Several routines I’m focused on shaking and shuffling around,

Writing during odd times of the day. 90% of my journaling is first thing in the morning. Right after my first sip of coffee and meditation. By 7am I’m putting my journaling down for the day and resuming my daily routine. Routines cause loops, shrinks comfort zones and leaves no seasoning to your average daily excitement.

I’m here to shake shit up.

Also I don’t assign an itinerary until I’ve had my coffee and clean up my campsite and camper. I got up this morning, brewed my coffee, showered while it cooled off, jumped in my truck and drove east. No preordained destination, no plans. East towards the coast was my only direction. I stopped in Lake Placid for a walk and a bagel. To be honest I was expecting a better bagel experience being in the upstate of New York but it was a tad disappointing. Placid is a tad smaller than I envisioned I can only imagine the logistic cluster fuck of hosting the Olympics there not once but twice. If you forgot that Placid hosted the Olympics you’ll be reminded on every street corner and t shirt shop. Drove through Keane valley and took in the multiple maple syrup stands along the way. The maple tree is the geographical matriarch of subsistence in this area. You’ll be reminded on the roadside every 300 or 400 yards. If you drive right past one you’ll still have a few more dozen opportunities per zip code to get your hands on maple syrup. I did not buy any. I still have a half dozen bottles from my trip to Vermont 4 years ago. I rarely cook pancakes at home but here we are with an accumulation of about a half gallon of maple syrup in my cupboard.

Yes I said cupboard I’m 54 years old.

Speaking of Vermont that’s where I ended up after driving aimlessly for about 2 hours. Burlington, Vermont. Home of the coat factory I believe. I haven’t seen one as of yet it may be hiding behind the countless Dunkin Donut drive thru’s or maple syrup shops.

My first impression of Burlington is that it’s similar to Asheville but more progressive. By that I mean it has more homeless than Asheville. I walked by a city park and watched a half dozen or so “hippies” playing air drums on the bench. A few were dancing to the beat (did I mention they were air drums?). Burlington is the home to Vermont College which appears to be a tad liberal. Enough to make the University of Portland change its mascot to the Ronald Reagans. As I’ve settled down over the years I’ve become a little more progressive but I’ll never achieve that level of vibe here. Electric scooters seemed to be the norm for the college student’s transportation. You’d hear the barely audible whisper of the electric motor as a young lady with blue hair, wearing fishnets and cut off jeans would zoom right by me followed by the faint whistling of her septum piercing as the passing relative air sucked through its fleshy portal. Mini howls like wind through a narrow corridor.

If accosted for money by one of the locals you may receive a “god bless” or a “go fuck yourself”. There were no warnings as to which reply you’d get from whom. I found a decent campground next to Champlain lake or Lake Champlain, I’m not sure which is the formal nomenclature, rests at the eastern end of Burlington. Maybe the western end too I didn’t walk that far. My camp (number 35) is a two minute walk to the lake shore. I spent an hour laying on a nomadik towel rotating my position like a rotisserie chicken to burn equal parts of my pale body. Each time I left my towel for the water to cool off a half dozen terns would quickly run up to my spot to look for snacks. Trampling my towel and sun hat (yes I have a sun hat I’m 54 years old). My imagination would get the best of me as I’d imagine a scenario of one of these little sneaky shits picking up my key fob and heading off to Canada with it. Or my eyeglasses.

Side tangent there’s a little bar and grill hut that serves fish tacos. I’ve got my watch set for 6pm to go back down to the lake and enjoy some. It’s the closest I get to feel like a Jimmy Buffet song. “Fish tacos in paradise 🎶”

Wait..

Fuck

Anyway I checked out their menu for non alcoholic beers and all they had was something like a Diet Heineken Tap Water spritzer. I just sighed with a mumbling of “it’s like ya’ll don’t even give a shit about me”

I’ve eaten out more than normal this trip. When I go on my little siestas I’m always excited to see what I forgot. For this trip I left my gas stove pressure regulator in one of my other boxes. All that means is I can’t cook anything with my twin eye burners. I’ve got a little Jetboil for coffee and MREs but I’m on a MRE break. The problem with those is they all smell exactly the same way when they are leaving your body in gas form.

Take that as you will.

I sleep in a very confined space when I camp. Also I like beans. No wonder no one will camp with me.

I like to keep tabs on things I lose and break on my trips. I’m on day three and I’ve already broken a charger and I lost my deer cam. Ok I didn’t lose it I know exactly where it is. If you’re anywhere in the Moose River Plains it’s about 15 miles in. Buckled to a tall tree next to the river. You can have it. It’s just a bunch a snap shots of my walking around my truck eating Doritos

Current situation I opted for a poke bowl instead of the fish tacos. Take that Jimmy Buffet.