When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls
And the stars begin to twinkle in the night
In the mist of a memory you wander on back to me
Breathing my name with a sigh

In the still of the night once again I hold you tight
Though you're gone, your love lives on when moonlight beams
And as long as my heart will beat, sweet lover we'll always meet
Here in my deep purple dreams
Here in my deep purple dreams

For some reason, that song is stuck in my head today. I remember the Donny & Marie version from my childhood. The tune was catchy, but it's kinda creepy to hear a brother and sister singing it, especially when Marie speaks the lyrics (which would just be horribly cheesy if it wasn't her brother singing with her). Oh the things that flew over my innocent adolescent head! Anyway, I found this version by Sarah Vaughn that's how the song was intended to be sung (in other words, not bubblegum pop). Let's see if I can figure out hot to embed it.

 

We got home on Wednesday evening. We were gone for 19 days and in that time we went through 19 states, visited 9 national parks/memorials, a Presidential Library and Museum, numerous Route 66 attractions, hit every major city on our route except St. Louis at rush hour, and had beautiful weather and a wonderful time almost every single day of our trip.

According to my odometer, we put about 7,000 miles on the van. I had the oil changed the week before we left and I'm getting nagging messages that I need to change the oil again. The map above shows our general route, plus there were drives to out of the way places like Mt. St. Helens, Crater Lake and the Grand Canyon, geocaching side trips that ended up taking all day, a detour to Lake Havasu City, Arizona because that was the closest place we could find a hotel room, backtracking to see things like the point where three states meet and a singing highway and a murder bordello and other cool things, diverting to an alternate alignment of Route 66 so we could walk over the Chain of Rocks Bridge, and so on. All of that added about an extra 1,000 miles to what is shown on the map above.

So, as I said above, we got home Wednesday evening. Thursday was spent catching up the laundry and buying enough food for that night and Friday morning. Friday was spent running errands and buying food for the next week. Today (Saturday) was spent helping joyouswind move into her new apartment.  I bought tons of postcards while we were traveling, but I haven't had time or energy to write on any of them except the daily ones I sent to my mom and daughter, the handful I wrote one night to send to some of the Greats (great nieces and nephews) and the odd one here and there because the place we'd visited made me think of someone specific. I keep looking at the two bags of postcards and the pen pal letters that came while I was gone and thinking I really should sit down and at least write postcards to my pen pals. I promise I'll get around to it soon. But first...

• a dentist appointment
• an oil change
• contractors coming to replace all of our windows
• more laundry
• paying the bills that came while we were gone
• finishing the Epic Road Trip Scrapbook we started during the trip
• printing more photos
• a doctor appointment
• etc., etc., etc...

Here are a few photos from the last few days of our trip.

We stopped in Arcata, California one night and went downtown the next morning to mail a package at the post office. The post office was on the square in the old downtown area and on the way there, we passed an old theater. I wanted to walk back to the theater to take some photos. It was three blocks back, and I found this alley as I was walking. The walls were covered with beautiful paintings on both sides of the alley.

 

 

 

I ended up liking these two quick shots better than all the photos I took of the theater.

The famous corner in Winslow, Arizona.

 

The Harvey House in Winslow - La Posada.

 

The Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona.

 

The Painted Desert.

 

The Harvey House in Santa Fe, New Mexico - La Fonda.

 

The "miracle" staircase at Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe.

 

One of the exhibits at the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma.

 

The Blue Whale of Catoosa.

 

The Galena Murder Bordello

 

The original Tow Mater (actually, it was named Tow Tater) in Galena, Kansas.

 

Rainbow Curve Bridge between Galena and Baxter Springs, Kansas - the last surviving Marsh Arch Bridge on Route 66.

 

A funky chicken at Red Oak Village (created by artist Lowell Davis) near Carthage, Missouri.

 

The Chain of Rocks Bridge over the Mississippi River in the St. Louis area.

