chasing the sun.

we departed ottawa monday afternoon with both anticipation & trepidation. we were about to embark on a journey we had been looking forward to for twelve months, but this journey wasn't the one we'd originally envisioned. instead of feeling excited about setting out on our own, we felt anxious about leaving our families. we were worried about crossing the border. we weren't certain we'd made the right decision. but we did make the decision & we did leave, & our first stop was burlington, vermont.

the drive to the border was uneventful but luke's unease about crossing was palpable. we had nothing to fear, of course - we had no contraband, we will not be working while in the us, we intend to be out of the country by the end of july - but his head had been full of 'what if's' for months. 'what if they tear the bed apart to look underneath it?' 'what if they hold us there for hours?' 'what if they just don't like the look of us?' well, all those 'what if's' were unnecessary because we crossed the border in two minutes. the border guard asked us what we were doing in the us, we explained we were headed to victoria, bc, he scanned our passports & bid us good day. and. that. was. it. no 'how long do you intend to be in the us?' no 'what do you plan to do while in the us'? no 'you seriously intend to live in a nine foot by four foot box for months'? nothing. just, 'have a nice day'. once across we let out a 'phew', had a giggle & high-fived. we'd gotten over the hurdle. nothing could stop us now [?].

waterfront, burlington.

waterfront, burlingon.

then we got to burlington. it was rainy, four degrees celcius, & frankly, not all that appealing. i know, we thought we'd love it too. but we didn't. i'm sure if we were staying in a cozy hotel room, had no budget & didn't have to drive to find somewhere to sleep we may have, but that's not the case for us so we walked to the waterfront, had a craft beer [ as you do when in burlington ], looked at each other, agreed it wasn't the town for us & proceeded to the walmart parking lot where we found a just-out-of-the-way-enough-without-being-too-out-of-the-way spot, ate dinner, sipped bottled beer & played crazy eight countdown - in the van. when it was time for bed we back and forthed about whether the spot was too dark, too far from other vehicles, too conspicuous, but in the end we stuck to our guns. & survived [!].

walmart parking lot, burlington.

tuesday morning we woke, in a parking lot, freezing cold. if we weren't certain we wanted to head out of town before, we were then. we decided that instant we would head south to chase the sun [ after brushing our teeth in the walmart bathroom, of course ].

the start of the mountain road.

breakfast with a view.

while on route to warmer weather we stopped in beautiful stowe & in quaint montpelier. in stowe we ate breakfast in a ski resort parking lot & weaved up through the steep & snake-like mountain roads [ until we scared ourselves into thinking the van wouldn't make it to the top ]. in montpelier we bundled up, wandered around town & settled on our next destination.

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