What state are we in? And what's the date?
Is it Texas or Arkansas?
In fact, we have no idea which state we're in, mental or physical. That's because we're staying in Texarkana tonight. The city spans both states. I'm sure we haven't hit the border yet, and Jonathan swears he saw a Welcome to Texas sign that I missed. Hmm. Tomorrow we'll know for sure.
We saw the Clinton presidential library today in Little Rock, and my husband was disappointed there wasn't a librarian. Or stacks of books he could browse through. He also was disappointed the blue dress wasn't on exhibit. We ate in a nearby cafe in downtown Little Rock.
Hot Springs was a cool town about an hour south of Little Rock, but we arrived as the shops were closed. There are lots of spas for mineral baths and massages, but again, it was around 5 p.m. I think Eureka Springs might have been more interesting, judging from the propaganda and especially because my parents have friends there, but we're far from there now. We decided to budget extra time for Texas, because it is, in fact, Texas. The size didn't seem so huge on the map, until I read about a barbecue place that's an hour-plus from Dallas, and it's a mere inch away on our map.
The days have been slipping by fast enough that we got ahead of ourselves and figured today was Aug. 1. We are happy to report we found another day when the hotel clerk wrote down the date. Now we have more time to get lost and/or get heat exhaustion in Texas. I'm hoping to find some childhood friends who live in Texas. Somewhere. Wish me luck on that.
Along with seeing Austin, which tops our list of reasons we're spending days in the Longhorn State, or whatever it's actual motto is, I'm very excited to go to the Alamo. It's something I always hoped to see because I'm directly related to Jim Bowie on my mom's mom's side, and directly related to a 16-year-old boy who also died there, on my mom's dad's side. I didn't find out about the 16-year-old until this summer, when the Texas leg of our trip came up in conversation.
Tonight we had a fabulous southern-style meal at Dixie Diner, a local Texarkana chain. And I'm happy to say, for the first time in days, our hotel WiFi is free, and better yet, it works. Hurray!
Here we are in Arkansas
Who knew there'd be too many things we wanted to see in The Natural State?
We arrived in this state, another of the few I've never seen, about 20 minutes ago, and promptly found a cafe for breakfast. Neighbors' Mill Bakery and Cafe in Harrison has great fresh breads as well as a smokehouse. We're awaiting our meals as I type with the restaurant's free WiFi.
Yesterday, after more visiting with Grandma and my uncle, we cruised across Missouri, stopping in Cuba. Apparently, Cuba, Missouri, is known for its many town murals, a number of which we saw out the window as we drove down a portion of historic Route 66. The murals commemorate different special events in the town's history.
In other parts of our drive, we saw the word BOURBON on a water tower, and two twin water towers labeled HOT and COLD. We also pulled off the highway to visit the Original Walnut Bowl Factory, where we saw a display of the wooden barrels they make there. I've been to the other walnut bowl factory, off Highway 70, between Kansas City and St. Louis, but didn't know about this other one.
Last night, we stopped in Branson, Missouri, home of the most live music venues in America in one city, or something like that. It's crazy. Think Las Vegas strip, but a more family-friendly version. Without the decadence. Many of the shows were comedy or country singing or a mixture. One of the highlights, from the car anyway, was seeing the huge replica of the Titanic, complete with water around its base and a manufactured iceberg. Apparently there were 400 Titanic items inside.
Breakfast update: The food was delicious, especially the smoked ham. The only interruption was an errant fly who committed suicide in Jonathan's cup of coffee. If you're ever in Arkansas, come find this place. It's worth it.
We checked out the Branson Landing new shopping area by the water and listened to the guy playing his guitar near the water. We browsed in some craft malls and drove the strip a few times before deciding on a Mexican restaurant and a hotel across the way. The Palms, our home for the evening, served Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast!
There are a few towns with springs that made them famous, such as Eureka Springs, but unfortunately, we're on a timeline to get to Texas. Perhaps we'll just have to come back to Arkansas. Perhaps I should have taken that managing editor job in Searcy a couple years ago. We're off to Little Rock next, and maybe Hot Springs after that.
Putting the road trip in drive
Well, we’re on the road home now, officially. Once we left New Jersey, after dropping Krista off, the road trip blues hit me. Leaving the East Coast, after spending nearly two months wandering around, made me feel a little homesick. What will I do without those wonderful Jersey bagels? And a Dunkin Donuts on every corner? Really, what I’ll miss the most is what I always miss: the ability to get in my car, drive a little while, and be at the home of one of my childhood friends.
