Voice of an Angel

Folding clothes and singing like an angel in the campground laundromat is what made me notice her. We talked about music and I invited her and her partner to join us that night at our campfire. I knew they were somewhere near us as I noticed Fran’s motorized scooter making its way to the bathhouse prior to our conversation. Unfortunately it was their last day in Flagg Ranch Campground nestled between the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.

Fran was a Canadian citizen active in women’s rights and violence protection in Toronto. We talked about border issues (remember this was 2010) and human rights. Timmy was from the United States and the two of them had difficulties crossing the border together. Hard to believe. Two women who loved each other trying to maintain a relationship and traveling together whenever they could. Was it the rainbow bumper sticker that targeted them? Was it that one needed a motorized scooter to get around? I cannot say.

It was a delight talking to them while our clothes tumbled. Down to earth, no pretenses, loving life and the beautiful Park we were visiting. I wished I had met them earlier.


When I retired Skip and I took our first long non-summer vacation driving to Orlando to see Disney at Christmas.  On the way back we drove through the Skyline Drive where we had taken our first trip together many years ago (1978).

We stopped at a lodge rest area and who do I see tooling down the path but Fran! I couldn’t believe it.
Like a crazy person I ran up to her and blurted out, “I know you, we met in 2010,” but I misremembered the National Park which certainly confused her. I kept talking about meeting in the laundromat and her partner singeing...and gradually she may have realized I wasn’t so crazy.

They are married now, recognized in both countries, and still traveling together. In my notes from that trip in 2010 I said I hoped we would run into them later on our trip.  Who knew it would be five years later!

Timmy and Fran, wherever you are, I hope you are well and happy.

I had no idea I could still write on this blog. Perhaps I can chronicle other trips or tell other stories from our cross country trip.

Be it ever so humble....

We have been home 10 days and today I removed the last of my belongings from the RV. I was surprised how much it hurt to do so. I looked around at the space that had been our home for 5 weeks and was so sad that it was over. All along I knew that although this was a trip of a lifetime, I was not hooked on RV'ing and would encourage Emily to sell it when we returned home. In so many ways it was the perfect way to see the country. Taking our "home" comforts with us had advantages. Queen sized bed with thermafoam topper, AC/ heat (used both), real refrigerator and freezer, stove, microwave, oven (though I never used it) along with my coffee pot and veggie steamer made it perfect.

We also had the best of camping with campfires, s'mores, grilled food, animals and sunsets and stars.

We saw tree farms with rows and rows of tall trees and wind farms with windmills so tall that one blade needed a super sized trailer to deliver it. (yes we saw that, too) From the highway I saw corn growing in every state, but had a hard time finding some fit to eat. Found out potatoes only grow in the narrow west strip of Idaho. Some of Idaho looks like the moon. Two crops never seen before were sugar beets and hops.

We touched the Mississippi at flood stage in St. Louis and walked in the headwaters in Minnesota where it was little more than a stream. Saw all the Great Lakes except Ontario and touched them.

There were places that were so dry nothing but creosote and mesquite would grow there and areas so wet there was moss growing on the trunks of trees all the way around! Saw tall snow capped mountains, painted canyons of the Badlands deserts and prairies and every terrain in between.

Everywhere we went we searched for a ripe tomato, found none until we got home. Finally got some sugar corn in Minnesota. Ate bison and elk, river trout and walleye and a lot of peanut butter.

Tried local beer and wine every chance we got. Amused to find Rolling Rock listed as an import at one restaurant. When buying beer in Wisconsin a clerk asked about Yuengling when he heard I was from PA. I laughed and said it was my "hometown favorite"

We did a lot, missed a lot, could probably find a month of things to do in each place we went. It was hard to leave each of them.

Some days, especially on the way home, I couldn't remember which state I slept in the night before. I know I touched the Pacific Ocean in Oregon and made it home. I know we laughed and had a blast. We survived, no, thrived, for 24/7 in 32 feet for over 5 weeks, 21 states, 8474 miles in the RV and 1800 in rental cars.... Trip of a lifetime... priceless.

"On the cover of Rolling Stone..."

Our last planned destination was Cleveland to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This was Skip's request, I wasn't sure I would enjoy it. I was wrong.

We stayed near Cedar Point in Ohio. No clue that Cedar Point is an amusement park. It had a Jersey Shore feel to it without the salt in the air. We were on Lake Erie now and once again got there pretty late, too late to explore the area. We half thought about staying an extra night to catch our breath, but we wanted to be home in time to go to the Annual Polish Cousins Picnic on Saturday so we decided to push on. We made sure we went to a beach to dunk our feet in another Great Lake, this time Lake Erie.

The drive to Cleveland was scenic, again not taking an interstate made the ride more interesting. We passed through small towns many with huge mansions. I guess the rich folks build houses along the lake to keep cool in the summer. Parking was a challenge with the RV, but doing some Internet homework helped. We knew the municipal and the Port Authority lots would accept RVs. Had some trouble locating them, but we managed and didn't have too far a walk. It was pleasant enough. Parked by the Cleveland Browns Stadium. They had a windmill to power the stadium.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum is a multi-sensory experience. There is music in the background and I found myself singing or dancing to the music. Great photographs of the early influences of R & R. Some great artifacts from some of the greats: Elvis, the Beatles, Michael Jackson. There was a whole special exhibit about Bruce Springstein. I found it cool that I had seen some of the legends in concert. Skip had even seen Elvis a few times! What I enjoyed most were the movies about Rock and Roll and Motown. We spend most of the afternoon there, and could have spent more time.

