More photos from the roast

This is the newest addition to our family Emma Goodman.  She was fought over quite a bit 

by Lilly (above)...

...and my daughter

A few of the relatives fished from the other side of the pond

Our bonfire that smelled so good 

Madison roasting our dinner and desert along with cousins Darrel, Scott, and Ronna

Shad throwing his son into the pond.  Always have one person who misbehaves...

Aunt Lorene held court.  Cousin "Big" Scott obviously embellishing his story

while Darcy falls for it.

Kyra who was six years old and who told me she was "good at" everything I mentioned she was doing.  She was the ambassador for the kids.  As soon as a kid arrived she would take his hand and lead him into the fun.

The pond also had a canoe for those folks who wanted to fish in the middle of the pond or just take a leisurely spin around the pond.  That is cousin Mike heading off to fish away from the swimmers.

The wiener roast was a success!  Who doesn't love Indiana in the summer?

Indiana trip - Family reunion wiener roast

We didn't always have a wiener roast as part of our family reunion. Somewhere down the line it was added to make it an interesting weekend of family fun. The roast is Madison' favorite part of the reunion so we try to make it when we can so that she can be one with the fire. I wasn't sure that we would have it this year due to the drought here in Indiana, but I was told it would happen even if we had to use a grill.

The matriarch of our family is my father's sister, Mildred Lorene.  No one calls her Mildred, but I ran across that in stuff I was looking through in her basement and liked it.  She is Aunt Lorene to me and my girls.  She has really been, along with my great Aunt Helen (now deceased), the only "grandmother" figure in my life as both of my grandmothers died when I was small.  Aunt Lorene is 97 years old, and although she has been knocked around some this past year with pneumonia, she is still going strong...with a few naps in between.

When we arrived at the farm where the reunion is held each year the bonfire was going strong down by the pond.  Apparently it had rained just enough that day to wet the grass enough for a bonfire.  There was plenty of hotdogs to go around.

The pond looked great and the kids wasted no time in getting wet.  The boys jumped off the diving board while the girls tended to stay closer to the beach area.

This is my cousin Shad, one of the nicest guys you will ever meet, but I think that's because he married the most awesome woman alive!  Not only is she gorgeous, but she is smart and very witty.  She runs a hospital (and is always trying to get me and my scrubs to come work there) and a household with three cute kids.  Oh, and she is my biggest blog fan!

My cousin Darrel works his butt off taking care of putting the farm together for the reunion (and cares for it all year long) and wiener roast. He mows and thinks of everything that is needed including the games.  He set up the badminton net, and I thought of how much my Dad would love that the next generation was all here to enjoy the family farm.

We had 45 people at the wiener roast and everyone ate tons of food and roasted marshmallows.  The weather was great with a breeze that had a few people putting on sweaters and jackets.  We closed the night around 11:00 pm. and the girls and Kelly and I went back to Aunt Lorene's ready to hit the sack.  Little did we know that wasn't going to happen...

From the travel journal - Day 2

Cara's entry:
The night passed uneventfully. Ann and I were up first and we chatted loudly in the living room which woke up everyone else. We had a lazy morning, a delicious home cooked brunch, and then Kelly, Madison, Darcy and I left to seek an adventure.

We chose to go to the 100 Acres, a sculpture nature walk that is part of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. It was a three mile walk through woods with man made trails. It was 90 degrees and not much different than Florida. The first sculpture was in the area where you park. It was a basketball court with red and blue piping that depicted the trajectory bounce of basketballs. I loved it. You could touch and play on the sculptures so I said aloud that if we were in my van I would have had a basketball in the back.  No sooner did those words come out of my mouth then one of the guides opened up his car trunk, took out a basketball, and came over to the sculpture to shoot some hoops. We chatted with him and I refrained from stealing the ball from him and scoring.

We left the sculpture and entered the woods.  The hike wasn't too bad except for the sun and heat. The scenery was pretty and I took quite a few pictures. We didn't really have a map to follow as the map stations were all empty so we sort of walked in a circle and didn't see as many sculptures as I would have liked, but it was a fun adventure.

Darcy's entry:

Today is Friday the 13th. This morning was just like yesterday's. We woke up late and didn't eat breakfast until 11:30. For breakfast we had biscuits and eggs. While we were eating I noticed a very BIG trail and group of ants! Kelly came over and sprayed glass cleaner all over the ants to kill them.

While we waited for the ants to die, Mom taught us (again) the family tree. We have a big family and apparently our family lacks the name Bob. But we have a Cockeye! Very confusing. Who picked that name? Not that I'm bagging on his name, I just find it interesting that in our large family we don't have a Bob. Thankfully, we don't have a Ben either! I REALLY dislike that name! I don't know why I dislike it, but I do.