It was a great interlude to spend two nights in State College with Tamara and Justin, but then we had to hit the road again. We’ve been driving and driving and driving. Or so it feels. It’s only going to be more hard-core driving from now on, as we’re finally on the return trip, with our arrival deadline in Oregon of Aug. 12. If we’re going to see the other four states I’m missing, we’ll have to spend more time in the car than exploring all the little places along the way. Sigh.
After two semi-long driving days, we landed in St. Louis to spend two nights with my grandmother. She took us to dinner last night at her retirement village, and we went back for a hearty breakfast this morning. I’m still full. Hopefully today we’ll see my cousins and play some more rounds of canasta with Grandma.
Where's Jonathan? The nature chronicles
After much Internet connection strife over the past two days, we're up and running again, with a Special Double Feature of Joy. Yes, it's twice the Where's Jonathan fun, and twice the prizes.
Here's the first one:
Is he:
A) Hugging Henry David Thoreau's tree
B) Hugging Emily Dickinson's tree
C) Hugging Louisa May Alcott's tree
D) Hugging Edgar Allen Poe's tree
E) Up a tree
F) Hugging an unloved tree in Central Park
Here's the second one:
Is he:
A) Still in Central Park
B) At WalMart's garden section
C) At the Breakers' gardens
D) In one of our friend's back yards (name the friend for double the points, should it be the right answer)
E) At Yaddo's gardens
F) All of the above
Doug wins a prize for Part Six, answering that Jonathan was both at a fort and out to lunch. The fort was in St. Augustine, Florida. Thanks for playing!
Attention, chocolate lovers
For your protection, we offer this advice.
Check your chocolate before heading through airport security. When we went through the screening process to bring darling Krista to her gate, Jonathan set off the alarm.
Why, you might ask? Chocolate.
Yes, that's true. He was carrying a half-munched Newman's Own organic sweet dark chocolate bar. With a foil wrapper. Jonathan set the alarm off three times, all because of that chocolate bar.
Thankfully, the TSA guy allowed Jonathan to stick the candy bar in a bin by itself to go through the conveyor belt, so we got to keep it. It now resides, most happily, in our stomachs.
Homesick? Nah
We’re getting closer to returning to Oregon, and although I love my adopted state, I’m not looking forward to hitting reality. Jobs, cleaning, unpacking, trimming down our stuff, figuring out the rest of our lives.
There are some things I miss, though. Friends and family top the list, of course. Then comes recycling. There are so many states out here that don’t recycle, or at least don’t make it easy. Jonathan’s been a star locating Whole Foods stores so we can drop off a big bag of plastic bottles and newspapers. Our friends Aaron and Jenn also let us leave a bunch of it with them for their trip to the local recycling area at the town dump.
I also miss some restaurants. And our neighborhood library, which I was too busy to use since we moved there, but that I used all the time when we lived around the corner. I’m also looking forward to going hiking in the gorge or somewhere else scenic. It’s been a long time since we’ve done day trips from Portland, since we didn’t live there for two years. Now we can take day trips to the beach and feel relaxed, rather than the beach being our reality.
Life will be good when we get back. It’ll be fun and fulfilling, and there are so many possibilities. But I’m not going to rush the rest of this trip. The days may be going by in a flash of silver, but I’m savoring them. Every single day, even the long ones when the hotel that’s supposed to be around the corner doesn’t show up for 80 miles.
The second time around
The last few days have been a blur of driving, shopping, laughing and thunderstorms. Piya, Krista, Jonathan and I left New Jersey on Thursday morning. Gliding over the Tappan Zee Bridge was a joy, with little traffic, a beautiful view, and important people in the van with us.
We stopped for beverages in Old Greenwich, then headed to Mystic Seaport, where we wandered around near the waterfront. There was an upcoming book signing there by Jim Lynch, for his amazing tale of a boy growing up in the Olympia, Wash., area, but our timing was off by a few days. The bookstore was great, though.
Piya ordered a slice of pizza from Mystic Pizza, yes THAT restaurant of the Julia Roberts movie fame, and we all shared in its cheesy goodness. I picked up a great dress at a ridiculous discount, probably my best deal of the trip.
