Oct Journal

This time we did leave for the east. This day was a full day of travel with our camping point being in the Adirondacks in New York. Since I had never seen Niagara Falls, we took the Canadian route toward the east.

It was really rainy by the time we reached the Falls, but it still was wonderfully impressive. There is just a HUGE amount of water that funnels down those falls. We took a quick tour behind the falls, took some snapshots and headed on our way. It’s great to say that I finally got to see the great Niagara Falls!

We played leapfrog with the storm all the way through New York. I always think of New York City when I think of “New York”, but our northerly travels of the state proved that it’s much more rural than I ever thought. By the time we were searching for a camp spot in the Adirondack region, it was pitch dark so we were unable to see the landscape of the area we were entering. We did, however, get a close view of a skunk, so close that Rick ran over it and for the next 24 hours the car reeked of skunk smell. After scaring a black bear out of our path and finding a few campgrounds closed, we finally found one open by 11:00 where we nestled ourselves in our sleeping bags while the wind and rain howled around our skunk-smelling Millie, a far cry from the comfy beds of the past week.

It sure is chilly out there in New York this time of year. Wow. We woke to find ourselves in a really nice campground nestled next to a lake surrounded by rolling hills of reds, yellows, oranges and greens. FALL FOLIAGE TIME!!!! YEA!!!

We spent the day driving an amazing scenic route of the Adirondacks in New York, then crossed over into the wonderful state of Vermont. I could never tire of the giant mounds of fall colors as if someone just took a paintbrush to the hills.

Seeing that it’s not the season for making maple syrup, we decided to check out the maple syrup museum. It’s just a small building where the sell many Vermont products, but there’s a small section on how to make syrup. I really enjoyed seeing how the process unfolds, plus at the end you get to experience the different tastes of the syrup grades. It was a neat diversion for us, and of course we had to buy a bit of syrup as souvenir of our Vermont experience. Because autumn always brings about the time for apples and pumpkins, we even stopped to pick up some tasty fruit and pumpkin butter to die for.

Eventually we ended up in a Vermont Green Mountain Forest campground where we once again became well aware that the desert hot weather is long gone. Still, what started out as a rainy and cold fall day turned into a fantastic fall experience.

I was actually surprised we didn’t find snow surrounding Millie when we woke because of how cold it was.

As we headed out of Vermont toward Rick’s sister’s house in Massachusetts, we stopped to wander in the small town of Woodstock, Vermont. It’s really fun to browse through the cute New England towns with their covered bridges, and it’s really hard not to buy all the goodies they offer too.

After scoffing down our rollups and some more pumpkin butter, we drove on to Marguerite and Marc’s home to spend the evening eating homemade chicken potpie, pumpkin ice cream and playing games.

It’s two days of separation between Rick and me, the first time in three months! I ended up flying to Chicago for a friend’s wedding and my grandma’s 90th birthday party. Rick stayed in the New England area visiting friends and family. We both had a whirlwind weekend, but lots of fun. I arrived back in Manchester, NH late in the evening on the 5th where Rick and I once again reunited.

We expressed our gratitude to Marguerite for allowing us to stay in her home and then drove off heading north.

Our first stop was visiting Rick’s Aunt Sue. We enjoyed the views a nearby lake offered while eating sandwiches and chatting. Rick’s aunt recommended the place with the forewarning that it wasn’t as beautiful as some of the things we have seen in the past couple months. I still believe there’s all sorts of beautiful things everywhere we look. You just have to open your eyes and heart to see it. (Mushy, I know.)

We said our farewells to Sue and drove off with our new addition to Millie, a gift of a hand-woven, long-tailed bird made of blue ribbon which we lovingly hung from the rearview mirror. We had to chuckle because it gave a new flare to Millie’s style.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent admiring the fall foliage of the New Hampshire White Mountains. I could never tire of all those colors, which is good because they’re everywhere you look. We picked a camp site near the beginning of the Kancamagus Highway, which runs through the White Mountains, and decided to go for a stroll along a river. The whole walk was splendid until we got back to Millie and found that Rick was no longer carrying the car key. Luckily, he managed to remember hearing something drop while he was picking up some roadside litter just outside the campground entrance (He’s such a fine Samaritan), so we had a general area in which to search. Thankfully it took no time at all to find and recover the key. That surely could have turned into one messy affair.

After gratefully entering Millie with no broken or torn windows, we cooked our meal as the weather turned a bitter cold. We finally tested out our furnace in the car, which warmed the interior magnificently. It sure makes the cold nights bearable.

