Thursday, September 27, 2007
Long overdue post!
Howdy folks! I know, I know ... this blog post is long overdue. I have gotten e-mail from several of you telling me that these posts have been missed. I didn't realize anyone ever looked at this blog. :-) Thank you!!
First and foremost ... I am here in Colorado - have been here for about two and a half weeks. I spent the first (almost) week up at the Bartons' cabin in the mountains ... it was a wonderfully refreshing way to end a long road trip and to be welcomed into my new home state. Immediately after coming back to Colorado Springs (technically Monument) from the mountains, I plunged into the job search full force. I'm still working on that, but am positive and encouraged that the Lord will work all these things out.
I'll write more about Colorado at a later date. I wanted to tell you a bit about my trip west. It was a fabulous road trip. And, really, when I get a job that doesn't have a two month break every summer, I may not be able to make another grand scale road trip again ... at least not for quite a long time. And, while I type this, I'll include some small versions of some of the photos that I took while I was driving.
I believe that I already wrote about New York and New Orleans and Texas, but skipped a bunch of stuff in between DC and NO and TX and CO. SOOoooo ... I'll go back to the beginning.
First of all, you know that I had the opportunity to spend several days with my brothers' family, and was super-extra fortunate to spend three days babysitting my three nephews while my brother and his wife celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary by taking a trip through the Central New York wine country. That time with those beautiful, wonderful boys was very special to me.
From my brother's home, I then spent a week with my mom in the Buffalo area. She was in the process of getting ready to move (both of us at the same time!), so we spent some time working on some of the things that she needed to do to get the move under way. She's moving into a beautiful apartment in a wonderful building. I think that we're all rather happy with this transition in her life (although transition is always a bit painful, right?). Anyway - we were able to spend a day down at Chautauqua Lake, which is one of my mom's favorite spots. We took a ride on the "Chautauqua Belle", which is an old steamboat that does tours of the lake. The photo with the clock tower is from the Chautauqua Institute, which the Belle passes by at noon to hear the bells play a melody. After our ride on the Belle, we met a photographer friend of mine who lives in Jamestown for lunch. It was a lovely day for a drive and a boat ride and lunch with a friend.
While in Western New York, I also had the opportunity to catch up with my best friend and her family. Her husband owns a boat that he docks on the Niagara River, and they are often gracious when I visit and take me for boat rides (can you tell ... I love boat rides!) This time we went down to Lake Erie and along the Buffalo skyline. If you're not familiar with the Buffalo skyline, that building that is rounded at the top is City Hall. Buffalo has a wonderful waterfront. If you're ever in Western New York (say, to visit Niagara Falls), you might want to spend an afternoon walking the Buffalo waterfront ... have an ice cream, and then go to a show at Shea's.
Well, from my mom's house, I drove due South. Now, I will alert you right now that I didn't take any sort of direct route to get from DC to Colorado. Just keep reading. :-) Anyway, from Buffalo, I decided to take route 219 through Pennsylvania and into West Virginia, through the mountains, and into the Southwestern part of Virginia. It was a gorgeous drive on mostly empty roads. My goal was to eliminate interstate driving between DC and Colorado ... unless it was obviously ridiculous to do so. And I was quite successful. I spent that night with a former colleague in Southwest VA.I want to add that while I was driving through Pennsylvania, I saw a sign that indicated that I was only about 30 miles from the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, PA. I simply had to stop there. It is a temporary memorial, about 200 yards from the actual spot where the plane went down. They are currently planning to put a permanent memorial on the spot. It is definitely a stop that I highly recommend for all Americans!
Upon leaving Southwest Virginia, I drove a significant chunk of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's a road that I've never taken before, and it was beautiful. It is somewhat similar to Skyline Drive (I believe that they are connected) which is about 2 hours from the DC area. It's a gorgeous drive.From the Blue Ridge Parkway, I stopped to see friends who recently moved to Knoxville, TN. They are currently working on building a lovely home just outside of Knoxville. They took me to see the progress on their home so far. They've got a lovely lot that overlooks a gorgeous valley. It was great to catch up with them.
When I left Knoxville, I changed my plans. Originally, I had planned to drive through Tennessee on back roads and then to work my way through Arkansas and then south from there. But I have always wanted to drive the Natchez Trace. The Trace starts in Nashville, TN, and I made a spur of the moment decision to drive it. Well, talk about a beautiful drive. The Natchez Trace is gorgeous. And I didn't find much traffic, and the road is very easy. I would imagine that it would be a fabulous option for driving from Nashville to either Tupelo, Mississippi or Jackson, Mississippi or even New Orleans. The photo you see here is from a small swamp area (the trees are cypress) in one section of the Trace.