Then we were off to Rhode Island, where we stayed in a suburb of Providence. The next day brought us to Newport, land of the uber rich and a way of life that seems to be gone these days. The opulent mansions there were built in the Gilded Age as summer cottages for powerful New York City families. We toured the Breakers, one of the Vanderbilt family’s several residences (another being the Biltmore in Ashland, N.C., which we sadly missed this time around). The Breakers has 70 rooms or so. We wandered up and down the stairs, listening to the tour guide’s warnings about holding on to the banister and his many facts and stories about the family’s residence. They only lived there for two months of the year. The carvings, inlaid stone, mosaic ceilings, painted walls and frescos were incredible. It’s the closest we come in America to national castles. We all talked about what it would have been like to be a servant in that home, living there year-round, while the bosses only came to town for two out of 12 months. Crazy.
The shopping in Newport was entertaining. As was watching the sumo wrestlers sit around and chat with a news reporter. I do wonder how their cool diaper things stay on during their matches.
We dropped Piya off at the Amtrak station in Providence, after exploring some of the neighborhood around Brown and finding another Favorite Store for Krista to be excited about. Then we drove north and (finally) found a hotel for the evening. It was one of the evenings where we expect to settle down and have dinner a lot sooner than we actually get to settle down. But that’s part of the road trip experience, I suppose.
From there, we headed back to Amherst and Northampton in Massachusetts. We wanted to show Krista some quintessential Massachusetts towns, and with the Boston tunnel issues, a number of people told us to skip heading that direction. We loved Northampton a few weeks ago, especially the coffee place, but when we got there, we found out that Northampton Coffee had a broken espresso machine and couldn’t make us our lattes. Argh. Jonathan and I both thought about saying, “But we drove for hours to have another espresso drink here,” which was pretty close to the truth. We'll easily drive a lot of miles for good, creamy espresso.
When I talked to my friend Tamara later, she told me we weren’t supposed to return to places we’ve been earlier on the trip, because they won’t be the same. Very true.
Instead of opting for regular coffee at Northampton Coffee, we followed the call of our stomachs and went to Sylvester’s, a hip café in the building where Sylvester Graham used to live. For the record, we took Krista to all the educational places where we could also get her caffeinated. The place was the home of Sylvester Graham, of graham cracker fame.
Breakfast was really good, an hour and a half later.
As we began our exploring, a torrential downpour started, and rather than get soaked, we hopped back in the van and went in search of an oil change and some yarn. Oil change for Jonathan, yarn for the girls. We ended up having a picnic evening in our hotel room in Hadley, Mass. A nice change of pace, definitely, from all the running around earlier in the week.
Yesterday, we spent more time in Northampton, while it was dry and lovely. I found peas and carrots candy at Sweetie’s on the corner. Anyone know of that candy? I used to love these things and now I have my very own baggie of them. I am sharing, in case anyone is wondering.
We also found our new favorite café in Northampton, Haymarket Café, where the lattes were luscious and the raspberry and peach oat cake was moist and moutwatering. Who knew? I could have that every day for breakfast, if I could figure out how to make something similar. It’s fruit and oatmeal and very little sugar.
The road trip continued back through Connecticut, where we ate at the Holiday Diner in Danbury again due to a lack of better plans, and then to New York, the Tappan Zee Bridge again and New Jersey. Dear friend Lisa met us for Mexican food, and we returned home to our hotel happy and full of conversation, beans and rice. Jonathan made Krista order his small number of tacos off the children’s menu, which is how the vegetarian in the group asked for a beef entrée while pretending she was 12.
Nothing to see here, folks
I didn't take any photos in New York City. Having a Nikon D70 and a flash attachment means looking like a tourist while wandering the streets. And I'm too much of a Jersey girl at heart to let myself get away with that.
Krista, Jonathan and I pounded the pavement in search of great food, interesting sights and excellent bargains. Our two days were full of adventures and a few blisters. Jonathan and Krista will write more later, but we're all too tired to string a lot together this evening. One of the highlights, for me, was seeing my friend Summer from high school and catching up on the last decade or so. We hadn't seen each other since graduation.
Today we wandered around Connecticut, both Old Greenwich and Mystic Seaport. My dear friend Piya is along for the ride, taking a break from city life.
People who know people
Three times in the last day and a half, people have thought we were somebody else. Twice this happened to Jonathan, once to me. A fourth incident happened in Florida in a grocery store, where a woman swore she knew me from somewhere. Either we have familiar, friendly looking faces, or we have dopplegangers wandering around on the East Coast. If it's the latter, they must be nice, because a lot of people want to talk to them.