This morning we sure had to pry ourselves out of our warm, toasty sleeping cocoons because the air around us was quite chilly. In no time, though, the day warmed a bit and we found ourselves setting out for a day hike to Mt. Chocorua, 3475 feet (much smaller than the Rockies, but still spectacular). On our way up we stopped to see a waterfall and take some photos of the colorful trees.

At one point we happened upon a heavyset man, probably in his sixties, who appeared to be very slowly ascending the trail with his fellow companions. As we passed him, he made comment that he was taking his time, to which I replied “That’s the best way to do it.” Then what I heard was, “I just hope I can return by DOCK.” In a split second I tried to comprehend what he said, and I came to the conclusion he was being funny, like he was hoping there was a dock at the top of the mountain where a boat would take him easily to the bottom. I know now it makes little sense, but I quickly responded to him saying, “I don’t think that’s going to happen.” Rick apparently heard something different, to which he responded, “I’m sure you’ll be fine.” Once they were out of earshot, I dumbfoundedly asked him what he had heard the man say. Rick responded, “I just hope I can return by DARK.” Of course I had heard the east coast accident quite wrong, and I felt like a total ass for insulting the man. Still, I did have a bit of a chuckle over it and surmised that if I was court reporting in the New England area, I may have a bit of a hard time. Lucky for me, though, I was able to apologize to the man because we once again passed him and his companions on the way down. They smiled when I claimed “Midwestern-girl-can’t-understand-accents” status.

The hike was a nice one that afforded some pretty views. We originally planned to do a circle route, but we were admonished by another hiker that it may be best to go back the route we came up due to the length of travel it would take and the amount of daylight left. We heeded his advice and arrived back at Millie by 5:00 p.m., found a camp site and spent the rest of the evening on dinner and resting.

This was a fantastic fall day! Even the locals were commenting on how wonderfully unusual the upper 70s weather was. Early afternoon we spent walking around the cute shops of the town of Conway, NH. Once again, it’s so hard not to buy tons of things.

By mid afternoon we were on our way to Rick’s cousin’s house. The drive goes super fast when the fall colors are everywhere. We drove through a town of Shelburne (a recommendation by Rick’s Aunt Sue) to see all the Shelburne birches. It never ceases to amaze me how even the smallest, obscure towns have such beautiful, unique charm.

Rick’s cousin Tom lives in the town of Rumford, which is a little, paper mill town in the southwestern part of Maine. We spent the evening hanging out with Tom, his fiancée Mindy, their four kids, two cats and a puppy. It’s such a full house there, we figured the easiest scenario was to sleep in our traveling home, Millie, in their driveway. I’m never sure how well that’s received by our hosts, but in some cases it turns out to be the best scenario. It was fun to tour Tom’s three-floor, New England home, and we had a fantastic time chatting and eating pizza.

We left Tom’s home early morning to have breakfast with Rick’s Uncle Norman and Aunt Doris a few blocks away. We struck it lucky to find that his Uncle Lee and Aunt Mona were also visiting. We had a nice time catching up on current events of our families and giving them the tour of Millie, which Rick just loves to do.

With our bellies full, we bid farewell to the Bourret family and began our journey to Woonsocket, RI. Over Doris’ recommendation, we stopped in the seaside town of Ogunquit where we walked along the rocky shores of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s such a crazy thought that we were just standing along the shores of the Pacific about a month and a half earlier, and now we have driven all the way across the U.S. to stand on the Atlantic shores.

My wonderful husband recognizes my extreme happiness in eating good seafood, so he took me to a Maine restaurant where I enjoyed an exquisite cuisine of Halibut, lobster, shrimp and scallop pie. I couldn’t ask for a better seafood dinner. Since we’ve been in the car for so long and stopping to visit many people, our exercise has decreased but our appetites have remained, which doesn’t bode well for our weight. Oh, well.

By late evening we arrived at Rick’s parents’ home in Woonsocket where we settled in and chatted the rest of the evening away.

We spent the afternoon enjoying the company of Rick’s Aunt Muriel and cousins. The evening was spent dining and laughing with long-time friends Alice, Jay and Heather. It was great to hang out with those who we seldom see but have a fantastic time visiting when we’re in town.

I conned Rick into taking me to a Scituate Fall Festival to check out the crafts and antiques of the area. I suppose it’s hard to pick out crafts to decorate a place you haven’t been living in for the past three and a half months. It’s still neat to see all the creative things people do to make a few dollars.

