Chapter 10: I'm Starting to Catch Up! (NH, PA, NY again)

Faithful followers may have noticed a distinct last of posting going on on this blog. Don't worry, that doesn't mean I got stuck in Nantucket (though I wouldn't complain about that too much). I've actually been super super busy and all-over-the-place with the trip, and now I'm going to see if I can get you all caught up to where I am now!


After Nantucket . . .

I said goodbye to Lina and wished her well on her marine term voyage, and headed back north a bit. I hadn't really done anything in New Hampshire, and Lina had told me about this really cool old railway they have on one of the mountains. So up to Mount Washington I went! The cog railway was very fun and very cold, since it goes up into the snowline. I have some really beautiful pictures, which I will post later.

After the cog railway, I headed back down south to Rhode Island, spent a lovely afternoon on the beach near Providence, then drove to New Haven, Connecticut. I checked out an art museum there, which had a really nice café attached.

And then I drove a lot. There was an event for Dagorhir, my medieval-reenactment hobby, just outside Pittsburgh, PA the weekend of September 27th. I got to Pittsburgh in time to see Mike and Ellie, two very good friends from college, before heading out to The Battle of Badon Hill.

At Badon, I got to see a bunch of friends from all over the country, who I usually only see once or twice a year. We hung out, played music, hit each other with swords (foam), and generally had a lovely weekend. It was hard to say goodbye at the end, but I knew I'd be seeing some of them again soon.

I spent a few more days in the Pittsburgh area with Mike and Ellie, seeing various sights (including the giant rubber ducky in the river), and eventually headed back east to Philadelphia.

Some of my Dagorhir friends live in Philly, and they very kindly put me up for the three or four days I was there. They introduced me to cheesesteak, and some very wonderful cats (pictures to be posted soon). I wasn't in town long enough to check out my mom's old haunts from her time at the New School of Music, but I'll go back someday to see those!

From Philadelphia, I went back north. There was another Dagorhir event going to be happening in Cleveland, New York, and I figured since I was in the area it would be nice to go.

I spent the week leading up to the event (Clash of Kings) in Rome, NY with a friend from the local Dag group, watching lots of Doctor Who and hanging out. The event was another great weekend, marred only by a branch falling onto, and breaking, my windshield the last night. Grr. So I ended up staying another few days while I got the windshield repaired, and then finally left Rome on the 26th of October.

New shiny windshield in place, I drove down to New York City to see my mom's brother David, and Erty, yet another good friend from college. Erty has lived in Brooklyn for the last little while, and generously offered crash space for me for the weekend. I happily accepted, and we got to hang out and drink and put together IKEA furniture (a combination of activities I cannot recommend highly enough!). We also met up with my uncle for a great visit to the Brooklyn museum, which at the time had an exhibit on the life and works of Jean-Paul Gaultier, a renowned fashion designer (and one whose pieces I actually like). Lovely day at the museum.

After that lovely weekend, I headed back down south again. I stopped in Philadelphia for the night, got to see my high school friend Mel (who has a blog of her own, which gets updated far more often than mine), and made it to Delaware the next day. There, I had lunch with another Dag friend, who was sneaky and managed to buy me a present without me being able to stop him. (He's six-foot-something and built like a football player, so I can't strongarm him into things like I can some of my friends.)

So now my car has a mustache. Thanks, Dan.

And with that, I'm going to stop and rest my brain for a few minutes, then see if I can get another month-worth of trip on here!

From a Starbucks,
Julia