Today we decided to go see the movie Brave. The movie was good, but very depressing. After the movie we decided to go to Target. We spent a couple of hours hanging out and Kelly was VERY happy when she found her wallet. After Target we headed home for a pizza and game night.

Kelly's entry:

I was reading the above entry and wondered why Darcy does not like the name Ben. There's Ben Franklin, one of our founding fathers. There's Ben Roethlisberger, QB of her fave football team, and Ben, son of John & Sharon. Seems odd that she would not like that name. I do agree that it's odd not to have a Bob in the family. Of course, when I think about it, I don't know of a Bob in my family either.

At the 100 Acre park yesterday was a huge sculpture that had swings hanging off it. These swings had heavy duty chains on them. The seats were roughly cut chunks of wood about 3 inches thick. All of us decided to swing. Cara joked about swinging high and then jumping out. Suddenly this seemed like a good idea to me. I announced I was going to jump out of the swing. I was not going high. Darcy, of course, had her Iphone camera ready (I would find out later). I readied myself and then jumped out on the forward swing. I landed on two feet, and for a brief moment, I was solid. Then immediately I realized I was falling backward. I fell right back onto my butt and then onto my back.

The second realization was that the heavy chunky swing seat was soon to return from the backward swing. The seat was low to the ground and I was lying right in its path. I put my head back onto the ground as quickly as I could think to do it. The swing missed my head. The observers had been too stunned by my fall to think to grab the swing. Darcy had captured some horribly embarassing photos of me. One in particular made me look like a roly poly turtle stuck on his back.

The important thing is that I was not injured...another reassurance of my youth and vitality. I did get some dirt and wood chips in my underwear though.

Cara's entry:

In reading back over the above entries I feel the need to clarify a few things:

1. We do have a Bob in the family.  In putting together the family tree (on a small amount of paper) I had some brain farts on a few names. I also may have forgotten a huge chunk of the family, one of them being my cousin Bob, who actually showed up at the family reunion and made me remember I had left off a chunk of family members. I quickly fixed that. I do not know of any Bens in the family, but I am horrified that Darcy doesn't like the name since she loves, absolutely LOVES, little Benjamin Carlisle.

2. I told Kelly not to jump out of the swing....multiple times. My goal for this trip has been to not visit any hospitals. Of course, my telling Kelly NOT to do something only made her more determined TO do it.

3. I was not a bit stunned at her falling, as I told her that is what would happen if she attempted to jump. I will, however, admit to being a tad slow in remembering the swing would return in time to hit her in the head. I think it came to me as I watched it coming back down toward her head, but I might have had a fleeting thought that a good jolt to the head might help her, thus delaying my actions. Luckily, I'm traveling with someone with quick thinking.

Out of the mouths of my babes

Susan: What time did these kids go to bed last night?

Me: "Darn late let me tell you. I was doing a lot of yelling down there last night."

Susan: "Well, someone kept turning on the hall light. I woke up and looked at the clock and it was 2:00 AM."

Me: "Yes, that would have been the girls."

Darcy: "That wasn't us."

Me: "Yes, it was."

Darcy: "No it wasn't because the last time we came upstairs was 1:59 AM."

From the Indiana travel journal - Day 1

Kelly's entry:

Observation of Indiana:  Many dead animals on the road, field after field of corn, highway we're on has speed limits ranging from 35 to 60 mph.  Cara has run two yellow lights so far.  Lots of griping about the electronics situation so far.  I don't want to hear it.  These girls have the rest of their lives to have their noses buried in a video game.  I am now suddenly as old as Cara, so I have even fewer years than I thought.  So these girls need to get on  the "family togetherness" wagon with big, joyful smiles on their faces... Their precious little faces...why do they have to grow up?

Madison's entry:

Two hours in the car and so far everything has gone well.  (Mommy, I know you will mention my handwriting.  Please remember we are in the moving car and have limited space back here.)  We just finished our Target run, and yes, I do mean run  (everyone please stop freaking out every time you can't find something within the first 20 seconds at searching for it) as we had several panicky moments in which my  mom couldn't find this or that, particularly this journal.  Anyway, I think we were all glad to get out and stretch for a few moments and now we are back in with renewed enthusiasm.  This can be seen as I'm now listening to Kelly and my mom try to rap along to a song with the creative title, Good Good.  Overall, the trip has been fun despite the electronics, and I am enjoying our family fun.

Darcy's entry:


I have now officially read Maddy's journal entry and I would like to comment that we had to persuade, no force, Maddy to take part in our "family fun".  We played the alphabet game.  At first it was loads of fun, but by the letter G it started getting old.  It was a VERY long game.  Eventually the game came to an end.  I happily went back to reading my favorite magazine.  I glanced up after reading a funny story and saw Maddy playing on her Nintendo DS...and ELECTRONIC!  I mentioned she was not suppose to be using electronics.  I know how bad it sounds, but if Cara, Kelly, and I are going electronics free then so is Maddy.  So me, being the big mouth I am, told Mom and Kelly.  They, however, did not make Maddy put away the electronics.  I EVENTUALLY let it go despite my efforts.