 

 

 

Wow, it's been a while since I posted! We have been in and out of dead zones as we drive during the day, and just dead tired when we stop at night. We each put together a page for our Epic Road Trip Scrapbook in the evening, write in our journals, occasionally manage to spend a few minutes in the hot tub if the hotel has one, find something for dinner, sometimes do laundry, and a myriad other things that keep us too busy and tired to blog or even respond to comments. But we've been having fun and making progress. Since my last post, we've been through Oregon and found the site of the very first geocache, driven down the Redwood Highway in California, stopped for a golden sunset on a secluded beach, drove through a redwood tree, got to say hi to a couple of xanga friends, stood on the Santa Monica pier, drove over London Bridge, visited the Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest and Painted Desert, saw three old Harvey House hotels, stood on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, spent the night in Santa Fe, drove over a singing highway, stopped at the halfway point on Route 66, visited a cool Route 66 museum, walked through the Oklahoma City Memorial, and bought gas and postcards at Pops. And about a hundred other things. We had a serious setback in Flagstaff, but everything is going fine now. Tomorrow we will make our way to the Kansas section of Route 66 and hopefully the Joplin to Carthage section in Missouri. We are getting very road weary as we get closer to home, but we will be on the road for a few more days.

Here are some random photos from the past week or so.

Mt. Hood (or as we called it, Mt. Hid)

 

The Original Stash Plaque

 

Welcome to California

 

Golden sunset (completely unedited)

 

It was a tight squeeze (notice the folded in side mirrors)

 

This was on our 35th Anniversary

 

The Barstow, California Harvey House

 

Basilica of St. Francis of Assissi in Santa Fe, New Mexico

 

The halfway point. I'm closer to home than Brett.

 

Here's a blast from the past. Seedsower and I signed this truck five years ago. I was happy to see that our names hadn't been covered over by other signers.

 

Welcome to Texas

 

Part of the Oklahoma City memorial. This place still moves me to tears.

I seem to be missing a lot of photos from Arizona and New Mexico. I guess I'll have to post again later.

I wrote this post late Sunday night and the crappy internet connection at the hotel booted me offline just as I was writing the last sentence before hitting 'Publish'. Thank you, Xanga, for the auto-save feature! Time to pack away the laptop and get ready to hit the Mother Road.

We are about to load our luggage on the cart and check out of our Portland, Oregon hotel. Today we head south toward California. I just wanted to quickly share a few photos of places we've been and things we've seen this past week. Highlights have been Devil's Tower in Wyoming, the Fremont community in Seattle, accidentally hiking up a mountain in Snoqualmie Pass, Washington, Mt. St. Helen's, and biggest treat of all, visiting with a friend I hadn't seen in 20 years. Plus, she fed us and let us do our laundry at her house so we are heading south with the memory of a home-cooked meal and our suitcases stuffed with clean clothes! Here are the photos; only my geocaching friends will fully appreciate a few of them. I have to go, Brett is loading the cart and I need to pack my laptop away.

The Continental Divide in Minnesota

Last year a rogue sunflower grew up next to our raspberry patch. Brett harvested the seeds from it and planted them along the back of his butterfly garden. They got big enough for me to notice a couple of weeks ago, and this week they started blooming.

Sunflowers are dear to my heart. My dad was a Kansas boy, so sunflowers make me think of him. In recent years, I've begun associating sunflowers with my friend Tamy... WildWomanOfTheWest from Xanga's heyday.

I love having the bright splash of yellow at the back of the garden. They are screening the grapes that I never got around to doing anything with. Haha! It's too late, now... Bookmark61 and I are heading off on an adventure tomorrow. Who knows when I'll have time to get back online. I'll try, though; we are going to see too many cool things to not share. And just in case a burglar is reading this, don't get any ideas. There are two dogs and a person staying in our house and one of the dogs will rip your ankle right off your leg if you don't know the magic password... Just kidding... there is no magic password.

Can you tell I'm tired? Okay, one more picture. I had a fortune cookie the other day.