I've been on a hometown kick these past few days. It was amazing to be at Chiara's wedding, and she looked absolutely gorgeous. We've known each other for years, since the early days of playgroup. Our time at Chiara and Jimmy's wedding was being witness to a wonderful union, but it was also a reunion with old neighbors and friends. We all laughed and chatted, and as far as the dancing is concerned, my mom and dad can really get down!
Today was another set of reunions with old friends and my former next door neighbor, and the neighbors from across the street and two houses down. It's so fun to talk fast and share news from the past decade or so. There's so much to catch up on. We also had dinner with my parents and our longtime friends, Brigitte and John, at Vinnie's Pizza in Bloomfield. We had such a good time. And I have to say, it's great to be around people who talk the way I grew up talking, using their hands, syllables spilling out one after another in warp speed, because that's not so much an Oregon thing, and these people, even though I haven't some of seen them in years, I miss them terribly.
Krista, our niece, arrived safe and sound tonight, and we're headed to New York City first thing tomorrow morning. It's her first time, Jonathan's third, and I'm not counting.
Tripping down memory lane
We're in the Hudson Valley this evening, after a nice drive down Route 9 and a back-in-time tour of Vassar College, my alma mater. It was fun to show Jonathan around campus and around the area. Although it was closed up for the summer, we were able to get into a few buildings and poke around. I felt a bit disoriented, since I haven't been back since graduation.
Last night we stayed in western Massachusetts with friends Aaron and Jenn, who are restoring a gorgeous old home that used to be their village's library. It's full of charm and personality, and Jenn and Aaron have done a great job with it. We were amazed by its character and its many interesting rooms. The four of us had dinner, long conversations and plenty of coffee this morning. Jenn likes hats, too! We met them earlier in the summer at Gary and Marisa's wedding, so it was fun to spend more time together.
On our way out to their slice of paradise, we toured the Clark art gallery in Williamstown, Mass. There's a fantastic exhibit right now about Sterling Clark, who the gallery is named for, and his brother Stephen, which pairs the works each purchased and compares and contrasts their artistic tastes. And if that wasn't interesting enough, the gallery did a community poll about which 50 works of art are the favorites of regular gallery-goers. Then they marked each one and added quotes explaining why the people chose that particular painting or statue. Many were from very knowledgable art curators or professors at Williams, and they added a human touch as well as some historical anecdotes to viewing the paintings. One was from a second-grader, too. The favorite piece in the gallery, by far, was John Singer Sargent's depiction of a woman in white smelling ambergris ("Fumee d'Ambre Gris").
Jonathan discovered an enjoyment of Renoir and Degas and reaffirmed his interest in Monet's work. I spent a lot of time reading all the interesting captions and looking at the side-by-side works that Stephen and Sterling chose. A few were purchased by one, then later by the other, so that was really interesting, too.
As if that wasn't enough art, we ventured south to Stockbridge to tour the Norman Rockwell museum. You can walk through his studio, which is the way he left it, and feel the original floorboards beneath your feet. Although Rockwell images are ingrained into the national consciousness, they're really powerful in person, even if you've seen the print a dozen or more times. It's striking. There was also a Remington exhibit there. And experts recently realized the "Breaking Home Ties" painting that was previously thought to be a Rockwell was actually a forgery done by Don Trachte, an artist and cartoonist, while the original was hung behind a wall in Trachte's home. The original was recovered and on exhibit there. You can read more about that story
at this link.
Tomorrow morning we head to New jersey for the wedding. We had intended to get to that area tonight, but the sightseeing and a few delicious cups of coffee put us a little behind schedule. Which is all the more delicious.
Chillin' with nature
We're sitting outside in Williamstown, Massachusetts, at Tunnel City Coffee, drinking our preferred espresso drinks, munching on a raspberry muffin and enjoying the weather from the shade.
Yesterday we explored Saratoga Springs, ate crepes at Ravenous, tasted the mineral water and wandered around the Yaddo gardens, which were gorgeous. Here's a picture of two of the fish in a huge fountain there:
In two days, we'll be at my dear friend Chiara's wedding in New Jersey. Then we'll have another week of exploration with niece Krista, but I can't tell you where we'll be, because not everybody tuning in has top security clearance.
