Our last new state of the trip

Heading into Maine today. This is probably the last state sticker we will place on our map for this year.
The end of the trip is bringing on a lot of mixed emotions for us. We are so excited to move into a house and have a bit more space. The boys really want to set up their own rooms.
On the flip side, I know we will miss the road. This year was all about freedom. We stayed up as late as wanted and slept in too. We got a lifetime of beauty sleep. We also meandered aimlessly around and let fate lead us to the next stop.  It was pretty awesome. It brought us to many unexpected places that we would have never planned to visit.
So .... a lot of mixed emotions.  One thing is for sure,though. This trip was a life changer and we will always remember and look back fondly at this experience. Life is meant to be a wild ride and I think we did our part this year in living with that idea in mind.

Shout out to Carl

Carl is an amazing dad. In fact , he won an award. It is on.his shirt. Check it out.

Hey,hey summer...

This is going to be a kick ass summer. We have complete freedom until august when we will move into our new place on the school campus in Bethlehem, NH. We do not know much about the new pad except that it is 3 bedroom and 1 bath. It will be free rent so that is the best part. We like living in community. There are always folks around, families with littles,pets around to play with and acres and acres of land to run around on.
The new town we are going to has about 2000 people.
There is also a health food store, yoga, a movie theater and Thai good nearby. I am in heaven.
But....until August we have some fun  things planned until the money runs out. We are going to cape cod for a week. We are going to see a bunch of college friends over near Albany for a long weekend. We still have free tickets to six flags to use up. In July we are going to park it for a week near Bethlehem. Then, off to Maine for a week or so. I am very thrilled to go to Maine. I have spent little time there and i know we are going to love it.

Cool,old playgrounds

I am the first to admit that some of the newer  playgrounds out there are pretty amazing. We have seen some that look like modern art with their color schemes and art deco designs. Funny that many of the new playgrounds have signs that say something like " this playground was built for children aged 5-12". Really?!?! So a mature 4 year old or immature 13 year old; where do they work into this equation? LOL

OK, but back to the title of this blogpost....old playgrounds. We have all seen them. They are total throwbacks to the 70's or earlier. They tend to have rusty metal pieces instead of plastic. The slides are like 30 feet high with no side protection. There are those funny bobbing animals that are falling apart with chipped paint flaking off.
Lead paint, most likely. They may have themes linked to old cartoons, like loony toones, yogi bear, Mr Magoo.
The next few pics are from our latest cool playground. I wonder if it will still be around in 50 years?

There is no place like home

These travels have taught be a wonderful lesson. No matter where you grew up, there truly is nothing like coming home.
People from NYC will swear the city is the best with all its culture and diversity. Folks from the country love the quiet and the trees. Ocean dwellers would never want to leave the water and views. Everyone who lives in warmer weather swears they could never live near snow. Northeasterners want their seasons come hell or high water.
So, who is right? Where is the best place to live?  Where should kids be raised? Where are people the happiest and healthiest? Who is right?
Everyone.
Most people live somewhere for their own particular reasons. They can't imagine having it any other way. And they are right.
We saw a lot of cool places on this trip, places that were more than livable to us. But....we thought about family and what home was for us. We thought about the trees and water and crazy seasons we love. We thought about how everyone comes together after a blizzard. We thought about being paid in free range chicken, knowing everyones name in town and being pulled out of a muddy road by the neighbors tractor. We know the smells, the sounds and sights of this place we have called home since birth;  New England.
We just don't want it any other way and it feels so right to all of us.

Small libraries are the best

We love the Haverhill library. We visited there this past Saturday.  Nanci and Anne greeted us with a homemade sign and coffee and hugs. The boys got out some new books. I am unbelievably grateful that Coltrane and Emmett grew up with this small library. It is so personal and sweet and will always be special to them.
Here are a couple of pics.

Hey there, blog.

