11 day break for College Reunion

Well, the break came at the perfect time. The combination of snow, hip-deep postholing, and freezing rain was definitely wearing on my spirits.

That said, going to New Hampshire for my five-year reunion proved harder than we ever would have thought. The night Alex and Margi picked me up, Alex's check engine light came on and it turned out that we couldn't get the parts for a few days. We decided our best option was to fly since their only other car was a '99 Subaru which had been deemed a 'town car' after the mechanic said it needed a new clutch a few weeks back. And renting a car would have cost a fortune and been logistically difficult to say the least.

Without much other option, we stretched the idea of 'town' and tried to take Margi's Subaru to the Denver Airport. The good news is it made it most of the way before it broke down six miles from the airport at 4am. I was asleep in the back when it happened and Alex woke me up by saying, "Dan, the car broke down!" Margi hastily corrected him, "No, it's in the process of breaking down." We made it up one last hill before it totally died. We were at Exit 6 on Pena Blvd and only had 75 minutes before our plane took off. Margi called a cab and I called AAA. 

The cab arrived after 20 minutes and we carefully grabbed all of our stuff with the cars whizzing by at 70 mph on both our right and left. Meanwhile, the lady at AAA told me they couldn't come pick up the car since I wasn't the owner. At that point I was pretending to be Alex, since I couldn't find my AAA number, and Massachusetts AAA didn't like the fact that he wasn't the owner for liability reasons.

I started getting pissed and began raising my voice: "So, you're telling me you can't tow my fiancee's car when we have to catch a flight in 45 minutes? Are you kidding me? What's the point of having AAA?" It felt strange saying "my finacee" but I had to for full effect. The AAA lady asked to talk to Margi and somehow this made AAA Massachussetts feel better, and they agreed to tow the car. 

Alex is excited we actually made it to Boston

Once at the airport we rushed through the check bag line and security, finally taking advantage of all the travel I'd done with Growing Cities, we were able to do a lot of cutting with my A-List status on Southwest. We were lucky because there were at least 150 people in each line and the only way we were able to make it was by using the priority lane. Somehow, we made it to the gate 25 minutes before our plane boarded, still in time to get seats together.

Canoeing on the Connecticut River

After a few connections, our friend Katy picked us up in Boston and we grabbed a bite to eat. I saw my brother, Ben, who's living in Cambridge and we met up with my cousin for Chinese food. That night me and my bro watched the first new Orange is the New Black episode together. It was fun catching up with him and seeing how well he was doing in Cambridge. He's a computer whiz and working as an intern for a tech company this summer. He's an intern only in name - they tried to hire him last summer before he went to do his Master's and this summer they are paying him more per hour than I've ever received. By next Fall I'll be the least educated in my immediate family, which is pretty crazy to think about.

The next day, Alex, Margi, and I headed towards Hanover, stopping for a canoe trip along the way on the Connecticut River with one of Margi's friends from high school. It was beautiful on the water and was only made more majestic because we were paddling in handmade wooden canoes.

That night we had dinner at Skunk Hollow, a great little tavern in Vermont, and our friend Marc, who was hosting us all for reunion came over to meet us for some beers. It was wonderful to be in such a familiar place, surrounded by close friends.



That weekend, I ran a lot, laid in the grass, ate tons of good food, drank my favorite beer, too much whisky, and just spent time with some of my best friends. Margi, Alex, and I met up with one of our mentors, Scott Stokoe, the recently retired Farm manager, with whom we'd spent countless hours walking through the woods, weeding the fields, sharing breakfast in the College cafe, and generally scheming how we'd make Dartmouth the most sustainable College on the planet. The last part didn't exactly work out, but with his help we were able to make a lot of changes to the College, that are still around today - things like the Sustainable Living Center, changes to the Freshmen trips program, and more local foods on campus. It was wonderful to sit and chat, telling him about our lives and what we aspired to do. Sometimes you don't realize how much you miss someone until you see them again. Scott was definitely one of those people who shaped my life and taught me things I'll keep with me forever.

The rest of our friends arrived over the next few days - Cody and Katie from Vancouver, Tim from San Francisco, Kerry from Philly, and others I'd forgotten from all over the country. We went to the sauna below Robinson Hall two nights in a row, something I'd never done in College, despite spending almost a year basically living there coordinating the Trips Program. Since none of us had actually 'signed-up' per se, we crashed the reunion gathering, and saw so many friends I would have never otherwise made the effort to see, but was so glad I saw them - all my Ultimate Frisbee friends from Freshman year, like Ben and Jake from NYC, Adam in SF, Robin in Cambridge, and so many more.

My friends Billy and Marc were just about to launch a Kickstarter for their band, Etna Old Time, but when I was asking them about it I realized they hadn't actually made a video, and were just going to post a clip of them playing music. Hearing this, I offered to help them out. By early afternoon the next day, me and Alex had shot the video and then I quickly edited it. It was fun and I was glad to help out two of my best friends. You can check out their Kickstarter and video I made here. 

On our last night all together we went up to the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge and hung out with a bunch of friends. I got to see Maisie, one of my closest friends at the end of College, and also my friend Platz, who has hiked both the Pacific Crest and Appalachian Trail. He advised me to get free pizza in Hanover for thru-hikers (which I did the next day). Being back at the Lodge definitely stirred some good memories and I was so happy I could see one more time before they replaced it in the next few years.

It was a bummer to leave everyone when it was all over, but I was also ready to get back on trail - I'd only completed a third of my journey and was ready to keep moving north towards Canada. On my way back towards Colorado I made a pitstop in Ohio to see my Dad and stepmom. I hung out in there pool and the sauna that I didn't know existed and we took a ride in their boat. It was good to see them and take one final rest before getting back on trail.