Other than wonderful people, we've seen all kinds of bugs, animals and other critters on this adventure. The black and white dragonflies in Vermont were amazing. It's also nice to see fireflies, since we don't have them in Oregon. Here's a frog from my uncle's pond, caught and held for just enough time for a picture, by Jessica:
Listen to the locals
Eileen, who toured us around New Orleans, and Joanna, her daughter, have commented on the New Orleans in New Brunswick post earlier this month. Check it out. They both wrote eloquently about the importance of spreading the word about the city, the continuing devastation and how it's important for visitors to keep coming. Joanna grew up there and I remember her telling us she tries to not look around when she drives to and from college, because it's just too much to see every day.
Thanks for sharing your perspectives, Joanna and Eileen. There will be more, as I've said, whether it's in blog form or essay form. I have a pile of notes, waiting to coalesce into an essay. I can't tell you how much it meant to me and Jonathan to meet you guys and spend time with you, seeing the flooding aftermath in a way we'd never be able to as visitors. It's been the biggest thing on our trip, the one that has shaped our perspective and thoughts and conversation more than any other place we've visited in the last month and a half. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
The good news is people are interested in what's happening in New Orleans. They want to know what we've seen and to see our photographs. And some of them have had children or friends go there for vacation or weddings recently, so that's positive. In Oxford, Mississippi, we met a guy wearing a "Make levees, not war" shirt, and he said his friend in New Orleans makes them. You can check out his business
here.
Eileen and Joanna, any thoughts for the people reading this blog about what else they can do? We don't have a huge audience, but people are reading, and they know other people who know other people.
Serendipity
The last few days have been full of friends and family. It's like riding a smile all the way down the highway.
To our delight, we spent a night in North Hero on Lake Champlain with longtime family friends. We popped by for a visit, nearly unannounced, and they invited us to stay overnight. We had delicious Thai dinner with Ken and Darlene and their daughter, Gretchen, came to join us. It was incredible to chat and chat and stay up late chatting some more. They're among the close friends who are family to me, and other than the quick visiting at the wedding, Jonathan hadn't met them.
The next morning, after a great breakfast and Green Mountain Coffee from Hero's Welcome, the town general store, we took the ferry across to Plattsburgh, then drove down the New York Thruway. I wonder if it was ever called a throughway or a thoroughway. Hmm. In Oregon, they're freeways.
We landed in the Adirondacks, Lake Pleasant specifically, to have lunch with my kindergarten teacher, Jo. We met her son and granddaughter and thoroughly enjoyed catching up. Yes, there were a few tears of joy, too. We hadn't seen each other since, well, since I don't remember when. She and I lost touch, but this March, she looked up my parents, called them, then reconnected with me by e-mail. It was such a pleasure to spend a few hours with her, although they went by fast. And it was fantastic to have Jonathan and her meet each other. She told me about a group of my former teachers that meets once a week at a diner in New Jersey, and if we're there at the right time and place this trip, I'll stop by unannounced and say hello.
Jo and I reminisced about people we knew in common, both teachers and students, and we talked about where the years have taken us and how I ended up in Oregon. Lunch at the Family Tree was delicious. I'm still thinking about their pumpkin vegetable soup.
I spent many a wonderful day on Jo's knee as a little girl. That was one of my favorite places. It meant so much to see her yesterday, and we'll have to do it again soon.
As if that weren't enough joy and excitement, we drove another hour to the Saratoga Springs area, where we met up with my friend Jessica and her boyfriend Heath. We went to dinner in Saratoga at a beautiful old inn, then followed it with a cappuccino and gelato at an Italian dessert place. I ate so much, but it was so good.
Jess and I were frolicking buddies in Chautauqua on the daily paper there in 2001. We had so much fun that summer, much of it in Bestor Plaza, doing stretches, cartwheels and of course throwing the football around. It was a great way to get out of the office, giggle and blow off stress. We hadn't seen her and Heath since our wedding. We kept saying all through dinner, "We're here!" and "I can't believe you're really here!"
This trip has reminded me yet again of how many wonderful people there are out there, and how lucky I am to have so many of them in my life.
Where's Jonathan? Part Five
Is he:
a) At Epcot
b) At an American castle
c) At a fort
d) Out to lunch
e) None of the above
First one with the correct answer gets a prize!
The correct answer to part four, I swear, is "In someone's yard in Mississippi." Yes, that was a hard one. The person's yard actually happened to be William Faulkner's. We were at his estate, Rowan Oak, in Oxford.
