Friendships on the Road

Days 21 - 22 : 203 miles, destination Goshen, CT

48 miles, Bolton, CT

61 miles, Providence, RI

Total miles: 4343

Heading out of Burlington I started out on a string of visits! Stop one was my new(ish) friend Susan - who I've never met in real life! We've been connected since last spring when we were connected though an old friend from my college days - my friend Maureen's college roommate Carah - when Susan was left high and dry by a rental owner in Tampa. Carah knew I was going to be out of town working on my place in North Carolina when Susan needed to be in town and I was happy to have her at my place in St. Pete! We'd been connected over Facebook but we hadn't had a chance to meet in real life yet so when I knew I'd be in the area I asked where in Connecticut she lives and it worked out for us to meet up! I had a lovely visit at her house and she is just as sweet and friendly as I thought she'd be. I'm so so glad we finally got to connect in person and her energy gave me such a recharge, even in the short visit we had! I'm so lucky to have had her randomly pop into my life! I still have her book on my to read list, and finally getting to meet her in person has reminded me to read it! https://susanvwheeler.com/the-lemonade-diet/ check her out - it's not a 'diet' diet. Think about "When life gives you lemons..."

Oh, and we had such a good time together I forgot to get a picture of us!

I left Susan's and headed east to visit my friends Eilis and Todd. Eilis was my roommate when I studied abroad in Ireland and we haven't seen each other since my WEDDING. If right now you're saying "YOU WERE MARRIED?" Yup, I was, and now you have an idea of how long it's been since Eilis and I have seen each other! It was such a great visit, we had old school wine coolers out back and BBQd and had a great dinner and some beers and just hung out and caught up. The next morning we relaxed and had coffee out back (oh, I didn't mention they live on a lake...gorgeous) and watched the pugs play and chatted. It was such a perfect visit, I couldn't ask for more. I love when you can drop back into someone's life after almost two decades and there is not one drop of awkwardness. It's like you saw each other yesterday. It was so good for my heart and my soul. I'm not kidding when I say I could feel myself recharging after being on my own for so long travelling. Thank you so much, Eilis and Todd! It was so great to see you both! XOXO

A surprise add on to my trip was when in the beginning of my travels my old co-worker Thomasina saw that I was in Salem (she lives near Boston) and reached out to see if I'd be able to connect. I should have wracked my brain better as to who I could see on my trip because Thomasina would have been on that list! We were able to finagle a lunch on my way from Eilis' before I headed to Mystic. It's a funny thing, I had somehow messed up my schedule and didn't notice it until later and I had a whole unscheduled night between Eilis' and Mystic. Life works out in funny ways. So Thomasina and I met up in Providence for lunch, and let me tell you, the joy I felt when I saw her sitting in the restaurant, it was almost too much for me. I damn near cried. She is another one of those friends who no matter how much time has passed (AGAIN SINCE MY WEDDING - why is this a thing??) it feels like no time has passed. We spent hours together catching up, so many that we moved to the Starbucks across the street to continue catching up when we felt we had stayed at our table at the restaurant too long. Thomasina, my friend, thank you for reaching out. I cannot express how good it was for my soul to see you, I am smiling as I write this.

So three long paragraphs for y'all to read about people you don't know. Why did I choose to include all of this you might wonder. My plan was for this post to be about my next 'travel' spot, Mystic, but then when I got to that part I thought to myself, no, leave this post as is. No 'travel' today. I want to remind people of how important your friendships are. I hope some of you are thinking about friends of yours that you've lost close touch with over the past years and I hope this post inspires you to reach out. It's never too long, it's never too late.

xoxo

iamfunchris