As I wrote last time, September was a good month. I ran well and attended the annual benefit dinner of the Heartland Institute in Chicago. But I went on, toward the end of the month, to get away to New England for 9 days with Susan. We usually like to go a little later in October but we were lucky this year both of our work schedules worked for a vacation at all. The heat had persisted late into fall in Pennsylvania this year but as we headed north on day 1 we fell off of a sort of thermal cliff.

The first night in the tent fell to about 40 degrees- comfortable sleeping weather for me but a big adjustment for Susan. We made use throughout the trip of campgrounds this year and never really strayed too far from the car off into the woods. It was a fairly tame excursion – just nice to be back up north. We drove north to Rutland Vermont on day 2.

A point of interest in our travels is always the tiny stoves we cook on and 3 of them came along on this excursion: the zip stove, the Emberlit and the pocket rocket. The zip stove is my favorite – it accompanied me on the long trails of the Solo Adventure. This is a battery powered, fan-induced stove for burning wood. It didn’t get used at all this time. Susan likes the Emberlit (it was her discovery). This is also a wood burning stove but one that packs much more compactly than the zip. It has no mechanical or electrical parts – just vents and a feeder port for sticks. This stove, in all its simplicity, has impressed me as well. It doesn’t go out once lit and things cook relatively quickly atop it. The pocket rocket is also very compact – a single-burner isobutane fueled stove we save for the rare moments when we need something cooked very fast – such as morning coffee in the rain.

I wound down the year’s running program during the vacation in anticipation of the marathon that would be grand finale for the New England trip. I ran my last long run (11 miles) on the Appalachian Trail near Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. I’ll post something about the marathon soon but I’m out of time for the moment. Tune in next time for continuing adventures.