From The Road: Saratoga, Chatauqua, Erie - Aquatic Tourism

September 25, 2007

Chugging across the narrow end of Lake Champlain on a ferry was restful, cool, and fun. Peachy enjoyed getting off her tired tires for a while, and Penny hung over the railing watching the flocks of birds and waving to the power boaters speeding by. When we docked, we were in the craggy beginnings of the Adirondacks! We spent a couple of days in and around the beautiful water of Lake George with dear friends, and then headed south into Saratoga Springs. Being August, the place was bustling, and Penny decided to fore go a dip in the mineral waters there, though we did like the various horse statues on the sidewalks, all decorated by different artists, and all beautiful and festive.

The northern part of New York is very agricultural, and we passed by some fields where the corn, while perhaps not quite as high as an elephant's eye, would certainly hide your average Buick. This was the beginning of the corn belt which was to accompany us for the next several weeks through numerous states, alternating with soybeans ad infinitum.

Grapes also grow well in that region, and the vineyards stretched for miles, only grudgingly making way for a house now and then. I stopped at a roadside stand to buy blueberries, zucchini, and garlic (the best!), from a really nice woman who also grows great flowers (I probably stopped because the flowers were so lovely). She and her husband cultivate several acres of grapes which are sold to a local cooperative for making juice and jam. She said that there had been no rain for the past month and a half, and we both hoped that the harvest would be OK in spite of that lack.

A dream for many years was fulfilled when I spent a day at The Chatauqua Institute on Lake Chatauqua. It is a wondrous place, part vacation, part fun and fellowship, and a large part culture and creative arts. I heard how Francis of Assisi's prayers were influenced by Muslim form, and a discussion on a book, "The Tent of Abraham", written by a Catholic nun, a Rabbi, and a Muslim scholar. Wonderful and worthwhile.

Walking by the Erie Canal turned into a living history lesson, and I reflected on how important it is to experience things, not always to just read or hear about them. The people who have been part of our history in the USA are a varied bunch, independent, brave, generous, ruthless, and more. I am excited to be able to see more of the places I have read about, and the lasting effects many of our forefathers and -mothers have wrought.

Noted in passing:
A bumper sticker urging, "KEEP AURORA WILD", not your everyday Chamber of Commerce message, surely.
A sign for a nudist resort in Candor, NY.
A jaunty life-sized skeleton perched at a picnic table and wearing a beret, seemingly waiting for a glass of wine. That waiter must have been really slow.
My favorite, a vending machine selling live bait. Those fishermen are serious!

Shalom

From The Road: Exploring Vermont

September 18th

When we left you last time we were heading into Vermont. I spent three days there with my cousins, talking over old times and laughing until we couldn't talk. We have a close bond, being daughters of sisters, and all living together during World War II while our fathers served overseas. It was hard to leave, but I took with me lots of warm fuzzies, 2 forks, and an armload of books.

From White River Junction on the east side of Vermont we meandered along with brooks and through beautiful old villages, up and down dale, to Burlington, on Lake Champlain. This is a happening place, with lots of young people, outdoor activities (for example, sailing on the lake), and the home of The Intervale, an organization of organic farms, a wildlife preserve, community gardens and food sharing groups, and the largest compost pile in the country, especially sweet with the rinsings from Ben and Jerry's ice cream churns. From Burlington Peachy and I headed south to The Shelburne Museum, a truly impressive place. It encompasses many acres, and contains old buildings moved there for preservation and display, artifacts, fine art, and changing exhibits. It is easily worth a whole day of wandering and looking. I lucked into an exhibit of Shaker furniture, another of exquisite contemporary quilts, and something totally unexpected. In the cool lower level of the huge old round bar was a display of modern chandeliers. Since it was a really hot day, I went down to take a look.

These were innovative interpretations of house lighting, and two spoke to me. One was made from 3,000 ping pong balls, surgical tubing, and fishing line. The star of the show, however, was a sphere of brilliant crystals held together on an armature of stainless steel that could be taken apart into sections and cleaned in the dishwasher!

There are also collections here of carriages, a whole circus performance and parade of hand-carved wooden figures, old carousel animals, tools, a steam train with several cars drawn up at a station (complete with schedules), and the Ticonderoga, a 220 ft. Lake Champlain steamer, rescued from oblivion and hauled overland during the winter to rest majestically on a bed of gravel near the train.

It really was a very hot day, and after a warm night in the upper bunk, I broke camp and we headed for the ferry to take us to New York.

Brooks and lakes: here we are talking about water again. We all need it! According to the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers it takes:

+ 4 gallons of water to process a pound of hamburger
+ 9.3 gallons of water to process a can of vegetables
+ 39,090 gallons of water to make one new car

Are you ready for more license plates?
Y B BROKE (on a BMW)
2 CENTS
2TH FRY
WANNABET

Shalom

From The Road: On Prayer Trees and the Art of the Shower

September 6, 2007

Let us give thanks for showers.
Generous gushers,
Parsimoneous spitters,
Needle-y stingers,

Faced in marble,
Aqua tile,
Fiberglass,or
Concrete block,
Closed with
Curtains of politically correct cotton duck,
Clingy plastic, or
Etched glass doors.

We give thanks for the streams,
The drops,
The squirts,
That carry away our
Detritus, our
Smells, our debilitating
Sense of being unclean.

Perhaps a re-baptism?
Some days it feels like that.

The above is in imitation of one of Leunig's prayers from "The Prayer Tree", one of those books I like to re-read often. I wish I could remember his first name, but Amazon was no help this time. He writes prayers that are poems, giving thanks for singers, teapots, winter, etc., and his illustrations are delightful (he is a cartoonist).

So, here I am talking about water again. The average American uses somewhere between 50 and 100 gallons of water a day, compared with a family in a third world country that carries its water a distance, and which uses around 3 to 5 gallons a day. A family. Something to think about.

On this trip I have experienced all of the above breeds of showers, and then some. One particular variety has a button one pushes to start the water, which flows for 12 seconds, and then shuts off. One pushes the button again for another dose, and so forth. Then there was the one that cost a quarter; one had to guess how long the water would run. Luckily I hurried through and still had some time left, but I can see that rummaging through one's pockets for another quarter with soap getting in one's eyes would be tough.

My worst experience so far has been in a state park, where I arrived at the shower house all prepared, and opened the curtain of the shower stall to encounter a cloud of mosquitoes. That morning I passed.