The End Is The Beginniing!

Our trip is complete.  The quest for lobster satisfied, for now! Still why do we ‘Look for America’?

MaryAlice and I love road trips. We traveled as much as we could before we retired and now that we’ve retired we have taken on the quest for experiencing as much of our country, cuisine, people and world as possible. We look for America and fun.

 Traveling takes planning and we learned a lot about planning trips on our Route 66 trip last year. But there are different kinds of ‘traveling.’  The Route 66 trip, the actual drive was the trip and goal, yes we drove to Santa Monica CA from Chicago, but experiencing Route 66, its history, its people and its roots was much more than just traveling cross country. We wanted to experience the feel of traveling cross country, and the amenities of a certain era.  For our Lobster quest trip the goal was to experience Maine and its Atlantic Coast heritage as well as its culture and cuisine. 

Yet we knew that our drive to Maine would take us through areas that would tantalize us to stop and tour.  That happened in New York at a winery, in Vermont with a brew pub and a tour of the King Arthur Bakery (hmmm see a trend here?).

Another part of the lure of travel for me is to pull myself out of the usual routine and experience new places and people.  I especially like experiencing people that are traveling on the road.  It is so refreshing to see all sorts of people, especially retired folks, who are traveling to go hiking, biking, and or just touring (read Active):  People who are still curious. People who still want to learn.  People who haven’t given up. People who are not sitting on a couch and watching television and wondering why they’re bored and why they have no energy.

Our travels included main thoroughfares as well as back roads, small towns and large cities.  To be fair, we didn’t stay in any large cities on purpose (except for Montreal and its horrific rush hour- we didn’t stay, we were trapped).    The places we stayed were typically small towns.  For example Old Orchard Beach is a resort town in Maine.  We stayed at a B&B and spent one evening on the front porch getting to know our fellow travelers, sipping wine, and playing guitar.  We shared road stories, sites to see, places to go.  A memorable evening with great folks we’ll never see again.  This is traveling!

Now to get a little philosophical: I feel that the America that I am looking for is good people who respect other people; people who respect freedom; people who respect differences and embrace diversity.  In our retirement travels so far I think we’ve experienced this.  I have found hope for our country and for our people.  From Malibu to Kennebunkport to Key West to Traverse City we’ve met all kinds of people of all walks of life and religious persuasion and found a good that is palpable.  (Yes, in Oklahoma we did experience a smash and grab when someone robbed our car, but the people that repaired our car and the people that helped us were incredible!).

I feel blessed to live in such a great country, bordered by another great country to the north.  I also feel blessed to be able to travel after retirement. AND I feel doubly blessed that MaryAlice loves traveling (and me!).

Now it’s time to start planning a New Road Trip!!!

As Bilbo said:

I Râd ui-renia lim a lim

dad od annon ial heriant.

Si palan-'wenniel nâ Râd,

a boe anim bo den padad,

aphadol den na-dail verai,

na-den ten ertha râd annaer

ias raith a lynd lim gevedir.

A na-man hi? Ú-bedithon.

Translation:

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say.

Peace to all and Good Travels.

D