After a quick stop at the mall and grocery store, we ended up at Rick’s brother’s home to hang out with a group of friends. It was fun to hang out with people we get little chance to see. We had a great time laughing and joking all night.

I love going to all of the shops in Rhode Island that I can’t find in Chicago! Rick’s mom brought me to a new one: The Christmas Shop! It’s one of those places that I could spend hours walking around and no doubt spending tons of money.

Rick’s Aunt Muriel is involved in a committee trying to save St. Ann’s Church in Woonsocket, and after having heard so much about how beautiful the place is, I had to see it for myself at their open house. What a BEAUTIFUL church! They closed the church two years ago, and they’ve since turned it into a cultural center in order to obtain grants to fix the building. The whole ceiling was painted in the mid 1900s in fresco style, like the Sistine Chapel. The artist used a unique concept of capturing the faces of the members of the church in the figures he painted on the ceiling. In the back there are two murals commemorating WWII, which the artist was asked to do. For the fallen men he depicted in the mural he used the faces of the fallen men of the congregation. We then got a unique experience of climbing up one of the steep-stepped bell towers. The church still has the ropes you pull to ring the bell!

I enjoyed every moment of our tour of St. Ann’s, and I can see why our guide and Muriel are so passionate about saving it. After having seen many churches in Rome years ago, I can honestly say that this building has immediately become a favorite of mine. (So for my little plug to help a struggling, small, passionate group: If anyone wishes to donate for the benefit of surviving art, don’t hesitate to contact me.)

Because Rick was helping his brother make doughboys (like elephant ears) in the Woonsocket Autumn Festival booth, we headed down to the center of town. The day was full of dreary rain, so the amount of people wandering the festival was scant. As I waited to meet my sister-in-law Adrienne to pick me up, I wandered around the booths to get a flavor of Autumn Fest. Man, the clientele is sure entertaining. There’s no doubt that the people-watchers of the world would get a good dose of entertainment with that bunch!

The rest of my evening was a pleasant time spent hanging out with Adrienne and the kids catching up on life.

Rick and I had anticipated leaving this day, but once we cleaned out Millie and updated the website at his friend John’s, we decided Cape Cod, Massachusetts could wait another day. Besides, it was nice to hang out with John and Kendra for a few hours, have more delicious eats made lovingly by his mom and watch a movie. Of course, it’s one that we’ve watched no less than ten times, but it’s always a fun one to watch – Bridget Jones’ Diary.

This time we did shove off, thanking the Fournier Parents profusely for everything. We drove from Rick’s parents’ straight to the end of The Cape so we could start at the tip and work our way back.

The main road that you drive on to get to all towns in The Cape is not what I imagined. Seeing the land is surrounded by water on both sides, I envisioned you’d be able to see water on both sides of you as you drove through it. In reality, you could barely see any water from the road, and you had to make special side trips in order to get some views.

One fascinating tidbit that I was unaware of is the fact that cranberries grow on the cape. We learned that cranberries need very moist soil to grow, so this was the perfect area for it. Once we knew what we were looking at, we could spot bogs of cranberries all around us. The first stop was Provincetown, also known as P-town. We had picked up a brochure at a Visitor’s Center, and in the description of P-town they used words like “eccentric” and “alternative lifestyles.” It was funny to see how they tried to delicately describe a primarily gay community. As we walked around P-town, I soon realized it had the best selection of unique shops. Every now and then you run into a store where nearly all of its contents you want to own, and I surely found one in this town. Too bad they’re so far away, although it’s probably better for my pocketbook.

The rest of the towns on the Cape were smaller and less appealing for stopping, but nevertheless, we drove through them to get the whole flavor of The Cape. It’s interesting to see that many people living there have some sort of antique or craft store on their home grounds. You could drive and stop all day long, like you’re visiting the folks in each community.

Once we had our fill of The Cape, we decided to make a beeline straight to our friend Rob’s in Connecticut. Since Rob was to arrive home late in the evening, we decided to eat a wonderful Mexican meal in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. When we got to Rob’s, we sat up and gabbed for a bit, and then we finally crashed on the tallest air mattress I’ve ever seen. It was literally waist high.

After shower and coffee, we drove about 15 minutes back to the town of Old Saybrook where we met up with Rick’s friends, Ryan and Maureen. We lucked out by the fact they both were off work on a Wednesday afternoon, so we took advantage of it by going to lunch. Ryan gave me a driving tour of the beautiful homes on this oceanfront community, one of them being the home of Katherine Hepburn!