The car ride continued on and I read my magazine.  As I was reading, Kelly asked me to fetch her phone which had fallen underneath her seat.  Of course, my first response was about her using electronics, but I agreed to help her.  I got down and reached under the chair, but it was all black and un-see-able.  I told Kelly, "Uh, I can't see anything.  I need a flashlight."  Kelly simply replied, "I have a flashlight if you need one."  Then I remembered that I had a flashlight in my purse.  "Never mind," I said, "I have one!"

My mom piped up.  "Well, Maddy don't you think that is odd?  That Kelly and Darcy BOTH have flashlights on them?"  As I look back on this event now at 8:15 pm, according to Kelly  (and Wikipedia) if it has batteries it's electronic.  So I realize they truly let their guard down.  I got away with the use of electronics!  I'm bad.

Kelly's entry:

My concern about the limiting - not ban - on the use of electronics is the amount of time it takes away from group interaction.  I am not going to say anything else on this subject as I am being misunderstood.  Use electronics, play video games, tweet, text, use GPS; do what you want as long as you don't allow yourself to disengage for too long.  I enjoy your-alls' company.  Even then, I don't really have a say in what anyone does.

We finally arrived in Indianapolis and went to Kevin's house.  Tom called on Cara's phone while we were using it for directions.  There was a moment of indecision until Maddy pulled up directions on her phone.  We went out to dinner at Cancun Mexican restaurant.  The margaritas were good and potent.  The food was pretty good too.  Mom paid for us all.  Then it was back to Kevin's for cake.

Mom got a cake decorated with the outline of the state of Indiana.  Very cool.  Now we are at Mom's.  I am full and sleepy and ready for bed.  Think I will read and go to sleep.

Cara:

I rented the car in South Bend and drove to Indianapolis with no problems.  I felt good that I never felt stress and was very relaxed.  Welcome home!  We will be staying at Ann's house the next few days.  She lives in a beautiful house that is beautifully decorated with light, happy colors and lots of nice paintings and prints.

Tonight was fun at Kevin and Larry's house and the cake was so cute.  Ann  has given up her bedroom to Kelly and Darcy.  Madison and I are in the guest room.  We told her we had a blow up mattress to use, but she insisted she would sleep on the couch.  All in all, a good start to our Indiana vacation.

Animals we have encountered on our trip

 

This is Kelly's mother, Ann's cat.  The cat was previously owned and his name is Sox.  Ann told me though that she thinks the cat thinks his name is God Dammit because she is always saying to him, "God Dammit, stop it!  God Dammit, get out of the blinds!"  I thought this was hilarious and called him God Dammit during our time in Indy.

At the Elshoff Forest Retreat, the name we gave our accommodation in Evansville, had a mile long road that we drove on to get to the retreat.  A family of deer lived in the woods and ventured into the neighbor's corn for meals.  There were two babies with Bambi spots and two does.  We didn't see the bucks.

This gator lives at my cousin's house. He caught it in Florida, and despite being told that it lived in his house, I was not prepared when I turned the corner into his living room to come face to face with that! I admit I screamed.

 

This is Kevin and his partner, Larry's, little dog Edie.  She is the softest animal I have ever pet.

 

Driving to Bedford, IN we stopped for lunch in Orleans.  This little beauty was waiting for his master while he shopped.  A big Amish area.

This is little Ollie Pop! My niece's dog, Oliver. Our family finds him so tiny compared to our little Elliot.

My Aunt Lorene's chickens and the rooster wandered free in her yard. During the day they messed around in her dead flower garden and relaxed in the shade of an old parked mail truck.

Day 1 - travel from Florida to Indiana - Journal writings

12:35 PM - Cara's journal writings:

We are on the plane. For awhile there I wasn't sure we would make it. We arrived at the airport and hour and a half early to find a HUGE line to check-in. No kiosk check-in. Only two agents and two flights booked to leave 20 minutes of each other; Knoxville and South Bend. Now I will be honest and say that the last time I flew this airline I was on the flight that left first and I got to jump the line. This time, however, I was in the other line as Knoxville left first and so all the hundreds of people behind us got to jump in front of us. Which meant we had to stand, and stand, and stand, and suddenly I was transported back to that time at Universal Studios waiting in a line to be let in to watch a cast of teeny boppers sing. At least it wasn't raining.

