Settling in

     We spent the weekend getting settled, unpacking boxes, going to the grocery store, and having our first visit with Chloe (and her dad Brian, and Grandma Michele who is visiting from Rhode Island through Christmas week).  We love having a great playground a 5 minute walk away; they also had some bounce houses on Saturday afternoon to encourage shoppers at the Fountain Park shops.  So it didn't take long for us to head over to the park to check things out.  The bigger kids had kind of taken over the bounce houses so Chloe tried them a couple of times (with help from an older girl), but then was much happier at the playground.  Brian took off for the 1.25 mile run around the fountain lake, and then Michele decided to walk around it.  Chloe was happy to stay and play with us, which was nice.  We ended up back at the condo where Chloe helped to decorate the small ornament "tree" that we brought from Maine, so things are looking a bit more festive around here.  She also grabbed the phone/camera to take a few shots herself.  See if you can tell which ones she took!  You might also be able to tell that she chose what to wear.  As Brian said, something he saw on Facebook about things to learn from a toddler -- "Don't worry about what you wear!"  But doesn't everyone need pink cowgirl boots to go with their heart sleeper to wear to the playground??
     We took our first walk around the fountain yesterday, including the ridge walk trail that goes through the desert landscape.  Bonnie and Merle discovered it when they were staying here several years ago and it quickly became a favorite!  The temperature was just right for a walk (60s), and we soaked up the expansive views and sunshine.

We made it!

     After 5 days mostly in the car, we arrived in Fountain Hills around 7 PM on Friday night.  The fountain started its hourly plume just as we were turning into the drive, so we felt it was welcoming us "home" for the winter!  It was a day of amazing contrasts, from the flat grasslands of West Texas (including many "wind farms") to the rolling plains, mesas and mountains of New Mexico, and then the high desert of Arizona.  Ross was especially interested in the glimpse of Gallup, NM where he had sent many dental impressions when he worked for the Indian Health Service (it is at the heart of the Navajo Nation).
     We decided to start getting better acquainted with our adopted state, and so took a quick detour through the Petrified Forest National Park near Holbrook, AZ.  The 28-mile drive through part of the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest showed amazingly different landscapes and geologic factors, and we hope to go back with a bit more time to explore, walk and take in the geology of it all.
     Then it was back to putting down the miles as we descended through an area looking much like Maine (snow and all), along the Mogollon Ridge to Payson, and then on to the Phoenix area and temps in the 60s. It was definitely the most interesting day of driving -- and there was no active precipitation, which was a plus!

     Over the trip we worked our way through 3 months worth of podcasts of The Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLain that helped to tick off the hours. We love the stories and most of the music he plays, and there was an interesting Dave and Morley story of Canadians shopping in Bangor, and then crossing back across the border!  It was also interesting to see all the cross country transportation -- lots of doubledecker container trains, double trailer trucks, whole airports devoted to Fed Ex, etc., etc.  It probably shouldn't be surprising, given the variety of goods available everywhere -- it has to get there somehow!  But we still found it noteworthy to see all of that day after day and state after state.

Amarillo early morning 12-21-12

The trip from Saint Robert, MO to Amarillo, TX covered 600 + miles and 10 1/2 hours.  All of this was along the old Route 66 on its newer sister route I40 and 44. You could still get a feel for what it would have been like to drive on Rte. 66!  Much of the morning reminded us of a class 3 whitewater run due to high wind and intermittent snow, with the cartop cargo carrier adding to our wind profile and the heavy stream of trucks creating their own windstorms. But we were out of the snow by mid morning and the wind by later in the afternoon, as we watched the landscape slowly change from the rolling hills of the Ozarks to flat farmland to expanding plains as we moved through Oklahoma and into Texas.  As we skirted by Joplin we saw an area with big piles of logs, presumably from trees blown down in the May 2011 tornado.  It has been nice to see places that we have only heard about up to now.  By late afternoon we were wishing for some clouds to hide the sun as we drove west!  But we made it to Amarillo (no signs yet of any armadillos).

 We hope to be in Fountain Hills by the end of the day.  Google Maps has us going through Albuquerque then Gallop, through Navajo country, by the Petrified Forest, then toward Payson, AZ, down the Beeline (Rt. 87) and into  Fountain Hills. It should take another 10 to 11 hours but we will cross another time zone when we cross into New Mexico, so it should still be daylight when we arrive.  But, we may do some touring stops  along the way and won't rule out another overnight stay so we can do a little exploring of NM and northern AZ along the way.

