Month: June 2019

Garden Update

While I was away on the trip, my husband stayed at home and took care of things. His hobby is gardening. The produce began coming in and has not stopped. Here are pictures of some of the things that we have right now.

Cucumbers and Squash
Red and yellow tomatoes, potatoes, peppers
Onions and potatoes

We have already shared at least this many onions and potatoes with other friends and family members. We’ve also given away some squash.

Usually, we have many more beans: green, lima, and purple hull. For some reason, the beans have not done well this year. The weather stayed cooler for much longer than usual and it has been raining almost daily. Every year is an adventure!

The End of Our Ten Day Trip

We got an early start and crossed into Ohio before 7 am. The terrain is starting to get a little flatter. I never realized that Ohio was as big as it is, especially when you drive diagonally across it. We stopped in Louisville, Kentucky to pick up a cocker spaniel. We now had a packed car and were finally headed home. After crossing back into the Central Time Zone, we continued our trip into Tennessee, Arkansas, and then into Texas.

In the last ten days, we had driven through twenty-one states and delivered eight puppies to their new homes Even though we had not been able to make many stops to “tour” the different areas, the trip gave us a terrific overview to pick where we would like to return for a longer visit.

Trip Day 9

Since Yarmouth is on Cape Cod, we wanted to see what the beach was like up north. So we spent about 20 minutes walking on the beach. It is cold!! We are still in shorts and short sleeve shirts. We definitely were not prepared to come up north, even in the late spring. Now we are headed to New Bedford to pick up one of three dogs on our trip home. Some of the things we noticed on this trip is that Northerners use their car horns way more than we do in Texas. Also, they spend lots of time either just sitting in traffic or speeding past cars when they can. Something else that we don’t have that is common up here are the Roundabouts, and our mile markers are in whole numbers; whereas up here, they can be in tenths or two tenths. Seems like you could save lots of money on signs by them just being by the mile.

Cape Cod Beach

New Bedford seems to be an older city that has lots to do with whaling. There is even a cobblestone road. We pick up the dog, who we nickname Precious. She is a sweet American Bulldog who is absolutely terrified. We pass through Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York again. This time we are further north in New York so the traffic is not quite as bad. We are now driving in the Hudson River Valley and drive through the Taconic Mountains. We see the exit to Poughkeepsie. It brings back memories of my Dad because he used to travel there for his job. Now we are in Clearfield, Pennsylvania and picking up a beautiful Akita puppy. Just past Clearfield we passed the highest point on this road on this side of the Mississippi River – 2250 Ft. We kept driving through the Allegany National Forest and stopped for the night in Clarion, Pa.

New Bedford Cobblestone Road

Day 8: Finally We Took a Break

We finally made it to Massachusetts, and for the time being, we had no animals with us. My husband’s family came to this country in the 16-1700s from England. The first ancestor that we can trace back lived around Weymouth, Massachusetts. So we at least wanted to drive there and see what it looked like. Basically, now it is just a suburb of Boston. So since we were that close, we decided to spend the day wandering around Boston. We parked in a garage that had spaces so close that I thought we would never get in or out of there. The attendant actually offered to park, but my daughter decided to do so herself with him giving her directions.

Boston Harbor

Then we wandered up to the main street. We were at a wharf that was directly on Boston Harbor. Wow! Who knew that I would ever see the place where the Boston Tea Party took place. It was a wonderful opportunity to explain history to my granddaughter who is homeschooled.

There was some type of event going on where lots of venders were selling various products. There were many beautiful items, but honestly as crowded as the SUV was, they would never have made it home. We looked at the buildings, parks and the harbor with all the boats. We stopped at State Street Provisions for lunch. The thing that I had looked forward to the whole trip was getting to eat clam chowder and lobster. This restaurant was absolutely amazing! My granddaughter got the chowder and my daughter and I split an order of chowder and a lobster roll. With the lobster roll, you had a choice of salad, fries or half and half. I got the half and half because I knew my granddaughter would eat the fries after her chowder. That lobster roll had a lemon zest on it and was chunks of lobster on a toasted roll. It was absolutely the best food that I had on the entire trip. If you are ever in Boston, I would definitely recommend this restaurant!

Clam Chowder and Lobster Roll at State Street Provisions

After eating, we walked around looking at two beautiful churches: St. Leonard’s and St. Stephen’s. They were both very old, built in the 1700s. St. Leonard’s was much more ornate and reminded me of the painted churches here in Texas.

After attending Mass at St. Stephen’s, we left Boston and drove to Yarmouth. It had been a very relaxing and interesting day!

Trip Day 7

Just to let you know, we got rain every single day of this trip except the day we went to the beach. Once we reached Pennsylvania, the traffic really started to pick up. We crossed into New Jersey and pulled over to get gas. We didn’t know that they are required to pump your gas for you in Jersey. They also have boro and townships. Both of them are forms of municipal government.

Next we crossed into New York. My granddaughter wanted to go to New York City but the closest we could do on this trip was to be about 20 miles from the Statue of Liberty. The traffic in New York was awful. It was almost bumper to bumper the entire way.

A little before 1 pm we, we drove into Connecticut. The traffic was still horrible. We noticed that there were no city limits, but they did have town lines. The terrain is still rocky and hilly.

Mystic, Connecticut

Around 4pm we arrived in Rhode Island. We pulled over at the Welcome Center to use the facilities. I’m not sure if they were doing construction on the sight or not, but they only had port-a-potties.

Just after 5 pm, we got to Attelboro, Massachusetts. We found a Motel 6 in Seekonk, R.I. because we were not able to deliver Lincoln until the next morning. By this time you can tell that we are starting to get tired. We have driven for days seeing only things from a moving car in the rain.