The Bologna Special

I'm sitting in my kitchen eating zucchini (just zucchini) out of a bowl disproportionally large to its contents, and drinking ice tea out of a wine glass.  Somehow in my mind this makes sense for a Monday night. Thinking back to the strange weekend I just had....  Somewhere down the line it probably did.  Lets start off with Saturday morning, I wish I could say I was bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to take on the day.  In reality, I was having an epic battle within myself as to which idea sounded better: staying in my plush down bed all morning with a cup of tea and not a care in the world? Or would I make the great trek out to Bologna like I had been planning all week.  I am ashamed to say the bed came so close to winning.  Closer than I would like to admit.  So with great regret, and mild disgruntlement I made my way to the train station at 7am with what was promising to be an interesting day.

The Spirit of Adventure is a Four Door Nissan

Notes: I was really nervous about starting this blog for many reasons: I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do everything I set out to do, I would get busy and forget, I would lose interest and end up ditching the project but after today a lot of those fears have been squashed.  I know now that all I need is a little can-do attitude, a travel mug filled with coffee and some elbow grease and this project can become a reality.

Today was my first trip, I woke up worried about everything you could imagine: that the project was too big, that I would never accomplish what I set out to do, that I would be disappointed that I really couldn't find anything and finally that I would disappoint myself.  I know that the first step is always the hardest, just like the first sentence of an essay, dictating the tone of your whole entire project.  I dove right in with only one address in my GPS knowing that if I just went for it I would figure out everything else later(I always do).  I left the house ready for what ever the day would bring me, knowing that just leaving the house was an accomplishment.  With no one but my GPS for company I drove away with trepidation and a little John Meyer.  

I had some wonderful realizations that really helped me to hone in on what I want to accomplish and who I want to talk to when I visit these towns.  I came to realize when in doubt ALWAYS pack a rain jacket(which thankfully I did).  I realized that I cannot feasibility see everything that each town I visit has to offer, I can only really see a few attractions to get a feel of a town, it would be impossible to see everything.  So I narrowed my project and expectations down.  Originally I set my limit of cities to 100 now its 60, I figured that 60 would be reasonable and very doable to accomplish.  Seeing as how I also having a full time job and occasionally need to see my family to remind them yes I am alive and not to turn my bedroom into a weight room.  I also need to make sure I visit a wide variety of towns so I am not just limiting myself to towns that are closer to me in the south so the plan is to go to the far north corner on Saturday.

I made another realization last night, as I was driving home from work, most people in Connecticut(and towns too!) shut down relatively early compared to what I was used to in New York.  I coasted down all the hills home seeing maybe five cars on the road and it was only 11:30 pm!  If I actually want to talk to people and see attractions I am going to have to leave in the morning and probably be home around 7pm(after all the shops close).  Unless I have somewhere else to stay or there is a nightlife scene that I really wanted to check out.  Logistically I am going to have to figure out how I could see this type of night life if I have to drive home (for up to three hours) at 1am, and still be up the next day at a reasonable hour.  I guess I can work that our later.  The other concern I need to address is cost, what with gas and meals. Food is a big part of culture that I don't want to miss out on because of my small budget, so I need to discover how to really experience these cultures without breaking the bank.  I will get back to you when I figure that one out. 

I am going to set up a slide show of all the pictures I take (hopefully by the end of the week) so that each post has a slide show of the day.   I am also going to creating a running external list of the names, addresses and information of the places I visited that way is anyone else wants to visit these places they can find them but at the same time my blog wont get clogged up with superfluous information and messy data everywhere.  I will edit this later to include the links for easy access.(my full list can be found here)