Madison, Darcy and I are a row ahead and to the right of Kelly. We are behind the exits. The stewardess just had a talk with those seated in front of us about what to do in an emergency, which included removing the door and "chucking it on the wing of the plane". Or at least that's what I heard. She said she would need a verbal "yes" from all of them to know they were good with helping out. They all stared at her with blank stares so I piped up and said, "Maybe you should be asking the rest of us if we think they look like they could do the job." That got everyone to turn around and stare at me. I told them I was kidding. Jeez.

I did get a laugh as I made my way down the aisle upon entering the plane. I looked around at all of the faces staring ahead and said, "Knoxville! Anyone for Knoxville?" which was what we had just heard for the last hour. One guy started laughing. I told him I'd be here for the whole flight.

Darcy's journal writings:

I sit here in an aircraft writing to make my mom happy. Usually I write on my own, but this vacation is about family (and no electronics). I'm in the airplane now and my ears are popping and I'm quite hungry. Luckily the air people are coming around with drinks and food. My wonderful mom is buying me some M&M's and a drink. I sit here patiently waiting as my mom pays the lady.

Now that I have my delightful drink and food I feel a little better. I can't wait until we finally land because nothing excites me more than a 3 hour drive in a rental car...with no electronics. Kelly really wants us to play cards on the road, but I'm questioning her intent at "family fun". My mom has to drive so technically it's not a "complete family" activity. Maddy and I seem to be on the same page as a whole car ride with nothing to do will be endless, but by all means when were not stuck in a car electronics are COMPLETELY allowed.

The plane just started to lean forward and now I have to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately, the seatbelt sign is still on. I question if the seatbelt sign will ever come off or will I have to wear yellow shorts instead of white ones!

Madison's writings:

It is cold on the plane.

Indiana update 2

The travel journal has been written in at various times and will be shared soon. In the meantime I now have Wifi access and shall try to get back to daily blogging. Maybe I'll be savoy enough to add photos!

Being in charge of the rental car and the driving has given me some confidence. I've never rented a car before and I found it so stress-free. I never worried about car trouble and just enjoyed all the driving through Indiana that we did. If it weren't so expensive I rent cars all the time!

I've always traveled with either a parent or husband in charge so I was apprehensive about this trip before I left. I told myself it was a great opportunity, and I did find that I could relax. Having Kelly as my partner in crime has been wonderful. She is adventurous, adapts well to any situation, jumps in to help with the girls, and is a great car secretary; texting for me, keeping me hydrated, and navigating. I also think knowing my way around Indiana and most of the places we visited was a help in everything too.

We are now on the last leg of our journey. We have eaten our way through Indiana on our way here so we think perhaps we will add in some exercise on this leg. The rental car has been returned and driving duties now fall to my SIS Susan. She has many things in store for all of us so stay tuned!

Email funny

Thanks to my two neighbors who don't pay attention to the list of forwarded names and who both send me the same emails daily!

How Children perceive their grandparents.

1. My grandson called the other day to wish me a happy birthday, and when I told him I was 62 years old he was quiet for a moment.  Then he asked, "Did you start at 1?"
2. After putting her grandchildren to bed, the grandmother changed into a ratty old robe, washed and curled her hair and covered it with a plastic shower cap, and then rubbed a white mask on to her face.  Hearing her grandchildren getting more rambunctious in the bedroom, her patience grew thin and she stormed into their room and gave them stern warnings.  As she left the room she heard the three year old ask in a trembling voice, "Who was THAT?"
3. A grandmother was telling her granddaughter about her own childhood.  "We use to skate outside on our pond in the winter."  "I had a swing made from a tire that hung from our apple tree in the front yard.  "We rode our pony into the woods and picked wild raspberries."  The little girl was wide-eyed, taking it all in, and at last sighed and said, "I sure wish I had gotten to know you sooner!"
4. His granddaughter was diligently pounding away on his computer when he asked her what she was doing.  She told him she was writing a story.  Her grandfather asked her what the story was about and she shrugged.  "I don't know.  I can't read yet."
5. A grandmother was quizzing her granddaughter on colors.  She would point to an object in the room and ask what color it was.  The granddaughter responded correctly each time, and the grandmother was having fun.  She pointed at her red sofa and asked what color it was.  The granddaughter looked at her, headed for the door, and said, "Grandma, I think you should try and figure out some of these colors on your own."
6. A grandfather and his grandson were entering their vacation cabin.  The grandfather told him not to turn on the lights so as to keep the pesky insects from coming in.  They loaded everything inside, but still a few fireflies entered behind them.  The grandson whispered, "It's no use Grandpa.  The mosquitoes are coming after us with flashlights."
7. My grandson asked me how old I was and I teasingly told him I wasn't sure.  "Look in your underwear, Grandpa," he advised me.  "Mine says I'm 4 to 6."
8. A six year old was asked where his grandma lived.  "Oh, she lives at the airport," he said.  "When we want her we just go and get her and when we are done with her we take her back to the airport."

Quick Indiana vacation update

We are right now on the third leg of our journey through Indiana. Our accommodation is a 4,200+ sq. foot forest retreat. Some information we found told us we can "watch the deer across the lake and the red-tailed hawks circle overhead or sit on the deck at night and count the stars." I haven't seen the mentioned wildlife, but the stars from the upper third story deck were amazing.

Hotter here then Florida. Snakes were spotted this past weekend so we are opting not to swim in the lake that comes with our forest retreat.

We will hike the trail outside our front porch at dusk when the weather isn't as hot. Yesterday we spent a couple of hours at the local donut shop to eat donuts, drink coffee, and use their free wifi, something we haven't had yet on the entire trip. Unfortunately for us, Madison didn't hear that part and left the laptop back at our retreat. We tried to make do with phones and IPads, but had more trouble than it was worth.

The retreat, besides having over 150 different rooms, has intercoms everywhere so that we can communicate with each other no matter where we are. This morning we each took turns announcing various activities for the guests at the Elshoff Forest Retreat, although Kelly pretended we were all on the Love Boat. A lot if hilarity. Who knew how much entertainment a system like this could bring!

The bedding accommodations have been less than satisfactory, but with some changing of beds at various times during the night we managed to sleep. It is all an adventure and we refuse to let anything unsettle us.

New England trip 1989 - Part V

From Cara's memories + information from hostel books + few markings on memorabilia collected

I remember Trish telling us the story in the basement (not the kitchen) and she told us the building had once been a place to hold prisoners and she showed us some iron rings cemented in the wall.  I remembering then having to take a shower down in the basement after that story.  But in trying to research this hostel I found absolutely nothing but the names of the people who once ran it.  Kind of sad as I'm interested in it now more so than back then.

We left the hostel the next day and drove back to Armenia, NY to the Kildonan School to visit my friend Peter.  He was severely dyslexic and this boarding school is one of the best in the country.  Pete told us that Tom Cruise once attended there, but that he was now the most famous person.  Pete thought a lot of himself back then.  I remember picking him up in an area and driving around the school while he told us stories.  He showed us the town and then took us to a place for dinner.  We dropped him back at his dorm and went...to New Palz I believe as that is where we have marked our mileage at 74026.

The next day we were in Schenectady to drop off Maya at a classmate's house.  This family was to get her back to Syracuse so that we could continue on with our adventures.  We were sad to leave Maya, but promised to write to her of all the adventures she would be missing out on to get a school room/book education.  Pfft.

Our next stop was in Rochester, Vermont at the Schoolhouse Hostel, which no longer exists as well.  I have no memory about this place except that when we arrived the group from Seattle, the milk thieves, was also there.  We arrived there on Tuesday, October 10, 1989 and our mileage was 74274.  I do have a photo!

The thing about the hostels is that they were very cheap to stay in.  The first hostel was $7.00 for each of us a night.  This one too was $7.00.  You had use of the kitchen, but you had to bring your own food and had to clean up after yourself.  In the morning after breakfast the house manager assigned each person a cleaning chore as a way of giving back to the hostel.  I want to say that in this hostel we had to wipe down the mattresses.  A lot of it was cleaning and mopping of floors and kitchens.

Kim and I were traveling on the cheap and so most nights our dinner consisted of Kraft Marconi & Cheese and Kielbasa sausage that we fried up with butter in a pan.  Al K. and the ladies were horrified at our cuisine, and once they found out that our next hostel stop was in Stowe at the same place the group invited us to their table. We looked forward to seeing familiar faces and enjoying a decent meal.

The next day was a very adventurous one.  We first went into Montpelier and toured the Capitol building.  My little information in the book I made after the trip says that Montpelier is "a center for the insurance and granite-quarrying industries".  The State Capitol was built of "Barre granite in an impressive Doric style."  Which, of course, you can see from the photo below:

From there we traveled to Stowe to visit the Trapp Family Lodge.  Stowe is the city that the von Trapp family settled in after escaping the Nazi's in Austria.  They settled on this piece of property, built a 27 room house, and eventually started taking in guests.  The place burned down in 1980 and was replaced with the 96 room lodge that we visited.

We went inside and wandered around, but I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't the original home.  There is a lot of memorabilia from their life as well as their story.  Maria never cared much for the film and the truth was much different than the movie.  An illusion shattered.

The weather was cold as we headed to our next hostel, which was actually a ski dorm.  Because it wasn't quite skiing weather yet there weren't as many people there as they usually have.  It was a bigger place than our last two.  We got there before the group from Seattle.  Our cost was $6.00 for the night.  There were a few bikers, but the place was quiet until the group from Seattle arrived.  They too had been to the places we had visited that day and we were all surprised that we hadn't run into each other.

The Mountaineer Hiking Group from Seattle did not disappoint us in the meal area.  We all were given tasks in preparing this huge turkey dinner, and the women were trying to give us lessons in cooking.  In the end Kim learned how to carve a turkey from Al (or did she?).

Pic
Pic
Pic

We weren't the only invited guests that night.  A young, cute French biker named Gregoire was also at our table.  He spoke English, but with a heavy accent and was hard to understand at times.  Later after the dishes and the kitchen had been cleaned up, Al, Kim, Gregoire and I played cards and talked.  We taught Gregoire several card games and he taught us some French words.  I forget why he was here in the first place, but we enjoyed getting to know him.

New England Vacation 1989 - Part IV

From Cara's Journal:

• Sunday, 10/8/89 - Youth Hostel - Litchfield, Connecticut

We were  awakened this morning by the group from Seattle as they packed their van to leave.  All 12 of them were screaming and laughing and carrying on.  Maya and I went back to sleep, but everyone else got up.  At about 9:00 AM we couldn't take the noise from everyone else and we got up.  The lady under Maya, and her friend who slept under Kim (she was from New Zealand), came into the bunkhouse.  This lady looked about 75 years old.  She says to me, while Maya is in the bathroom, "Having a Sunday sleep-in?"

I didn't want to let her know that my Sunday sleep-in meant sleeping until almost noon and than reading the paper until about 1:00 PM.  Instead I smiled.  Then she pipes up with, "Boy, these beds certainly shake.  Was that you over me last night?"  I told her no but explained about the bunks being hooked together and all.  She didn't give a damn and walked outside.  Oops.

We were greeted this morning with the fact that the group from Seattle stole our milk which we had purchased yesterday and never opened.  Kim bought more and she and Maya consumed lots of boxes of cereal.  (When staying at hostels you are responsible for the purchasing and preparing of your own meals)  I had a box, but these two?  They were little pigs and ate like we hadn't eaten for days.

We were the only ones left in the hostel by now and we left at 10:00 AM for Hartford.  Before we left, however, Trish let us move our belongings into the house and bunks inside.  There is something to be said for late risers. We went into Hartford and toured Nook Farms.  It was an intellectual and literary neighborhood where Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain lived.

We toured both their houses.  It took about two and a half hours and was great.  Well worth the bucks.  The neighborhood was started in the late 1800's by two brother-in-laws who purchased the 140 acre woods to develop into a community.  Over the years it became a community of reformers and activists.  There were politicians, painters, writers, feminists, and spiritualists.  The Clemens (aka Twains) moved into the neighborhood to live near their friends the Stowe's.  Twain wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in this house.

In the home of Harriet Beecher Stowe we learned about her life as the sixth of eleven children.  I haven't read Uncle Tom's Cabin, but I shall add it to my list to do so as she seemed an interesting woman, especially for her time.

From here we traveled to tour the Lourdes in Litchfield, a shrine modeled after the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France.  Why not get a bit of European history here in America?  It was 35 acres and included a grotto, stations of the cross, several small shrines and a pilgrim hall.

The grounds were very beautiful, full of the fall colors and blooming trees.  We spent some time wandering around and then decided to take the walk of the cross.  This was a steep hike up, up, up the hillside, and as we passed some of the people hiking, many of them were praying and carrying rosaries in their hands.  I was too busy remembering to breath to do any praying, but the view from the top was gorgeous.

We ate lunch at a Subway where the boy behind the counter used his bare hands to make the sandwiches, and then we headed back to the hostel.  It was only 4:15 when we got back so Maya and I decided to take the hike that was behind the hostel.  We had been told that there was a 360 degree turn that showed a spectacular view of Connecticut countryside and that the trail was three miles long.  Kim chose not to go so we left her behind and started out.

The trail was called the Apple Hill Trail and it had been traveled quite a bit judging from the well worn path.  Being the expert hikers that Maya and I are, we figured that if we got off this path the view would be up over this hill to our left.  We found what we thought looked like a path and we took it.  We climbed over barbed wire and found ourselves at the bottom of a huge hill.  It looked exactly like the hill that Julie Andrews starts out on in the beginning of The Sound of Music.  It was huge and I thought I would never get up the thing.  Maya ran up it to show-off, and I let her.  She needs the exercise to climb up and down those 112 steps at Syracuse.

Sure enough at the top of the hill we found a spectacular view.  There was a wooden tower you could climb up to see the view, and it was a view to see.  We also could see the path that we should have taken to get here.

