Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Planning, planning


I feel like a chapter in Canterbury Tales. The director of an episode. I have two characters, some dates, a route and a destination shrine in mind. It came to me in the night, as I mentioned, and I believe in those dreams before dawn.

We will cross New York State by the southern route. I remember Watkins Glen and Buttermilk Falls from my childhood and adult years, so we will see those on the way east. Then cut north, through the beautiful towns of my art show days. Another tour of Saratoga Performing Arts Center is on my list of musts. I hope the magnificent architecture is intact.

Lake Champlain can only be crossed the first time by ferry, so we will do that. Mother would be so pleased, and my passengers will be, too.  Vermont is OK; I remember great shows at Manchester, the home of Robert Todd Lincoln. We need to drop way south and may do it that way.

Our middle destination is Portsmouth, New Hampshire. How I remember going with mom and her six grandchildren and the flapping chicken. One grandchild did not like lobster, but I cannot recall who it was. I remember taking a sightseeing boat out into the harbor and the ocean. The captain and the crew were distraught over hitting a lobster pot marker buoy. It seemed close to a criminal offense, in their panic.

The whole town of Portsmouth was a two day adventure, I recall. I also remember The Old Man of the Mountain, Franconia Notch, New Hampshire. But, the Old Man is gone now. Eons of weather sheared it from the mountain side. Probably no use trying to interest current teenagers in a memory half a century past.

I’m considering dropping way south to come home. Back in my day, all of New England oozed its history. I wonder if it does still, and would charm a modern teen. Concord to Lexington. Minute Men. I looked at a map to “re-locate” the route and thought it looked mighty similar to the Washington, DC beltway.

Then I remembered fourteen year old Caroline navigating me around with her GPS. Ruth reading off the route from Beth’s GPS on the way home. Laura and Victoria will do me equally as well. It’s just the details, now.



Beth and a Minute Man, 1976

29 comments:

  1. We traveled to New England many time from Minnesota camping. As a history teacher that what summer vacation was all about. Of course in the heat of midsummer detours to the Maritime were also included...:)

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    1. I wonder what our kids will do to entertain their kids.

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  2. Will you be driving? Have a great time!

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  3. Hari OM
    That sounds like my kinda trip. Which means it is definitely your kinda trip - and that, I am almost equally certain, will make it Laura's kinda trip!!! YAM xx

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  4. That sounds like a wonderfully exciting trip. Hope it all goes to plan with no bad weather along the way.

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  5. Sounds like a fun trip and half the fun is in the planning.

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  6. My mother and I took a road trip through New England a couple of years before she died. We had the best time.

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    1. I think about that; how great it would be to have mom to travel with, again. But, now I'm her.

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  7. I would love to make a trip like that.

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  8. It's interesting how as we get older we remember things long gone and totally unknown to youngsters. Like wonderful old buildings that were casually demolished and replaced by something utterly bland and banal. On a sadder note, I remember being on top of the Twin Towers a year or two before they were brought down.

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  9. It sounds wonderful, Joanne. You got it well covered by the look of it.

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  10. Ah, but the devil is in the details.

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    1. I started with my 18 year old travel atlas to plan. I soon realized, like me desk calendar, it's obsolete. I'm doing better with Google.

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  11. Sounds like it will be a wonderful trip.

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  12. sounds like a good plan. I don't know that I would have been all that interested in the history as a teen. I'll bet though that the real Minutemen did NOT dress in white!

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    1. So much easier to work for the NPS. Well, back in 1976, when they still were funded.

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  13. It's interesting how we oldies remember things that no longer exist and are totally unfamiliar to the youngsters. I can think of several wonderful old buildings that were casually demolished and replaced with something bland and banal. And on a sadder note, I remember standing on top of the Twin Towers a year or two before they were brought down.

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  14. It's interesting how we oldies remember things that no longer exist and are totally unfamiliar to the youngsters. I can think of several wonderful old buildings that were casually demolished and replaced with something bland and banal. And on a sadder note, I remember standing on top of the Twin Towers a year or two before they were brought down.

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    1. For years I've had an etching of the NYC skyline, approaching from NJ. The twin towers are left of center. I drove the GW so often, those towers were just there. Then not. I keep the etching over the desk, even when the desk moves house.

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  15. That's my third attempt to post a comment. My comments on several blogspot blogs keep vanishing. What's going on?

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  16. You’ve got me wanting to cross Lake Champlain on a ferry!

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