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.