We left down that path.  The grass was very high and the going rough.  We came to the path we had been on earlier, and I chose to keep going.  We did and we came to a fork in the road.  A sign said, "Apple Hill Trail" with an arrow to the left and "Laurel Hill" with an arrow to the right.  At this point Maya began quoting Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken.  I decided, however, to take the more traveled one as I preferred the name Apple Hill Trail.  We trudge on for awhile until we came to the bottom of a huge hill just like the one Julie Andrews sand on in the beginning of The Sound of Music.  Yep.  That's right.  We had gone in a circle.  I guess Robert Frost knew what he was talking about.  Maya kept saying, "I told you so!" and quoted the poem over and over.  I told her that Connie would be proud of us hiking through the countryside quoting Robert Frost.

We finally made it back to the hostel to find Kim had tried to follow us, couldn't find us, had tripped and fallen, and then given up on the damn hike.  She sat in the car since the hostel didn't open until 5:00 PM.  She didn't think she had missed much.  We told her she had.

• 9:00 PM - Youth Hostel

We have all gathered around the kitchen table to hear Trish speak.  Her topic is the history of the building we are in at the moment.  One of our biker friends (most of the people traveling through youth hostels are bikers, which makes us feel very unhealthy as we pass them in our car) Mary Ann, had asked her about it earlier, but Trish said, "Yeah.  Could you wait until later when everybody is here?  I don't want to have to repeat it 80 times."  Okay, a slight exaggeration as there aren't 80 beds in this hostel.

It turned out though that the hostel was full, all the beds were filled.  Luckily, we were inside tonight as it was freezing once more in Connecticut.

***And that is the end of my journal.  I shall have to continue on with my poor memory and photos in the next phase, which will have to be done when I return as my scanner has now broken and ended my tale, so to speak.

New England Trip - Part III

From Cara's Journal - Saturday, 10/7/89 - mileage 736?? - 9:00 AM - Albany, NY

We've had a great night's sleep in our expensive bedroom with the leaky bathroom faucet and the furnace that heats up the room to 100 degrees, and we are now ready for more adventure.  As usual Kim is the driver and she is heading to Amenia, NY.  Although Pete (a summer co-worker of mine who attends boarding school here) won't be thee we thought we could get a look at the school so we aren't wasting time on Monday driving around.  We've eaten at a coffee shop in a service area and made our potty runs so we won't have to stop again.  We should be Amenia in about 30 minutes.

mileage 73920 - 5:00 PM - Litchfield, Connecticut - Bantam Youth Hostel
We have now come to our last stop for the night.  The trip here was full of the adventure we'd been seeking.  Amenia is another small, quaint (and I stress the word small, no AAA pop) town.  There is a hotel but for three people we would have to rent two rooms at $35 each.  I believe it is the only hotel here, but that isn't a problem as we are planning on staying in New Paltz Monday after dinner with Pete.  We found the Kildonan School that he attends, and we drove around, parking once to walk.  It is confusing because the school is so spread out over so much territory, and we didn't know what was what.  We did find the lacrosse field and I took pictures in case they lock Pete up and we can't see him.  I can at least show him pictures to prove we were there.

We left Amenia and spent the next several hours searching for our youth hostel.  Once again we had not eaten since breakfast and tempers were coming to the boiling point.  We all have different temperaments - Kim gets cranky, Maya gets whiny, and I just start fading.  We tried to the follow the map in our hostel book, but we were getting nowhere fast.  We finally stopped at a tag sale (we don't know what these are, but Connecticut has lots of them) and asked an elderly couple for directions.  Here is the conversation:

Kim:  "Excuse me?  Could you tell me where the AYH is please?  Do you know?"

Man:  "Youth Hostel?"

Woman:  "Oh, you know Fred, it's right by Hazel's house."

Man:  "Hazel's?"

Woman:  "Yes.  Right there by Hazel's"

Me: (whispering)  "Ask them where the hell Hazel lives!"

Man:  "Oh, yeah, down my Hazel's!  You need to go out here and turn left.  Then turn at the first street on the left and the place is on your right a bit up the road."

Kim:  "Ok thank you."

Woman:  "It's down past Harrison's lumber."

Me:  "Thank you."

Kim:  "Okay, thank you."

Maya: (snoring) as she slept through the entire conversation

We followed the directions a few miles down the road and then a few more miles down the road until we finally pulled in at Popeye's Ice Cream Place and asked for directions.  The kid who gave us the directions lived next door to the hostel (he might have been Hazel's son for all that I know) and he promised his directions would get us there.  They did and we were dismayed to see that we had driven past the sign about four times.

When we started on this vacation the plan was to stay in American Youth Hostels.  Kim had had some experience with them and her mother helped us get a membership.  Our information about hostels told us:  they are supervised by resident hostel managers; they are located near many attractions; they have common rooms to meet new friends; they have kitchens to cook in; they have mattresses, pillows, and some have blankets.  We brought along bedding just in case.

