A New England Mini Break — OddParticle Creative

After a long pandemic-induced hiatus, I finally scheduled my next adventure to New England with a plan to visit three states and get some more manual driving in before the stick goes the way of the dodo.

Day 1: A Rough Start

I peeled myself out of bed at 3:30 am to prepare for a Lyft ride to the airport at 5:00, ahead of my 7:15 flight to Boston on American Airlines. 15 minutes before the driver arrived, I got a notification from Lyft that my ride had been canceled.

Heart rate rising, I quickly tried Lyft again and was relieved to see that there were drivers available… and prices were actually $10 cheaper than when I booked a couple of days earlier. Seems like drivers charge a premium for booking ahead of time. Guess that makes sense. Gig drivers probably don’t want to plan where they are three days ahead of time.

Thankfully, I was picked up on time by a friendly army vet named Henry. We chatted a bit and when he asked what I did for a living, he expressed excitement and praise for his experiences with USAA, though agreed that the digital experiences could be better. He seemed genuinely pleased to hear that we were doing our best to modernize the platforms. That early in the morning, the streets were fairly empty, and Henry dropped me off at departures with a comfortable padding of time. Maybe too comfortable.

Austin-Bergstrom was… empty when I arrived. I had heard that things had gotten busier… but I suppose weekday mornings in the fall meant fewer travelers. The flight was easy and uneventful, and watching 22 Jumpstreet (I don’t know what to think about that movie… It’s ridiculous) distracted me enough that we were landing at Logan sooner than I expected.

After a bit of confusion about how to get into Boston proper, I managed to catch a free shuttle into town. It was crowded. I hadn’t expected to be hit by the anxiety of riding crowded transportation vehicles in the middle of a pandemic quite so harshly, but there it was, a dark uncomfortable shadow hanging over every bus and train ride. And that wasn’t the end of it. The day would quickly go a bit south where that was concerned.

The bus route was… strange. Apparently, Boston has carved out various paths for buses to run through gated back alleys, industrial parking lots, and underground tunnels in order to keep them running as smoothly as possible. Kind of a clever way of avoiding traffic, to be honest. We came to a stop in one of those single-lane, dedicated underground tunnels and were vomited out into a subway concourse.

After finally making it to Boston proper, I had some time to kill before the AirBnB would be available for check in. I had forgotten that I’d have my luggage with me, hampering my ability to move around easily. And on top of that, it was raining. Fortunately, I had my umbrella with me and was able to stay mostly dry. I decided to find some place nearby to chill out for lunch.

My list of researched restaurants showed “Gene’s Chinese Flatbread” near the subway station, so I popped my umbrella and hauled my luggage along. About ten minutes later, I was standing outside an unassuming open door with the label of my destination above it. Except they were only fielding take-out orders. Stupid pandemic. Sighing, I walked back down the street I’d come from and ducked into a healthy food chain, ordering a noodle salad and settled down at a window stool to people-watch while filling my empty stomach.

I finished up my meal around 2 and figured I could start heading toward Cambridge where the lodgings were located. I made my way back to the subway station, bought a ticket, and immediately realized something had gone wrong. A big sign was flashing that the trains weren’t running. An attendant said a shuttle bus would take riders to a different stop. I explained that I was trying to get to Cambridge, and he waved me at a staircase and told me to catch the shuttle to Park Street Station.

I rushed up the stairs and boarded the shuttle. It was crowded and uncomfortable, and a 40 minute ride… in the wrong direction. I did overhear that a train had derailed at Downtown Crossing, though. However, I had no idea where Park Street Station was, and by the time the bus reached its final destination, and I realized what had happened, I had to wearily board another bus heading back toward Park Street Station in the opposite direction. Another 45 minute ride.

Once I arrived at Park Street Station, I was finally able to catch a subway to Central Station at Cambridge. By that time, the rain had stopped spitting, thankfully. A short walk brought me, at last, to my first AirBnB of the trip.

I got settled in, took a break, made a reservation for dinner online, then headed out to Pagu. Surprisingly, the upscale Asian Fusion restaurant required vaccine cards for indoor dining. Fortunately, I’d brought mine. I ordered Braised Pork Hand Pulled Noodles and a side of Shishito Peppers. What I discovered was that Austin’s own Loro handles Asian Fusion quite a bit better than Pagu did.