I have totally ignored the blog. Life got busy and fun and exciting and I just plain forgot about the blog.
We have spent 3 weeks on the coast of NC since I last wrote.
Carl also got a new job.
We left NC quickly and headed through some states quickly to get to NH/VT for interviews.
We ended up accepting a job at White Mountain School in Bethlehem, NH. It is a cute town, a little bit bigger than Pike. The nearest city is Littleton in NH or St Johnsbury in VT. It is a great location.
Now we are celebrating the new job while staying on Lake Winnepasaukee. We also have to think about what we what to do for the next 3 months before his job starts.
We are open to any ideas.
We are low on funds now and considering just staying in the northeast. We have to hit up Maine and maybe we will jump into Canada for a bit.
Ideas? Suggestions? Thoughts?

More coltrane drawings

Coltrane loves drawing.  He does itu every night while I read his bedtime story.  He also does it a good portion of the day.
Anyway, he has been on a roll lately. I like to think that he works out the answers to his biggest questions while he draws away.
For example,  his drawing of God is interesting!  LOL
He also made a picture after I was in a particularly bad mommy mood.
Enjoy

St. Patricks Day.

Another holiday away from home. This is a biggie, being that I am a little Irish!!! LOL.
I made corned beef and cabbage yesterday. Threw in a little Guiness. It was goooood.
We packed up the kids and went to the parade in Wilmington,  NC. It was a nice little parade. You see,  I grew up going to the Holyoke St Patrick's Day parade in Holyoke ,MA. It is a huge parade and lasts hours.  Folks are rambunctious and loud and fun ( oh, and drunk ). It is a good time. I have so many fond memories of the Holyoke parade. We went every single year when I was a girl.
So I am missing western Massachusetts today. Eat drink and be merry all my Irish friends and relatives ( and all the non Irish ones too).
Erin go Braugh! SLAINTE!!!!

Leap Day 2012!

It is a leap year and seems appropriate to be on the road. We are in South Carolina driving in the rural towns in the south.
We just left Charleston which was an architectural marvel. Everywhere you looked there were amazing houses.
We are now headed to South of the Border, which may be the quintessential American tourist trap. I went as a little girl when my parents drove my sis and I down to Disneyworld. This would have been 1979 or 1980. It has changed quite a bit since then. They now have an RV park,  pools, mini golf, rides, etc. Kind of smart of them to build a RV park.  The longer a family stays,  the more they will spend on lucky rabbit feet and Mexican jumping beans.
We intend to buy both because we are total suckers and we love our children.

Alex Townsend was something special

Here we are in Savannah, GA to celebrate a remarkable guy named Alex. He went to the oliverian school for 4 years.  Carl was his teacher and I worked in the dorm where he lived. We became very close to Alex and to his family.
Alex died in a car crash on February 14, 2010, in Savannah. He was a student at SCAD and was making cool art. He had a great girlfriend named Chelsea and everything was going really well.
It doesn't make sense that he had to leave us at 21 years of age.
Alex has been a guiding force for us on this RV trip. We have run into Alex look-alikes, stayed in the town of Townsend by chance and have felt his spirit on many occasions.
Alex's Mom ,Jeanne, gave us some stickers to put around America in honor of Alex. We have been doing this the last 8 months.
Today we had a special moment. We saw the smallest church in America in Darien, GA. Believe me when I say it was small. Foe those that know us well, we are not church going folks, but this place spoke to us. It was non denominational and just plain earnest and special.
We put an Alex sticker up in honor of a cool dude and one of my favorite oliverian students.
We miss you and love you Alex!!

