Chapter 4: Skinny-Dipping in Connecticut

About fifteen minutes after the rest stop, the bus pulled off the highway onto a two-lane country road lined with tall pine trees somewhere west of Hartford. Less than a mile later at a nondescript break in the tree-line we turned onto a primitive single-lane dirt road that ended in an open field at the foot of a hill. The bus listed severely on the grassy slope as our driver turned the bus around, throwing passengers side to side and back again as he made a three-point-turn. The bus came to a halt facing the direction we had come, and Driver Chris set the air brake with a pop and hiss.

The bus parked on a dead-end dirt road within sight of the highway. Pine trees populated a hillside between the highway and the pond, muffling the roar of engines and car horns, creating an oasi ...