One of the things I love most about geocaching is when we stumble upon something cool we didn't know was there. Some of the coolest things we've found have been abandoned roads and bridges, allowed to stand and be reclaimed by nature as they are forgotten by people. There's a post-apocalyptic feel to a man-made structure that's in the process of reverting to grass and trees. It's a weird mix of sadness for what once was and hope that nature will always bounce back.

Today we found such a place. We were looking for a cache under a bridge, but we were hot and tired, it was getting late in the day, the GPS signal was bouncing all over the place thanks to the trees, water and bridge structure, a wild turkey was guarding the area, and the instructions on the cache page were vague. All that to say, we didn't find the cache. We did, however, find the remnants of an older bridge a few yards away that was once what cars on that road crossed to get over the creek.

All other signs of the old road are gone and vines, moss, grass and trees are slowly covering this forgotten old bridge. All in all, I'm happier finding this than if we'd found the cache.

In my last post, I showed you the painting I did on my own, with no instruction, using a photo I took eight years ago as a guide.

For the four nights it took to paint this, Krysten was sitting across the table from me working on her own version of the same scene.

The kid's got talent! It's fun to see how we can look at the exact same photo and see it so differently. I know part of it is because I was seeing those mountains as I remember them from my childhood - larger and with streaks of pink in them.

The trees in our pictures are cottonwoods that grow along the Gila River in Arizona. The mountains are Sleeping Indian on the left and Steeple Rock on the right. They were visible from the yard of my grandparents' house in Duncan, Arizona. That house was destroyed when the Gila River flooded in the 70s, so this view of Steeple Rock is my visual reminder of grandma and grandpa.

Tonight, Krysten and I will be painting a very different picture at Wine & Canvas in South Bend. Tomorrow I need to put away the art supplies and get serious about preparing for a very long road trip. We leave in one week! Yikes!

Tonight I finished... or at least decided to stop... painting my first non-instructor-led painting. It's not a great work of art, but I'm not entirely displeased with it for a first effort.

 

I'm sure my family members will recognize the subject, and being recognizable is a huge step forward for me! I just wish I could have captured all the layers and colors of the desert better.

Today I also got a package in the mail -- my multi-media painting from the Wine & Art class my cousins and I went to on Washington Island! It now has a thick coating of some sort of clear resin protecting the glued on scraps of fabric and stuff that forms the foundation of the painting.

 

The return address on the package was Fair Isle Books, my cousins shop on the island. As I was pulling the packing out of the box, I realized there was something else in there with the painting. My cousin sent me a book called Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple. I've only read a few pages and I'm already hooked.

It's been an artsy month. My friend murisopsis and I went to Wine & Canvas last week and painted two birds on a branch. It was a much easier than usual painting that I still didn't quite get, but I'm happy with my effort.

But that's not all! Joyouswind and I will be heading back to Indiana for Wine & Canvas this weekend. We'll be painting a night scene with a castle; a much more difficult painting I suspect.

Tonight when I got home from the pool, I set up my palette and my cup of water and my brushes to work on my painting. I decided to add one more color to my palette and reached all the way across the table for the tube of paint. I was perched on the edge of the rolling chair, which tipped forward and dumped me onto the floor. Sitting close to the wall was both a blessing and a curse; a blessing because the chair tipped at a 90 degree angle, then got jammed against the wall and didn't continue to fall over on top of me. A curse because I was stuck between the table legs and the seat of the chair with the back of the chair resting on my head and didn't have enough room to maneuver my way out of my predicament. I hollered for Krysten, but she was shut upstairs in her bedroom watching instructional videos for her online classes. Her dog Jack, however, rushed to see what had happened and was very concerned for me. He kept putting his face next to mine and looking in my eyes and putting his body right up against mine. It was sweet, but I was trying to move the table without tipping the heavy chair onto my head and he was getting in my way. I had to keep pushing him away. Boo, meanwhile, couldn't be bothered to leave his bed in the living room where he was hoarding both of the new toys I bought this week (one for each dog). I know which dog I prefer to honor on National Dog Day, and it's not my rotten little ball of fluff.

