Tuesday, October 16: We started by breakfast victuals at the Portland market/food court. Emily had the day off so we drove out to Wolf's Neck which is out by the L.L. Bean 24-outlet town north of Portland. We wandered for a few hours and talked and it was wonderful. Totally beautiful and as I had never really spent much time with Emily prior to this except in indirect social ways, this was a great way to get a feel for each other as actual human beings. I for one was very glad for it, and impressed even moreso with Ms. Emily after a wee bit-o talkin's. Back to Portland where we went to a book store, a comic shop, and then food at Spice something or other and took it to the market. I think back home to take a nap and then more low-key hangin's out that night. Food?

Wednesday, October 17: Back to Boston in the afternoon. On the walk back to Eli's apartment I saw some kid get kicked out of a comic shop. I think the kid was looking for trouble but we was dressed kinda smart. I imagine he was being super smarmy and making fun of the typical comics they were selling with gigantically breasted females and steroid-hopped males adorning the covers with gore and madness. Then again we was wearing a typical tan "flasher" trechcoat, so maybe he had been humping the gumball machine. The world will never know. Eli eventually made it home and pretty much crashed out. It had already been a long week by Wednesday. We might have watched some TV - Smallville or I don't know. But it was an early night and I didn't even pack my panniers like I thought I should have.

Thursday, October 18: Meant to take off in the morning but things didn't pan out that way. I got caught up in some exploit to set up a game on my computer and by the time that got all worked out and the bugs un-kinked, it was too late in the day to think about starting out from Boston. So I chilled in Boston one more day. I met Dawn at her hula and Polynesian dance class and watched her work it for a half-hour, which was just awesome. Then Dawn and I met Eli at an Ethiopian restaurant then saw the wonderful Swedish film "Together," which Kelsey had been admonishing me to see for some time. That was a great night out and a perfect end to Boston. Thanks to Dawn and Eli for making my time there so welcomed and happy.

Friday, October 19: Took off in the morning and mailed some comics and other detritus off to Kelsey to store for me. This was a really bad move on my part as in my rush to get back on the road I neglected to put a note or any personalized item in the package other than shit I didn't want to tote around anymore. I was in the doghouse for a while after that. Not until after Baltimore would I officially be out of the doghouse.
So I get out on the road and I'm heading towards Connecticut on a diagonal out of Boston. But by the end of the day my right knee is horrible pain. I haven't been riding hard like this in over a week, but I don't find a good place to stop for a while. I get dinner in Milford at this grocery store where I buy some soynut butter and honey and bread and apple and some other supplies, then make it as far as a good bike shop where I get a bike map of the eastern slice of Massachusetts and use that to find a state park within a few miles where I crash out for the night in ridiculous pain from my right knee, but happy under the waxing moon and over the pine needle floor.

Saturday, October 20: took off in the morning before any park rangers could find out that I had surrupticiously slept in a "no camping" park, and not far from the picnic benches no less(!). Back on the road and my knee's aching but not as badly, though there's something different about it, I can't quite tell. I ride into Connecticut and things start getting pretty hilly, but I push through and by dinner time I'm in Willimantic. I stop at a bike store and they help out quite a bit with maps a what not. I have an old high school friend who I'm going to try and stay with north of Bridgeport, so we're tralking about the best way to get there, and they let me charge my phone there while I get a dinner of great Mexican food from across the street. It gets dark and I'm asking after campsites and hotels, and all the hotels are many miles away, but it looks like there's a Willimantic campsite nearish, though no one's ever heard of it. This should have tipped me off to some trouble. At any rate, I take off thanking everyone kindly for their help, and start down the by now very dark streets towards the ostensible location of the campground. To make a long story short (for the moment, as I'm sure I'll write up a long version someday), I finally found out that the "campground" was a christian housing project for begining families that people in the are affectionately referred to as the "munchkin village" as the starter houses were so small. Well, I foud all this out from a great guy, Paul Lanier, who after a while and a point blank asking, allowed me to spend the night at his apartment. We talked for a while and I agreed to go to his chirch tomorrow morning if he could give me a ride to make up for lost time. My friend in southwest Connecticut had Monday off, so I wanted to get there by then. Paul happily agreed.

Sunday, October 21: Went to Paul's Church in the morning. Paul is divorced, and I would assume relatively recently so, and trying out a new church in addition to other changes he's making in his life. This is a fledgling church and that morning it was only Paul, his son and myself in addition to the pastor/priest/leader of the congregation, who was rather upset at the low turn-out but eventually we turned things around a little bit by singing mostly original songs by Paul and Fred the priest with Paul on guitar and Fred on drums or guitar. Eventually church winds up and Paul, his son and I travel to New London/Old Saybrook area where we have lunch and they drop me off right as a historical Christ versus biblical Christ talk was getting a little uncomfortable. I get back on the bike and head towards New Haven where I'm going to meet Kristen. Things are going on schedule, and my knee now pretty much doesn't hurt, but has developed a click that wasn't there before. This will be with me the rest of the trip which means my life. Before I get to New Haven, I run over a thumbtack and pop my rear tire. Nt only did I run over thumbtack, but it was one of those push-pin dudes with the huge plastic base that are great for corkboards. Well this one was shaped interestingly and punctured my rear tire hardcore. So I have strip down and patch the tube. This eats up almost 45 minutes, unfortunately, because it's the rear tire. So I get back on the road but instead of meeting Kris in New Haven, I meet her just outside of New Haven and then we drive in to get some Indian food where Kris makes the most hilarious comment of many a day. When the simosas come she says "did you ever notice that every culture has their own version of the Hot Pocket?" From simosas to eggrolls to Hot Pockets - this is a universal culinary truth. God bless you, Kristen Hansen - and have you thought about stand up?
We roll back to her apartment which is a wing of the house of her husband's parents and we talk for a while with her husband, Mike(? sorry I don't remember off the top of my head) who's a totally rad tattoo artist and he was going to be tattooing some local radio celebrity the next day and was totally stressing it. Eventually Kris and I would up watching The Cell on DVD and then I crashed.

Monday, October 22: Kris and I run some errands and get some supplies so I hook up their TV/DVD player their stereo system. They only have one speaker in the stereo system, but it's still better than their TV. So I become a hero for twenty minutes and feel like I've earned my keep. I also duck tape a few frayed power cords that their chinchilla likes to nibble on. They have a chinchilla, a really furry bunny, a gecko of some type, and that may be it. I forget. Anyways, Mike's stressing the radio show, and Kris is running some financial errands, but she decides that it would be okay with her if she drove me into NYC to meet with our friend from high school, Mike, who I'll be staying with out there. The problem, was, trying to to get to NYC by bike is tough and the maps I have didn't really cover safe bike routes. So this prolonged the time I got to spend with Kris and gave me safe passage to NYC. Awesome. We get to NYC, though the radio show with Kris's husband on it didn't come in in NYC :( and meet up with Mike and go to a pretty good vegetarian restaurant where Gorrilaz was playing like mad. Mike felt haunted by the album, but I had never even heard of it. Kris went back after dinner and took my New York state map to help her get there, and I never did find a decent NY map again (not that I tried too hard, mind you). Mike and I get back to his apartment where his roommates Tom and Michelle are waiting. I have history with both Tom and Michelle which we needn't get into here, but I was a little leary of getting back to the apartment, but after Tom's bear hug greeting I knew things with him were going to be fine.