After our visit with Ryan and Reen, we spent the rest of the day driving toward the Baltimore area. Knowing that parking Millie on New York’s city streets was probably not the best idea, we chose to pass it. Hopefully someday we’ll be able to return and visit those friends who we didn’t get a chance to see. We did get a cool view of the city skyline when we drove over a super long bridge to the city’s north.

We eventually parked Millie in a campground in Pennsylvania, just outside the town of Hershey.

Nothing like going to a chocolate factory in the morning! We drove into the town of Hershey, Pennsylvania where the streetlamps were shaped like Hershey Kisses. It’s amazing all the wonderfully good things Mr. Hershey did for his community. He and his wife made oodles of money, even in the depression, which was awesome for the town. Since they didn’t have any children of their own, their whole estate eventually went to a children’s foundation.

As for the Hershey chocolate tour, I’d have to say Rick and I were disappointed. You got to take a short, amusement-ride type of tour through a simulated chocolate plant. It’s understandable whey they can’t bring you through their plant, but I guess I imagined it to be much more impressive of an exhibit. Still, you could buy and Hershey product and then some.

Once we finished our chocolate world experience, we got back in Millie and headed to the home of our friends, Nate and Carey, where we were soon to meet their four-day-old baby, Tyler! Talk about awesome timing!

Our visit with our friends was very brief, only a few hours, but when a couple is adapting to their new roles as parents, they don’t need a couple of bums hanging around their home. We decided to camp in a state park just outside of Baltimore, and it turned out to be a nice little spot and comfortable evening.

We lucked out to find that our campground had shower facilities! Yea!! We were even afforded some sightings of some walking sticks on the walls of the bathroom. Those things are really amazing. Seeing that they’re hard to spot because they look just like sticks, I consider myself lucky to find some walking around.

We chose to stay in the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area for another day because my childhood friend, Stacey, was playing in a band on this night. Our families used to camp together many years ago, and Stacey and her sister Amy were highlights of the campfire festivities with their musical talents. At that time, Stacey played the mandolin, but she also played the saxophone in the Notre Dame band as well as dabbling in playing the bass. Knowing how musically talented she is, I wanted to go watch her band in action.

To fill our day, Rick and I thought we’d try to get a tour in the Capitol building. Since all the tickets were given away for the day by the time we arrived, we detoured ourselves to the Spy Museum instead. Basically it’s a museum of all sorts of stories of the FBI, CIA, etc., and espionage type of paraphernalia. It’s pretty interesting yet disturbing to learn that all those James Bond movies and the gadgets he uses are REAL CONCEPTS! We spent a couple hours in there, but no doubt you could spend quite a few hours in there learning all types of mischievous ways to live.

On the walk back to Millie, we took a quick look in Union Station. That’s one of those places that you don’t think of stopping in, but when you do, it’s awesome to see. That building is spectacular inside, and if we had more time, I surely would have made Rick walk around with me for a bit.

We arrived early in the D.C. neighborhood, Adams-Morgan, where we were to see Stacey’s band play. As we were sitting in Millie chomping on some fresh green beans from Marie’s garden, we spotted Stacey and her husband Dave walking by. We got a kick at what impression we probably gave off by eating green beans next to our VW bus.

The band, Zeala, is an all-girl band that was playing in a coffee house for a fundraising event. The band was great! It consisted of a drummer, a bass player, a guitarist, a trombone player, a trumpet player, a saxophone player – Stacey – and a singer. They were lots of fun to watch, so much that I wish they played out in the Chicago area. (I got to taste sweet potato pie for the first time this evening, which is delicious!)

We had to make a quick exit from the fundraiser festivities because we were expected to arrive at Rick’s cousin’s house in Richmond, VA by midnight. The hour and a half drive went quick, and we pulled into the driveway with our hosts Kim and Ryan graciously awaiting our late-night arrival.

We awoke to the smells of bacon, baked French toast and coffee – HEAVEN! We once again lucked out because Rick’s aunt and uncle were visiting as well, so we had an opportunity to see a few more people we otherwise might not have. We only visited for the morning, but it was really nice to visit with Rick’s family and get to know some people I’ve had little opportunity to see.

By early afternoon we were on our way toward the Outer Banks, North Carolina. The rest of the day was uneventful driving. The campground we chose was a tiny, privately owned place right on the bay. We were parked city-like next to our one neighbor, but we were steps off the water. Sitting on a small island surrounded by water watching the sunset gives such an indescribable feeling of content.

