Our Long & Winding Road

We look out onto a lake as we sit on a screened-in porch in our happy place in VT.  At noon on this random Tuesday in July a wave that spanned our entire view to the left in front of Wissahickon and to the right in front of SeldomInn rolled in from the center of the Lake St. Catherine.  We may not have noticed it - Rali is editing her book and I have just begun some lesson planning for the fall - except that it crested and broke at various points creating that lovely water crashing sound we rarely hear here. It was like being on the shore of the world’s tiniest ocean: the wave may have been huge on the horizontal axis, but it was only a few inches at most on the vertical axis.  It rolled steadily toward us, cresting here and there over and over for the better part of a minute, with no visual or auditory clue as to its origin.  I so love nature and all of the mysteries and beauty is serves up.

5/10/23:   Like the beginning of our cross-country journey, this last stretch is far more about people than places.   We spent two nights with the Indiana Pietraszek’s earlier this week, and it was such a treat to be so seamlessly folded into family.   Sword fights with twigs and run-away scooter captures on a walk along the Lake Maxinkuckee, a grand campus tour in the fancy 6-seater golf cart, yummy meals both around the dining table and in the local hot spot . . . Super fun!   Thanks, Steve & Beth.   Last night we were in Columbus, OH, staying with one of my fellow Dandelions.   The Dandelions are fierce.   We are 7 women from the fabulous class of ’93 who have not only kept in touch but also endured quite a variety of significant life challenges over the 30 (?!?!?!) years since we graduated from college.   Our bonds are tight, and it’s a very special treat to have 1-on-1 time together.   Thanks, Tracy. While a significant allergic...

4/21/23:  I write from a Super 8, where we'll be for two nights, after staying in a hotel last night, too.  This is luxury at its height!  Hot showers that require neither inserting quarters every 3 minutes nor walking 100 yards from the camper to the campground bathroom...Life is good. Today was a travel day, but tomorrow we'll see Wind Caves National Park, the Crazy Horse Memorial, and Mount Rushmore. 5/10/23: Looks like I neither finished nor published that post.  I can tell you now that all three South Dakota stops were cool.  The Black Hills are sacred lands to a number of Native tribes.  In fact, Wind Caves are believed to be where humans were created.  The Crazy Horse Memorial , conceived of by Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear, is very cool.  In addition to a monstrous blasting project that will eventually create the sculpture below coming out of a mountain 6500+ ft above sea level. Here's the progress thus far as seen through some lig...

Rali and I are sitting in the dark inside our toasty little Turtle listening to rain fall on the roof - and on the fire we attempted in the pit just outside - while we drink Bud Light Lime, nibble on Dot’s Homestyle Honey Mustard Seasoned Pretzel Twists, and contemplate our dinner of Noodles & Beef, which we’ll make by boiling water on our JetBoil, stirring it into the pouch of dried food bits, & waiting 15 minutes as it rehydrates. There’s no internet connection now, so I’m writing this in Notes to transfer later. We spent the last two nights at Cascade Locks outside of Portland, OR.   Beautiful spot surrounded by state parks with lots of waterfalls.   We’ll include some picks from our hike yesterday.   Last night we met Rali’s friend Tori for dinner at The Sports Bra.   No typo there.   We hadn’t heard about this place, but it’s gotten some national press attention.   The place plays only women’s sports on its TV’s and serves beers made by female ...

A meteor only 140 ft across blasted a hole as deep as a 60-story building is high and 3/4's of a mile wide.  The meteor was something like 93% iron - wicked heavy! - and almost completely disintegrated as it tore through the atmosphere and then struck the earth at 26,000 mph.  The impact threw 175 million tons of limestone and sandstone over a mile away.  Pretty cool. Meteor Crater was not on our to-do/to-see list the day we saw it, but signs on the road lured us toward this as a must-see roadside attraction.  It was a bit expensive ($25/person), and yet it was indeed cool to see and learn about the largest and best-preserved impact crater on earth and to know that the entrance fees collected support continued research.

Rali: When I was in sixth grade I wrote a paper about the Petrified Forrest. I have been secretly wishing to go there ever since.  Today was my lucky day! Several people we have met on our travels have told us that the Petrified Forest isn't worth it, so my hopes weren't very high. I knew that the trees don't stand on end like a forest. I also knew that the vast expanses that we have been traveling through would likely be in the Petrified Forest as well and the rockified trees would be far apart, and they were. Since we had been traveling through the Painted Desert for days and I knew that, in 1932, 53,000 acres of the Painted Desert were added to the Petrified Desert before it was made a national park in 1962 (by  President Dwight D. Eisenhower), I suspected that much of our time in the Petrified Forest national park would include time in the Painted Desert, and I was right. I knew that all the colors in the mountains were from different minerals and how much oxidation hap...

