Random Thoughts on a Roadtrip

Yesterday, I took the Sage Lady, my pretty new Prius, and we went on a roadtrip.  A long one. Twelve (12, you read that right) hours and several caffeinated beverages later we arrived in Charlottesville, VA.  I LOVES driving this car.  Even makes road construction bearable.

Sitting and driving, there’s not much else to do but listen to my awesome roadtrip playlist and think.  Below are some random thoughts in no particular order.

I left at 3:00 A.M.  It’s always inspiring to watch the sun come up.  The sky shifts from dark to gray almost unnoticed at first.  Then it’s light, then bright, then sun shining in the windows.  Back in the day when we did karate weekend workouts on the North Shore of Lake Superior, Mr. Goodwin had those of us who wanted, get up before sunrise, face the east and meditate—or at least sit quietly—as the sun rose.  A wonderful, energizing way to start the day.

A carefully chosen roadtrip playlist is a time travel device.  It can transport you back in time to revisit high school sweethearts, husbands, lovers.

America is an awesome country.  We’re great at innovating, inventing, building stuff, but our infrastructure is sliding toward third world quality.  Seriously.  We need to stop spending money on wars and killing people and instead make sure feeding people in this country aren't going hungry, make sure they have access to good health care, and repair roads and bridges.  One bridge I drove across (with a semi beside me) was downright scary.  From the looks of the potted bridge deck and rusted supports this could be an I-35 disaster candidate.

There’s a LOT of rubber tire roadkill along the edges of the highway.  I’m grateful I wasn’t in the vicinity when those tires disintegrated.

There’s a gas station chain down this way called Sheetz?  What genius invented that name.  Were they aiming for corporate logos along the lines of “Stop in if you’re three Sheetz to the wind” or “Holy Sheets, we're here if you have an intestinal malfunction”.  Gotta say, it's an odd name.

The Blue Ridge Mountains are really, really blue--even in this pic taken with my iPhone.  I need to ask SIL and BIL who live down here, why.  Anyone know what causes this? 

Taken from a scenic view stop just outside Charlottesville

It’s interesting that the Appalachian Mountains, stretching over 2,00 miles along the East Coast, have such unique regional personalities.  Blue Ridge, Smokies, Green Mountains, White Mountains.

From my room in the hotel, I have a view of the mountains.  It’s already a great day.

Busy, Busy Weekend

On Saturday, we crammed in a lot of things.  First off, Alayah and Louie were in a kids triathelon.  I mostly took videos, but here's a blury pic of the start of the swim leg.

Both Alayah and Louie did a great job

Then, on to T-ball.

Here's Louie at bat and coming in to home base.

Next up was Alayah.

Then, we met C's sister to celebrate her graduation—with ice cream, of course.

Finally, we loaded up the van and drove up to Santa Fe.  We stayed with friends of C's and I now have 6 degrees of separation with Mandy Patinkin and Bob Woodard.

Sunday was the day of the Santa Fe Century bike ride.  The trail starts in Santa Fe, heads down toward Albuquerque, then they turn around and ride back up the mountains.  Here's the biker boy eating his breakfast.

Two-eggs and bread plus coffee

While he was riding up hill and dale, the girlz decided to have way more fun.  We visited the Pecos National Historical Park, situated in the Pecos Valley.  The area was first inhabited in 1100 by Pueblo Indians.

The population eventually grew to 2000 by the 1400s and became a large meeting center where goods were traded between the Pueblo and Plains Indians.

Just imagine these remains being walls that were four stories high.

Part of their culture involved ceremonial Kivas.  These were underground, circular rooms accessed by climbing down ladders.

These ceremonial and social places symbolized the connection between the underworld and life above ground.

In 1598, the Spanish arrived in New Mexico and quickly changed the way of life for the Native Americans, building churches to convert them.  Only the bare remnants remain.

Returning to Santa Fe, we stopped at KaKawa for  the most decedent beverage ever.  It was like drinking a melted dark chocolate bar.

Not long after we returned to the house, the biker boy returned, beating his own time from the ride last year, not too much the worse for wear, but impatient with the picture taking.

An awesome day was had by all.

First Days in Albuquerque

When I left Maine on Tuesday, my son texted me that it was SNOWING in Albuquerque.  Just to be clear, I was leaving Maine for a visit where it's WARMER.  So I was not impressed.  By the time I arrived, the snow had melted.  It was a bit chilly, however.  Never mind.  My heart was warmed by a huge hug from my son and my granddaughter saying, "I love you, Grammy."

I was so excited to see their new house.  The neighborhood reminds me a lot of the one in St. Paul, MN where my kids grew up.  Except here, flowers are in full bloom in May, rather than just getting their leaves.

Fast forward to yesterday, my new daughter-in-law's birthday.  Alayah and I decided we would walk to Old Town, an old, historic neighborhood in Albuquerque.  It took more than half an hour because we made frequent stops to admire flowers and pick leaves for 'cabbage soup'.

Arriving at the plaza, we made a beeline for the chocolate shop and purchased a box of hand-chosen delicious candy for my chocoholic DIL  Then stopped at a sandwich shop for lunch and a photo op.

Back home, the Lukester was hard at work building the first of several raised beds for the back yard.  After much trial and tribulation, it was completed.  The three girlz needed to make a run to the grocery store, leaving the boyz to do some therapeutic planting.

Saturday, we're off to Santa Fe where Luke will do the 100 mile bike ride and the rest of us will chill.

