September 26, 2007
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…we’re home once again.
This was our first trip in a while. Last year we planned to go in September, out west to the national parks in Utah, but my appendix decided I needed to visit the hospital instead. And this whole year has been challenging in so many ways, with losses and new responsibilities and changing roles for both Stan and me. We’ve had our shoulders steadily to the plow, and so this trip felt overdue.
I believe that no one else appreciates hearing about my vacation as much as I enjoy sharing the details. So I won’t bore you but will just say that we didn’t go so very far afield this time around, nor did we do anything particularly dramatic. We ventured north to Minnesota and Wisconsin, and in so doing we got to see harvest time in Iowa and Illinois along the way.
Every day was enjoyable and beautiful, even when it rained. Fall is definitely a good time to travel; the crowds have thinned, the heat has abated and the traffic is bearable. And we were pleasantly surprised to find we’d picked prime leaf-peeping season in the northern reaches of our trip…lovely orange, red and yellow icing on the cake!
Highlights included the surprising beauty of the upper stretches of the mighty Mississippi as we traveled the Great River Road,
eating fabulous walleye while gazing out over Lake Superior, hiking a really remote, rugged trail to a gem of a lake that was only a stone’s throw from the Canadian border,
watching Stan catch a nice bass on his first cast into the lake, hearing the loon’s strange and wild call, “discovering” Bayfield, a postcard of a village on Superior,
drinking freshly pressed apple cider from a roadside stand, and touring the Amana Colonies and admiring the beautiful old homes and buildings there.
Another bit of icing on my cake?
Seeing quilt patterns on the sides of the barns in Iowa! I practically jumped up and down in the car when I saw my first one….Pin Wheel…and remembered the story of the Iowa governor’s wife asking women in quilt guilds to adorn their barns in this way to commemorate something a couple of years back. Does anyone remember the occasion or reason? Whatever it was, the huge painted quilt blocks are still there on the sides of the big, old barns, and it does a quilter’s heart good to see them…like finding unexpected treasure!
It is such fun to get to go someplace new, yet it is supremely satisfying to get back home. For I find that travel gives me a new lens for my heart’s eye, with which to more clearly see and fully appreciate my own life. My shoulder is now rested and ready to get back to the plow…and my own bed is going to feel so good tonight!
“Not traveling is like living in the Library of Congress but never taking out more than one or two books.” Marilyn Von Savant
Comments (8)
Oh I loved hearing about your travels! I loved seeing the painted quilts on the barns. I remember reading about that once but can’t pull up any details in my head about it. I could just feel the excitment in our heart and in your post. Thanks for sharing.
Sounds like a wonderful trip. It made me want to take a vacation.
It looks and sounds like such a wonderful trip! Places I have never been to! Some of which I have never heard of – Amana Colonies? I, too, remember something about the quilt patterns on barns, but I don’t remember what. They certainly look beautiful! I am glad you are home safely.
I am trying to get Wil to let me have a quilt block made for the end of our barn. I think they are so neat! We have the perfect place for it. I have several links for quilt barns. I think if you just google it you will get to them.
I agree that we need trips. Since Wil has decided in retirement not to travel like we did when he worked I’m telling him that in this case I need things done to the house to make up for not doing what I really want to be doing. We’ll see how that goes.
I used to live north of Lake Superior. It was always spectacular in the fall. Your photos reminded me of those years living deep in the woods, on a lake. I missed autumn, however, I love living in the tropics. It rained all night and it’s raining all day. The humidity, the sky-is-falling downpours and the rumble-your-house thunder are things I love. However those nothing-but-gray-all-day skies are hard to love. I bet you could find something lovable in them.
I’m sure you had some interesting conversations with people along your trip…
RYC: Finding time to go through clutter is a challenge! I try and pick a project once a month and work on it. FlyLady’s plan is great for decluttering because you can just pick a room that your working on for the week and use the major cleaning time for decluttering. It feels SO GOOD to have less clutter.
I would LOVE to travel up that way! LOVE IT! Your pics and narrative made my broken heart much easier to take! =o> That first picture is my favorite, though! And the quilt pieces on the barns…I would be jumping up and down too!
ryc: Thanks for the kind words. Our interest in Transport For Christ began in the late ’60s when Cerwin was invited to a prayer breakfast to get the ministry launched in this area. As a Christian trucker, he was hooked, and as we attended events, he and I were elected to local offices, and because of our interest and my love for office work, we were asked to be involved in regional work, then both of us were asked to be on the Leadership Team. That’s it in a nutshell. We are blessed.