FLORIDA

The state of Florida is the tale of the good, the bad and the ugly. The weather is fantastic, like really incredibly mild and pleasant. We went to the beach, swam in the water, frolicked with the birdies ( you get the picture ). We loved being there. It was like we were on vacation from our year long vacation, if you know what I mean.
OK...now the problems with Florida.... ...it is busy in many of the towns. Driving in the state is downright treacherous.  We almost got hit twice by crazy folks.  I mean it isn't that hard to see us coming , right? We are in a bright white, 27 foot long RV covered with bumper stickers.  If you can't see us, you definitely need some glasses.
Oh, and Orlando, although fun, is such a rip off. You tell me why it has to cost 500 dollars for a family to go to an amusement park. Pleeease!
All that aside, the coasts are beautiful and we found some killer places. I think our favorites were Mexico Beach on the emerald coast and San Sebastian Inlet on the Atlantic. We also thought ST. Augustine was awesome.
We saw alligators everywhere. I also saw anough snowy egrets to last a lifetime. They are gorgeous birds,  by the way.
I could go on and on about the good and bad of Florida, but I wont bore you.  The good did outweigh the bad, that is for sure.  I think it is a state where you have to put some work in to find the gems. But once you find those places, you are definitely sold on the state of Florida.
Pics.

It has been awhile

I have not written a blog post in a couple of weeks. We have had a fantastic time visiting folks and I just got so busy. I this New Orleans was the last place I updated.
We went pretty quickly through Alabama and Mississippi. We mainly stayed on the coast and not the big guns like Biloxi and Montgomery. One thing that stuck with us is that the gulf was demolished by hurricane Katrina and Ike.  There are so many places that are still trying to rebuild. I cannot imagine how bad it looked back when the initial damage occurred.  There were so many piers completely crumbled and many houses, especially in the poorer towns, demolished beyond repair.
I think our next family adventure will include a habitat for humanity component.  There are so many Americans in dire need of housing. This seems to be especially true in the southern gulf states.

New orleans

Sneak peek

LOUISIANA

I WROTE A GREAT POST ABOUT Louisiana which you will never read. It is lost in the blogger world somewhere. Such a bummer because it was a doozy and had good pics too.
In a nutshell,  we loved Louisiana.  The food was outstanding and the folks were ultra friendly.
We are inFlorida now and it is hot. Have to pull the shorts and skirts out of storage. Kids swam in the gulf today.
I will write a longer post soon and update the map. We are staying in a hotel this weekend ( with wifi!)and going to Harry Potter world. We decided to go on super bowl Sunday. Shouldn't be very crowded.
Will post about all that soon and will get some pics together from AZ on.

Texas BBQ gets its very own post

The whole time we were in Austin we didn't get BBQ. We were waiting to get it in Lockhart at an amazing place called smittys. It was worth the wait.
Lockhart is considered the BBQ capital of Texas. It is a fairly small town with less than 50,000 people I would guess. There are a ton of BBQ places. Our friends Pete and Kim told us about smittys which has been in.Lockhart for about 100 years.
The building that smittys resides in is located in the center of town. It is brick and plain looking on the outside. There are no fancy signs or neon flashings.   When you walk inside it is magical. The walls are all black from the smoking process. There are woodfire pits just littered in a few places on the ground. They have these huge brick pits where they smoke the meat. There are no menus, you just order at the counter while looking at the list of meat and price per pound. We got hot sausage, ribs and brisket. They throw in a few slices of white bread and off you go to sit at the long, family style tables. In another part of the room are the sides. There was the usual coleslaw and beans, but there was also onions, pickles, avocadoes and huge hunks of cheese. All of this is thrown upon butcher paper and you dig in with your hands. Damn, it is so good and it was so cheap. All the meat, sides, drinks and ice cream cones for the kids came to under 20 bucks. Awesome.
Here are some smittys BBQ pics.

One of my kids has artistic flair

Coltrane is constantly drawing and making things out of found materials. It is pretty cool. He is so proud of his creations and has tremendous confidence around his artwork. It is amazing to me to see the confidence.  I hope it never leaves him. Here are a couple of things he made at our friend Virge's house here in Austin.