Catch ya later. 

Visit to a House of Refuge

After breakfast and a walk on the beach

we visited Gilbert's Bar House of Refuge, built on the "St. Lucie Rocks" (Hutchinson Island).  It is the only one remaining.  You can find more information by visiting www.elliottmuseum.org

Houses of refuge were built along Florida's east cost, a sparsely populated area when this one was constructed in 1876.  A keeper and his family lived in residence, and after storms, he walked the beach, looking for shipwreck survivors to rescue.

This would make a cozy place to live.  I can totally imagine myself here.  Come with me on a tour.

A cozy room for a quick breakfast.

A formal dining room to entertain guests when they drop by.

A nice old desk to write at and a gramophone to play my favorite tunes.

A cheerful bedroom complete with mosquito netting.

A great veranda for a morning coffee break

     

with an awesome view.

Sign me up.  Oh, wait.  There wasn't any internet back then.  Guess I'll stay in this time in the wilds of Maine.

Fun in the Sun

It's March.  It's sunny.  It's possible to walk on the beach wearing shorts.  So, I guess I'm not in Maine.

I think these tiny birds are a variety of plover.  As the waves recede, they run out to catch any food carried in on the water.  As the waves wash ashore, the scurry back across the sand.

Then back for lunch, yummy cheeseburger soup, at The Grill in the clubhouse.

Thanks to Tony and his Christmas gift of a shirt from Asheville Sun Soo Tai Kwon Do (http://gr.pn/1g95cue), I was able to get into the Grill Room ('golf' shirts required).

Later that afternoon, after a short drive and we reached the Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center.  This an awesome place.  Located on Hutchinson Island, which is a barrior island, they have great activities and educational programs.  I chose not to join the fun of sting ray feeding.  With my luck, they would decide I was attack worthy.

There was a great presentation about the three kinds of sea turtles, loggerhead, green and leatherback.  The females dig nests in the sand, lay eggs and cover them.  When the babies hatch, they have to dig up through something like three feet of sand, then head for water.

They've also created a game fish lagoon, 

complete with sharks, jacks, snook and others.  And turtles.

 (These were taken during the fish feeding)

There's also a wonderful nature mile-long trail with a guided walk.

We hiked through a mangrove swamp

past Spanish Moss (named by the Native Americans because it resembled the bearded Spaniards)

And saw a replica of their dwellings.

The turn-around point is the Indian River Lagoon (named for the Ays Indian Tribe who were the original inhabitants of the area, known as the Ays Coast or the Province of Ays).  As you can see from the waves, it was a windy day.

On the return walk, we spotted a gecko in a tree beside the trail.  If you look closely, you can see him perched on the branch (he's the tiny light green slash just above the middle of the picture.

It's all about fun in the sun.

Weather report: It's warm and sunny

On Tuesday, I headed south where it's warmer.

Here's my back yard a few days before I left.

(Some of you may have seen this when I tweeted it)

So here's what greeted me on Wednesday:

View of the golf course at Miles Grant

and later, here's a pic of the back yard at Starbucks.

In case you've forgotten, you can scroll up to see what I left behind.

Yesterday, replicas of the Pinta and Nina were docked at a marina near where I'm staying.  I couldn't resist a visit.

The first reason being that I visited the tomb of Christopher Columbus in the Cathedral in Seville during my visit there in October.

So, here's a shot of the boat Pinta.  

Can't see it?  Because the honkin' big yacht is blocking it?  Hint: It's the tiny square flag 

Here's she is from across the water.

And here's the Niña

The Pinta had a crew of 26 and the Nina 24.  The ships were so small the crew slept above deck because below decks were filled with provisions.

From under cover looking toward the deck

On the deck of the Niña

Factoid:  Columbus chose the Niña as his ship.

Their diet was especially varied:   

Personally, I can't imagine spending 24/7 on a ship between 65 and 85 feet in length crowded to the gunnels with 26 or 24 other bodies.

How about you?

Happy New Year

It’s the first of a new year and the beginning of the first year of a new decade for me, so here’s what’s happened so far on January 1st.

Ate my first meal at Cracker Barrel.  Back in the day, it was a shop along side the turnpike selling cheese and cheese stuff plus my favorite pecan logs, a seriously sweet pecan treat.  Cracker Barrel is a whole different creature now.  Lots of chachkies and all kinds of candy, but not a piece of cheese in sight.  I did spot a couple of pecan rolls hiding in a corner.

After breakfast, we drove to the airport in Asheville. On the way I commented that I wasn’t looking forward to  the travel day, retracing my flight from Asheville to Charlotte to Philadelphia to Portland.  A premonition.  At the reservation desk, I couldn’t check in.  When I asked for help, I wasn’t on the list, despite the very nice print-out I had of my reservation from Travelocity.  Ooops.  In the many (3) re-bookings on my trip to Asheville the cancelled the flight from Asheville to Charlotte on the 1st.  They were very apologetic and said they’d fix it.  And they did.  They had their driver take me to Charlotte.  Instead of going to Portland by way of Philly, they re-booked me on a direct flight to Portland.  There was only one seat left—in First Class—and she upgraded me without blinking.  So a second first.  My first flight in First Class.

And here’s the third.  My first selfie taken in the van on the way to Charlotte.  Not sure why folks do this 'cause the pictures kinda suck.

Based on these serendipitous events, 2014 is going to be an awesome year for me.  I hope it is for you, too.