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

We spent a wonderful week with our dear friends, Jeanne Currier and Delmarie Carver. Kathy worked with Jeanne for many years at Mt Gleason, and got to know Delmarie through Jeanne.  And I got to know them through Kathy. A few years ago, they bought a summer home in Norway, Maine, where Jeanne was raised.  They are now spending  half the year in Maine and half the year in the L.A. area.  Now that I’m retired, we were finally able to see them in Norway.  Maine is an absolutely beautiful! We were there while the leaves were changing, so every day the scenery changed.  On our way to their home, we drove past a retaining wall of bird houses.  These were all made of reclaimed material.  They were fascinating.  We looked up this wall to find out the story behind them.  No one knows who put the first one up and they just keep appearing.  Great folk art.

Jeanne and Delmarie welcomed us with lobster rolls for our first night and we had a week filled with talking, laughter, storytelling, shellfish and BBQ. We saw where Jeanne was raised, St. Joseph’s, the college she attended, and spent some time with some of her friends and family.  Went out for great BBQ at Smokin Dave’s Backyard BBQ and Grill.  As good as any BBQ that we have had.  While we were there, other California friends, Cheri and Lea arrived adding to the laughter and fun.

We did go on a moose hunt, which was unsuccessful for moose, but we saw gorgeous scenery and went to Height of Land on the top of Spruce Mountain in Rangeley, ME. This spot provides one of the most stunning overlooks in New England, with magnificent views of Mooselookmeguntic and Richardson Lakes and the White Mountains.

While we were in Maine, we took a day to go to Portland and see our cousin, Amybeth. We met for lunch at a yummy Thai restaurant and got caught up with each other’s lives. After we left Amybeth, we went to see the oldest lighthouse in Maine, the Portland Headlight in Cape Elizabeth. It was a stormy day and the Atlantic Ocean was wild. So beautiful and different from the Pacific.

Kathy, Amybeth and Bridget

Portland home

Portland home

Looking out to sea

Lighthouse at Fort Williams Park

Brid at the lighthouse

Fesnel Lens for the light

One evening Jeanne and Lea made a wonderful lobster boil for us. My first lobster all by itself.  Cheri was kind enough to teach us how to pull it apart and enjoy it! So much fun that we are all going to get together in a couple of months in California to repeat the experience.   Another night we had a dining experience at 76 Pleasant Street. This is a very nice restaurant just a few minutes from Jeanne and Delmarie’s house.  It is in an old Victorian and the couple that runs it have done a beautiful job with the place.  The food was fabulous.  I had carrot, apple and ginger soup for a starter followed by grilled lamb with cannelini beans and harissa. It was perfectly seasoned and I didn’t even need salt or pepper.  Kathy had crab cakes with a seaweed-carrot salad and a remoulade and her main course was scallops with risotto and peas.  We shared a piece of limoncello cake for desert.  Everyone’s dinner was great. We will definitely go back next time we are in Norway.  (This was the only time that scallops were on a menu that I didn’t have them. I ate wonderful scallops at least 3, maybe 4 times in the week that we were in Maine.

Brid Days 42 through 49

Next morning we slept late and left Toronto after a yummy breakfast at an Eggsmart, which is a Canadian egg restaurant chain.  I had avocado toast (A little taste of home) with poached eggs on top and Kathy had fried eggs. We started on our way to Montreal, but knew that we would not be able to make it in one day, so we decided to mosey our way on Canadian highway 2, which is a more rural route than the Canadian Interstate.  We followed along the shore of Lake Ontario for much of our trip and noticed that the skies behind us were very gray as were the skies ahead of us.  We had very little bad weather, but did have a lot of wind.  The lake was very choppy, it could have passed for the ocean.

After a nice picnic lunch

North Shore of Lake Ontario

The  road reminded us of the English/Irish countryside and little towns along the way confirmed this feeling.  The Canadian countryside in this area is quite beautiful.  We stopped in Kingston, Ontario, just as the rains hit and were able to find a hotel with a handicapped room, Courtyard by Marriott. After we checked in, we found out that there had been horrible weather all along the route we had traveled, and further north from us, in Ottawa, a tornado had touched down. We felt that we had been protected by our guardian angels because we had none of it.  It was raining for the rest of the evening, so it was a soup and sandwich dinner at the Panera across the street.

Looking out at some of the Thousand Islands

Kathy in front of Lake Ontario

One of the reasons we stopped in Kingston was that we knew that there was a Weight Watchers meeting at 9:45 on Saturday morning.  As we made our way there, we passed a cute restaurant called Toast and Jam, and decided to go back for breakfast after the meeting.  We had a very good meeting and met some delightful Canadian WW members.  Their meetings are done just like ours, with lots of participation and a good leader.

But, back to Toast and Jam.  This is the cutest local favorite in Kingston, I think.  The ambiance is very nice, staff is great and food yummy.  Kathy had scrambled eggs and toast with homemade raspberry and blueberry jam. The blueberry was intensely flavorful, like fresh picked berries.  I splurged and had French toast with strawberry/rhubarb compote, marscapone and real maple syrup!  After we finished we walked over to the sister bakery, Bread and Butter, and bought ciabatta, pretzel rolls, salami and cheese for lunch/dinner, a sweet roll with lemon and blueberry that we shared later, some Maple syrup to bring home and a shopping bag.

We left Kingston to travel on to Montreal.  We continued on the country roads and found that we were not far from the Canadian side of the Thousand Islands of Lake Ontario, so we made a small side trip to drive through the area.  And yes, thousand island salad dressing is named after these islands as it was invented at a resort on the New York side. It was a gorgeous drive. Then on to Montreal, crazy traffic, lots of road work and an great stay at the Hilton Garden Inn.

Bridget
Day 35, 36

After we left Miller we headed toward Mitchell, SD to see the Corn Palace. On the way to Mitchell, we stopped for dinner at a great Mexican Restaurant, Yessica’s, in Huron, SD.  We both had yummy enchiladas, Kathy’s beef with a spicy red sauce and mine chicken with a delicious green sauce. Quite worth the stop. It was after 6 by the time we arrived in Mitchell, so we found a lovely motel, Kelly Inn, that was covered in bears, to stay until morning.

Headed off to the Corn Palace in the morning.  Discovered that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, towns were competing for tourists and wanted to bring more people to their own town.  Mitchell started the Corn Palace in 1892 and it is the only Corn Palace in the world.  They decorate the building every year with $130,000 worth of corn in multiple colors.  All of the murals are made of corn.  Of course, we had to have our pictures taken with the corn stalk, too.

Bridget at the Corn Cob

Kathy at the Corn Cob

We debated whether or not we would go to De Smet, SD for the Laura Ingalls homestead, but love of the Little House books won out. Both Kathy and I read the books as children, but I was obsessed with them. From the time I discovered the books at around 8, until my mid teens, I re-read the series, in order, nonstop.  Every time I went to the library, I checked out the next book.  If the book I was due to read in the series was out, I read Farmer Boy instead.  Five of the books, from By the Shores of Silver Lake on, took place in the De Smet area.  So of course we ended up at the homestead.  The family that runs the place has done an awesome job. They have recreated a sod house, a small homesteader’s cabin, Ma’s house. There is the schoolhouse that Laura attended and many hands-on activities.  It would be a wonderful place to take children, and you can even camp there. There is also a museum on site, as well as a house in town to tour.  Almost more than one can see in a day. And on top of everything, they had golf carts for disabled people so Kathy was able to enjoy everything.

Now on to Minnesota and the SPAM Museum!