Happy Friday, everyone!  We need to hit the road!

Waiting for the sun in St. Robert, MO

Hi to all,

We are at the gateway to the Ozarks in Saint Robert, Missouri after a fairly smooth trip through the flat farmland of the Midwest. For a while we felt like were in a constant "truck sandwich," and even wondered if we had missed a sign saying "trucks only" but eventually made it to clearer roads.  We passed close by the arch of St. Louis as we crossed the Mississippi River, having beat rush hour thanks to moving into a new time zone. Arriving here at around 6:15 PM, we walked over to a Ruby Tuesday for dinner and a glass of wine. We have rarely appreciated a franchise restaurant as much.  Timing is everything! Unfortunately, the change of time also meant that we were up way earlier than we might have wished.  The weather forecast looks ominous for a lot of the country and it is very windy here after a thunderstorm moved through last night, but hopefully we are on the west side of most of this. At breakfast the morning we were given angel pins and an angel ornament by the woman working the breakfast room to keep us safe along the way.  We add them to our Oaxaca travel hearts from Mariah that we have been wearing every day.  We are thankful for any and all good vibes!   Note the straight out flags in the morning pic from our hotel room!  We'll see how the roof top carrier manages this wind! Oklahoma here we come!

December 19th- early morn in Delaware, OH

6:00AM  12/19/12

Hi all,

We are here in Delaware, OH having spent the night at Mark and Jennifer's house.  Kathleen is home from college and Elizabeth is studying for exams.  Mark made us a great beef stew, and with a nice salad and fresh baked bread we really enjoyed the home cooking.

We got off late from Biddeford on Monday morning, probably around 11:30 as moderate snow continued throughout the morning; schools in the area were either delayed or cancelled.  Nevertheless we made it, through snow, sleet, freezing rain, plain rain (everything except sun) all the way to Syracuse, NY.  We arrived around 6:30 PM, got settled and began looking for a close restaurant.  We decided on Tully's Tavern, only 0.3 mile away which had a 2 star rating.  Yes, it was a sports bar and there were at least 30 TVs on. All at the same time!  All on the same station!  Syracuse was playing Detroit and Boeheim was about to win his 900th game.  We were attempting to find a nice quiet place to celebrate the news that the sale on the office did go through that afternoon around 3:30 PM. The food was fairly good but the atmosphere was hardly "romantic".

We arrived in Delaware yesterday around 4:00 PM thanks to the new Google Maps app on our iPhone.  Yes, we ran into snow showers again but the driving was much better.  We saw the sun for perhaps an hour and even had to don some sunglasses.  It has been a great visit although short and after breakfast we will be headed off through Indiana, Missouri, then Oklahoma.  We have no idea yet where we will stay, but will use our Choice Hotels app to book a room when we figure it out.  The technology is really making a trip like this manageable!

Right now the showers are humming as Mark, Jennifer, Kathleen and Elizabeth are all getting ready for their workday routines.  We will probably wait until they are gone to try out the water pressure.

Sunday December 16th- Take Off!

Sunday, December 16th
Hello all,
We left Blue Hill around 3 PM today after a long day of packing, and a little cleaning.  Who knows what we actually have brought with us, but we are underway, and that is the important part!  

After a very chilly morning of packing the car/cargo carrier, and getting the house in leave-able shape, we headed off to try to beat the coming weather.
It wasn't until around Liberty (2/3 of the way to Augusta) that we saw the first flakes floating past the headlights.  But it still seemed to be just nuisance flakes until we stopped for gas at Freeport.  As we pulled off the Interstate, Beth announced, "It is your turn to drive!!"  While we were aiming for Portsmouth, we settled for Biddeford as our "port in the storm"  around 7 PM -- and had several moments of wondering if we had pushed our luck in passing up a hotel in Portland as we followed plows and crazy drivers and saw notices of a crash up ahead.  But we are happily settled across from the Southern Maine Medical Center (and equally happy that we don't "need" it), and will venture on tomorrow when the conditions support it. 

We are excited to be on our way on this adventure, and also aware of how lucky we are to be able to do it -- in so many ways.  We will try to find some green and white to wear tomorrow in honor of Sandy Hook/Newtown, and will think about everyone affected by that -- which is all of us!  Thanks for being a part of our journey -- and we are grateful to part of yours!

With love and best wishes,
Beth & Ross