mayacama mama

In the past three weeks we’ve traveled from Lake George, New York to East Lyme, Connecticut, to Clarksboro, New Jersey, and then today we arrived at our RV park in College Park, Maryland. We are here for 17 days to explore around Washington, D.C. Next Monday, I fly back up to North Vancouver, B.C. to finish my second to last session of classes for my Waldorf teacher training.

On our way to Lake George from Vermont, we stopped with our trailer at the University of Vermont Morgan Horse farm. We had just finished listening to the audiobook “Justin Morgan Had a Horse” by Marguerite Henry, that tells the mostly true story of the first Morgan horse.  Zoey would have liked to have stayed there all day visiting with the horses.

The horse barn

Morgan foals

In Lake George, we hiked up the steep Prospect Mountain trail where there used to be the Prospect Mountain Cable Incline Railway that brought people up to the Prospect Mountain House hotel in the late 19th century. On our travels, we have managed to see peak fall foliage across several states in New England.

On our way to East Lyme, Connecticut, we visited with cousin Carol and Auntie Flea in New York. Carol made us a delicious vegetable barley soup for lunch. Zane told me later that Carol makes the best soup ever!

During our stay in Connecticut, we traveled to Newport, Rhode Island and visited the Vanderbilt summer cottage “the Breakers.” Zane, Zoey, and I had a race running across the lawn. There are numerous summer “cottages” aka mansions here in Newport, but we only had time to visit one in an afternoon.

The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island

On our last night in Connecticut, we had a chance to visit with my friend from college Diane and her lovely family. Zoey and Zane enjoyed playing with the cats and toys and asked if they could spend the night.

After leaving Connecticut, we stayed in Clarksboro, New Jersey about 30 minutes outside of Philadelphia. We took several trips into the city to visit the Mint, Independence Hall, the Museum of the American Revolution, and ate dinner one night at the City Tavern eating out of pewter glasses and plates.  The Tavern was where George Washington and other founding fathers gathered to eat and drink while deliberating on the formation of our country.  To maintain the ambience of the 18th century restaurant, it was requested that guests not use their cell phones so I didn’t take any photographs of the restaurant. We ate by candlelight and Stephen enjoyed a sample of ales, one of which was Ben Franklin’s own recipe.

Independence Hall

The room where the Declaration of Independence was signed

This was the first year that we took the kids trick-or-treating. In past years we have gone to the Waldorf School of Mendocino County for Halloween to enjoy the Enchanted Pumpkin path which has been a very sweet way to enjoy dressing up and getting a few treats. We took them trick-or-treating on Delancy Street in Philadelphia where there are several blocks of redbrick row houses blocked off from street traffic. The streets were full of children and families. Zoey enjoyed looking out for dogs dressed in costumes. Her favorites were a lion dog and a pretzel dog.

A ninja and Wonder Woman

When I began writing about our around the country trip in June, it didn’t feel right then to explain why we sold the ranch and the reason for our big trailer trip. In light of the wildfires happening in California, it seems appropriate now to explain that in July 2018, the Mendocino complex fire burned around our property, right on our dirt road which was our one way in and out of our home. We had to evacuate for a week, and we were incredibly thankful to have a home to return to, but it made us think seriously about living in California as it seems that yearly wildfires is the norm now. We had found what we thought would be our forever home at Benmore Valley Ranch, but it no longer felt safe there after the fire. So we began our trailer trip across the country searching for a new place to call home.

We have seen so many beautiful places in the 24 states we’ve traveled through, but when we reached Maine we found what we were finally looking for–beautiful beaches, fine summer weather, clean air, and a great Waldorf school. We found an affordable city in Portland that has a vibrant downtown, great restaurants and culture, and affordable housing. We continue our trailer trip adventure, heading to Raleigh, North Carolina to visit my sister for Thanksgiving and to Georgetown, Texas to be with Stephen’s parents for Christmas. After that we plan to return to Southern California to see my parents and my brother’s family before returning to Portland, Maine and finding a house to settle down in.

Candlepin bowling in Brunswick (another reason why we love Maine)

Shelburne Farm Storybook trail in VT

On Sunday we arrived at Apple Island Resort RV park by Lake Champlain in South Hero, Vermont. We had one day of rain, but it’s been sunny since then. This week we’ve been enjoying a large community center at the park for our homeschooling time. Zoey said it feels like home to her. There is a gym next door so the kids have been having recess in the gym. They hop on the treadmill or the elliptical machine and smile their way through exercise. Zoey says to me, as she sprints and I take my time walking, “This is so fun!”

