EileenSteed: July 2016

Whiteface Mountain, NY

From Cleveland I met with Drake and family in Streetsboro, Ohio to spend a couple days visiting with them and going to Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We had a long train ride in the park, from one end to the other and back again. It's a cool old train complete with bike cars if you want to bike and ride or hike. It was great spending time with the family. We all traveled back to Toledo on Sunday and saw the fireworks on Sunday night. I left for home Monday morning.

Arrived back in Westmont on July 4, 2016, 46 days after my journey began, after staying in 22 hotel rooms and 2 homes, and burning 198 gallons of gas in my car. Gosh, it's great to sleep in my own bed. I slept like the dead on Monday night. It took me a couple days to put everything up, do the laundry, shop for groceries, and start cutting down the jungle that has grown in my yard. I had a neighbor cut my grass while I was gone, but the bushes are blocking the windows and front door. It's great to be home and take the time to tackle these household chores.

What a magnificent trip! I will never forget the opportunity to appreciate the beauty of our country, nor the heartbreak of walking through the cemetery at Gettysburg and seeing names on the grave stones, some with only numbers. Walking past the tombs of George and Martha Washington with tears of gratitude streaming down my face. The smell of the pine trees as I drove past long cool lakes in New Hampshire. Driving up AND down mountains. Picnicking many afternoons on the side of lakes, enjoying our national and state parks. Learning about our history through the expertise of many National Park Rangers, exhibits, artifacts, and videos in visitor centers and museums. And the wonderful opportunity to re-connect with my friends Carol, Joann, and Bill - thank you for your kindness and love. Thank you to the many new friends I met along the way.

Traveling down the road is always interesting. Be aware if you travel in Montreal, it is illegal to turn right on red, in the rest of Canada it's legal. Go figure! In Quebec I saw a warning sign with a truck tipped on it side wheels and a thermometer colored red on the bottom half of the sign. I think it is the caution, bridge may be icy when wet sign. I saw several different animal signs: don't feed the animals, animals crossing, warning animals next 20 miles… Animal types varied depending on the how far north you are. I saw warning signs for horses, deer, and moose. I did see a lot of Rocky’s in the woods but no Bullwinkles. Not that I wanted to encounter a moose on the road, I didn’t need a wreck, but I really did want to see what they looked like live. In Lake Placid there is a Bowl Winkles rec center, not the same thing.

I was very fortunate not to have any major car problems. I drive a 2009 Chevy Malibu. It runs great and held up swell. I did have a couple problems. One was an intake valve on the heater that was clicking one night. I sent out a post on Facebook with a video of what was happening and my car smart friends were able to diagnose it. I called the car dealer and they told me it won't affect the car by driving it with the clicking noise. I still have to take it in for repair. I ran over a nail in New Hampshire and had a slow leak in one of my tires. At Bar Harbor the auto repair shop fixed it up and gave me a well timed oil change to boot. So, for all those miles, I think my little Chevy did a hell of a job up and down the mountains and all around the bends.

With long drives between stops I found myself noticing street signs. Lake Placid has a sign RECYCLE CIRCLE. I wonder if that is where you bring your recyclables. If not, living on that street could be very competitive. Can you imagine if your status on the block increased or decreased depending on the amount you recycled or sent to the village dump? Too much stress for me! In Virginia I saw DRINKARD ROAD. I don't even think that is a word, but I wonder about the story behind it. Was this the avenue of a person who likes to drink too much or did they make moonshine and were advertising for patrons? The next block over was MONKEYWRENCH. This was a very industrious town. One town in New Hampshire had a SALLY FIELD WAY. In New York State there was a MOON, a little ways further up the road there was another MOON. I wondered if this was a half moon since the roads didn’t cross the street to the other side; otherwise they would have been a full MOON. There were a lot of PRIVATE roads in Maine. I didn’t want to go there anyway. I crossed a BARGAIN ROAD, I was never one to stop to save a few bucks. Given my current circumstances, perhaps I should have. There were street signs with no names, just numbers. That might be an address, it’s a bit confusing.

I saw two funeral homes right next to each other in Vermont, CHEATEM and TRIPP. You don't have to travel far to be taken for a ride.

With all the cities, towns, parks, road ways, museums, mountains and lakes, I just want to shout I TRULY LOVE AMERICA and am FOREVER GRATEFUL to our forefathers and mothers who stood tall and together to build our magnificent nation. From the founders George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, to the courage of Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Katy Stanton, Frederick Douglas, John Brown, and Susan B. Anthony, to the insight of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, to the aspirations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Gloria Steinem, to our current president Barack Obama, thank you for your courage, your wisdom, and your commitment to our country. We are so blessed to have had these leaders and all the others who took a stand to provide us with the nation we call home.

As a country we are going through a very difficult time. On the whole, I know we are not a nation of racists. It's hard to tell from what we see happening on television across the country, but I know we all want to see our children live long fruitful happy lives, to see our neighbors enjoy the opportunity for a quality education, a good job, a grocery store close to home so they are not living in a food dessert, and to see our parents move gently through old age with healthcare that doesn't make them choose between eating a meal or paying for medicine. Together I know we can stand against gun violence and ban assault weapons and demand background checks that make sense. Just saying.

Thank you for taking the journey with me. I am still looking for a job, no really, I want meaningful employment. I want to make a difference, not just collect a pay check. Keep me in mind and if you hear of anything let me know.

Peace be with and your families.

Here are some of my favorite images from the trip: