north, then south.

we've been on the road for seven days now & it's been rainy, windy & cold for the most part. now, don't get me wrong, we have had many beautiful moments - we enjoyed snowy mountain views in stowe, picnicked on a bridge from which we watched a hundred jellyfish drift by in barrington & strolled hand in hand through downtown providence. on the cape we cooked lunch at the beach, sipped harpoon ipa on the waterfront & watched a fisherman pull his dinner straight from the ocean.

& we've met some interesting characters - the lone border patrolman at the border crossing in the middle of no where, 'the other mark messier' [ owner of fat belly's pub in providence that gave us a bowl of chowder on the house when he found out we were driving across his country in a van ] & two provincetown locals [ one of them being mark, the owner of john's foot long, who very kindly bought us a beer & commented that we were the first people to peek through the window of this particular bar & actually come in ]. we met a thirty-one year old veteran from idaho [ he has done three tours of duty & is currently captain of a boat fishing for sea cucumber, hoping to start over after a recent divorce ]. we met a man from truro that brews alcoholic ginger beer [ farmer willie's alcoholic ginger beer, to be exact & was the first person to chat to us at the season opening party in provincetown ]. we met jenna, a 'pro' table tennis player & bartender at an underground bar [ she beat luke 21-16 &, according to the locals, this is the closest anyone has come to beating her ].

we've experienced good luck [ or good timing, if you prefer ] - thirty minutes after arriving in provincetown we found ourselves at the season opening of a restaurant/bar eating complimentary oysters, prawns & lobster sandwiches while sipping $5 drinks [ see photo at bottom of page - we were published on the bar's fb page. the gentleman in the photo is the ginger beer brewer i referred to above ], we inadvertently arrived in the cape during low season which meant the beaches were empty, bars had ample space & we were able to sleep free in a beach parking lot. & i can't leave out the fact that we are currently sitting in a local bar with twenty-eight taps, enjoying the hockey game, in a town we had no intention of coming to. &, as i wrote this last night, the manager gave us permission to crash in his parking lot overnight. oh, & the woman beside me just gave us a warm doughnut hole.

all that said, we've decided to pick up speed & head south faster than we'd planned. we're aching to get our feet sandy, feel the sun on our faces, &, with our budget, happy hour is a must if we want to mingle with the locals.

so, next stop is the poconos - no, not south, but a friend has very kindly offered up his family's cabin in the mountains & we simply cannot resist.

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