It’s nice having a larger area to move around for school, but I have to force myself to go to the community center every morning. Since I started homeschooling the kids a month ago now, I’ve had a guilt complex about the kids not being at a school. I feel like I’m breaking the rules, and I try most of the time to follow the rules (unless the rules are inane and then it doesn’t matter so much to me). Ever since I met Stephen he has been trying to wean me from always being a rule follower. I remember doing grocery shopping with him and he left his cart unattended to walk across the store and I looked at him in amazement, not realizing you could do that. I know, pretty simple. I feel sometimes like we have to hide with the kids in the trailer until school gets out around 3:00pm even though our homeschooling schedule is very different. We have main lesson in the morning, snack/recess, and then two more subjects before lunch. We’re done with school by noon and we have the afternoon to explore around town or wherever we might be.

Dress up and rest time in the trailer

After we left Maine, we had a short stay at Danforth Bay Camping and RV park near Conway, New Hampshire. One afternoon we took a paddleboat out on the lake.

Eating lunch on a trail near Keene, New Hampshire

After leaving New Hampshire, we arrived back in Williamstown, Vermont. It was quite chilly there, staying in the mid 50s and dropping down below freezing one night.

Our view from our campsite at Limehurst Lake near Williamstown, VT

We drove up to Stowe, Vermont on Saturday. Stephen and I rented bikes and rode with the kids on a 10 mile trail that was quite crowded with other cyclists and people walking the trail.

Bike trail in Stowe, VT

Yesterday we visited Shelburne Farm. Both of the kids had a chance to milk a cow, help feed pigs at a pig party, and bring the chickens home to their coop at the chicken run.

Zoey milking a cow at Shelburne Farm in VT

6 month old Butter eating at the pig party

Chickens going to bed for the night

Tomorrow is our last full day here and then Friday we’ll drive to Lake George, New York.

After almost 4 months on the road, we have finally reached the east coast.  We’ve  been at Libby’s oceanside RV park in southern Maine since last Thursday. Our campsite backs up to the rocky beach below. We’ve spent two afternoons now on the sandy part of the beach during low tide.

The kids have frolicked about, pretending to be crabs or horses, or played on the large boulders which is their ship. I had a chance to sit and read a little book I bought Stephen for his birthday, Rules for a Knight by Ethan Hawke. One of my WCI instructors mentioned this summer that she read it to her 5th grade class.

Last Saturday we went to the Fairy House tour in the Strawberry Banke Park of Portsmouth, NH. There were so many different, creatively constructed fairy houses. The kids loved it.  Strawberry Banke contains some of the oldest buildings in New Hampshire, dating to the 17th century.

Luckily, the weather has been beautiful and mostly sunny during our stay here.  Many shops and motels close down at the beginning of fall in York, the town we are near, but it is nice to have an uncrowded beach right at our doorstep.

We spent a few days last week in Vermont, but didn’t explore much beyond our campground.  Next week, we will be heading back to Vermont near Burlington and Lake Champlain for more adventures.

Terraced garden at Naumkeag

We’ve been traveling in our trailer now for 100 days. Living in a trailer is a bit of a balancing act. I had a dream last night that Stephen told me we had too much stuff and that it would never fit in our house. I looked at him in surprise and reminded him of all our things that we gave away when we moved into our trailer. As my father always says, (and perhaps he was quoting someone else?) stuff will accumulate to fit the space available. What seems to be multiplying in our closet space is paper. I thought I was being wise by buying sketchbooks for the kids, to keep the loose leaf paper strewn about the trailer at a minimum, but the sketchbooks have been designated as “storybooks,” (Zoey has co-opted both her sketchbook and Zane’s to draw and write stories) so that she still wants loose leaf paper. Tonight she and Zane were using the loose leaf lined paper to wrap Christmas presents for me, Stephen, and each other. How can I say no to that when it keeps them occupied and they enjoy doing it?

We’ve started turning on the heater a.k.a. the “furnace” in our trailer the past few days. We’ve been in Chester, MA the past week. Before that we were in Rhinebeck, NY. We’ve had some sunny days and some rain with cooler temperatures in the 60s and 70s, dropping down to the 40s some nights. Here in Massachusetts, it is starting to feel like autumn and the leaves are just starting to turn yellow and orange but the trees are mostly still green.

Over Labor Day weekend, we had an enjoyable visit with cousins from my dad’s side of the family and we went to the Columbia County fair. Later in the week while I began homeschooling the kids, Stephen toured Primrose Hill School in Rhinebeck and Mountain Laurel Waldorf School in New Paltz.

A highlight for the kids was going to a grocery store in Amherst, MA and seeing a robot going up and down the aisles. Zoey took the photograph below. This is our first grocery store we’ve been to with a robot. Stephen tells me that Walmart also has them.