The right demographics
We're in beautiful Burlington, Vermont, this morning. Apparently the median age here is 34 or thereabouts, so we fit right in. It's also a college town, and we like college towns. A lot. Because usually there are many coffee shops in said locations. The people watching is generally good, too.
Last night we rolled in and had a delightful outdoor dinner at Sweetwater's in the Church Street Marketplace. The band Phish started here in a club called Nectar's. The city is right on Lake Champlain. We have the option of driving over bridges or taking a ferry today into New York state.
The last couple of days went quickly at my aunt and uncle's home in Vermont. My cousin Tom and his wife Jacquie and their four kids were visiting from Cleveland, which makes them the first people we've seen twice in our road trip in two different locations. We ate large family dinners, swam and frolicked in the pond with the kids, played tons of games and giggled a lot. Saturday night we saw an entertaining Agatha Christie play, "A Murder Is Announced," performed in the local playhouse, with Tom, Jacquie and their two eldest children. It had so many twists and turns, we spent the next few days rehashing the plot and asking each other about the details.
Jonathan and I fell in love with the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester and its adjoining Spiral Press Cafe. We sipped coffee there all three mornings. The days passed by fast in a blur of ice cream, frog catching and plenty of chatting and reminiscing. It's so great to be part of this family.
The other Portland
We loved spending July 4 in Portland, Maine, even though we blew off the fireworks in exchange for a leisurely dinner. We had a couple great cups of coffee, there, too, including one at Breaking New Grounds. We wandered around the Old Port area mostly. Our hotel,
The Inn at St. John, was beautiful and very old-fashioned looking, with modern conveniences and cleanliness.
The days are rolling together into a fabric of general happiness. We're a month into our trip, and every day has been great, but we're now finding ourselves asking, "Where were we when we saw..." or "What was that place called?" We already know we want to spend more time in New England in the future. There are a lot of places we want to come back to, and a lot of friends and family we want to come back to visit again.
After Portland, we headed to Freeport, Maine, to have lunch with Judy from Chautauqua, and to check out the LL Bean store. The photo is of the Portland Head Light, wrapped in a thick fog.
New Orleans in Brunswick
We're sipping coffee this morning in Brunswick, Maine, at the Little Dog Coffee Shop. Last night, we talked about how our trip seems to be several different trips, New Orleans being a separate piece from the rest, as is New England and as was Florida.
Walking into this coffee shop, the first thing I spotted was a photo exhibit on the wall by a local photographer about St. Bernard Parish. Her accompanying framed essay says the same thing that we've been chewing on: you can't understand the scope of the devasation unless you go there yourself.
As beautiful as her photos are, there are nine of them, probably chosen from countless ones she took during her trip this May. And no number of photos or words can completely describe what it feels like to be there. As a visitor I can't begin to understand, let alone communicate, what it must be like to live there. I don't know what those neighborhoods looked like before Katrina. The aftermath was terrible enough. But to know what they used to look like. That's heavy. That's true devastation.
Think of what your neighborhood looks like now. Look around at the neighbors' houses, the trees, the mailboxes. Imagine water flooding the whole area, and everything you own getting soggy, moldy, ruined. Can you even imagine?
One of the reasons Don and Eileen agreed to show us around was so we could spread the word of what it's like there and to share the importance of New Orleans' rebuilding. The idea of writing an essay about it has been heavy in my mind since June, when we took that New Orleans tour. It's so significant and weighty, I've been waiting for a stretch of unoccupied time, which, due to this being a road trip, hasn't happened yet. What I've realized, though, is this topic isn't just one blog entry. It's a few blog entries. It's a few essays. It's sharing the photographs of the devastation with everybody we meet and visit along the route. I've shared the images I captured so many times it made me numb first, then sick at the idea of looking at them again. To know I have these photos in my computer, but other people have to look at the damage every day. It's their regular reality. While my husband and I can drive off to other places.
Beyond sharing the story of what we saw through print and online resources, we've been sharing it through conversations with strangers, friends and family. Everybody. When we've chatted with people at hotels, in coffee shops and at their businesses, we've told them about what we saw in New Orleans. The experience comes up once a day or so in conversation, and the people we talk about it with ask lots of questions. Some we can answer, some we can't. But at least it's a dialogue.
These conversations we're having get the information out there better than this blog will or better than an essay published in one place in one region of this country. As we travel, we spread the word from area to area, city to city. A passing on of first-hand information. We hope the people we take the time to talk to about New Orleans will go home and tell their friends and family about the continuing problems in that region and the need for help in rebuilding.
