6:00 a.m. I wake up and look at my text messages. My aunt Kris is visiting me this morning. She wants to see my campsite. Kris lives about a half hour away from Framingham. There’s already a text saying she is on her way. I roll out of the tent and walk up the hill to the graveyard that overlooks my small island paradise. My Aunt Kris calls me and I direct her to where I am. It’s still dark out. I tell Kris to circle around the back of the graveyard and I’ll tell her to stop when I see her headlights. As soon as I see her go by I say, “stop and park, and walk down the road from the back of the truck.” Kris and I do a video of the can’t breakdown.
7:45 a.m. Kris and I go out to breakfast at a place in Natick called Station 5 Grill, It’s one of those only cash places, and it’s themed around firemen. My aunt Kris points out that she’s the only woman in the whole entire restaurant.
8:30 a.m. Kris drops me off at the West Natick train station. There’s a bunch of missing people flyers, I look at them, and it’s people from Israel. The itinerary is to take the 9:50 train to South station and from there ride my bike to North Station and take the 11:30 train from North Station to Salem, and ride my bike from there to my friend’s house in Danvers. Everything goes as planned and I arrive at my friend’s house at around 12:30p.m.
1:00 p.m. I dropped my pack off and rode my bike from my friend’s house to the mechanic shop Pete’s garage to get my car. I pay them around $170 for the work. My smaller car was getting work done because of the damage that was done when it overheated. I take my car with a bike on the back bike rack, and drive back to my friend’s house. I take a shower and wash my clothes.
3:10 p.m. I head off to my next destination. Maggy and Don’s house, a wonderful couple out of Lynn who donated the road bike to me for the project. They wanted to switch the pedals out, because Don, the previous owner, didn’t realize that the special pedals were still on the bike. Because of Halloween Salem is a s*** show. The traffic is insane, what would usually be about a 20 minute ride turns into a 50-minute ride to Lynn. I met Maggy and Don through Facebook, and they had dealt with addiction in their family, and they’d also helped others who had struggled with addiction. They were really kind-hearted people. When I arrive at their home it is nice to have a conversation with them.
4:45 p.m. I drove back to my friend’s house. I stopped at the grocery store on the way and grabbed a few essentials. I planned to work on things but I ended up just eating food. I stopped by my friend Erica’s place. Erica and I have been friends since we were around 15-16 years old. We have both lost somebody to addiction. I lost my sister, and Erica lost her husband Steve who was a good friend of mine as well. They had a son together, who I’m also close with these days. It’s good to see Erica and her son. I see Erica outside not paying attention to her surroundings, this is a good opportunity to sneak up on Erica, and yell when I get close to scare the bejesus out of her. This almost never fails. I ended up talking with Erica for a while. The rest of the evening is spent talking with some other friends. I also had steak tips with Erica later. I get so caught up catching up with old friends, that I get no work done that day. I end up spending the night at a friend’s house and go to bed around 9:00 p.m.
HINDSIGHT: 10/2/2025
I can only say that memories of this day remind me of the importance of friends and family.