Marty the Grocery Store Robot

We are now in Chester, Massachusetts between Great Barrington, Hadley, and Amherst until tomorrow. Thursday afternoon we went for a short hike on the Keystone Arch Bridges trail, which were built in 1840 and are some of the earliest railroad bridges in the country.  It rained fairly hard Wednesday night, but wasn’t raining much Thursday afternoon so that we could get outside. We saw several newts, a frog, and a slug while hiking.

Today we toured the Naumkeag estate, a “country cottage” spread over 48 acres in Stockbridge and built by a rich 19th century Manhattan lawyer, Joseph Choate.  The cottage contains 44 rooms, including 17 bedrooms, and large servants quarters.  It was one of many Berkshire cottages built in the Gilded Age.

Back view of Naumkeag and gardens below

Zoey sitting on the swinging daybed in the Chinese garden

Tomorrow we leave for Brattleboro, Vermont for a four day stay, then on to Southern Maine before heading back to East Montpelier and Burlington, Vermont.

Playground at the Cook Forest State Park in PA

Last week was a long week of driving with stops in Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, and Ohio. In Kansas, we hit a tree while pulling in to our campsite and broke the awning arm off the trailer. We stopped in Jackson Center, Ohio to try to get the awning fixed among other things, but they were too busy to fit us in, so we moved on to our next RV park.

Eating lunch at the Boot Hill Museum in Dodge City, KS

Before leaving Dodge City, we spent the morning at the Boot Hill Museum, a historical museum about the Old West. At lunch, the kids were super excited to sit at the children’s table and drink some of daddy’s root beer.  Zane loved listening to a recording of gunfighters shooting their guns.

It rained much of the time we were in Missouri. Somewhere between Kansas and Missouri, Stephen let me drive the truck pulling the trailer. I convinced him it was a safe place to practice because all I had to do was drive straight. Before we left, we stopped at a nearby lake to feed the carp. It was a little creepy to hear the sound of squishy fish swimming on top of each other in their eagerness to get the dried fish food the kids were throwing at them.

The kids were a little disappointed we weren’t able to stay more than one day at the Indianapolis KOA. Our campsite was right next to the playground. There was a kiddie pool (3ft at the deepest, 1-2 ft deep in some spots) I took the kids to with water slides, showering mushrooms, and large buckets that would tip over with water. The kids loved it. We had a campfire later that night. While Stephen and I sat around the fire, the kids were playing at the playground. Zane was on the slide and Zoey was on top of the monkey bars until her shoe dropped. She went to go get it, looked at her shoe, shrieked and ran to us. Zane then ran to her shoe, shrieked and ran to us. Stephen and I then had to get up and look. This is what we saw.

Stephen then told the kids how he and Uncle Philip used to catch cicadas when they were kids, put a dot on their back with nail polish, release them, then catch more to see if they ever caught the same one twice. We then listened to a Sleepytime Sparkle Story about Cicadas because how could anyone be frightened of a cicada after listening to one of David’s stories?

The morning we left the Airstream in Jackson Center, OH to hopefully get fixed, Stephen got food poisoning after eating breakfast out. We had planned to spend the day at the National Airforce Museum in Dayton, OH. Stephen stayed in the truck until he was feeling somewhat better while I walked around the museum with the kids. Our friends had gone there months earlier and taken photos in astronaut suits. Zane kept asking where the astronaut suits were, and I finally asked at an information booth. The men looked at me confused when I asked where they were until another man understood and said it was just a photograph they took at the beginning of the museum with different backgrounds you can choose to make it look like astronaut suits. It took Stephen several days to recover from food poisoning. I was glad that I had driven with the trailer before this because it was all up to me to get us safely to our next stop.

Cook Forest State Park

From Ohio, we spent two days in Pennsylvania at two different RV parks. Our second day  was a 4.5 hour drive to Delaware Water Gap Pocono Mountain KOA, which we’ve learned is really too long to be on the road with the kids. About an hour to 20 minutes before we arrive at our destination, Zane seems to sense it and begins either kicking the back of the passenger seat or shrieks as loudly as he can, not unlike dogs sometimes do when they sense it’s about time to exit the car.