I headed back to the AirBnB through intermittent rain with a full belly and called it an end to a rather rough first day of the trip. Before turning in, I met my next door neighbor, Atul, who is a semi-permanent resident within the apartment. He was kind enough to give me a toothbrush (which I’d forgotten to pack… duh), saving me a trip down to the drug store.

Day 2: Re-Discovering the Town of Bean

The next morning I met another AirBnB resident, Lilia. She was leaving town that morning, however, so the meeting was brief. My plan was to explore a bit of Cambridge before heading into Boston for most of the day.

I walked back down to the main drag and noticed the Hancock building out in the distance. A bit of exploration uncovered an alley filled with graffiti. The rest of the drag was fairly commercialized, but they DID have an HMart there! I ducked in and got some tea and pastries for breakfast.

After finishing breakfast, I took a few more shots around Cambridge, then headed to the subway station, purchased a ticket, and rode to Park Street. My first stop was Boston Common. Upon exiting the station, I saw a couple of anti-vax conspiracy nuts “protesting” at the entrance to the park. Feeling grossed out, I quickly left the area and explored a good bit of the Commons. It’s green, well-kept, and pleasant to stroll around, anti-vaxxers notwithstanding.

After that, I headed to Faneuil Hall on foot. Along the way, I passed Boston City Hall, a marvel of modernist architecture. The plaza was under construction, but the building itself was pretty much like I’d remembered it. Stark and stoic, but well proportioned with a unique top-heavy profile broken up by vertical parallel concrete lines.

Passing through its archway brought me to Faneuil. I’d been there before in 1999, and upon entering the Hall, it struck me as being MUCH smaller than I’d remembered. A lot of the stalls were chained off having not reopened yet due to the pandemic. Exiting out the other side of the hall, I realized that I’d misremembered. There are three long interior market places behind Faneuil Hall that matched my memory as far as scale and assortment of food stalls. It was early for lunch, so I didn’t bother stopping. I strolled on through, exited the other end, and headed for the harbor.

The piers aren’t as bustling or large as the ones in San Francisco, leaning more toward peaceful and idyllic. I sat down on a bench and took in the clean air and the bright sunshine before spotting a little bird sunning itself on a pylon and another hopping around on the rocks. I swapped out to the zoom lens to catch a few shots.

At this point, it was getting close to lunchtime, so I figured I’d try Gene’s Chinese Flatbread, once again. I tried placing an order online, but wasn’t sure if it had completed. Regardless, I started walking that way back toward the city center. If the order had gone through, I figured it would be ready by the time I got there.

As I left the docks, I noticed a strange assortment of White Claws at the base of a street lamp.

ODD.

I also walked by the Boston Aquarium, which looked like it had been updated since my last visit by Frank Ghery vomiting up some metal sheet work onto the entryway.

I got to Gene’s after a brisk walk and checked the take-out table. Nothing. I checked my email. No confirmation. However, the lady servicing the patrons said it would only be a 10 minute wait (surprisingly), so I ordered and browsed my phone until my meal of Hand Pulled Cumin Lamb and a Lychee soft drink was ready. I grabbed my bag and wandered over to the Chinatown gates, found a park bench, and dug in.

As far as hand pulled noodles goes, they were great… thick and chewy. The lamb was… a bit sparse and definitely not terribly cumin-y. But the dish had a nice spicy sour flavor combo that I enjoyed.

After lunch, I wandered around Chinatown a bit, looking for anything of interest. Unfortunately, it didn’t hold a candle to San Francisco’s Chinatown. Not a surprise, really.

Unsure of what to do next, I consulted my map and realized that I had missed the western section of Boston Common, so I wandered back to the Commons and explored the large pond in that area. I saw a sculpture with some social commentary being put together by a woodworker. Small blue boxes were scattered around the park with messages to park-goers. I still had plenty of day left. I realized that I hadn’t ever gotten a close-up look at Hancock Tower, so, seeing it on the horizon, I headed in that direction.

Hancock Tower, designed by I.M. Pei, suffered catastrophic window failures when it was first built due to wind shear torquing its parallelogram cross section. I’m not sure I like the design, but photographing something so reflective was an interesting experiment. Because of its parallelogram floor plan, some shot angles also looked a bit surreal, like I was taking a photograph of a tall glass flat plane with no depth.

Around this time, I had to pee, badly. I spotted a CVS and ducked in, but nary a restroom was to be seen. I went next door to a Wendy’s and found that I needed to be a customer in order to use it, so I bought some tea, was given a secret code, and was finally able to relieve myself. The tea was terrible. I finished half and dumped it. What a waste.