Well, as I got to about Jackson, the rain got very bad, and didn't look like it was going to let up, so I detoured to the Interstate and went straight into New Orleans. As I typed a few posts ago, the drive into New Orleans was rather emotional and upsetting. The next morning, I spent several hours wandering the French Quarter. I saw Preservation Hall, ate beniet, and took a bunch of photos. From the city of New Orleans, I met up with another photographer friend who lives north of the city on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain.From Louisiana, I headed west toward Houston. I had lunch with even more photographer friends who live near Houston, and then continued on to stay with some friends from Buffalo for several days. He recently got a job as a pastor of a new church in a Houston suburb, and I had the opportunity to hear him preach and to meet many of their church friends. They also have four young children, so we all had a great time.
I've already typed quite a bit about Texas (see a post or two ago), so I won't get too much into the culture of the place. :-) From Houston, I went to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. I visited two different couples who have recently moved to that area from Virginia. We did some small town Texas shopping (I think I'll need to go back to the Granbury, TX town square). And the following day, I visited downtown Dallas ... just to walk around and take photos. Then, that night, I was taken on a small plane flight over Dallas with one of my friends who recently earned his pilot's license. We saw Dallas from the sky at night, and it was just grand!
From Dallas/Ft. Worth I traveled north into Oklahoma. I have always wanted to see the Oklahoma City Memorial. This tribute to the victims of the 1995 bombing would rival the memorials in Washington, DC for sure! I spent quite a few hours wandering the gardens and along the reflecting pool and the streets immediately surrounding the Memorial to try and truly understand. I don't believe that understanding is possible.While in Oklahoma City, I had the opportunity to meet another one of my photographer friends. He is also a pastor of a church in the outskirts of Oklahoma City, and since it was Sunday, I also attended his church and heard him preach.
From Oklahoma I drove west toward (but not as far as) Albuquerque. From New Mexico north into Colorado Springs ... and my new home town.
It was a fabulous summer, a wonderful road trip, and a great chance to spend time with friends and to see many parts of this amazing country.
I will promise to be better about posting to my blog. Promise!!
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Testing
Ignore this post
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
I'm here!
Just a very quick post to say that I arrived safely this afternoon ... and will be gone again for a few days (hanging out in the mountains, out of reach of internet or cell phone). I'll post again next week. In the meantime, go back and read about Texas in the previous post! :-)
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Lone Star State
Well, I suppose that my descriptions of this trip will be out of order as I blog about them. So, you'll eventually hear about New York and Pennsylvania and Mississippi and Oklahoma and New Mexico ... but right now I'm going to talk about Texas.
I have never been to Texas before. And I have to say that one doesn't "visit" Texas. One "experiences" Texas. It's amazing to me. There has always been that stereotype that "everything's bigger in Texas" ... and that people from Texas think that being from Texas is the most important thing.
Well, I have never been somewhere where there was such an enormous sense of place. Denmark certainly comes close ... the Danes really love their queen! But the love of Texas that Texans have is unlike anything I've ever seen before. First of all, I have been to lots of states in the U.S., and none of them have their state flag everywhere. I mean everywhere! The flag is flying on a flagpole in front of many homes and most buildings (often where there is no U.S. flag next to it!) ... but it is also found painted or worked into designs on just about everything you might care to look at ... the sides of buildings, the backs of T-shirts worn as uniforms in restaurants, and just about anything that you can purchase in any store in the entire state. AND, if you aren't looking at a gazillion state flags plastered everywhere, you see the Lone Star symbol worked in. I even saw (was pointed out to them) Lone Star emblems on all of the bridges/overpasses that I payed attention to on the interstates around Dallas. Amazing!
Some more intersting things about Texas. As soon as I crossed the state line from Louisiana into Texas, I noticed that I was just about the ONLY person on the road NOT driving a pick up truck ... and the grand majority of those Texans' pickup trucks are white. And, if a Texan doesn't have a pickup truck, they drive a HUGE SUV, like a Suburban or something similar. Wild. And I drive a little car. Talk about feeling like a ladybug in an elephant's world!
Texans ALL know the details of the history of the state of Texas. I have to admit that I know just about SQUAT about the history of the state of New York, or even the Buffalo area. (But I can sing the Erie Canal song!) Likewise for Virginia where I lived for 11 years. And I have to also admit that I only watched the movie "The Alamo" about a year ago, and there were several things that were news to me: Davy Crockett was a real person! Who knew!? And I finally put it together that it's not a coincidence that Sam Houston played an important part in Texas history and there is a city in Texas named Houston. (Duh!) And I have been informed that it's not a good thing to admit that you don't know what the Travis Letter is. Click here if you aren't sure about the Travis Letter either. LOL!
Finally, I must add that I really enjoyed driving around the state. Yes, there are more bugs in the Houston area than on the entire rest of the face of the earth ... and yes, there are parts of Texas that are more hot and humid than ought to be allowed. But the scenery is very interesting and different than much of what I've seen in my experience. And I especially LOVED my drive west on I-40 from Amarillo to Santa Rosa, NM (outside of Albuquerque) ... talk about amazing gorgeous (yet somewhat arid) landscape! Add a striking sunset to that, and it finished off MY first Texas experience like chocolate cream cheese icing on a cheese cake. :-)
More later.....