Before arriving at the RV park, we stopped at a local store where you had to insert a quarter into the grocery cart in order to use it (you got your quarter returned to you after you returned it). While shopping, I was approached by an 8 or 9 year old boy and asked if he could show me a magic trick. I declined, explaining that I really needed to concentrate on shopping. He wasn’t too upset. He just ran off to find another person to ask. He was the same boy who was riding around the parking lot on his bicycle. I started to wonder where his parents were.  And then at checkout, I was watching people unload their unbagged groceries into another cart to bag them, thinking that was so weird until it happened to us.  The cashier put all of our  groceries in our cart even though we had our reuseable bags right there for her to use. I started to put our groceries in our reuseable bags, while she scanned the items but she pointed to a counter we had to go to bag our groceries. Stephen had commented on the way in how he noticed there was a woman pushing two grocery carts full of food not in bags. Now we understood, and yet I was still so confused. Has anyone ever been to a grocery store like this?

Williams Lake trail in Taos Ski Valley

We’re in Clayton, New Mexico tonight before heading to Dodge City, Kansas tomorrow. We finally have wi-fi that works! Stephen let me drive the trailer this afternoon. The road was mostly flat and straight so I felt confident I could manage. We ate dinner in Texline, Texas which is in central time, then drove back to our RV park in New Mexico which is in mountain time. I think I was more amused about “going back in time” than Stephen and the kids were.

We enjoyed our time in New Mexico. The first two days we were in Taos, New Mexico.

View from the Monte Bello RV park in Taos, NM

There was a mile loop trail we walked near our RV park after dinner. The sunsets were incredible.  The Zs pretended they were riding horses and had dogs trotting along side the horses.

The next day, we took the kids on a 3.8  mile hike up to Williams Lake in the Taos Ski Valley.

After a little whining and struggling, we finally reached a beautiful alpine lake at an altitude of 11,000 feet.  Zoey and Stephen explored over granite rock piles a little further, all the while under the watchful eyes of curious chipmunks.

Later that night when we got back, the kids wanted to walk 1 more mile, then the next day, we moved to Santa Fe for 4 nights.  Santa Fe has some wonderful museums, and we visited the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and the International Folk Art Museum, both of which were excellent and inspiring, while maybe a little overstimulating for a young one or two.

Yesterday we visited another living history museum, “El Rancho de las Golondrinas.”

I learned you can dry slices of squash by hanging them and then rehydrate them in water. I was remembering all the zucchini we grew in our garden 4 summers ago, and I was giving zucchini away to friends by the bagful.

All the wool is hand-dyed and comes from the sheep living at the ranch

My first time seeing an osage orange or hedge apple

On the way to Clayton today, we stopped at Pecos National Historic Park just South of Santa Fe, and explored the ancient Pecos Pueblo ruins.  The remains included several underground Kivas that were fun to climb down into, and what is left of a church built in 1717.  The native people expelled the Spaniards and destroyed the original church in a 1680 revolt, but the Spaniards returned later and built a new church.

This next week we’ll be on the road driving a lot passing through Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, and then on to Ohio.

Climbing rocks in Boulder, CO

It’s our last night in Colorado. Tomorrow we head to El Prado, New Mexico just outside of Taos for two nights and then on to Sante Fe for four days. Our time in Colorado was spent hiking and climbing over big rocks, walking through downtown Denver, Boulder, and Old Colorado City, and driving by the Waldorf schools in the area. We finally purchased a large map of the United States so that we could show the kids what states we are traveling through. The kids then promptly starting drawing their own maps of the United  States.

While in Denver, we visited the Clyfford Still museum. The kids and I enjoyed the museum’s creative space where we got to make our own art. Zoey expressed her hope that we can have a room filled with art materials like this one in our future home.

Zane focused on cutting and pasting

Friday afternoon after getting settled at our RV park in Colorado Springs, we got some BBQ from Rudy’s (apparently Rudy’s is in Texas, too!) which was Stephen-approved and we headed to the Garden of the Gods park for a late hike and picnic dinner. We drove all around the park along with a hundred other cars and couldn’t find parking except in the overflow lot. We ended up skipping the hike, having a picnic dinner on the grass by the parking lot until it started raining on us. It’s been pretty awesome experiencing the thunderstorms here and  the summer rain which is not something we’re used to.

The next day we went back to the Garden of the Gods park and hiked the Siamese twins trail.

Garden of the Gods Siamese Twins trail

After the hike and lunch, we visited the Rock Ledge Ranch,  which the kids loved. It’s a living history museum with various houses and buildings to tour from the 1860s to 1907 with guides dressed from the appropriate time period sharing their knowledge of the land, the buildings, and the people who lived there.

Zane and Zoey playing an instrument in the Galloway homestead cabin

Today we visited the Manitou Springs Cliff Dwellings that were moved from Mesa Verde and Dolores, Colorado. You can read about how the dwellings were relocated from McElmo Canyon here. As much as we liked Colorado, there was so much traffic on the highways, I thought I was back in LA. We continue our journey to New Mexico as many students return to school this week, we still have three more weeks of vacation before I begin homeschooling.