You will be happy to know that I eventually made it up off the floor and the mishap did not knock over my cup of water or send my palette flying. I discovered that when the chair tipped forward, one of the rollers broke and that's why I couldn't get it to stop tipping. I suppose after about 30 years and multiple moves, it might be time for new kitchen chairs. I moved that particular chair over to Brett's usual spot since he's out of town. I sure hope I remember to tell him about it when he gets home.

So, that's been my day. My legs are a bit sore tonight. I'm not sure if it's from water aerobics or falling out of my chair.

I promised you the next time I felt overheated and lightheaded I would tell you about the Stavkirke. I lied. The "next" time I felt that way, it was almost immediately followed by feeling too cold and I spent several hours shivering and shuddering, wearing my winter nightgown and fuzzy socks, under a pile of quilts, cuddling a heating pad. After that I got dehydrated and am just now getting back to normal hydration, but today the heat got to me again. It's not even that it's so terribly hot - only in the 80s - but the humidity is so much higher than we're used to here. And maybe I'm coming down with something that's making me more susceptible. Anyway, this is the time after the "next" time I feel overheated and lightheaded, so here's my post about the Stavkirke.

Stavkirke is a combination of two Scandinavian words meaning "stave" or "pole" and "church." The stavkirke on Washington Island is a replica of one in Borgund, Norway which dates back to 1150 A.D. I am going to quote from the brochure about the architecture and construction of the church. Everything in italics is from the brochure.

Four dragons at front and rear of the church were first sketched then carved from pieces of pine. These dragon heads are from a design in a Stavkirke book. Two side walkways called ambulatories served folks who due to illness or other causes, including poverty, could not be inside with worshipers were here still ministered to. This area was also a place to leave weapons of those inside and sometimes referred to as the "armory."

Me again... You can see the dragon heads in the picture above. The half wall that goes around the front corner is one of the ambulatories. The other is on the opposite side of the church. You can also see three crosses, one on each of the lower roof peaks. Since the church is a replica of a medieval Norwegian church, there are elements of both Christianity and paganism in the architecture.

There are twelve center staves, or masts, as well as heavy beamed, ship-like construction throughout the structure. Viking shipbuilding techniques characterize the all-wood construction: tongue and groove joinery; shaped masts; ship 'knees' or frames; and use of wood trunnels (dowels or 'tree nails') and heavy, wrought iron fastenings. Carvings and adornments blend both pagan and Christian symbols. Overhead, suspended from the rafters, is a model of a mackinaw schooner, a working sailing vessel popular for fishing and transporting goods across the lake in the mid-t0-late 1800s. This model was handcrafted from cedar net buoys used by a local island fisherman in the 1920s.

Me again... There are no nails in this building. Where a nail might be needed, a carved wooden pin is used, just like the Vikings did it. The craftsmanship is astonishing. This building is still a work in progress, lovingly crafted by the congregation of the Lutheran church on whose grounds it is built. Its foremost purpose is as a place of prayer and meditation and it is open daily for that purpose. It is also a tribute to Washington Island's Scandinavian heritage.

Two candelabras rest to the sides of the altar. Originally, candles were all that softly lit the interior of stave churches in Norway. Light is now provided through the thirteen clear glass windows on the north and south walls near the roof. One colored window softens the morning and evening sunlight. The words HAN ER OPPSTANDEN just above the altar table mean "He is standing above us" or "He is Risen." Twelve Saint Andrew's crosses surround the nave with typical Norwegian carving on nine of them. This work is still in progress.

Me again... I think there are actually 6 clear glass windows on each side and the colored glass window is in the back of the church. Hey, look! I got my cousins in the shot above! That's Ginny standing on the left and Debbi sitting on the right.

Still me... After we left the building, we wandered along the Prayer Path. There is a boardwalk access to the church which we used when we went in. The Prayer Path is a lovely footpath through the woods with occasional "stations" consisting of a plaque with a Bible verse and maybe a ship's helm or some other piece of nautical equipment to go with the mostly nautical theme of the Bible verses.