Our intent was to drive as much of the Outer Banks as we could, which meant driving all the way to the point of hurricane-produced roadblocks. Hurricane Isabel managed to destroy part of the only road through the Outer Banks causing a new inlet to be formed, so our tour of the Outer Banks was a bit limited.

For the adventure types such as Rick and myself, the Outer Banks was really not much of a draw for us. Being such a small strip of land surrounded by vast amounts of salt water, the obvious pastimes in the area are water-related, such as wind surfing, boating and fishing. Almost every truck we passed had a fishing pole holder mounted to the front grill sprouting large fishing poles out of them. How they can be unaffected by seeing around those cumbersome stems sticking in front of their field of driving vision is beyond me. Pretty much the whole of our visit to the Outer Banks consisted of stopping to see a lighthouse, which was closed to tourists for the season, and stopping in two out of very few shops in the area. We did spend a small amount of time combing the beach for cool-looking shells and watching the large-rolling waves.

By afternoon we were on our way out of the Outer Banks and driving toward Raleigh, North Carolina where we would stay with our theme of visiting a friend the following day. We reached a nicely groomed campground just outside the city by early evening and enjoyed our time of relaxation and solitude, seeing we were one of three campers in the whole grounds.

Since we were to meet up with Paul and Wendy by the evening, we decided to spend the day in Chapel Hill just outside of the Durham area, which is where the University of North Carolina is. The area is really clean and has some fabulous shops to browse around in. We managed to fill up our afternoon stopping in outfitters stores, specialty shops and even an Army Surplus store that had some great Halloween costumes.

By 6:30 we met up with Rick’s friend Paul. His girlfriend Wendy showed up and we decided that sushi was our meal of choice. The evening was a good time of visiting with people we rarely see. After a few drinks at a local brewery, we went to Wendy’s home where she graciously allowed Rick and me to take over her home while she went to Paul’s.

On a recommendation we stopped at the Biltmore Estates which is owned by the Vanderbilt family and located in Asheville, North Carolina. We stopped in the visitor’s center to find out what the place was about and found out it’s basically the largest privately owned house in North America. Seeing that we needed more time for the self-tour than we had anticipated, we decided to pass on our visit. We did, however, see a short introductory film on some features of the castle and landscape, and it looks unreal.

By mid-afternoon we arrived in the Smoky Mountains for what would be our final visit to the mountains on our four-month trip. Even though we missed the peak of the brilliant fall colors of the Smokies, the mountains looked magnificent with their rolling green tops. We stopped in the visitor’s center to become informed of good hikes in the area and then set ourselves up in the park’s Smokemont Campground.

Surprisingly, the morning was fantastically warm even though we were at a higher elevation in late October. After sitting in the van for so many hours the past week while also eating many big meals, the day hike up Alum Cave Trail to Mount Le Conte was a welcome one. This particular trail was a highly traveled one, and we passed many couples from, by the sounds of their accents, all different regions. Once we reached the top, it became clear why the trail was so busy. At the top rests a small community of rental cabins. It looked like a fantastic place to rent for a weekend.

After lunch on the mountain’s ridge, we returned down the five-mile trail we had ascended, all the while chatting about all sorts of things. It’s amazing how you can sit in a car for six hours and not speak a word to each other, then get on a hiking trail and talk nonstop for two hours.

We returned to our previous-night’s camp site and attempted to enjoy a camp fire, but our enjoyment fell short due to crappy wood. By this point the temperature had dropped significantly, so sitting in Millie’s warmth was the better choice anyway.

This day was to be the last backcountry trek of our trip. For reasons unknown to me, the Smoky Mountains is the only National Park that we visited that had free backcountry camping.

The wide trail was not very challenging, but the hike was a comfortable and pleasant one. We arrived at our camp site by early afternoon. To entertain ourselves in our free time, we thought we’d put our Neanderthal survival skills to the test by trying to start a fire with just sticks and stones. Yeah, well, that didn’t work so well with us impatient souls. The next attempt was to make a homemade fishing line out of threads from a rope we found and a hook made from a safety pin. I’m sure it would have worked if I actually saw a fish in the stream I attempted to catch a fish in. Rick found it entertaining to watch me. I didn’t think it was any more entertaining than him digging a “potty” hole in case either of us had to “go” while we were staying in the area. Anyway, we failed our skills miserably, but seeing we brought enough food and matches with us to last us for days and we were only six miles from civilization, it didn’t seem all that important. It did, however, pass the time.

This evening was the only time of our whole trip we made a camp fire in the back country, and I enjoyed every minute of it. We had expected this night to be even colder than the evening before, but to our satisfaction it was actually warmer.

