My Van Life: Day 38
Monday, August 16, 2021
Portsmouth, NH – Manchester, NH – Boston, MA
What a MONDAY! I should have known from the moment the day kicked off that it wasn’t in the cards for it to be a good day for us. We were all set up with our 10am appointment at the Mercedes dealership in Portsmouth only to arrive and be told that that particular location does not service sprinters. Confusing considering we booked an appointment online...Well of COURSE their scheduling person had been out the last week hence the reason their team didn’t catch the mistake until the moment we showed up fully expecting a service appointment like we had scheduled online.
The gentleman that came out to speak to us was very nice and directed us to the nearby Manchester location which was only a 30 minute drive inland and then from there only an hour drive to our next destination, Boston. Well we pulled up to the Manchester location to be greeted by yet another kind gentleman and promptly told they were booked until October 15th. Yes you read that correctly, two months from the present date. In October. It’s now August. Obviously that wouldn’t work for our timeline so we hit the road again, driving to Boston. Did I mention our tire pressure light went on today, too??? I told you, a MONDAY, friends.
On the way there we were able to secure an appointment at the Boston Mercedes dealership tomorrow morning and even called to confirm so we felt better about that but of course that was quite the delay in our morning. While I am out of office on PTO this week, I had a work project I’ve been working feverishly to wrap up prior to heading out and had a call to take care of this afternoon. We drove into Boston and arrived before noon only to realize it is NOT a car city. I’ve never been so I had no idea what to expect but I can now confidently say not only is it not a car city it is NOT a sprinter city. One way streets, congestion everywhere, small lanes, ZERO PARKING. It’s kind of a nightmare for two adventurous souls traveling the country in a sprinter van.
I was feeling particularly disappointed by that realization and the notion that we might not get to experience Boston as we imagined we would. Unfortunately there was no time to be sad as we were promptly up against the clock trying to find literally anywhere to park for me to take my call. After driving around for 45 minutes we had to illegally park somewhere with our hazards on super quickly so I could quite literally take care of business. From the moment we started trying to look for a place to park my cortisol was through the roof! It’s funny how quickly things change. Last night I was feeling so relaxed, so at peace, low stress and suddenly today, Monday, a NON working Monday mind you, I’m immediately back in that place of absolute stress and disarray. It didn’t help that there was a massive fire at work with aforementioned project that I’ve been working feverishly all day to put out. Literally all day. It’s 9:30pm (EST) and I’m still working.
We did manage to find a spot to post up pretty far out of the city at Cutler Park. It gave us a taste for life outside the hustle and bustle of Boston but it was also just a beautiful place to park for a few hours and work. We walked around the trail at the park after work to get some fresh air and movement in which was a much needed stress release. A little buggy but that was on us for not being prepared in that regard. We bopped over to a local Walmart to make some dinner and settle down for the evening but of courseeee we had a visitor at the door letting us know they don’t allow overnight parking in their lot even after Adam asked inside and received a very confusing “no, but yes” kind of answer. How many are we at now for random, TERRIFYING knocks on the van door? I think maybe 4?! We’ve both agreed we will never get used to that. It will never not be terrifying. For now we’re trying to get through our service appointment unscathed tomorrow and see if we can check out some Boston sights before heading to our next destination. Unfortunately van life is not conducive to these big cities which we've learned very quickly.