We did not have reservations anywhere and didn't know where we would spend the night. Leaving the museum close to 5 p.m. and dealing with Cleveland rush hour traffic trying to get out of town didn't help us get a lot of miles done this day.

We stopped at the rest area of the Ohio Turnpike thinking we were parking in the RV lot. Found out that for $15 one could plug into electric and spend the night. They had pump out and fresh water if you needed it. The rest area had some food places as well as trucker's shower and laundry. So we paid the $15 and spent the night with several other RV's. Not KOA, but better than WalMart parking lot. And a bit closer to home than Cleveland....our last night on the road.

Not the North Pole or Mall of America

Sometime in the past year or so we saw a show about the largest Christmas store in the world, probably on the Travel Channel. I remember saying to Skip, "If we ever go to Michigan, we have to go there." That was forgotten until I saw a billboard for Bronners, CHRISTmas Wonderland. We checked the website and found it was not out of the way, so we HAD to go.

Frankenmuth, Michigan is a vacation destination. There is a German feel to the touristy place. We went to the Frankenmuth Bavarian Inn for bratwurst and German style beer brewed just for the Inn. They had a glockenspiel that you could see from outside in the beer garten.

The main attraction for me was the Christmas store. It was overwhelming. It was like a Christmas Village, North Pole, Santa's Workshop, for acres and acres...well, I don't know really how big it is, but the parking lot reminded me of a mall lot only it was one store. I kept looking up at all the decorations and scenes. On the sales floor was every ornament you could want, personalized, themed, color co-ordinated....animal, vegetable, occupation or hobby. Every once and a while I had to stop and ground myself. I thought of my brother, Bill, who loves to decorate for Christmas. I sent him a photo from my cell phone and asked him to guess where I was. He first guessed the North Pole, then Mall of America. I sent it to Emily who guessed Santa's Workshop. Nope, Bronners... Google it.

For several years I have been collecting Christmas ornaments when I travel. On this trip I had already gotten a few from Kansas (ruby slippers), South Dakota, Yellowstone, Glacier, Lake Itasca, but to buy one here at the store of stores...how to choose....it was not as hard as I thought. A shopping bag with ornaments inside and the name of the store on the front of the bag...sold...and I bought an eagle from the animal section. I love eagles and we saw a few on our trip.

So if you are ever in Michigan, and can get to Frankemuth, stop for a beer and a bratwurst at the Bavarian Inn, and go to Bronners. It's an amazing place, Christmas 361 days of the year- closed only 4 days. Check out their web page...truly amazing. http://www.bronners.com/

Yoopie Soul Food

Driving across northern Michigan, this time admiring Lake Michigan, we saw signs for "Pasties." No, get your mind out of the gutter, this is food, not adult entertainment. We stopped for lunch at a place that had on it's sign: "Yoopie Soul Food" My curiosity is really piqued...I was about to discover what is a "pasty" but had a new question: what is a "yoopie"?

We ordered three, the original-a beef pasty, a veggie one and a pizza pasty. A root beer and a cream soda completed our lunch order. Back in the RV we set about tasting Yoopie soul food.

The beef pasty had lean ground beef, potato and rutabaga encrusted in a pastry crust. They were shaped like a half moon, smaller than a calzone, but bigger than a pirogi. It was baked, not fried and was more flaky than a calzone, it was not a yeast dough, more like a pot pie crust. A little dry, but tasty. The veggie one was similar but had carrots and celery. I didn't taste the pizza one. It just seemed wrong. If it wasn't yeasty dough, I wouldn't like it.

I took a flyer from the store that answered some of my questions. Pasties have a Cornish heritage, the Cornish immigrants worked the mines and often took pasties for lunch into the mines. The real mystery was solved, a "Yoopie" is a person from Upper Peninsula Michigan.

We stopped again to put our feet into Lake Michigan then drove around the upper peninsula and across the Mackinac Bridge. Lake Huron to one side and Lake Michigan on the other. I'm not into bridges, but this one WAS beautiful. As promised, I thought of our waiter in Oregon who haled from this part of the world. We stayed at yet another lake, Higgins Lake, but arrived too late to explore the area.

Land of Lakes

Northern Wisconsin is also full of lakes, passed Land of Lakes and stayed at Chain of Lakes. Most impressive was my first view of Lake Superior. It looked like an ocean with waves and you could see no shore on the other side. A young man said to Skip, "this is our ocean" and was so happy that it was clean and clear. He was from twin cities and hadn't seen either the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean. The Jersey shore certainly isn't as clean as Lake Superior...

Wisconsin was another drive through state and we wished we could have stayed longer. Traveling east I keep calling it, but it is really going home. I want to be home, but I want to see more of these states...