We're on the Move....

Lots of lovely stone walls in Stafford Springs, CT

It's great to be retired. Periodically we pack up our camper and head out on the open road to explore. Sometimes we take grandchildren and sometimes we are off on our own. Last year we planned to go to Nova Scotia, but our bees weren't doing well and we stayed home to feed them several times a week to make sure they had enough food to get through the winter.

This year, they are thriving and we decided to let them fend for themselves for a month. So we are out and about -- praying many rosaries in the car as we drive or walk in the woods or sit on a park bench and just watch the world go by.

Take a Hike

Oh the things that you'll see and the people you'll meet,
If you just take a stroll on a U.S. Main St.
(Or off the beaten track.)

Check it out here....

We Thank You, Lord, for the Fruit of the Vine

Read about our wine adventure here. 

Silence

Larry and I have been traveling now for three weeks. We've visited eleven states and driven about 3600 miles. When we left home we loaded the car with books on tape and music CDs. Amazingly, we haven't listened to a single one. We haven't listened to the radio either. One of the great gifts of this trip has been silence.

Our world is so noisy. Screwtape wrote to Wormwood that hell was all noise. When I see people plugged into their iPods and on their cell phones before they get out of the driveway, and with stereos blaring... I think of Screwtape. Our world needs more silence. Larry and I have talked through the miles, prayed many rosaries for the intentions of family and friends, and just soaked in the glory of this beautiful country in silence. Who needs artificial noise when the glorious symphony of God's world is playing out before you through the windshield. I hope when we get home in a few weeks we can maintain this appreciation of this great gift of silence.

Listening to Mark Twain travelogues while travelling

When my husband and I travel we enjoy listening to books on tape. Two of my favorites have been travelogues by an author I love, Mark Twain. Two years ago on a trip to Texas we listened to Life on the Mississippi. Passing through Memphis, we decided to stop at Mud Island which has a model of the mighty Mississip. Only one problem. It was January and the park didn't open until Spring. We passed through Memphis again today on our way home from Texas and tried again -- two weeks too early. The island doesn't open until April 12. A big sigh of disappointment again. But perhaps we'll plan a visit sometime when it's sure to be open and refresh our memories by listening again to Twain's adventure as a riverboat pilot with all the colorful descriptions of the river and the many interesting characters who populated his river world.

We are coming to the final leg of another Texas trip (we make them once or twice a year because we have two children in Texas, in Houston and Austin). On this visit we've been listening to Roughing It, Twain's description of his seven years in the wild west. He started out as an unpaid secretary to his brother who was secretary to the Governor of the Nevada territory, but his further adventures took him to the silver mines and a series of disappointing excavations along with some near-death adventures. Then he was offered a job as a reporter which probably began his literary career. The book begins with the journey form St. Louis, MO up river to St. Joseph and from their by stagecoach on the nearly three-week trip to Nevada. The stage changed teams every ten miles at stations along the way and took 19 days to make the trip. We cover in a few hours what took those travellers days. But, oh how much we miss as we hurry through the world.

To hear Twain describe the jackass rabbit, the coyote, the sage grass, the coach driver and his assistant (called the conductor), Lake Tahoe, Virginia City, etc. is entertaining and fascinating. I think Mark Twain could make ai riveting story out of buttoning up his coat. He did at one point describe a desperado who had it in for a man and bragged that he could take out the third button on his jacket from a distance. He did and dispatched his victim at the same time. Twain shares many stories of the rough life of the 19th century west. And the only boring part of the tale is his several chapters reading excerpts from the Book of Mormon which he debunks as a shameless theft from the Bible with many repetitions of "It came to pass" and other phrases added to make it sound archaic. His imaginative conversation with Brigham Young complaining about his large family with wives (identified by number) who all want a stick pin because he gave one to number six, is hilarious.

So if you are off on a trip and looking for an enjoyable companion take along Mark Twain. I guarantee the miles go faster with such a passenger.

Almost Heaven - Western Virginia

My husband and I visited the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, VA today. If you have never traveled to the Valley you are missing one of the great beauty spots of the nation. Every morning I thank God for the gift of living in this natural paradise.

We may not have the fanciest restaurants, skyscrapers or the highest mountains in the country. What we do have are the rolling hills and farmlands dotted with cattle stretching out to the Appalachians on the east and the Alleghenys to the west, hiking trails through hardwood and conifer forests, the blue ridge shimmering in the mist, the winding bends of the Shenandoah River meandering between grassy banks or flowing over rocky outcrops, the pink and white mountain laurel in the Spring and the scarlet maples in the Fall. What a wonderland for landscape painters and nature lovers.

The Museum tells the story of the land and the people with exhibits and interactive computer screens. You can watch a grandfather teach his grandson how to hand-harvest the wheat or see a group admiring the earliest mechanical reapers that let one or two men do the work of fifteen or twenty. You can see topographical maps that show the famous Seven Bends of the Shenandoah River and let you trace the route of the Old Valley Pike travelled by Stonewall Jackson's foot cavalry.

There is a room filled with miniatures to delight the little girl who loves doll houses and life size replicas of the Valley farm kitchens. You can listen to the stories of real Valley people and watch a film about Sheridan's burning of the Valley as winter was coming on. Until May the museum is featuring an exhibit of the amazing maps made by self-taught surveyor and map-maker Jedediah Hotchkiss, who provided General Jackson such accurate maps that "old Jack" attributed much of his battlefield success to them. In fact Hotchkiss drew maps so accurate using simple calculations that they rival the most sophisticated satellite maps of today.

Yes, the museum and the Valley are worth a visit and Valley people are among the friendliest you'll meet. So y'all come - Virginia is for lovers of God's green earth and one of the prettiest places in Virginia is here in the Shenandoah Valley.