It was only later that I realized I was right next to the Boston Public Library and could’ve just used the restrooms there. Sigh. Out of practice at this traveling thing.

Once relieved, I headed back out to finish taking photos of the Hancock Tower as well as Trinity Church next to it. What a stark contrast between the two buildings.

I headed to the library since I had time to kill and was running out of things I wanted to see. Boy, was I glad I went. The library is stunning, starting with a grand staircase guarded by two stone lions, glowing gold, sun-kissed through the large windows overlooking a beautiful courtyard. On the second floor, students studied quietly in a sumptuous vaulted hall. I found my way down to the courtyard and took a few pictures before continuing on to the other side of the building and was surprised to find an extremely modern wing. This was the main library for the public with the traditional sections for fiction, non-fiction, children, media, etc. It had undoubtedly been added much more recently. It doesn’t have the breathtaking verticality of Austin’s new library, but the red accents and easy navigation makes it just as enticing a space.

With the afternoon starting to fade, I decided to make my way to the shore of the Charles River. I’d seen a glimpse of it on the subway ride into the city and figured it would be a good bookend for the day. The shoreline has a lot of paved pathways and is home to plenty of runners and strollers. And geese. Very curious geese. Obviously, they thought I had food on me, but all I had was a camera, so I used that on them, instead.

As I wandered along the shoreline toward the Charles/MGH subway station, I snapped photos before stumbling on a beautiful concert shell facing a large green lawn. Wood and concrete, cupped together in intricate detail. Fantastic.

Once back in Cambridge, I headed back to the AirBnB. I didn’t feel terribly hungry, so ate a few mom snacks and basically turned in for the evening.

Day 3: The Real Trip Starts Now

The next morning, I woke up, excited to start the next leg. I would be heading to Salem to pick up the Mini Cooper for my road trip up into New Hampshire and Maine.

I had some time to kill, however. The pick up time for the car wasn’t until 1:00 pm, so I headed out to Cambridge one more time. After picking up some breakfast from the HMart bakery (as well as something for Atul as a thank you for the toothbrush) and picking up a driving snack, I wandered over to explore the Cambridge campus. It’s a very nicely kept campus, but the streets were quiet, for the most part. I looked for a couple of parks marked on the map, but they turned out to just be some commons areas. Soon, I headed back to the AirBnB to gather my things. After leaving a note and the pastry for Atul, I lugged my things to the subway and rode to Downtown Crossing, where I would catch another line to North Station.

Once at North Station, I needed to catch the commuter rail to Newburyport/Rockport. I purchased the ticket and waited about 20 minutes before it arrived and was ready to be boarded. The train was rather empty so I had a seat to myself. I even managed to catch a few winks.

Once I arrived in Salem, I had some time to kill… and was about a mile and a half away from the pick up point of the car. Typically, an easy walk… but with rolling luggage, it would be a bit of a challenge, especially not being familiar with the area. I decided to grab a quick lunch and think on my options.

I ordered a Chicago style hotdog at the Boston Hotdog Company along with a side of cole slaw. Not bad, overall! Once I’d finished, I pondered my predicament, again. I sighed and decided to walk it, snapping a few shots of Salem’s central square as I went. Two blocks later, I was scheduling a Lyft.

Dragging my luggage along a brick-paved street was too much, prompting me to splurge for the ride. WHICH dropped me off at the wrong location (I might have fat fingered the address, so probably not the driver’s fault). I ended up having to walk several blocks to the correct location.

The key was waiting for me in a mailbox, the car at the curb. A manual Mini Cooper. I loaded my stuff in and took a moment to figure out all the controls. Due to all my struggles getting to the right address, I was actually a bit behind schedule. Spending several minutes acclimating myself to the dashboard layout, looking up how the “reverse” gear worked, and trying to figure out a solution for having my iPhone map working delayed me further.

Finally, the car started, and I was underway. From Salem to my first stop was a couple of hours drive. I did stop a few times along the way into the White Mountains to take photographs of the stunning scenery.

Unfortunately, where the GPS led me for my destination, Diana’s Baths, was just a wooded area. I was able to keep driving up the road, though, and found a scenic spot at the top called Cathedral Point. I remember reading that Diana’s Baths were a bit hidden away and was disappointed at not being able to find it, but the view from Cathedral Point was still a nice treat.