The Prayer Path is intended to be a place for reflection and prayer. It features a number of prayer stations as well as meditation benches and engraved plaques containing selected verses of scripture which will help to underscore the sacred nature of this special place.

Me again... In some places along the path there were simple cairns built by anonymous hands as silent memorials.

The view along the prayer path was one of continual beauty and peace.

 

I'm late to the party, as usual. I was about to shut down my computer Friday night at around 12:15 AM when I noticed a friend had posted a photo of the lighthouse in Holland, Michigan for International Lighthouse Day. Here I am with photos of the lighthouses my cousin and I saw during her visit, already loaded and ready to post, and I missed International Lighthouse Day. Story of my life!

My cousin Ginny and I, as you may recall, went to visit our cousin Debbi at Washington Island, which sits in Lake Michigan on the Wisconsin side and very near Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Ginny and I came back to The 'Duh the long way, through the U.P. and down the lake shore. Since we drove to the island by way of Chicago, we ended up driving all the way around the lake by the time we got home. Ginny is from the Yosemite region of California and the four-year-old drought has dried up all the lakes, rivers and reservoirs in her area. She was amazed by the size of our beautiful lake, and how green everything is, and how the lakeside towns look so similar to the seaside towns on the Pacific coast. When I was telling her my plan for our little road trip, she mentioned that she would like to see a lighthouse and I told her that would be no problem. You can't throw a rock around here without hitting a lighthouse! We didn't even begin to see all of the lighthouses along our route. Here's a map of Lake Michigan lighthouses I found at lighthousefriends.com

 

As you can see, there are quite a few lighthouses in and around the lake! In fact, there are so many, they couldn't fit them all on this map! Washington Island is in Door County, Wisconsin. Here is the map for Door County area lighthouses.

 

We crossed the Mackinac Bridge over the Straits of Mackinac on our way home. Here is the map for lighthouses in the Straits of Mackinac area.

 

If we'd tried to see every lighthouse, we'd still be out there somewhere along the lake shore. Here are the five lighthouses we saw. I had intended to stop at the Frankfort Breakwater, but time did not allow it on this trip.

PILOT ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE

This lighthouse is in Door County, Wisconsin. I took this photo from the ferry with my lens zoomed all the way out. All those white specks are seagulls.

PLUM ISLAND REAR RANGE LIGHT

Another Door County light and another shot from the ferry, although we passed much closer to Plum Island than we did to Pilot Island.

PETOSKEY PIERHEAD LIGHT

This small pierhead light is located in the beautiful town of Petoskey, Michigan, in the Straits of Mackinac area. If you squint, you can see it in the background. That's my cousin Ginny in the foreground. People who see us together think we're sisters.

ST. JOSEPH NORTH PIER LIGHTHOUSE

This is the one (techincally, the two) in my area. The inner light is getting some much needed TLC and the North Pier is closed. I'm happy I chose to take Ginny to the South Pier for the view of the lighthouse and a ride (okay, two rides) on the Silver Beach Carousel while we were there.

MANISTIQUE EAST BREAKWATER LIGHT

I saved my favorite photo for last. To get to this lighthouse, we had to take a long stroll down a boardwalk, leave the boardwalk and hike down a dune, scramble over large cement slabs, climb up onto the pier and walk at least a quarter-mile on the pier, which makes a 90-degree turn along the way. You can't tell from the photo, but the lake was very choppy that day. The waves weren't big enough to crash over the pier, but they were crashing against the side of the pier and splashing up onto it. I deliberately chose a dry spot to take this photo, thinking the angle of the waves was such that that they weren't splashing there. I was wrong, of course; it was just windy enough to dry the puddles quickly between splashes. (In other words, I got wet!) The lighthouse looks black in this photo, but that's just the lighting - it's actually red.

It's been a very busy time at my house; there's no telling when I'll have time to post next; I'm only posting now because I don't feel well and am resting. Next time I get overheated and feel faint, I'll tell you about the Stavkirke.