Northern New Mexico, Part 4. Day 2 of Bandelier

It was another packed day on Sunday!

I woke up early to get a jump start on the day. I needed to beat the heat and also be back in time for our family picnic. There will be 10 of us gathered at my camp spot!

I decided to walk the Frey Trail, which is named after a family who moved into the Canyon early in Bandelier's colonizer history. 

The trail should be renamed. It was a trail that the Ancestral Puebloans used to move things from the rim to the canyon and back. We must resist the white-centric view of the world. The Freys came thousands of years after people arrived to the area and made their home here and used the trail.

The trail starts at the campground area and comes out at Tyuonyi Village. It's about 1.5 miles one way. The first mile is flat and easy as it crosses the mesa, while the last half mile descends about 600 feet. Not bad going down! I didn't walk back up. It would've been too too hot!

Here are photos of my journey.

A switchback, with pines and cottonwoods down below in the riverbed.

The payoff: a view of the Tyuonyi Village

Tuff with embedded rocks.

I noticed these two pieces of wood embedded in the tuff. I guess I never noticed organic material embedded in the rock. I hadn't thought of it before. But yeah. That's what volcanoes do. They be powerful and blow up everything. The pieces were not petrified; you could still feel the woodiness of them. So cool: one million year old wood, right there for me to touch.

I could gaze at the cliffs all day.

The trail came out at the Long House, and took a few more pics.

More petroglyphs

More petroglyphs!

I walked back to the Visitor Center and took in the museum and the gift shop before boarding the shuttle bus back to the campground.

There, I peeled and sliced some peaches for our picnic and waited for the fam.

We had quite a feast! Stromboli (three kinds!!), crudite, chips n dip, fruit, salads, and applesauce cake! Yummmmmy! And the company could not be beat. We had a wonderful time.

We did not get many pictures, but we did get a shot of the five siblings. Pretty good looking group, huh?

After everyone departed, I sat outside and read. I noticed some pieces of wood in a nearby campsite, and when I was confident that the site was going to go unoccupied, I snagged the wood and brought it to my fire ring. 

I loved sitting and watching the fire and doing nothing else.

I burned a few pieces and left a few for the next family. When there was nothing but coals, I hit the sack! Another fab day!

Northern New Mexico, Part 2

The morning of Day Two held a wonderful walk with my dear brother-in-law and friend, with a yummy lunch afterwards! ❤️ 

After lunch, I hiked from downtown Los Alamos through Graduation Canyon to the Pueblo Canyon Rim Trail, where I headed west and came out at Canyon Road, then back to where I had parked Poppy. About 3 miles all told.

It was lovely! See for yourself:

Nothing like the smell of a Ponderosa Pine. Vanilla or Chocolate?

A view of my childhood playground. You can barely make out where "LA" was once painted.

Thunder was rumblin' and I did not want to end up like this tree!

Wild onion

Another view of LA Mountain, where I romped as a child. It's also known as Burnt Mountain, and since 2000, Twice Burnt Mountain!

You can kinda sorta see where "LA" was painted on the rocks in years of old.

That evening, I enjoyed tacos and beer with three of my four siblings, plus other loved ones! Afterwards, I walked over to Ashley Pond, passing The Lodge...

 

...and heading to Ashley Pond, where I met my BIL for the free Concert in the Park. Ashley Pond's geese greeted the crowd.

We listened to Nik Parr and the Selfless Lovers, from Austin, Texas.

And then – exhausted – I retired to Poppy, who was parked in the Bathtub Row Brewing Co-op's (AKA The Tub) Harvest Host spot. Woke up to sunflowers!

What a fan-frickin'-tastic day!

The Friend Zone

No, not that kind of friend zone. It’s New England, where lots of friends live! It was a friend fest!

We left Shenandoah NP on Tuesday the 23rd and drove to Pennsauken New Jersey (ok, not New England, but bear with me), where we met Angie, a friend of Trish’s who is another passionate aphasia advocate. We had white New Jersey pizza and beer at our Harvest Host location, the Double Nickel brewery. It was great to get to know Angie, a dynamo! 

When I lived in New Jersey I loved white pizza. It was a must-have this time. ❤️

Double Nickel had friendly folks in their lively brewhouse, and good beer too. 

We had a restful night there before we headed back over the Delaware River to the Philly/Valley Forge PA area, where we had a lovely visit with Trish’s niece and enjoyed a nice meal by the Schuylkill River. 

