Friday, we drove through Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle and into New Mexico. We passed cotton flowering. They seemed like little bolls, but what do I know? We did make one stop in Texas, to have a chicken fried steak lunch at a small restaurant that we found on the road. Can’t travel this part of the country and not have chicken fried steak!
We arrived in Edgewood, NM around 6 p.m. This was really our final destination on our journey. My college friend, Vicky, just moved to Edgewood from Vancouver, WA and we wanted to visit and see her new house. She, her daughter Kimberley, and Kimberley’s twin boys are living in a lovely New Mexico style home in Edgewood. Kim made us a delicious dinner and we had a wonderful visit. Vicky had a plethora of points at the local Comfort Inn and treated us to our second to the last night on the road. In the morning, we met to have a delicious New Mexico style breakfast. Kathy finally got her Christmas style huevos rancheros and Vicky and I both had chili rellenos and fried eggs covered in green chili. YUMMMMY!!!
We were on the road by 10 and planned to make it to Flagstaff for our last night on the road, but we made such good time that we made it to Kingman, AZ. After a good night’s sleep, we hit the road and drove straight home, making it by 2:30 in the afternoon. Sierra Madre had never looked so good. The cottonwoods in the California desert were changing colors, too. Few photos the last few days. We were in a hurry to be home and to visit the people we were seeing. So here is a shot:
This first retirement journey by the Wild Wandering Women was blessed with good fortune. We had no car trouble, no accidents, no one got sick or seriously injured, and everyone we met on the road was delightful. No curmudgeons or sourpusses!! We made contact with old friends and relatives that we haven’t seen in ages. We fully understand what a beautiful country we live and how fortunate we are to be Americans. Despite all of our differences, most of us are good people, kind, thoughtful and want to do the right thing. We made sure that we were home in time to vote as this is such a privilege in this world we live in.
Things that surprised us include how much open space there still is in the US. As people who have lived in cities or suburbs all our lives, it’s easy to forget that not everyone lives this way. I was blown away by the colors of the leaves changing, we really don’t see that in Southern California. We were both impressed by how much forest there still is on the east coast. We are spoiled in California by the produce and plenty that we have and were surprised that this isn’t true through out the country. There are still places that live and eat much more seasonally than we do, salads, fresh vegetables and fruits are not always available. I think that we both discovered that we are truly California people. We love visiting other places, but we want to live in Southern California. As the weather turned to fall, and the temps were in the 40’s people kept talking about how wonderful the fall weather was. We were freezing–it was as cold as it gets in the middle of the winter in SoCal.
Final journey statistics include:
Days on the road: 79
States: 28
Canadian Provinces: 2
Miles travelled: 10,454
Relatives visited: 38
Friends visited: 17
Brid
Days 77-79
Day three in New York started with good bye to Laura as she had to go back to New Hampshire and her real life of teaching. Lisa walked her to Penn Station and when Lisa returned, we had breakfast in the hotel and planned our day. We decided that we would go to the Guggenheim Museum. Having seen pictures of it all of us were looking forward to seeing the phenomenal Frank Lloyd Wright building. The current major exhibit is the works of Hilma af Klint an early abstract artist whose paintings were generated in part through af Klint’s spiritualist practice as a medium and reflect an effort to articulate mystical views of reality. (The last part of this sentence was “borrowed” from the Guggenheim web site, I’m not
that accomplished as a writer). Additionally, there was an exhibit of the works of R.H. Quaytman, a contemporary painter whose current work, Chapter 34, is influenced by the work of af Klint. But my favorite was the Guggenheim Collection with the works of Constantin Brancusi, one of my favorite modern sculptors, as well as works by many well known artists of the 19th and 20th century. Additionally there were exhibits of modern Asian Art.
After lunch, we made a trip to the Strand Book Store, a fabulous bookstore in NYC with 18 Miles of new, used and rare books. This took up most of the afternoon. After we returned to the hotel, it was time to say good bye to Chelsea, then we took naps and decided to go to Gnocco, a little Italian Restaurant in the East Village. It is truffle time and we indulged in some fabulous dishes including gnocco, a deep fried dough similar to fry breads or sopapillas, which came with wonderful Italian cold cuts, arancini with truffles, goat cheese with honey, pine nuts and raisins on a bed of greens; pizza Amatriciana; and pasta with butter and garlic topped with truffles. Everything was fabulous. Another thanks to Santhi for the recommendation.
Tuesday morning we packed up all of our belongings and headed out. We hired a car to take us to breakfast, and then the airport. We searched the internet, and thanks to NY Eater, discovered Velselka, a Ukrainian restaurant in the East Village (are you beginning to see a pattern here? We basically ate our way through the East Village in NYC.) Velselka has been in NYC since 1954 and all reviews were outstanding. Our experience indicates that the reviews are correct. I had eggs with a potato pancake, kielbasa and challah toast, Lisa had yogurt with granola and bananas and a side of sausage and Kathy had cheese blintzes with a raspberry sauce. We also shared a piece of poppyseed bread. All were great, but the sausage was unbelievable. It was locally sourced from Esposito Sausage and we have already made plans to order some for Christmas Brunch!!!! Then on the airport to drop off Lisa, and Kathy and I proceeded to the Bolt parking lot to pick up my trusty Subaru.