It's a reminder to those of us living our safe happy lives, much like the photos hanging framed on the wall of this coffee shop in Brunswick, Maine.
Knit in back, purl in back of the van
Here, at long last, is a knitting update about my road trip afghan. I've been hitting lots of yarn shops, in part due to my friend Heather's knowledge of them around the Boston area. My fear of running out of yarn has been supplanted by the fear that my stash is growing so rapidly, I might find myself knotted onto the steering wheel.
The knitting is going pretty well now. I'm finally very sure I'm on the right track with the pattern. Whoopee! Even better, I'm starting to memorize the pattern. Mine looks like the one in the picture that came with the pattern, but with more colors, textures and general craziness. I love it. Sometimes I think it clashes, but then I add another color yarn, and it balances the whole thing out. I have about 14 inches of blanket now, which could theoretically keep a small dog warm.
Six colors are in there so far, and I have three other skeins waiting for their turns on the stage. The yarn this morning was from a creative little store in downtown Portland, Maine. It's handspun in Maine, and it's a soft brownish-pink. Very feminine. Very different from the red and gold ribbon from Cambridge, the deep reddish brown from Lexington and all the other colors that have come before.
This afghan might actually end up reflecting our trip and what we've seen of America. If only I keep knitting.
Seeing and being seen in Boston
We’ll just have to come back. That’s what I keep thinking about Boston. We barely scratched the surface of all the sights there, and yet we explored hardcore for two days.
We spent our first night in Massachusetts with my father's longtime friend Bobb a couple nights ago, and enjoyed visiting with him and eating his special blueberry waffles the next morning. Then we headed into the Boston area to meet up with my college friend Heather. She showed us around Cambridge, Brookline and fun coffee shops and a knitting store along the way. At Algiers in Harvard Square, I had a refreshing iced Viennese coffee with whipped cream and lots of cinnamon. We'd go there a lot if we lived nearby. We ate a delicious Mexican food dinner that evening with Heather and her mom.
Some days, all I want to write about is food. Both mornings we had Carberry's coffee and pastries, from the location near Heather's house. The pain au chocolat was so tasty the first morning, I got it the next day too. For dinner our second night there, Jonathan and I took off for Not Your Average Joe's, which was in walking distance from Heather and Rogelio's house. We sat at the bar, since there was a bit of a wait for a table. We learned from our waitress Mary that Arlington doesn't allow people to sit and drink (at least in public). A person can only order one drink if they're not ordering any food. If they choose to eat, they can order more drinks. It was fun to sit there, watch a Boston Red Sox game and hang out with locals.
Back to the sightseeing. July 3 was a step back in time for us. We jaunted off to Lexington and Concord, where the American Revolution started. We saw the town green in Lexington where the "shot heard 'round the world" was fired. The Museum of Our National Heritage had some great exhibits, including one detailed section on liberty and its meaning in America. It was the perfect way to celebrate the day before the Fourth.
The Battle of Concord, immortalized in a poem by Longfellow, was fought at the Old North Bridge in, of course, Concord. We stopped there to visit with Bill, one of the musicians in
Independence Jazz Reunion, the band I wrote about back in 2000-01. We sat by the river, listening to the people pass by, catching up and admiring the blue heron that landed nearby.
We also stopped by Louisa May Alcott's house and also tried to check out Walden Pond. The pond, to our astonishment, was closed! Turns out it's so popular as a swimming destination, the parking lots were jammed, so the park authorities closed it until 4:30 p.m. We didn't wait around those hours to see it. The atmosphere didn't seem quite the way Thoreau experienced it, anyway. Instead we headed back to Boston, took the T to Davis Square, where we tested the caffeinated fuel at the Diesel coffee shop. Then we got back on public transportation to downtown and wandered around Boston Common and the public gardens where the swan boats are. We wandered past the Frog Pond on the way back, where giggling children were splashing, wading and floating in the communal water. I almost stripped off my shoes, rolled up my pants and joined them.
That was a long day, full of history, learning and eating good food. For as much as we've seen and experienced, though, the best days have been those when we've had wonderful, long conversations with old friends. Those days are filling our minds and hearts with nourishment. Much needed nourishment, in fact, in between all these road miles and the feeling of floating out in the world, untethered to responsibility and sometimes overstimulated by the number of choices and routes we have to pick every day. Any one different decision, and we'd be having a different road trip.