The Hickman Bridge at Capitol Reef National Park

When I was five, I sang my way across the country one summer while my dad drove his Toyota truck with the Lance camper on top, my mom in the front seat, and my sister with me in the camper reading. Now as we travel, I sit in the passenger seat knitting my way across the country. Although I am the designated driver to back up the trailer, Stephen drives the trailer everywhere. I tend to veer off to the right lane and sometimes nod off while driving, so I haven’t been promoted yet to driver. As we’re all eager to stay alive, it’s probably best that we stick to what we do best.

Zane is the same age now as I was when my family took our trip across the country to visit my dad’s family in New York. I remember bits and pieces of that trip, and I wonder how much of this trip Zane will remember. As we travel, the days fly by and if a week goes by without a blog post, I feel so far behind. And then I remember what it was like before the internet when news traveled much slower. Everything is so immediate now. Here are a few photos of our past week.

Riding bikes in Carbondale, CO on the Artway trail to Aspen

Zoey riding along the bike trail beside the Colorado River

Zane and Mama 

Stephen and I rented bikes in Carbondale, Colorado and took the kids on a 9-10 mile bike ride along the Colorado River. We stopped a few times and ate lunch along the river. It reminded me of the days I rode my bike from Long Beach to Seal Beach.

As I read the news, I search for words of blessing and hope as we travel around the country. I turn again to one of my favorite writers-John O’Donohue.

For the Traveler

Every time you leave home,
Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in.

New strangers on other paths await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little at your entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since your last visit.

When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along,
Your more subtle eye watching
You abroad; and how what meets you
Touches that part of the heart
That lies low at home:

How you unexpectedly attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening in conversation
You want to take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward, on some unsaid dark,
To create a crystal of insight
You could not have known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.

When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say.

A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.

May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.

May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.

~ John O’Donohue ~

Friday we celebrated Stephen’s birthday with a BBQ dinner in Cedar City, Utah at Charlie’s. It got two thumbs up from Stephen who never was able to find a good BBQ place in California. I expect everyone to comment now below on what their favorite barbecue restaurant is in California!

Saturday we hiked into Zion National Park. We wanted to hike the Narrows and Angels Landing, but we soon realized that both would be too difficult for the kids. Instead we hiked Pa’rus trail and the Lower Emerald Pool trail. The upper trails were closed due to boulders falling and blocking the trail.

The Lower Emerald Pool hike had two small waterfalls that we hiked under, spraying us like a shower. It cooled us off from the close to 100 degree weather. We ended the hike with some soft serve ice cream at the Zion Lodge (the “we” being Stephen and the kids, I got a mango smoothie).

Sunday I took the kids to play in the Virgin River while Stephen hiked the Narrows on his own. I sat on a rock in the river finishing up the book “The King of Ireland’s Son” by Padraic Colum which is a collection of stories I will be telling the kids (often told in Waldorf schools in second grade).

Stephen said the river reached his waist at one point. There were so many people hiking the Narrows trail that day. I’m hoping we’ll get to come back at some point either when the kids are old enough to hike it or just the two of us.

We left Canada on Saturday morning, catching the 7:40am ferry from Nanaimo. We stayed in Anacortes, WA that night then drove on to Kennewick, WA on Sunday. Monday we stopped at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center before arriving in Eagle, ID near Boise around 10pm Mountain Time.

Zoey imagined herself riding in one of the covered wagons. We’ve been listening to the Laura Ingalls Wilder audiobooks while driving. If we don’t play the story she says she’ll get carsick. Zane listens but prefers silence while driving unless Stephen plays Walter Wanderley or John Coltrane. Below is a sample of a travel journal of someone on the Oregon Trail. I aspire to write so descriptively, but I’m out of practice. Wi-fi has been unreliable in the RV parks where we’ve been staying. Last night I had intended to write but little guy wouldn’t go to sleep unless I was lying next to him and by 11:00pm I gave up hoping that I’d have time to blog.

Yesterday we stayed around the RV park for most of the day, going swimming in the morning, then heading to a local municipal park in Boise that had a nature center with 6 ft. sturgeon, rainbow trout, and salmon.

The weather has been hot here, in the 90s, but we enjoyed a cool rain last night while we ate dinner outside. Soon after I last wrote about our hot water problem, we started getting hot water again. Now we’re in hot weather, I don’t care if we have hot water! Tomorrow we leave for Utah. We plan to stop at the Shoshone Falls State Park in Twin Falls, ID and then will arrive in Salt Lake City for one night, then on to Zion.