I am in Plymouth, NH. I took three days to get here from Lancaster, PA. I left on Monday morning and arrived here Wednesday evening. Spent Monday night at a rest stop outside of Allentown, PA, spent Tuesday night in a rest stop outside of Lee, Massachusetts and finally arrived Wednesday and spent the night in an undisclosed location, which, I think will be a good place to park and sleep on a sporadic schedule. The trip from PA to NH was grueling. Higher elevations I drove through sleet/freezing rain/snow down into valleys of rain/sleet and back up again. One of those trips where I kept thinking I'll just find a place to stop, but, never felt like I would find the right place so just kept going. I was going to go into Burlington, VT before coming here but the weather report sounded more ominous. I think Wednesday night was the worst with sleet beating against the van in the high winds. The van is, after all is said and done, proving itself to be a real trooper.
Arrived and the first thing I did was take a shower and shave at Tish Hill's place. Boy did I need it. Soon I will be cutting all of my hair off and shaving my scalp. It's gonna be so much easier to just use a "wet-nap" kind of thing on my head as I do that to the rest of my body and having the luxury of shampooing is one of the hardest things for me to find on the road. I have shaved my head before and I am sure I will feel okay about it.
Talk about real troopers! Ozzy is amazing! He is really enjoying the lifestyle and I have had several people tell me what a happy dog I have. He has come a long way. Before we left Lancaster, Judy Watson found a web site which talked about Rat Terriers and it said that they can tolerate extremes in temperature. I had been trying to put blankets on him in the cold nights but he would shrug them off within a minute or two. He does seem very comfortable with the weather as it has been, night times mostly in the twenties. I have been comfortable too with my sleeping bag which is rated to 0 degrees. Ozzy and I have been able to spend some time in my office on campus where we also have some warmth stops. And, the library has some really nice cushy chairs which lend themselves to some pretty good power naps!
Since I have been back in Plymouth I have been able to see lots of students and colleagues I had hoped to see. That's one of the reasons I wanted to be here this week as it is finals week next week and many will be leaving for the holidays. I have been to openings, holiday potlucks, musical events, critiques and been able to just walk around and visit. Been hanging at the coffee shop, the library and going to listen to some music tonight.
I still am not sure where I will be living over January when I teach at PSU. Some offers from friends but am waiting to make a decision hoping a better alternative comes along. I would like to be in Plymouth close to the school. There was a pretty good choice that presented itself but it would not include me being able to have Ozzy with me, and I will not separate from him.
Tonight I think we will park in the undisclosed location I first mentioned in this post.
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