I haven’t blogged in a while, so you may have wondered what happened to me.  Did I stop driving?  Did I settle somewhere?  Was I abducted by aliens?  Well, none of the above.  I was touring around the northeast for a while, enjoying some winter weather.  Since I hadn’t driven in snow for years, it was interesting to relearn how to handle it.  I think the rally course may have helped a bit.

Nothing really prepared me for Blizzard Orson that hit the area just as I was driving into it, though.  First of all, it gave me an object lesson in why winter wiper blades are a good and necessary thing.

But when the snow turned to freezing rain, I had to stop where I was in Massachusetts.  In the picture below, I had just stopped to chip the ice off my headlights.

When I got to Maine, my truck was one of the few vehicles not covered in snow.  The truck next to me had probably been there since the morning, and the one on the far right… well, however long it had been there, it wasn’t going anywhere soon.

I actually made several trips back and forth between Maine and the houses of friends and family.  I was engaging in interviews….

Hanging out with dogs (here Sirius Black had just stolen my seat and was refusing to look at me)….

And cats (I discovered that the way to keep Kiera from biting me was to play with the stick toy)….

And enjoying the company of friends (thanks guys!).

I even went up to Freeport and visited the mothership L.L. Bean store.  The sign says “please don’t climb on the boot.”  Because otherwise, you know… I would have.

But eventually I wandered my way back down to the warmth of Tennessee again, did some needed car maintenance, washed off the road salt with a nice sudsy car wash, and now I’m ready to have more adventures!

The forecast up north was for more snow and cold, which makes it hard to travel and camp in Baby Blue, so I buckled my booty (as required) and headed south.  Let’s see what trouble I can get into this time!