½ Tank #22 & 23

The drive from the Canadian border to the cabin in New York was beautiful. The colors of the trees are just amazing. The yellows, greens, oranges and bright reds mix together to form incredible collages. It’s strange to think that this scenery is caused by the leaves dying and that the trees will soon be bare. It was a pretty quiet ride, too, since most of the time I was driving Hannah was asleep, and most of the time Hannah drove, I slept.

When I awoke from my nap, all the colors looked really dull. I wondered later if it was because we were now on a main freeway because when we got onto backroads again the vividness reemerged.

We ended up taking the scenic route to the cabin. Although, considering the area, I think any route would be scenic.

The cabin was incredible. It was right on the lake and was simple and comfortable. The only thing wrong with it was that the furnace wasn’t working. And it was cold. Very, very cold. It was actually colder inside the cabin than it was outside. We decided to drive to a “town” where we would hopefully have cell reception and find a grocery store. We called the owners of the cabin and found out that the furnace was probably out of oil and couldn’t be repaired until the next morning. We also found a little store and bought some fixings for a spaghetti dinner and cookies (to hopefully generate a little heat from the oven).

We returned to the cabin and bundled up in several layers before huddling by the stove while dinner cooked. Eventually we forced ourselves to sit at the table to eat and play cards for a few hours. We of course also decided to speculate about the chances of a thief or murderer or zombie sneaking into the cabin. So by the time it was late enough for us to go to bed, Hannah was thoroughly freaked out. Our scared factor along with how cold we were led to the decision to share a bed that night, even though there are two rooms in the cabin. The whole setup was rather humorous: we combined all of the blankets we could find (I believe we had 9, all pretty thick), we were each wearing about three layers, and we had bear mace, a knife and a heavy Maglite flashlight next to the bed. We were set. We put on the only movie Hannah had on her computer (P.S., I Love You, much to my dismay) to distract us from any sounds the cabin might make to scare us. I have a hard time sleeping through movies, especially if I haven’t seen them before, and even if I don’t really want to see them, but Hannah didn’t have that problem. She was out in no time. I got through about half of the movie before the picture froze and the sound continued. That really drove me nuts, but I wasn’t about to get out of the cozy bed, so I rolled over to try and sleep and passed out within a few minutes.

The next morning we both woke up to a light knock on the door. I wasn’t even sure it had been a knock, but when I saw Hannah seemed to have heard it too, I jumped out of bed in hopes it was the oil man to fix the furnace. It turned out to be Bob, the caretaker of the cabin. However, I had just woken up and was still very out of it, so I may have offended Bob by trying to be cautious. He was nice about it, though, and did get our heat working. Having warmth made the cabin much more comfortable.

We enjoyed a delish breakfast made by Hannah, then took turns showering. Eventually we finally packed into the car and headed for Saratoga Springs to hopefully find internet so we could plan out the next couple weeks. I’m not sure if you know this, but there are a lot of little states on the East Coast, so it’s tricky to make sure we hit all of them.

Starbucks was right on the corner where we parked, but there weren’t any tables with outlets nearby, so we hoofed it down the block and stumbled upon a Borders with free Wi-Fi. Woohoo! I think we spent a good four or five hours there emailing and calling people.

By the time we got back to the cabin we were starving, so Hannah heated up some left over spaghetti and I made a quick box of Mac & Cheese and we both added hot dogs to our bowls (classy, eh?). We played cards again while we ate, with Hannah rocking me at 65, then we each went to our own rooms and had “quiet” times. I listened to music and read another chapter from Blue Like Jazz, but then was too tired to keep reading so I just decided to sleep. Not long after Hannah came to my door asking if I had heard that noise. I hadn’t, so I asked, “What noise?” She was obviously still edgy about being in the cabin at night. When she left, she didn’t close my door all the way, so when the heat kicked on, my door opened, which bugged me, so I rolled over and closed it all the way. When I rolled back over, I realized that that had probably been loud, and would possibly startle Hannah. I was right. She was back in a flash and asked me if I had opened the door. I told her what had happened, we giggled, and then she shut the door all the way and went back to her room...for good that time.

Both of our alarms failed to go off the next morning, so we left a little later than we had planned.

God bless, over and out.
~Marissa