NET: Approach

August 15

Three hours after getting up, at my Mom’s house in Ohio, we left at ten. I was glad we waited til Sarah arrived. I like her, and passing Mom off to her felt responsible. You see, we’ve been staying with my 90-yr old mom since late June, so she can stay home. With our August 15 deadline looming, she discovered Sarah and hired her. Today is her first day!

I nurse a sore neck with heat ointment all day as we drive from Ohio to New Hampshire. Two days ago, my stuffed down fears and feelings kept me in bed with a stomach ache. Today, it’s just a sore neck.

We drive 400+ miles to Mohawk Service center on the NY thruway and sleep on the soft mattress in the van. It’s noisy with traffic and bright with lights – and the price is right.

September 16

On the road at 7:15 a.m.

We paid our $12.85 toll at Albany with quarters from the “console stash” I had counted multiple times and had all lined up in the door handle. From the tolltaker’s reaction, I learned that when given a choice to have my preference I could state my preference and actually choose it. We had said, “We have our toll in quarters. Is that ok? How do you want us to hand it to you? My belief is that he could have said “no”, instead of taking the quarters and then remarking, “You don’t have a bank?!”

We ate breakfast at a sentimental favorite, Friendly’s in Bennington, VT. While eating, I responded to an email from the Delano Game Company with new calculations on Satori Game card sizes. It feels good to be on a journey and able to do business on the way.

Soon afterward, I receive a FB message from Veda, my Satori colleague in India. He reported that he’s located three game developers there to talk with about creating an online game, which Colin Tipping supports. He said, “It would help to have that physical game you offered. Ignoring my resentment that he didn’t say yes a week ago, I focused on how to do that in the next few hours. What I came up with was sending him my personal copy of the game that I have with me.

At the P.O. in Keene, NH, we do two mailing projects. We ship off two food drops to Shutesbury, MA and East Granby, CT. Mailing food drops used to be a big deal. However, now that I’ve just sent a package to India, maildrops on a trail seem simple, no big deal at all!

Nothing like stretching my comfort zone two notches!

We arrive at Monadnock State Park by 3 p.m. with plenty of time to scope out the setup for parking the van at the trailhead. John has talked with the park manager earlier and was confirming the arrangement. This time, in person, nobody really knew what to do. “Oh, that’s for the Sunapee Greenway hikers who are only gone for three days!” Eventually, she relented and confirmed that yes, we could park the van while we hike.

We check into our campsite by 4 p.m. finding it quite quiet and spacious! There’s a big tent platform for sorting our gear, making final choices and dividing up the food. A sumptuous dinner of salmon burgers and an entire half pound of mushrooms finished our early evening. We go to bed in the van around seven! What luxury!