Accidental Ice Cream Rejection

It’s 10:01pm. The front desk guy with nothing to do is dribbling a basketball outside the motel rooms in the pitch black. I just downgraded my room from the “deluxe” to the queen so the AC pumps cold air into my room instead of the bathroom.

By the way, there are definitely Typos — I did not read the below over

I also paid $50 for this stay so I’m thankful I even have AC. It’s a super hot night here in Littleton, NH — and especailly in the mountains for $50 you never know what you are going to get.

What could I say. Another randomly super fun day. I’m going to start with my struggle right now. Well, I have a couple:

• The morning workout —> I want to workout in the morning. No excuses. Starts tomorrow. My 1 hour hike today doesn’t count.

• 9:30pm bedtime —> breached. Obviously. Blog > 8 hour sleep it seems

• Food —> I wish Chipotle could magically appear at 5pm during any point of my route just like yesterday. That was perfect. I have a feeling I’ll be doing a lot of Asian Takeout and Walmart (I try minimizing food and lodging spending).

• Time —> Since I’m driving all the time, I had a tough time today figuring out the proper time to use the computer. It’s good that I want to use the computer as a tool to level up my video-making, but I never decided on a time to use it and I will have to wait another day. This is where I pay the price on Solo Road trip. I can do work on public transport or if someone else was driving, but in this case it gets quite difficult .

What did I do today

• I hiked Okemo Mountain this morning. About 1/2way up I wasn’t even tired just super sweaty and since those were my clothes for the day I decided to turn around.

• I spent 2 hours at the Ludlow Farmers Market. Outperformed Expectation. Video’d a lot by accident. A few days in and despite having a full time editor, I’m already behind on video editing (this is expected)

• I visited an underwhelming cheese shop

At 3pm I was driving towards Mount Washington and 2 hours in I randomly saw an ad for “Got Milk” on a Big Barn looking thing on the side of the raod. This story is incredible and I’ll leave you with this abbreviated version as the final one.

I get off the exit (no navigation) and easily made it to property. If you’ve ever been to Mecox Bay Dairy in the Hamptons the self-serve market was giving that vibe. But something stuck out about this market. They had an area dedicated to grain. They were selling whole grains. I first thought it was someone else’s brand so I checked the Instagram. Low and behold the wheat is the main product they’re pushing and the owner is doing a video series where she’s posting a video every day until their grain is in all 50 states. instagram.com/nekgrains

Quite ambitious, but that drew me right in. I was not leaving that property until I made her a video. No charge — i just wanted to help.

I drive all around the property, up to the front door, nothing. There was no cell signal so I had to join their WiFi and Instagram call her.

Crickets.

I then send a 7 message thread on Instagram to get her attention. Nothing

Jeff saves the day

Jeff is a simple man. Electrician by Day that manages a small farm with Donkeys, Horses, Alpaca, Goat, and a handful of cows. Jeff pulled onto the farm as I was about to leave and I went into my car and followed him to his house.

I thought there was a chance he saw me as a threat so I kept all the windows open and my hands clearly visible on the steering wheel.

Fortunately Jeff was the nicest guy and gave me a solid 20 minute explanation behind the property, classification of grains, and his animals. Better yet, his sister-in-law is the lady I was trying to get in touch with.

I convince him to give me her number and I call it.

Crickets. Fuck.

I thought to myself this woman probably thinks I’m an absolute creep.

Well, Jeff suggested I head back towards the self-serve market. I arrive again but this time there’s a car with the trunk open. GREAT SIGN.

I pull the car around and see a man in sunglasses. Similar enough in age to the woman. Had a slight feeling in the back of my head he would know I was the creepy guy DMing his wife.

And the result:

Just the opposite. He cracked up at my accusations against myself. Instant bond. Him and his wife were heading out for a cook out so I only had 10 minutes.

Easy as pie —> we go to the milling room and bang out a quick couple videos. I kept envisioning those Capital One farmer commercials for a horizontal ad I filmed lol. For the regular social media video I did the usual for me.

ANd the best part of it all, I got the keys to film their wheat fields 12 minutes (turned 17 minutes after a wrong turn) away.

Rest of Day

Despite almost getting stung by 4 bees simultaneously I survived the drone shoot and headed towards Littleton to a recommended Ice Cream shop Super Secret Ice Cream (from the wheat lady who’s wheat is used in the cones) . Long story short I went to the wrong ice cream shop that was still amazing, got dinner at a Tap Room, saw the end of a comedy show where they were singing Bohemiam Rhapsody (great moment), booked this hotel, drove to the proper ice cream shop, realized it was too late for ice cream (I legit rejected the ice cream when offerred by the worker after talking with her for 15 minutes citing health reasons)…definitely should have bought and donated a scoop.

Then finally after checking not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 different room options by the basketball dribbling dude, I decided on a room, plopped on my bed, and started typing to you.

The end.

~27 days to go. This trip has the potential to go off the rails (in a good way). Exciting stuff.

-Jack

PS I definitely need assistance if anyone is interested in this world of food and travel and sponteniety. Social Media / Content management. I was planning on hiring a philipino but might as well start with the blog readers.