Rali's BFF Susan once said that she wanted to marry the wind.  The other day, Rali expressed that she, if I didn't mind her being polygamous, would like to marry a specific mountain we passed in UT.  Over the last few days, I have been considering marrying the Painted Desert.   One of our guidebooks describes it as having "subtle beauty", which seems like a bit of a back-handed compliment, but it's actually spot on.  It's calming in its expansive footprint, its muted beautiful colors, and its changing terrain.  If only there were more water in the places where water has obviously been . . . with all these beds dry I find myself experiencing a low-grade anxiety.  This despite knowing that I am in a desert, after all (!), and that the myriad signs of water are proof that it will indeed come.  I hope you'll enjoy some of these pics.   FYI, Rali's deep childhood interest in geology and my emerging adult interest in visual, vertical, physical...

The aptly named Joyful Journey Springs Spa in Moffatt, CO, is our current home, and we recommend it highly.  We came in last night in time to set up The Turtle (our pop-up) before heading to the dining hall for a delicious vegan meal.  The woman who runs the kitchen is SO very proud of the chef she's been mentoring and encouraging over the last 10 months, and his food speaks for itself.  Then we headed to the pools - the hottest of the 3 first, and WOW did that feel good!  Everything in my body seems to melt a bit and let out an audible, "Ahhh."  NOTE: One must be careful walking along the wooden decks as wet footprints quickly freeze into flat slicks. This morning when we awoke, it was 13 degrees inside The Turtle.  The bathing suits we wore last night in the hot springs and laid out in The Turtle to dry were frozen solid.  This despite the fact that we had our electric heater running full steam ahead all night.  The hot shower, delicious breakfa...

  We experienced southern hospitality at its best staying with, Amy my college friend & fellow Dandelion (there's a story there...), in Savannah, GA.  She and her family welcomed us into their beautiful home with warmth and love.  They engaged us in wonderful conversation, gave us the inside scoop on the city, and included us a feast with extended family and another visiting adventurer.  We, in turn, wowed them with the magic of not only our pop-up camper but also our personal toilet with a tent for modesty.  Everyone was happy!  :) Savannah itself is gorgeous.  There is so much history packed into 2 square miles!  Forsyth Square sported one of the city's many fountains with green water in honor of St. Patrick's Day.  Rali took me to high tea at Gryphon, a very cool tea house that was once an apothecary/pharmacy and then a bookstore before being purchased and renovated by the Savannah College of Art and Design.  SCAD is super cool an...

This past Friday-Tuesday were the first few days of our cross-country adventure!  First stop = Quakertown, PA, where we enjoyed wonderful time with lots of family and friends.  PA feels more and more like home  each time we visit . . . perhaps something we should pay attention to!  Special shoutout to my brother Keith who cooked up a yummy dinner and let 17 family  members  invade his house and flop around on his new couch.  We will, for sure, seek out his services again.  Five stars!  We even saw some of our VT lake neighbors in their PA habitat!  :) Yesterday, we headed south.  After locating the house in which Rali and her family lived for a few of her elementary school years, we stopped at the Valley Forge National Park.  Rali remembers going there at the age of 8 or 9!  It was blustery cold as the wind whipped over the hill, and this deepened our reflection and appreciation of what it must have been like for the ...

On our way out of the Teaching Steps/Steps of Learning outside the southern retaining wall or the Western Wall area - I forget which - a large stream of IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) soldiers were coming in. A few things struck me. (1) They are so very young.  (2) They are all Israeli Jews. Israeli Arabs do not have compulsory service; in fact, they are not allowed to serve even if they want to. And Orthodox Jews are exempt. As a result, it's quite likely that there is a strong single narrative rather than a blend of narratives among IDF soldiers and officers.  (3) Some of these young soldiers carried their automatic weapons with the tip pointing out rather than down. It was a bit alarming for me to see into the barrel of an assault weapon; I can only imagine what it is like for Arabs - not only Palestinians but Israeli Arabs, too.  When our tour guide, a Christian Israeli Arab, saw these soldiers heading toward the al Aqsa mosque with guns at the ready, a fellow trav...

Today has been a great day. Before I reflect on what we did, saw, heard, learned, etc., I want to lay down some history for context. THIS is a really helpful timeline of Jerusalem. (Check it out if you want to geek out on it as I just did before deleting a few lines that attempted to summarize thousands of years of history - you're welcome.) Here in Israel, we keep seeing physical evidence of the Herodian (37BCE-70CE), the Roman (70-324CE), the Byzantine (324-638CE), the early Muslim Dynasties (638-934) that preceded the Crusades (1099-1187CE), and the Muslim Dynasties that followed the crusades, namely the Mamluks (1250-1517CE) and the Ottomans (1517-1918CE). Most churches we have seen, for example, are modern churches built by some European country in the 1920's or 30's or 50's - on top of Ottoman or Mamluk ruins that are on top of Byzantine ruins that are on top of Herodian ruins. What I'm calling ruins are not all scraps and rubble. Rather, conquer...