Thursday, July 31, 2014

Heroine's Journey 2, Day 14

Wow! the trip is now international, since I cut across lower Ontario from Anne's place on the shore of Lake Michigan, and followed the edges of two more great lakes...must look at my map...I'm disoriented in space and time--3 time zones. When I drove into NY yesterday, it was hard to grasp that I was already here, Back East, where I spent most of my life prior to 9 years ago when I moved to Port Angeles.

There are tiny quarter-sized brown frogs hopping in the wet parking lot this morning outside my motel room door in Victor, NY. I'm just west of Canandaigua, where I spent the first 3 consecutive years living (that I remember--Mom says that we lived in the trailer park that UVM put up to house the post WW II vets. I remember, or remember remembering, things from that time, too. But I went to 4-6th grade in Canandaigua, so the three of us sibs that are older remember the place fondly, the quonset hut on the VA hospital grounds where Dad finished his psychiatric rotation and took his Boards. I'm re-tracing my history in person.
Crossing the bridge in Dubuque 7/28/14


Iowa fields, more rolling than other places, especially in the east


I've learned to appreciate Iowa more, not having to live there. The landscape is subtly beautiful and the people are kind to strangers. The nice Ron that fixed my windshield and squeezed me in on a Saturday, so I could keep going. As he explained, scored glass continues to crack and now I am secure as I can be.
Vistas, rolling a little Vermonty, eastern Illinois


A wonderful coffee shop in Elizabeth, IL. Original pressed tin ceiling 

 Driving around Chicago confirmed my aversion to large metropolitan areas. So far Michigan and NY drivers are the most aggressive...Canadians seem to be more mellow. Stopped to get gas--by the litre. The rest area has a food place called NY Fries that serves Poutine, like Colonel Hudson's in Port Angeles.



Anne showing me Lake Michigan...nice sand...That was their childhood ocean

We went to some cool junque shops and the Meijer Sculpture Garden

A recreation of the giant bronze DaVinci horse and Anne for scale

Passers by as we rode in the trolley, being living sculptural representations of YMCA

The conservatory...Amazing Place! 


Anne and I stayed friends on Facebook after I left her brother...She and I enjoy similar things, and shared perceptions that validated my move.

The Gumbies wait out the first big rain

The sign Anne made so I wouldn't miss her

Michigan or Ontario windmills...so beautiful

Yesterday the hard rain, lentil-sized hail caught up with me in Canada and NY. I waited out one storm, but drove through the next...almost zero visibility...why don't people use their lights so they can be seen?

Woke up to rolling, cracking, house-shaking thunder and lightning this morning...the rest of the country has bigger weather than we do...but then there's our ever-present threat of the big earthquake...humans are So practiced at Denial.

The sky is clearing, the morning traffic may be lightening a bit, the little frogs are hopping around my car, I've finished the leftover Taco Bell, so maybe time to get on the road and try to avoid the thruways. I'll do a separate post of my Junque photos...I only spent $5, capturing photos instead of stuff...so many ideas buzzing around, my head is splitting. 

More when I can. I'll be sleeping in VT tonight -- Stay Tuned!

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