We walked along the river after lunch. 

While in Pennsylvania, Trish found a couple attractions. This statue of the Founding Fathers praying over (presumably) one of our founding documents. 🙄 Those of you who know me know how I feel about it. This was found on the grounds of the Freedoms Foundation, a non-partisan educational organization.

George W. was there, too.

And a lofty Bill of Responsibilities. Read the text here.

Also in Pennsylvania, this marker for a nearby mass grave. The marker just grazes the surface of the whole story.

Old plow next to the marker. It has no relationship to the Duffy's cut deaths. 

That evening we stopped at Locust Lane Brewery in Malvern, PA for the night. Super nice people there, too! We enjoyed a flight and a beer before retiring. It was a quiet night in their parking lot. 

Wednesday was Trish's birthday! We had to celebrate!

Happy Birthday, Trish!

Soon we were on the road again, another U-turn to go back over the river, through New Jersey, and into New England. I enjoyed driving on the New Jersey Turnpike. It's nice and smooth and the traffic wasn't bad. 

BUT! Come Connecticut, it was a different story. 

The George Washington Bridge was a nightmare of trucks and cars, and it slowed us down from our meeting time with friends in Connecticut. So, when Siri told us she found a faster route, of course we jumped on it. 

I don't know who needs to know this, but if the highway is labeled a "Parkway" in New York or Connecticut, DO NOT DRIVE ON IT.  It will say "No Commercial Vehicles" and "Passenger Cars Only."  BELIEVE THE SIGNS! Do not be optimistic when it says "Low Bridges" without a height designation. The bridges are low. Too low for you, Ms. Travato! 

Needless to say, we made the mistake of following Siri's instructions onto a Parkway. The first few bridges were ok, the lowest was 10'7" (Travatos generally have a safe clearance of 10'). But suddenly there was a sign for one ahead that was 8'. OK, get off NOW! 

We safely got off, but Siri took us around in circles and we used many precious minutes trying to find a way back to a safe highway. By the time we found our way back onto an interstate, we were an hour behind for our visit!

Luckily, we didn't miss friends Katie and Bryan Titus. They were kind enough to wait for us at an awesome pizza joint in Middletown, CT. It was great to catch up with these superb human beings. 

DANG IT THAT WE DIDN'T GET A SELFIE!!!

After a nice salad and well-deserved rest in Middletown, we were off again, for the rest of our journey up to the Boston area. We stayed at a Boondockers Welcome home in Wrentham, Mass. 

Wow! What a great couple who allowed us to stay on their BW property for two nights! We were thrilled to get to know two fellow vagabonds. They invited us for homemade lemon cheesecake on the second night and we had a great chat! Kinder people I have never met. It was great. And, bonus, they were blue-blue-blue all the way through, so we got to kvetch about the current state of affairs.

We slept well on their quiet property, and on the second day (Friday the 26th), we made our way to Rhode Island where we met with more friends! Trish had lunch with another aphasia advocate, Denise, who runs "Just ASK" and is on the board of Trish's non-profit, National Aphasia Synergy. 

Meanwhile, my hometown friend June drove up from her home in RI and met us. June and I went to lunch just down the street from Denise's house.

It was wonderful catching up with the beautiful and talented June, who I haven't seen since high school. 

In the late afternoon, we made it up to Norton and met a Boston friend, Mary, whom I met online about 20 years ago. We had met in person once before, and it was great to catch up. Unfortunately, we missed our other friend Tammy from the same online group who couldn't make it this time. Love you, Tammy. ❤️

Back to Wrentham and our lemon cheesecake, and we were ready for another good night's sleep at our new friends' place. I can't believe I didn't take a pic of Poppy in this wonderful spot!! Here's a shot of Trish and Punk playing in the yard instead.

Next stop: Boston, Mass. Now, he's not a personal friend, but he feels like one. We visited the JFK Presidential Library on Friday morning. 

TV, specifically the debates between JFK and Richard Nixon, was critical in Kennedy's eventual win.

Messages still relevant today, 60+ years later. 

Next we headed back to Connecticut for a planned event, but first another nice meal at Lucky Lou's. Trish always finds the best places! 

And then on to New Haven. It was a Randy Rainbow Show! Now wouldn't RR be a fun friend to have?!

It was a funny show! We laughed a lot. What a talent!

So that's six old friends, two new friends, two would-be friends, and a niece! All in five days in the U.S. Northeast Friend Zone!