I headed back down from Cathedral Point and decided to just continue on to my next stop in Gorham, NH, a small town at the base of the White Mountains. Along the way, I saw the Wildcat Mountain Ski Lodge and pulled over to take a few shots of it in all of its snowless autumn glory.

I pulled up at the AirBnB as dusk fell, and WOW. This AirBnB put all other AirBnBs I’ve been in to shame. Private, stocked with snacks and drinks, and just plain cozy. After settling in, I decided it was time to figure out a meal plan for the next few days. I headed to Walmart and picked up some bread, cured meats, some cheese, and a bag of small cucumbers. I’d use these to make sandwiches for my next 8 meals.

Once back at the AirBnB, I made myself a sandwich and partook of some Cheez It’s for a simple dinner. Perrier mixed with pineapple juice made a pleasant drink to wash it down with.

The internet was a little spotty, especially on my phone, but it was quick enough when I was in the right part of the room. Little did I know, I should’ve taken the opportunity to pre-download a ton of media before heading out the next day.

Day 4: Into the Wilderness

In the morning, I packed up and jumped back into the car, looking forward to exploring the White Mountains Region, only to be greeted with an unexpected warning light. Tire pressure was low. Sighing, I drove to the gas station down the street and found that luckily, they had an air pump. I filled up all of the tires in the cool morning air, then left Gorham, heading south back into the White Mountains to visit Glen Ellis Falls. I overshot the TINY LITTLE SIGN and had to swing a u-turn to get to it, but the short bit of backtracking I needed to do proved to be worth it. It’s not a large falls, but still picturesque.

I was able to use the iPhone camera long exposure settings (thanks for the tip, Cass!) to get the satin water look. I did set up the Sony to do it FOR REAL, so it’ll be good to see how the two compare to each other. Here are two side by side. Which one do you prefer?

After finishing up at Glen Ellis, I headed to the Mount Washington Autoroad, the twisty turn-y road that I ostensibly made this trip for. That I then quickly sacrificed from my schedule. Apparently, weather had shut off the top of the mountain and the road was closed after only 6 miles. They were still charging a whopping $29 dollars to just go up the road! And watching the progression of pickups and SUVs turning to go up meant that any fun I would have in the Mini would be severely limited.

Part of solo travel, though, is being able to adapt and roll with the punches. I drove north, back toward Gorham, and turned into a parking lot I’d passed a couple of times for Mt. Washington National Park. Exploring another National Park (that was free, as it turns out) seemed like a decent alternative to not driving the Autoroad.

I talked to the information desk about what trails were available, but after being unable to find the trail head for the trail I was looking for, I chose a different one and ended up on a nearly two hour hike through a gorgeous forest. For an hour, I carefully made my way along a barely groomed trail lined with fallen red, yellow, and orange leaves, a warmly colored carpet contrasting with the darker browns and greens of the trees around me. Curiously, I was the only person there. The isolation amongst the dappled sunlight was profound, yet a bit disconcerting at the same time. The only sounds were the burble of streams and the wind through leaves, maybe the odd bird here and there. The narrow trail started to climb steeply, after a while, making the going fairly strenuous. In order to stay on schedule, however, I turned without completing the entire loop and headed back down through the sun-dappled forest. I didn’t see another soul the whole time until I was nearly back at the trailhead.

I ate lunch in the car and then headed past Gorham and east toward Augusta, Maine. It didn’t take long before I was across the state line. I hadn’t planned any stops between Gorham and Augusta, but I did visit a couple of small towns just to use the restroom and stretch the legs. In Bethel, I stumbled onto the visitors center and ducked in to see if there were any interesting stops along the road toward Augusta. There, I found a map of local falls and found that Snow Drop Falls was along my route. Again, it wasn’t a large set of falls, but it was uniquely colored. Brown. Still it gave me some time to stretch my legs, get some fresh air, and do a little photography.

I drove around Augusta a little bit, but it was getting late, and I hadn’t found anything of particular interest, so I just headed on to Bucksport where I would be staying for the next couple of days. Just before arriving, I pulled over to take a photo of a surprisingly modern suspension bridge spanning a river estuary.

Soon after, I pulled in at the modest house I would be staying at in yet another sleepy New England town. And abruptly, the little Mini threw another warning: One of the external lights had failed? I tried to find it, to no avail.

Something to deal with in the morning.

