeous view.

On Tuesday we mostly reorganized the car, packing our clothes and games back in the trunk, had some burritos for dinner, and played Yahtzee again!

Karol had a good start to this game.

Karol ran outside to take this picture during Yahtzee.

Charlotte remembered and redrew a drawing that an old friend found from when he was a kid.

This is what we look like now (for now).

We had a fantastic time staying with Lorette and Darrell in Mars Hill, only regretting that we couldn't stay longer. They very graciously welcomed us back any time and we just can't wait to visit again! It's weird being homeless.

Wednesday we left for Salem. Spoiler alert: it wasn't what we expected. Like, zero witches.