Epic Road Trip - Part 2!

Camp Food :)

The adventure continues!

On Wednesday night Mom and I arrived at our campsite at Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison, CT. We set up camp in the dark and got ourselves settled.

Thursday morning we headed north to Amherst, Massachusetts to tour University of Massachusetts-Amherst. I had a full day of meetings with various people in their department as well as a campus tour. I met with three people in the morning, grabbed a quick bit to eat at Arizona pizza, and returned to campus to talk with the concentration coordinator. It was a great day of networking, filled with lots of discussion and talk about my future, what I want to do, and what their program offers. We made it back to the campsite around sunset and walked to the beach. After sunset we creatively re-heated our pizza from lunch over our camp stove, followed by a dinner in the dark, as we had our lights off to deter to bugs.

Today we were able to sleep in slightly, as today's schedule included touring Yale university in New Haven, CT, which is only about a half hour from the campsite. We had a wonderful camp breakfast and made our way to campus, with time to look around before another day filled with information sessions, a tour, and a meeting with a faculty member. Mom and I walked around a bit and went into buildings to get a feel for them and they, though old in age and style, are leading edge when it comes to classroom technology. Though a large campus and in a city, I enjoyed Yale and I could definitely see myself there in the future!

After my visit at Yale ended around 3pm, we decided we had time for another adventure! We chose to go to Rhode Island's state high point, Jerimoth Hill! We had not planned on going to Rhode Island or its high

point but the epic road trip itinerary is flexible!....to an extent :)  Mom and I went to Jerimoth Hill, which is not a far walk off a county road in western Rhode Island. This was high point #9 for me and #4 for Mom!

After the high point we decided to go to Niantic Bay Boardwalk and walk the North Connecticut beach, eating dinner while there. Ice cream at a local candy shop followed! A perfect ending to two very busy days of important meetings. I feel like our trip to the east coast for graduate school tours has been a success, whether I chose to go to either of these schools or not. Meeting with various people and looking at graduate programs has certainly helped me decide what I want to do in the future and what I want to get out of a master degree if I choose to pursue one in the future.

Mom and I now find ourselves back in the local coffee shop close to the campsite. We have lots of miles to cover the next two days, as we will spend the night in in Maryland tomorrow and Indiana the next.

Overall, we are having a fantastic trip! We haven't had too many GPS errors, haven't lost too many things (except the box of LIFE cereal), and haven't got on each other nerves...yet :)

Be sure to check out our photos! We hope all is well in your world and will continue to update you all soon!