What a beautiful day! Another glorious day! America is truly ‘America the beautiful’. I have seen incredible country this week. Amazing.
I went to the top of Cadillac Mountain, did the loop, drove over to Bass Harbor, had lunch in Southwest Harbor, then back to my room to just sit and ponder.
OMG! Eleanor Roosevelt said do something every day that scares you. Well, I got the shit scared out of me today. Wow, it was incredible but very very scary. I video taped up the mountain and down the mountain. We shall see if that will upload. Oh I should say where I went. I drove to the top of Mt. Washington. The highest point on in the Northeast (6288). You go above the tree line which rarely happens in the East. OMG! I shall say that over and over. At times I couldn’t look anywhere but ahead as it was too scary. Much scarier going up than down. They give you this whole lecture about your car and make sure you know how to put the car in manual low. You go up and down in low. At times it looks like you are driving to heaven. It was breathtaking! It was cloudy until I got so high and then it was crystal flea and sunny. So weird to drive and have the clouds below you. I met another woman at the top who had also done the drive alone. She said she was so scarred she had to go back down before she thought about it too much!
When it started to get cloudy and fog was rolling in, I came down the mountain. That actually was pretty fast and I was out of the alpine area fairly quickly. I then went to hike the beginning of Tuckerman Ravine. Needless to say I didn’t make it that far. I was still sucking wind from walking around on the summit. But I probably got 3/10’s of a mile up the trail. I went a little past crystal falls. Also lovely! The sound incredible. It muddy and really steep and I must say I got very scarred again by myself out there. This time I didn’t push on through but turned around. It was starting to rain so that helped me to justify. It was a good day and beautiful day. I am now enjoying my cabin and reliving my experience.
The first day on my own. It was a pretty big driving day. First mishap was retrying to put gas in my car. Okay – I couldn’t open my gas tank. I kept pushing the button but it wouldn’t open. Now this is a rental car and I have never done it before. Fear broke out “0MG, its broke – I’ll have to call the car company, etc, etc, etc.”. Finallly after what seemed like a long time (probably a few minutes of trying to open the little door to the gas tank), I asked this nice couple at ‘the Maverick’ for help. “Now his son has a Jeep Cherokee”, he says as he goes right to the button (I had pushed a few hundred times) pushes it, and says” yep, that’s the gas tank”. His wife (or so I assumed) put her little finger to the crease and opened it right up. So now, instead of the gas tank cover popping open when you hit the ‘button’, you now have to actually pry it open once you hit the button – bizarre. Even more bizarre is that there is no actual cap – ‘what no cap’ – ‘yep no cap’. It has really been a long time since I even rented a car. And don’t get me started about the satellite radio, the panel with options (how I turned my car seat heat on), the climate control and the gps. OMG! I figured out how to use the GPS and that was really the best feature. It got confuse at a few places, but the green line always ran true.
It has really been an incredible day. It hasn’t been easy and driving for 8 hours really took it’s toll on me. Bizarre, I used to drive 14, 15 hour days -they were hard, but not really stressful. I drank a few Mountain Dews and down the road I went. I relaxed into driving as the day went on. Beautiful country, had some panic and some moments of doubt, but ended up strong.
I left Franklin after an incredible time with my Bestest Friends. It was the perfect beginning of my min tour. Mike and Jen stayed up all night and polyerothaned the floors – intense – they went to bed at 2 am – I know because I wasn’t sleeping well and was still up. As typical at Dunghill Manor, a glorious breakfast was served. All the other inns will be working hard to produce such a lovely fair.
I was fueled and really to go, but the first hour of the drive was scary. I just don’t drive enough and I do get a little weird while driving. A little short of breathe, light headed and weird. I hate to say i might be having some panic attacks, but I do think some of that is going on. After an hour or so it became an incredible journey, I relaxed and saw some beautiful country. I am glad I am not trying to drive all day today but enjoy the lovely country, do some hikes and experience the area. There is rain predicted but I still think I can get some hiking in. I do want to try that trail on the low end of the mountain.
Dinner tonight was a Spinach salad with beets (incredible) and lamb lollipops (the best I ever had- exquisite) picture below after a few bites. These people at the Inn are great: fun, funny and very informative. Although it is raining tomorrow I will have an amazing day.
They do Moose tours up here. I might be in heaven!
The adventure begins. Got up, got ready and walked to pick up my car. It is bigger than I want or need, but it has a sun roof and I got a deal. It’s a matron grand cherokee. A big bugger and fully loaded. I got a parking spot right off to load so the angels are on my side. Off we go. Headed upstate. Everything will change.
Made it to the Schuler’s, let us say Dunghill inn And Suites. It has been incredible. I was a little nervous driving out of the city. Well, it’s a bit tense, but most of the drive was easy breezy. Listened to country and tooled on down the road. I stopped by this creek to eat lunch. Lovely!
Okay- first day of vacation. It is my get ready day. I just knew that trying to get ready for vacation while working would be too much. I am a wimp these days. However, the main purpose of this vaca is to relax, chill, de-stress so starting off in a rush just seems wrong. I have my day to prep, pack and pamper. I’ll get my clothes cleaned, go for a walk and get my nails done. Also, I’ll review my plans. Tomorrow I pick up my car and head upstate to stay with the bestest of friends! Their home is so lovely it is like a little get away. Then onwards north to mountains,hiking and sitting looking at the woods sipping wine from my balcony. Then to the shore, where I will do some more hiking and more sitting on balconies sipping wine.
Now we don’t a vanagon as of yet but this little vaca is an experiment into trsveling through America. The variances is terrain, trees, people, food and drink is what this is all about. I also need to see how well I handle all the driving. Used to be I could drive all day for days and hopefully still can. I love to drive but standing up after being in the car for hours is proving to be difficult. Pictures from today’s beginning:
Packing time:
Another day. Seems like Sundays are always about getting ready for work the coming week. This morning I got up and got my clothes washed. Able to walk a bit while waiting on clothes. Here is a picture of the beautiful little fish pond I pass when going for my walk. One year all the flowers bloomed at the same time. It was glorious. This year the thrift bloomed, then the irises and now this other plant (I have no idea what it is?). But it is beautiful. Now next week I will be heading upstate to start my mini journey. A test drive you might say until I can hit all of the USA. One more week until vacation.
Folwers from today!
Now is the time I figure out how to add new posts, label, upload pictures, etc. Every day a new adventure.
Beautiful flowers from my walk today. When I figure out how to upload, they will appear! Sadly, I am fighting with my photo library. these are flowers from the past. The ones today don’t seem ready to show themselves. Ah life!
I started a blog last week. Now I am updating and trying to figure out how it works. One day at a time.