Posts

The Last Blog Post

Image
There are four weeks remaining on this trip but it’s over for me. After the horrific shooting of 19 children and two brave teachers in Texas I can no longer write anything lighthearted or complimentary about this country.  It may be beautiful to look at but it seethes with an anger and violence that stains us all. Thank you everyone for reading my blog and for your wonderful comments and observations.  I still haven’t figured out how to respond to them but know how much they mean to me. Here are some photos of the places we’ve been since Niagara Falls.  We’re in the Badlands of South Dakota now, heading to Montana, Glacier National Park, Banff, and down the Okanagan Valley before crossing the Cascade Mountains to Port Townsend, the place I used to call home.   Stay well everyone, and hold on to your loved ones. Pippa Sunrise on the Lower Peninsula, Michigan. Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota. Pelicans from the photo above.  Yes, pelicans. Lake Huron, Ontario.  Lake Huron,
2 comments
Read more

The Falls

Image
You know how things always seem bigger when you’re young?  You go back as an adult and your childhood home is actually small and cramped. That steep mountain that your brother biked down and ended up with some impressive stitches from is now just a hill.  Well, somehow Niagara Falls got bigger.   I took the girls there when they were young and we did the Maid of the Mist boat ride and got duly soaked and seasick (me) but I don’t remember being able to get so close to the top of the Falls.  I’m sure they didn’t build this ridiculously close viewing walkway in the last 25 years so perhaps I wisely kept my small offspring away from it.  It’s terrifying. Oh sure, why not? Since 1850 an estimated 5,000 bodies have been recovered from the base of the Falls.  Some were suicides, some were accidents, and some were failed daredevils. We’ve all heard about those incredibly stupid people going over the Falls in a barrel, but the first person to do so and survive was a woman.  Annie Taylor was a w
4 comments
Read more

Westward Ho!

Image
It turns out I am woefully ignorant about a lot of American history.  And British.  I vaguely knew there was a war in 1812 - Tchaikovsky wrote that Overture after all,  and it was all cannons and crashing cymbals and such - but actually there were TWO wars in 1812.  The British/French one and the British/American one.  Oh, wait.  I just googled the 1812 Overture and that was written to commemorate the Russian/French war.  So THREE wars in 1812.  I’m also woefully ignorant about European history then. And that seems about right because at school we had two choices when it came to History - European or Australian - and I chose the latter because there were only two hundred years of colonial history to learn about, as opposed to two thousand, and I was lazy. Anyway, 1812 was a very busy year.  The Americans had already won their Big War of 1776 but the British had been a bit sulky about it.  They’d been preventing American ships from free trade with the enemy France.  The Americans declar
3 comments
Read more

Fuhgeddaboudit

Image
I thought we’d do a Snow White and make flowers bloom and birds sing (I may be mixing my Disney metaphors here)- you know, bestow Spring upon the land as we tripped gaily north.  But New Jersey went all Evil Queen on us and we plunged back into Winter. The new Mario Cuomo Bridge over the Hudson River. We dug out the down jackets, filled the propane tanks and lit the fake fire.  All was good.  We caught up with daughters Kate and Hilary, friends and family, and spent a weekend back in the old ‘hood in Brooklyn.   I had my first Oyster Epiphany at CT and Diane’s on the first night of our first cross country RV trip back in 2010.   The second one was just as memorable. Bruce and Dan holding Diane and me firmly in our seats as a vicious thunderstorm raged outside.  Shortly after the restaurant lost power. We’d brought our beloved dog Poppy’s ashes with us to scatter in the park where a tree was planted in her name by dear Gisela.  Poppy was known as the Mayor of Prospect Park for her abili
5 comments
Read more

Babes In the Wood

Image
Despite the harrowing journey to get there, our stay on the DeGinLand Peninsula was thankfully drama free.  Well, from our perspective it was.  Perhaps not from that of our neighbors at one campground.  Honestly, Dan was just trying to help them.   They showed up, a young couple from New Jersey, in a small Tesla, late one afternoon and plugged their car into the electrical outlet.  We’ve seen plenty of “car campers” on our trip - they usually have cunning little hi-tech tents and enough clever folding equipment stowed in their Subaru Outback to make a pretty decent camp for anyone under the age of 40.   We were curious to see what a small Tesla could hold.  Not much, as it turns out.  Where were the folding chairs?  Coleman stove?  Sleeping bags?  Most importantly, where was THE TENT?  Just a few shopping bags appeared and were placed on the picnic table. Then our young couple produced some firewood and tried to start a fire.  It was not a success.  At one point they were both standing
6 comments
Read more

The OBX

Image
The Outer Banks of North Carolina is the landmass equivalent of a trailer park.  There’s a giant target floating right above it, or maybe it’s a flashing neon arrow, pointing the way for incoming hurricanes.  It gets a direct hit every other year . I’ve often wondered why anyone would build a house right on a beach.  Apart from the horrors of sand in every nook and cranny (and I don’t mean just the house) there are all those waves coming at you night and day.  Okay, true confession: I have a recurring nightmare about waves threatening to engulf me.  No doubt Freud would have a field day, but I’ve always been afraid of the ocean.  And that’s without a hurricane added to the mix. Post Hurricane Irene in 2011.   And just because I’m now more aware of this issue than I ever wanted to be, how do these beachfront houses handle their “waste water”?  Septic tank buried in the sand?  That then gets washed away?  Pipes that ditto?   A somewhat unnerving cloud given what’s happening in the world
5 comments
Read more

Putting the Ante in Antebellum

Image
  Savannah, the first planned city in America, started out with such high ideals.  Its founder, James Oglethorpe, arrived in 1733 with a boat load of English poor people willing to trade debtor’s prison for the chance to start a new agrarian life in the colonies.  50 acres and a modest house on one of the broad streets surrounding 24 leafy squares.  There was to be religious freedom - well, except for the Catholics (already established in the Spanish colony of Florida and perceived to be a threat.) There was also to be no liquor or slaves.  Or lawyers.  Bravo Mr. Oglethorpe! Sadly none of the high ideals except for religious freedom (including Catholics) lasted very long.  Savannah became one of the busiest ports in the trans Atlantic slave trade.  Most of the grand houses surrounding the beautiful squares were built in the 1800s so you know where the money and labor came from.  The riverfront, where the largest auction of men, women and children in this country took place - referred t
1 comment
Read more