Last night we pulled off at a rest stop just outside Hartford to sleep, waking this morning to the steady drone of cars and flatbed trucks on the passing highway. It was a restless night for me, not that I expected different. The van was pretty cramped, but I guess that’s half the fun.
It was chilly and overcast today.
After everyone was awake, we drove into Hartford, with no particular destination in mind. We had a whole day to do whatever we wanted, with no schedule. We eventually pulled up beside a city park. Phil was excited to play frisbee, so he and Emily and I all played while Morgan happily crocheted under a tree nearby.
We wandered around for awhile after this, exploring a nearby playground and neighboring Koi pond, which was rimmed with trash.
Making our way past the capitol building, and finding nothing of interest, we decided to make our way back to the car and drive til we found something interesting. This wasn’t as easy as we’d hoped.
We made an unplanned stop at a bank. Phil and I went in while Morgan and Emily stayed with the van. A gruff older woman wearing a green flannel shirt and a trucker hat was making loud conversation about the new city meter machines with one of the tellers. She soon overheard Phil explaining to another teller our reason for being in Hartford. “God bless you!” she said. “And good luck!”
You could tell that she meant it.
Later that day, I saw a homeless person half-wrapped in a blue tarp, sleeping in a grove of trees by the river. They were wearing a green flannel. I pray to God it wasn’t her.

After leaving the bank, there came a totally chaotic path around the city. We didn’t know where we wanted to go, and didn’t know how to get wherever it was that we didn’t know we wanted to go. So we just drove.
(Actually, I drove. Everyone else just yelled conflicting directions and pretended they knew exactly what they wanted to do and where they wanted to do it.) Ultimately, fate would win over choice.

We pulled into an expansive gravel parking lot, at the other end of which was some sort of outdoor theater, and some maintenance workers. The parking lot was totally empty, save for our van. Phil and Emily ran off to play more frisbee in an empty lot, which was separated from the parking lot by an open gate and a small hill. I talked to Morgan for a few minutes, then went to join them. We played frisbee for a really long time.
This lot was unlike the gravel parking lot below. It was a mixture of sand and dirt and asphalt, mixed with broken glass and assorted plants that grew at random, out from the sand, and from the cracks in the cement. I fell once, and spent the next few hours picking thorns and burs out of my clothes and skin. Not that this interrupted our frisbee game in any way.
The lot was flanked by several rows of train cars on different tracks, and before leaving we climbed up a ladder to look inside. The cars were empty, but larger than I thought. If I fell in, I couldn’t get out. We balanced on the tracks for awhile, talking about nothing in particular, and then went back to the van, where Morgan had been sleeping.

The rest of the day seemed to pass more quickly.

We moved our van to a new location, a church parking lot. Phil, Emily, and I took our instruments out of the van, and walked several blocks to the river. We sat on the dock for awhile, playing whatever music came to us, and feeding bits of peanuts to the birds hopping around on the dock’s wooden planks.
More frisbee.

We made the walk back to the van, and soon after met Emily’s old roommate, Kelly, who was visiting from a town nearby. We decided to drive to a local grocery store. I bought Goya coconut water. An argument arose concerning the purchase of fruit, which was soon resolved. We returned to the church parking lot. More frisbee.

The sky got clearer, and the air got colder. We said goodbye to Kelly, and drove the twenty minutes to the Korn’s house, where we were greeted with warm welcomes, connolis, and a comfortable couch. Mr and Mrs Korn went off to bed, and we stayed up, trading stories of all our adventures, new and old.

I am the last person left awake in this house, and there is a comfortable silence. It is amazing the comfort that can be found in friends.

Morning is almost here. I need to sleep.

Ian