We didn’t leave the Cape until late afternoon, so we only drove as far as Providence, RI. We stayed overnight in an extended stay motel ( I can’t remember the name). We had terrific Cambodian food — very similar to Thai, but somewhat different. It was delicious. Next morning we got up and went to a WW workshop in Johnston, RI. Good meeting, but not as good as #pasadena830!!! We didn’t have breakfast before the meeting, so after we looked for a local place to try. We discovered English Muffin, Inc. YumYum!!! Eggs cooked perfectly, had a combo that came with French Toast, which was good and made great by the spiced apples that were an option over potatoes. And yes it came with a grilled English muffin, too. Really more brunch than lunch.
within an hour, we were on our way to the Doubletree Times Square West which would be our home away from home for our 4 day stay in NYC. Unfortunately, our rooms were not ready (it was only 11 so, not really surprised) so we had something to eat and then sat in the lobby for a couple of hours talking up a storm. Finally got into our rooms around 1:30, and we were all beat, so we took naps. While we were napping, our cousin, Laura arrived. We met for dinner and took a Lyft to Katz Deli for a quintessential New York Deli experience. 
Pastrami sandwiches, seltzer, pickles and potato salad–mmmmmm. Laura’s daughter Chelsea, who is a director in NYC joined us for dinner and was able to spend some time with us over the weekend, even though it was a busy weekend for her. She had a film being shown at the Chelsea Film Festival, and a Q&A after, and a play in the Fringe Festival as well as a day of filming scheduled in Central Park for a film on which she is the AD. And that was just on the weekend!
Saturday, Kathy and I had a lazy morning while Lisa and Laura went to the 9/11 memorial and museum. I had been to the memorial on my first visit to NYC 2 years ago and there is really too much walking and standing in line for Kathy to navigate. When Lisa and Laura returned, we met up to go see TORCH SONG at the Helen Hayes Theater on Broadway. It was phenomenal and if you get to NYC, be sure to go see it! The whole cast was brilliant and the play is as timely today as TORCH SONG TRILOGY was in the 80’s.
Monday was cold and rainy again. After weeks of traveling, we were tired of pre-made scrambled eggs, so we took ourselves to the Keltic Kitchen for breakfast (there appears to be a big Irish presence on the Cape). They had real Irish bacon and made perfect fried eggs. After breakfast, we set out on our adventure. First, we wanted to see the Edward Gorey Museum and buy scary gifts. Alas, it is only open on weekends, even the gift shop. So only an exterior photo of his home on Cape Cod. Then we went searching for some beach plum jam to bring home. While we were driving to the store in Harwick that was supposed to have it, we looked through the trees and saw that there was a cranberry bog being harvested. When our jam venture proved to be fruitless, we drove back to the bog (missing it twice) and took some pictures. It was fun to see this in action—looked a little like the ocean spray commercial, without the farmers standing in the middle. We became curious, so we booked a tour at a local organic bog for the next day.
In the afternoon, we took a trip to the Wampanoag Tribal Museum in Washpee. This was one of the few times that Mavis failed us. She sent us to the tribal headquarters, rather than the museum, just a few miles out of the way. The museum was small, but very well done. The docent at the museum was one of the clan mothers and told the history of her people as if she was speaking of events that happened last week. We were fascinated and very pleased that we had made the effort to go to the museum.
There are a few places where the main road takes you along the coast, but there are also times that feel like you are in a forest. Our main stop of the day was at the Cape Cod National Seashore. This is a National Park that is protecting the shoreline of Cape Cod while continuing to make it accessible to the public. We stopped at the Salt Pond Visitors Center and saw a film about the way Cape Cod developed during the ice ages and beyond. There is a very good museum that is dedicated to whaling and the indigenous peoples of the area. There appeared to be a number of good hikes and/or walks with accessible trails, but it was late afternoon and quite windy, so we didn’t take any of them. As we were leaving, we found out that the annual Oyster Festival was taking place further up the road. We made it past the area without getting caught in the traffic, but were not so lucky on the way back to our motel.
We sat right on the waters edge as the sun set over the bay and enjoyed fancy martinis
as well as mouth watering appetizers (an artichoke for Kathy and roasted Brussel sprouts for me) and then a leisurely dinner of savory pork loin stuffed with Italian sausage for Kathy and ….guess what I had….yes, it was more scallops, but this time they were baked in a soy ginger sauce and were delectable. (And yes, we forgot to take photos before we started to eat, again.)
well done. They have crammed a huge amount of information into a fairly small space and made it very inviting. The exhibits are in French and English and truly explore the life of these settlers in the 17th century. I picked up some recipes. Anyone interested in braised eel?? When I went to get the car, Kathy stayed and talked to the hostess of the museum. She suggested that we go see the Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-du-Cap which is the largest Marian shrine in Canada.
Wild Wandering Women 