eruthros

Today Austin and I had an ADVENTURE!

We've been planning something for a while, because it's literally the one weekend this summer where we're both around and in town and not busy with other life things or partners or what-have-you, but our plans hadn't really coalesced until this week. Initial plan: Let's take the train to Salem (or Ipswich, whichever would be nicer) and bike to Crane Beach!

And then this morning we checked the weather and the air quality was _abundantly_ shit and it didn't really feel like a "spend the entire day outside" sort of day. So we punted and replanned and decided to take the train to Lowell instead, and explore the museums there! And we even decided in time to go to bells.

At bells, we were explaining we needed to leave early so we could catch our train to Lowell, and someone very reasonably said "oh, so you can go to the folk festival?" Cue us being all "??" and indeed, the Lowell Folk Festival was this weekend. uh, sure! We can add that to our general plan of "take a train a place and then bike around the place or maybe walk some and go inside or hang outside and kinda play it all by ear."

It turned out to be a really great plan and a really great adventure! Here's some of what we did that I remember:

*Right off the bat, we went and got lunch from this random banh mi place that was highly rated on google maps, and by _god_ was it good. Every bite of that sandwich was _excellent_, the veggies were perfectly pickled, it was absolutely delicious. Do recommend!

*I had seen on the website that one of their art vendors was a company I'd backed on pintopia last year who I was _really_ happy with, and so we went and looked at all the art vendors first. When I told the girl I really loved her pins she was SO HAPPY to hear it, and also I got a sick new Medusa pin ("Silence those who fail to silence you").

*I also got an absolutely *gorgeous* weird oil painting from a strange little artist who was incredibly excitable and kept trying to negotiate her art cheaper entirely unprompted by me. It's a stag beetle with an eye in its back, and Veronica is nodding along immediately, because she's maybe one of the only people here who knew me well enough both in high school and now to see how that's the perfect piece of art for me. I'm so excited to add it to the wall of weird art!

*Later we wandered the streets and wound up spending like 10-15 minutes at the booth for the Kinetic Sculpture Race they have in September, and it sounds ENTIRELY DOPE! The dudes running the booth were all in on enthusiasm and goofiness and the human instinct to do very stupid things because we can. I am incredibly excited to go see this event (September 20th!) because it sounds fun as hell, and they said audience is welcome/encouraged to bike alongside the track to watch!

*We stopped in a weird little witchy shop that would've been one hundred percent at home in Salem (except that it was more spacious than the best Salem witchy shops, which tend to feel crammed in the best way possible). I did not buy a hundred crystals (despite them being quite reasonably priced). Austin did quite possibly buy me a chrimbo present that I've been wanting for _fucking ages_. We'll see when I get that!

*We made it to the very end of Solas's Irish set, which was delightful tunes. Later we were off to try and catch the bluegrass, and instead encountered Cecilia, a Quebequois band that absolutely slayed. Austin and I waltzed on the sidewalk and polkaed in the street and I couldn't really keep from dancing. (I did also get to polka with Laura a bit when we ran into her, which was grand!)

*There was also lots of other really good ambient music just everywhere as we wandered around, and that was really lovely! Street festivals with good music or different music or interesting music are a delight!

*We found a train car cum museum maintained by the Boston & Maine rail society, and Austin especially had a wonderful time poking around the inside and looking at everything they had. They had a telegraph playing on a loop, which was a reminder of how utterly impressive people who are _good_ at Morse are (I could get 2-3 letters and then absolutely couldn't differentiate fast enough to find the spaces). As we were leaving, and examining the rest of it, we heard a passerby say "that's how you can tell the real train nerds, they're the ones looking UNDER the train!" which was very charming.

*Also in absolutely primo stranger relations, while hanging near the booth of a bookshop, a man decided I was the correct person to ask "do you know which pride flag this is?" about one of the many pins on display, and I did! (It was the aromantic one, and yes, I am very proud of myself for looking sufficiently queer that I was judged "the right one to ask")

*I did the biking parts of our journey (about 11 miles, all told) on my Brompton folding bike that I got a year ago as part of cleaning out Grandpa Perks's things, and hadn't actually touched since receiving it. She rode very well, and it meant that when we parked our bikes in Lowell, we were able to join two other bikes at a rack that was clearly meant for Red Bikes Only. I even folded her to take her upstairs to Old North, which was nice to be able to do. She needs something to join her a little better when she is in folded mode (the clicky-together-bits don't quite work) but other than that, she's a beaut.

It was a real great adventure day and I am sleepy and sticky from sunscreen and sweat but very satisfied.

~Sor

MOOP!