Adventures Of a Teenage Drifter

Chapter 1 Addled by a greek hottie

 Judge woke me up as my alarm buzzed at 7am needing to go out and do his morning routine so I got up smiling and said to him " Hold on boy, I need to get out of bed first you know."  He wagged his tail barking at me to hurry up so I chuckled and went down stairs letting him out the back patio door leaving it ajar so he could come back in while I showered and dressed for the start of our new adventures today. After my shower and I dried off then put on  black jeans, a Beatles t-shirt and tied my hair back into a ponytail, put on my  black nikes then packed up enough clothes to be able to go a week before having to find a laundry mat, grabbed my light windbreaker, my black suede jacket, and  my winter coat, gloves and beanie then hauled it all out and put it in the drawers of the small dresser  in my van. I went pack in the house grabbing the boxes of the dry food and canned food then took it out putting it all away in the cupboards. After four trips from the house to the van I sat down on the house porch steps as Judge came out licking me and I said " Well boy, looks like we are all packed, we got food, munchies, clothes, shoes, the camp stove and lantern, camping table and all the camping dishes." He laid down by me as I checked off the things on the list I made, then I rubbed his head and got up to get his food dish, bag of food and his milk bones, finally I left a note to my parents saying I'd call and leave messages on the machine, if they ever came home wondering where I might be, then made sure all windows  were locked.

I grabbed me cell charger, my  CD collection,  a small journal that I was going to write in as a log of this trip, wallet with my credit cards that I don't plan on using unless in dire need, and the four hundred that dad left me for food then grabbed Judge's leash and locked the front door as Judge loaded up in my van. I put the rest of the stuff away, closed the side door as Judge jumped in the passenger seat then I got in and headed for the closest gas station for maps, ice for the cooler that I filled with drinks and placed between the captain chairs. Now to decide which way  to go first, as I knew doing the upper part of the states this time of the year to avoid snow then the southern part would probably be best as I  will zig zag in different states along the way. I pulled in the gas station, filled my van, then went inside to get  one of those trucker's atlas things that have every highway and every state in it. The guy behind the counter nodded to me as I walked in as I smiled nodding back, headed for the spinning rack with the atlas's on it and grabbed on, went to the magazines taking on about small town tourist places,  walked to the sunglasses and picked a new pair of aviators then set it all down on the counter.

The guy rang it all up as I handed him a fifty which included the gas as he said' Doing some sightseeing?" I nodded answering " Yep, just figured to kill some time before college." He smiled as he bagged my stuff then handed it to me telling me to have fun and stay safe as I thanked him then headed to my van and got in the driver's door. I tore the tag off the glasses and put them on, placed the atlas between the seats in the console as I rubbed Judge's head saying " Ready boy?" He barked wagging his tail as I rolled his window down a bit so he had a good breeze going down the road. I pulled away from the pumps and parked by the small grass area  letting Judge out then opened the side door sitting on the edge and started mapping out our first part of the trip. We have about two good months for our summer adventures so I knew I could stay in one place for a bit if I wanted or found reason to stay there.

So  my start point is home, Bangor, Maine and now for about a twelve hour drive each day so each day and I hope to see all of the lower forty seven states since I already have seen most of Maine. As far as where we spend each night depends, rest areas, the cost of a camp space or a  local town park, and there is always the parking lots at malls or big chain stores like Walmart. I figure KOA's seem to be everywhere and the spots are cheap, probably stay in them most of the time as they have all kinds of things in the campgrounds. It should be about one month before I need to really work but I will now if a job comes up in the towns I go to each day. I closed the atlas thinking I could spend as much or as little time in each state , loaded Judge back up and headed out of town taking Interstate 95 over to highway 2 then hit Interstate 91 to Interstate 84 to avoid the turnpikes. So Judge and I  just cruised through New Hampshire and Vermont pretty quickly than down through Massachusetts when I stopped Cavey's restaurant in Manchester Connecticut for a small lunch snack. I put Judge's leash on and we did some walking around even though he didn't need the leash as he would stay by me I know how big cities are about leash laws.