Marriage (and Other LGBT) Equality in Vermont
I know it makes people in New England cringe, but there’s a dream popular among New Yorkers of moving to the country and buying a farm in Vermont. I think Vermont is chosen as a setting for that dream because it’s rural, beautiful, and the people have a reputation for being liberal. Even though I am from the Northeast originally, before this trip, Vermont was one of the six states I’d never been to. (I’m down to three: Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Alaska.)
I was sad the weather didn’t accommodate a longer visit to Vermont. I really wanted to get to Burlington. I just knew I’d love it. It wasn’t to be, however. As we mentioned in a previous post, the RV parks in northern Vermont had their water shut off during the time of our visit. It was also threatening to snow. So we headed south to Massachusetts–where it actually did snow.
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Trailer Life, Volume IV
Boondocking. Also known as dry camping. That means you’re not hooked up to water and/or electric. You’re using your batteries to run your lights and you’re drinking the water stored in your tank. Some people, like the ones who frequent freecampgrounds.com, spend a great deal of their RV lives boondocking.
[Aside: Etymologically, boondocks is one of the few English words I know of to come from Tagalog: bundok, or mountain. (If you're curious, some others are yo-yo and cooties.) American soldiers occupying the Philippines misused it to mean a remote, wild place. If you were in one of those places, I guess you would have to boondock your RV.]
Read moreMeeting with Rep. Inslee on the Respect for Marriage Act – Act I: Getting There
Oh, travel. You fickle harlot.
Somewhere along the way, we decided to drive to DC on the day of our meeting with our representative. I think it was partly a comfort concern–we were staying at my cousin Ceil’s apartment near Philly, and it’s got great things like a guest room and a shower. It was also partly a money concern–the park closest to DC is also very expensive–twice the price of some RV parks,–so we didn’t want to stay there two nights. It takes about 2 1/2 to 3 hours to get from Philly to DC, and our meeting was at 1 p.m. We left at 7:09 a.m. I looked at the clock on the way out. I remember being proud of us for coming very close to making the 7 a.m. goal we’d set.
Read moreTravel New England, The Marriage Equality Promised Land
We should have arrived yesterday in Maine. It would have been much later than we thought, as usual. We took the route through Massachusetts to get there, so I thought we’d stop off in Northampton to sample a little lesbian culture before we headed east again.
That was before we realized we’d left Frances’s stroller at an abandoned gas station in Bennington. Detour to Holyoke to buy another Snap-n-Go, which we assembled in the entryway to Babies R Us.
Back on I-90, the dominant highway of our trip, it began to snow. Hard. It wasn’t sticking, but it was enough to slow traffic to a halt. It was dark; we were tired. We called my aunt in Auburn, Massachusetts, and stopped there for the night.
Read moreMarriage (and other LGBT) Rights in Minnesota
On our way to Iowa we took a wrong turn and wound up passing through Minnesota. Going down the two-lane state route that took us into Iowa from the southwest tip of Minnesota was harrowing. It was raining, and every time a truck passed us going in the opposite direction we were overtaken by a deluge of rainwater. But it was worth it, since we got our great shots at the Iowa border. We wouldn’t have been able to turn off for a photo op on the Interstate.
So including this morning’s minor detour into Michigan, that’s four states whose LGBT rights we haven’t covered. Good thing that the Country Table Family Restaurant has Wi-Fi and bottomless cups of coffee. This morning I will backtrack and do Minnesota.
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