The morning was a bitter cold one. It hadn’t rained overnight, but all our gear was wet anyway. It took no time to pack up and get back to Millie. We had made it to the car, rearranged all our equipment and were ready to go by noon. Since our plan was, once again, to visit people that evening, our afternoon was spent driving.

By 7:30 p.m. we were in Atlanta, Georgia in the home of Rick’s cousin Denise. The evening was spent catching up with Denise and her 16-year-old son Colin.

In the morning we gobbled homemade Belgian waffles and Rick tested his manly skills by fixing their lawn mower. Soon we were to be joined by Denise’s other two college kids, Houston and Catie.

We had a blast hanging out in the Harkers’ kitchen laughing about all sorts of things, being entertained by our quick-witted company. We couldn’t ask for more fun than hanging out with cousins eating salmon and watching three movies (Office Space, Chicago and The Italian Job).

What a rainy, gloomy day in Georgia, but it didn’t matter because…IT’S OUR FIRST YEAR ANNIVERSARY! After pancakes and pictures, we said bye to our cousins and headed into the hip area of Buckhead in Atlanta to enjoy a wonderful Indian cuisine and a peaceful night’s stay at the Swiss Hotel.

Another rainy day in Atlanta, but we didn’t stick around to see the weather change. This day was spent traveling up to Kentucky to visit Mammoth Cave. The morning and early afternoon was spent traveling. We arrived in the park by mid-afternoon and set up two tours for the next day. Besides watching a few short films about the cave, we didn’t have much to do due to the hour, so we set up camp and made ourselves dinner. By this time the feelings about the trip ending began to set in because this was to be our last park visit before heading home. (sniffle, sniffle)

Mammoth Cave is such an amazing place! At 10:00 we were standing along with 80 or so students where we were to hop on a bus to take us to our cave tour entrance point. We had originally anticipated trying to take another spelunking tour, but that was not going to happen due to those tours only being offered only on weekends at this time of year. One look at the big “cave crickets” that looked eerily like large spiders, I wasn’t so distraught about not going spelunking.

Compared to our tour of Jewel Cave and Wind Cave at the very beginning of our trip, Mammoth cave was a bit more impressive for me. Not only is it the longest cave in the world, it have some unbelievably big rooms and awesome stalactites and stalagmites. We had decided to take two tours back-to-back, and neither of them were a disappointment.

Along our journey underground, I noticed a young girl wearing a jacket that said, “Dairy Evaluation Team, 6th year, 1st Place,” and a cow was pictured in the middle of the writing. Seeing that I’m such a curious person, I had to ask her what that was all about. Apparently, the Future Farmers of America (a/k/a young farmers-to-be) was having a convention in the area. She happens to be on a cow evaluation team from Washington. What that means is that various teams gather together to compete in evaluating cows; how well its udder is shaped, the color and size, etc. There is also an expert judge who evaluates the same characteristics. Whichever team’s ratings are closest to the expert judge’s ratings wins the contest. Boy, it’s truly amazing how many things go on in this world that I’ve never even imagined existed. Along our second journey underground, we got a taste of just what kind of racism is out there. As our guide informed us, the giant room of the cave we were standing in at one time was used for mining saltpeter, which is a main ingredient in gunpowder. As she further explained that the operation run in the early 1800s was mostly done by slaves, a young Texas kid voiced a racial comment. When Rick shot the kid a disgusted glance, the kid said, “You have to excuse me; I’m from Texas.” You’d like to think our society has come some distance on racialism, but one small comment like that makes you realize how much further we really have to go.

Anyway, our cave tours were a spectacular ending to our four-month trip. We had a bittersweet evening of dinner and rest in Millie, knowing that it was our last night on the road of the Big Trip. It was our last night of coin-operated showers and the use of flip-flops, sleeping in a van in a campground, putting shoes on to walk to the bathroom, using water bottles and eating out of cups, and running through the checklist of locking up items in Millie before we drove off.

Homeward Bound. It took five hours driving from Mammoth Cave to my friend Rose’s in Kankakee. We stopped to visit Rose’s family in the evening and then headed to my parents’ home to surprise them.

Back to our apartment in Chicago! Familiarity of routine sets in awfully fast, and it doesn’t take long to feel as if we’ve never been on a trip. It’s a good thing we have a bunch of pictures to prove it or else I’d have to make someone remind me that it was real. All I have to say on the subject is that I’m going back to work kicking and screaming. We could have easily spent a few more months on the road, but as the saying goes, “All good things come to an end.”