I knocked, and the host, Sam, came out to let me in. My lodgings were upstairs, he explained, consisting of a private bedroom and bathroom, which were welcome. Unfortunately, internet infrastructure in the area was…. Poor to say the least. Speed test gave me a reading of .7 Mbps, a speed I hadn’t seen since the late 90s.

So I spent the evening writing in the journal, chatting on Discord (which still barely worked), and watching an episode of Foundation, which I’d downloaded before I left Austin, and wishing I’d pre-downloaded some more content. Lacking much else to do, I went to bed around 10.

I did send a text message to the owner asking if the car tended to throw false errors and described the issue. He replied that it didn’t but not to worry about it. The warning light would come and go a couple of times, but for the most part, it would be with me for the rest of the trip.

Day 5: Bah Hahbah

The next morning, I headed out toward Bar Harbor (or as they say in New England, Bah Hahbah) to explore Acadia National Park. Cassi and Charles had suggested taking a tour of the island. I had no idea how crowded it would be, though. I stopped at the Visitor’s Center to ask a few questions and figure out what to see… and found out that to visit any of the main park areas would be $30, the charge for driving the Park Loop Road. I drove into Bar Harbor to see if I could find some place for breakfast, but didn’t see anything worth the wait or that looked particularly interesting, so I decided to just head into the park and bite the bullet on the cost. I’d come all the way out here, after all.

The route through the park is a long, partially one-way, winding loop with numerous roadside and dedicated parking areas. A footpath runs along the edge of the island for long stretches with offshoots that allowed easy access to the coastline. Traffic was slow and there were many, many pedestrians, but one lane of the one-way portion of the road allowed for parking along the edge, so stopping near trailheads wasn’t too much of a problem. I easily found a couple of places to stop and hike along the coat, enjoying the cool, clear air and do a bit of photography.

I had thought maybe October would be an “off-month”, but apparently, due to the changing colors of the trees, it actually tends to be extremely busy. I’d made a huge little mistake

However, because it was so easy just to park along the roadside, I had no trouble finding places to stop, hike, and explore. The Atlantic coastline during this time of year tends toward the overcast with cool whipping winds coming off the water. I was dressed warmly enough, but my right hand took a beating from the elements, leaving it covered in hangnails and some chapped fingers. My feet were also starting to ache. Tromping around the paved city in the stiff, unpadded hiking shoes I’d worn had beat up my feet quite a bit, and the rough terrain along the coast wasn’t doing them any favors. I didn’t remember having this trouble on my previous trips. Either I was getting old (yes) or just sitting around at home all day had softened up my footpads, significantly. Maybe both.

It wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t ignore, it though. So I did, and continued to explore the island coast.

I stopped numerous times along the Park Loop Road to photograph nature and wildlife… up until the point the road switched to two-way access.

Suddenly, parking became impossible. I was forced to skip some areas of the park that I had been interested in visiting. Instead, I headed to the west side of the island to find a lighthouse point.

Unfortunately, the lighthouse was a bit stumpy and quite uninteresting. I couldn’t even find a good enough angle to take an interesting photo.

Soon enough, I was losing light, so decided to call it a day and headed back to Bucksport. On the way off the island, I stopped a couple of more times just to take quick shots along the side of the road.

Day 6 - Belfast & Photography

The next morning, I headed for my next stop, Belfast, ME. My specific target here was a couple of suggested food trucks called Must Be Nice Lobster and the Ice Cream Hut.

I arrived far too early for lunch, so I explored Heritage Park, taking photos along the riverbank. As I was setting up for a shot, I heard a voice asking what I was shooting with. A friendly dapper gentleman held up his Leica and struck up a conversation about photography in general. Apparently, he specialized in drone photography but had splurged ($2000!) on a used Leica.

He also invited me to drop by his gallery up the street. After some time exploring the park and taking some photographs around the tiny town, I did wander into his gallery, partly to escape some rain that had started wet the area.

He was already chatting with a couple who turned out to be from Houston, coincidentally. They left soon after, and then he and I spent almost an hour and a half to hours just talking about photography, Maine, and sharing our work.

I did find the lobster food truck, but unfortunately, it was closed on that day (or maybe for the season), and the Ice Cream Hut was nowhere to be seen. None of the restaurants looked appealing, so I made myself another sandwich, then dropped into the local ice cream shop for a cone. It was unfortunately uninspiring, but it’s ice cream, so you can’t really go wrong.

Soon enough, I plotted my next location and left Belfast behind.