Keep Austin Weird

Austin is pretty fantastic. The hipness of this city is palpable the minute you enter it.
We have been staying with our friends Pete and Kim and their kiddos, Loretta and Bonnie. We have mainly been hanging around their yard, taking bike rides and playing music while drinking good beer. It is heaven!
The weather has been more than cooperative. Today was 77 and sunny. Tomorrow and the weekend are bringing more of the same. I have to keep reminding myself that is is January.
After Austin we are heading to the gulf coast toward Louisiana.  I am excited about the southern states. We cannot wait to eat Cajun food and maybe catch a little Mardi Gras action.

Big Bend has it all

Big Bend National Park is one large place with many different geological features. There are mountains, desert, rivers, and many rock outcroppings. I just read that it is the only National Park that has its own mountain range fully contained within the park- the Chisos Mountains.  The place is visually stunning.
So why is it one of the least visited National Parks? The answer is pretty simple. It is in the middle of nowhere and you really have to really put some effort in to arrive.  This is not one of those national Parks you stumble upon. Besides the tiny towns of Study Butte and Terlingua outside the west entrance of the park, there is no other towns for miles and miles.
We stayed three nights in the area and did not even get close to seeing everything.  What we did see we enjoyed thoroughly. There are many good, easy and fun family hikes.  We took one hike to the Big Bend hot springs. It was just gorgeous with sites like pictographs along the trail. We also took a wonderful nature hike along the Rio Grande river. We could see the little Mexican town  of Boquillas across the narrow river. I even got to use my Spanish a little to wish a man and his son a good day.
It is sad to leave BIG bend, but we are super excited to get to Austin to see a bunch of friends. We already have two concerts to go to this weekend. Austin is a pretty hip place. The kids are going to love it. Carl lived there for a spell in the 90's, so I know he psyched to reconnect with Texas past. I have been there a handful of times, but not for years. Can't wait.
Here are some pics from Big Bend and west Texas.

The stars at night are big and bright...

TEXAS. We are loving it thus far. We  entered the state from NM from Carlsbad into Guadalupe Mtn Nat Park.  It is absolutely beautiful country out here.
We got into the town of Van Horn on Rte 10. The focal point of the town is this gorgeous hotel called El Capitan.  It was designed by the architectural duo, Trost and Trost. Their hotels are amazing. We saw El Capitan in V Horn, El Paisano in Marfa and are going to see the Gage in Marathon.
El Paisano was especially stunning and had a room full of photos and souvenirs from the movie Giant which was filmed in Marfa.  Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean and Rock Hudson were the stars of the film. In fact, it was Dean's last film before his untimely death in a car crash in rural California.

Maybe we don't believe in you....

Exactly my thoughts

White Sands National Monument

Whoa....this place is crazy.  It is definitely one of our favorite destinations yet.
It is located about 15 miles from Alamogordo. As you are driving along it kind of just springs up at you, miles and miles of white sand dunes with the Sacramento mountains as a backdrop. It is stunning.  What we didn't realize was what a fun playground it is. You can sled down the dunes! They are up to 60 feet tall, although the most popular sledding trails are on the 30-40 foot dunes. It was magical. The kids were in heaven. I dont think they have had this much fun since goblin valley park in Utah. 
Carl and I went sledding too. You can get going pretty fast if you wax up the sled.
Here are some pics.

HAPPY 2012!

We had an amazing time in Payson, AZ at a friend's cabin. Brooke,  Candace and family met us up there. Brooke and Candace are my.best buds from Peace Corps Kazakhstan.  Candace has two kids c and e's age so it was perfect.
The kids had a blast running around, visiting a fort in the woods and watching a New Years Eve movie Marathon.
The adults chatted, ate amazing food and played a lot of bananagrams.
All in all, it was a great way to welcome in 2012.
Now, we are in NM, heading east. Coltrane says he is ready to get out the desert.  That one has some serious opinions. 
We will be seeing some amazing things in southern NM. It is the home of the Trinity site, first atomic bomb site in the USA.  Also, there is Roswell ,NM, the infamous alien crash sight town. Exciting. I know the boys are going to love it. Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands National Monument are also along our route.
It is going to be great. To boot, we get to eat more New Mexican food, which is sooooo good.