The hostel manager running the Bantam Lake Youth Hostel, was named Trish, and she was a ding-dong.  She was very nice, friendly, and good at her job, but what a ditz!  We were put into the bunkhouse (where the heat wasn't working) in a sparse, cold, dusty, cobwebbed room with five bunk beds.  Maya and I weren't sure if we were in the army or a concentration camp; however, we chose the former as there was toilet paper in the cold, dusty, sparse bathroom.  We have been promised a room inside the house tomorrow as we are booked for two nights here.  There is a group from Seattle here, ten women and one man in their 60's and they leave tomorrow so we get their room.  The hostel has a sitting room, a kitchen, a dining area, and a huge basement that looks like Dr. Frankenstein's headquarters.  The shower is located in the deepest depths of the basement.  Good thing I got in that 45 minute one yesterday.  It doesn't look like this place will have hot water either so I just may have to forgo the shower tonight. (Oh, I hear gasps!)

We have met a few of the people from Washington.  Their leader is a man from Boston.  His name is Al Kenney and he is very friendly.  The ladies are in the kitchen cooking this huge meal and Al told us that they do this every night.  He said it's like having eleven grandmothers.  After dinner Al played cards with us until 10:00 pm.  We taught him how to play Euchre and he had beginners luck, winning every game.  Maya didn't know how to play either so it made the teams even.  It was a nice first evening...that was until we stepped outside on the way to the bunkhouse.  Bitter cold!  We froze just walking the three steps to the bunkhouse so you can imagine how it was inside.

We had a heater that plugged into an outlet, but the only outlet was in the light socket above our bunks and it already had the fire alarm plugged in to it.  I could just see the damn heater catching on fire and we wouldn't be warned in time because we unplugged the smoke alarm.  Lucky for us, the decision had already been made for us.  One of the ladies sharing our room had plugged in the heater.

When we had been choosing our bunks earlier in the day Maya made the statement that "heat rises" so we all chose the upper bunks.  Unfortunately two women bikers had the bunk the farthest from the door so we were left with the ones directly next to the door, which was broken and wouldn't close all the way.  Kim was against the wall that the door was on, and I was in the bunk right near the door.  We put Maya the farthest away because she had this horrible hacking cough and we didn't think she should be exposed to the clean, cold Connecticut air.

Lights out at 10:30 PM in this hostel so we traipsed over at about 10:20.  Of course everyone was already in their bunks and sound asleep.  Al was also staying in our bunkhouse and he hopped in bed and was out right away.  We messed around in the bathroom, hopping around to keep our blood circulating and giggling.  Finally we knew the time had come and we would have to sleep.   Kim and Maya had women sleeping under their bunks so we had to hoist Kim into her bunk so not to disturb or step on the women below her.  She climbed into her sleeping bag and was out.  I climbed into my bunk, told Maya to turn out the light, and then told her to climb into my bunk to then crawl over to her bunk.  She followed these instructions only she climbed on top of me to get to her bunk; lots of laughter not to mention jostling and jiggling of the beds.  These bunk beds were put together with thin metal tubing that would bend if a rock was thrown directly at it.  If you sighed the entire bed shook.  Maya's bunk and my bunk were hooked together so that every time I moved, Maya's entire bunk moved and vice versa.  The women below Kim and Maya never moved.  I thought they were both dead, frozen, since they never moved, and Maya and I were moving every 15 minutes while we tried to fall asleep.  This made us laugh even harder into our pillows, the beds shaking.  Maya coughed.  The beds shook.  I blew my nose.  The beds shook.  It was a riot, but we finally calmed down and tried to sleep.  We couldn't and we couldn't talk either so we wrote plots in our heads.  Then Maya had to tell me her plot and we got to laughing again and the beds shook.  We just couldn't win.

We decided we really had to try our best to sleep.  I was lying awake thinking, and I kept hearing this scratching noise.  I was sure it was Maya tapping her hands or scratching the mattress trying to make me laugh.  I ignored her, determined not to laugh.  Suddenly Maya says out loud, “What the hell is that noise?”  I burst out laughing because I had thought it was her!  We listened and I leaned over to listen to the woman under her bunk.  Sure enough it was coming from her.   She wasn’t frozen dead!  She was making this weird snoring noise that sounded like she was taking in air and then puffing it out.  I was sure her cheeks were full of air as she puffed out because it was such a loud noise.  I got to laughing so hard that I started crying, and Maya couldn’t understand what I was saying.  Then the lady started coughing and wheezing and chomping her lips together.  She was so loud that Maya started shaking the bed on purpose so that she would wake up and stop it.  I’m amazed we even got to sleep.  We can hardly wait until tomorrow night