The photographer, Jon Linn, had recommended that I stop at the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse, a lighthouse perched out on a dike extending nearly a mile from the shore. His aerial photographs were pretty stunning, so I decided to alter my plans and make the trip.

The granite dike was a pretty rough walk, similar to the dikes out in Galveston. I took photos of the surroundings and even caught a seal surfacing once in a while out in the harbor during the 20 minute walk out to the lighthouse.

The lighthouse itself was closed and without the benefit of aerial shots, maybe not entirely worth the trip out and back. The perpetually overcast weather probably didn’t help too much. We’ll see what I get from post-processing.

The drive to my next stop near Portsmouth would be one of the longer legs of the trip. Having killed two hours at the breakwater, I ended up bypassing my planned stops in Portland and drove straight toward the AirBnB in Eliot.

The best strip of road on the trip led up to the house, letting me wring out the little Mini as I darted up the hill to my overnight stay.

I was greeted at the door by a short man in his 60s who led me up the stairs to my bedroom for the evening. A bedroom that looked straight out of an A24 film with a wedding dress hanging next to the bed. Just outside the room was a torso mannequin with a 19th century dress on it.

Eek.

Other than that, WiFi was relatively fast and the room was private and comfortable. I slept just fine, and the wedding dress didn’t mysteriously end up in the bed next to me in the middle of the night, so I really couldn’t complain.

Day 7: Three States, One Day

I didn’t need to be back in Salem to return the car until 4pm, so I spent the morning visiting Portsmouth, a charming, slightly larger town than most of the extremely small towns I’d been passing through on my trip.

Unfortunately, parking wasn’t free, so I paid for 3 hours to explore the modest park near the coastline before wandering into the city center. I ultimately ate breakfast and lunch there as I explored the town at my leisure. The sandwich wrap I got for lunch was decently tasty. After grabbing a dessert of coffee gelato (that was also unfortunately middling), I headed back to the car and put Portsmouth in the rear view as I headed toward Ordione State Park.

Turned out that my primary destination of the Seacoast Science Center in the park was closed on Monday and Tuesday, so I wasn’t able to explore that. My time was limited, at this point, anyway, so I hiked along a couple of trails and explored an old military gun battery site before heading back to the car and making my way back to Salem.

After filling up the gas, I dropped off the car with a half hour to spare, bidding the stalwart Mini a fond farewell as my companion for most of my trip. I checked my Lyft and Uber apps for a ride to the train station and found drivers to be lacking, so I decided to just walk the 1.2 miles, instead. Lugging my roller behind me the whole way.

Aside from having to hunt for sidewalks and avoiding traffic here and there, it didn’t turn out to be too bad. After some confusion about where to purchase tickets at Salem Station (turns out, you can just buy on the train), I was headed back to Boston proper. Rain had started to pepper the ground as the train pulled up, and I found a seat for the half hour ride back to South Station.

The rain was coming down fairly steadily by the time we pulled into the station, and I stupidly left my umbrella behind. By the time I realized it and returned to the train to look for it, it was gone. A bit frustrated (I got very little help from the MTBA staff who just seemed to be annoyed), I decided to just get back to the AirBnB.

The route was fairly familiar, at this point, so despite the rain, I made it in decent time, a little wet, but none the worse for wear. I didn’t feel like eating, so I skipped dinner and caught up on some videos until the internet cut out.

Some of the other residents had gathered in the kitchen to try to troubleshoot. Jamal, the owner had bought some boosters, but they didn’t seem to be working very well. My next door neighbor Markus, an Austrian on a cancer research grant, needed a fast connection to get his new phone set up. I ended up being able to log into one of the other signals in the building from my room, but Markus consistently got less than 5Mbps from his room.

I turned in shortly after, but woke up at 2 and was unable to get back to sleep except for that fitful half-dreaming/half-awake kind of sleep around 4.

Day 8: Returning Home

I left the AirBnB a bit early and stopped by HMart for a leisurely breakfast before catching the train and Silver Line bus to the airport.

TOO EARLY. I ended up hanging around the airport for nearly two hours before the flight started boarding.

It was a good trip, but tiring and frustrating in a couple of places, partly due to me forgetting a few things and being out of practice. The two year hiatus from traveling has definitely eroded some of the skills I picked up from my previous adventures, whether it be remembering what to pack or tips to finding restrooms. Still, any hitches were relatively minor, and I had a good time snapping the landscape.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to sample the AutoRoad, one of the primary reasons I’d made the trip. I’ll have to be a bit more careful with my research in the future!