Tag: adventure

I Moved and I’ll Move Again

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So after all that, I moved.

I moved to Thermopolis, WY to work at a leather clothing manufacturing place. That went well for a while but was very difficult. The whole move and resettling was difficult. I’ve never been able to afford to live on my own and it’s been very eye-opening moving to a small town in the middle of a state that’s known for its isolation. (I call it the poor man’s Iceland.)

I’m working at a gallery now and I think I’m going to be moving again. I may want to live closer to people I know in the future. It’s outrageously beautiful out here, but WY is losing its population every year and it tends to have an issue with adapting to new technologies. I feel like I’m living in a version of America few rarely see anymore. I like it more than being in surrounded by sprawl, terrible traffic, and housing that borders on the look and feel of over-priced storage units. But the isolation is aggravating some old demons.

I would suggest moving into these sleepy little towns to anyone. They need you, whoever you are. These towns are dying and they need bodies and young people. They’re losing a battle again justifying their own existence. It’s a terrible shame that these truly supportive communities are disintegrating.

 

Day 10(?): I’ll be better at this, I swear

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Leaving Dubuque, IA for Lacrosse, WI.

I stayed at the Richard House last night.

I needed to find a place to sit and figure out where to go next, so I went into the Dubuque arboretum.

I figured I’d look around and then draw some plants, but I ended up meeting a bunch of sweet older folks and chatting instead. The ladies painting group, “The Broad Strokes”, let me sit in on their session. I ended up speaking to the husband (a former Navy pilot and professional motorcycle tour guide) of one of the ladies about where to head next. Everybody there was so genuine and kind and very happy to meet me, which I was so tickled by. I didn’t get to see much of the arboretum, but it was an interesting time for sure.

I ended up staying at a campsite near the Mississippi. The drive to Lacrosse was beautiful.

Day One-ish: Maryland and Pennsylvania

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I got out on the road kind of late, but it didn’t really matter. Some how it took me about three and a half hours to get up to Hereford. I stopped in Monkton for “dinner” which was, and will probably continue to be, jerky and dried fruit. Once I was getting closer to Lancaster I started seeing some really cool stuff. Like this hotel that’s shaped like a steamboat.

Anyone who’s been to Bird-In-Hand or Intercourse PA, knows that the area is both very pastoral and full of Amish-based entertainment. Lots beautiful cows, little goats hopping around, and draft horses pulling things. Also, lot of people staying in hotels so they could get some rest after watching and buying things from Amish people all day. I saw a very spirited party going on at one local homes. Children were running around in the dark and the parents were sitting around a big fire. It was kind of like looking to a different reality. I snuck into a KOA and set my hammock up in the dark.

I guess it was an area that was sort of not available to the general public because no one else was in that section and it wasn’t on the KOA map. Fireworks and gunfire around dusk, but everything calmed down pretty fast. I thought being away from the other campers wouldn’t bother me that much, but then I heard the tree limbs breaking… Nothing came of it, but it freaked me out enough to lie awake, afraid a bear would be coming out of the woods.

I’m heading to Roadside America now, and it’s raining off and on. There should be some pictures of little towns coming up soon.