I made it back from NOLA and am now in . . . New England!

I did a fairly poor job of blogging while I was in New Orleans. We got busy and in the evenings, we were hanging out with our new friend, Royal Rick. So, yes, I did make it home.

A few weeks after getting home from NOLA, I went camping with my family including my sister and her family, who were visiting. I have always liked the day and evening parts of camping but could never manage to get a good night's sleep. Whether sleeping in a tent or pop-up camper, I seemed to wake up whenever the first person in the campground made any noise. I also seemed to never be very comfortable on either an air mattress or camper mattress. Well, let me just say, camping in my brother's air conditioned RV was a whole new experience! The only thing that woke me up was my nephews and that usually wasn't until a sensible time in the morning (except when Isaac would wake everyone up at 3 a.m.). I would definitely camp in an RV again. I think I'd really enjoy taking a year off from school and travel around the country in a small motor home, seeing all the sights and reading lots of books.

The camping trip was at a local state park, Indiana Dunes State Park. Again, I was surprised at how nice the campground was. Despite having camped at many of Indiana's state parks, I had never stayed at the Dunes' campground. I must say, the highlight of the week was helping Caleb master his ability to ride a bike without training wheels. He was very excited and kept making observations about other children riding bikes. "Barb, two of those kids had training wheels and one didn't." "Barb, did you see that girl still had training wheels?" He obviously now felt pride in his new found membership in the No Training Wheels Club. Below are some pictures from that trip.

























































So, as my title suggests, I am now in New England. After entering my 8th month of maximum stress in my position as teachers' union president, I decided I better get out of dodge for a little fun before school starts. One would think that the bologna at school would calm down a little over summer but that has absolutely not been the case. Thus, I made up my mind to go see the Badlands in South Dakota. It's been several years since I went to a new state so it was time. As I looked up accommodations, I discovered the Sturgis motorcycle rally would be in full force during my stay. Thus I decided to change my plans. My cousin lives just north of Boston in Billerica, Massachusetts and visiting her would allow me to add 6 more states to my map of visited states. So, with just a few days notice, I decided to head to New England.

I left two days ago, after teaching a class to teachers all day. I drove for 6 hours after class and got some shut eye at the Sleep Inn in Austinburg, Ohio. Sleep in I did and I headed out around 8:00 Central/9:00 Eastern. A mere 9 hours later, I landed at Steph's.

After getting a good night's sleep, I decided to head out this morning and explore one of the rails to trails paths. According to a book I bought, New England has over 600 miles of rails to trails. This morning's trail was the Bruce Freeman Bikeway and I'd highly recommend it. Newly paved, clear, and with port-a-pots, it was a biker's dream. Lots of lovely scenery. I got around 14 miles in.

I returned to Steph's for lunch and a nap. I guess I was a little tired because I slept for two and a half hours. After my nap and before dinner, I decided to head out to Walden Pond. THE Walden Pond. The Henry David Thoreau "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears" Walden Pond. I did the walk around the pond (around a mile and a half) and spent some time just sitting. Steph told me before I left that people swim across the pond. I pictured some folks randomly doing that to challenge themselves. Boy was I surprised, when I arrived, and saw probably 30 people making their way across the pond and several more on the shore who had just finished or were ready to head out. This is my kind of place! Historical that induces fitness challenges! As Kev knows, I'm more of a do-er than a see-er so to know people swim across this historical body of water really caught my fancy. I hope to go back and swim it myself.

The quirky thing I found at Walden Pond was that every little bit along the trail, there are several large stones forming steps leading down to the water and there were almost always clothes hanging on the fence or trees near the rocks. This was true all the way around the pond. Again, my kind of place-rip off the clothes and jump in! And the water felt very warm.

While there, I also saw a mock version of Thoreau's cabin as well as a marker of where the cabin actually was. Next to that spot is a large pile of stones. When people travel to this spot, they frequently bring their own stone and add it to the pile. Some have messages scrawled on them.

After Walden Pond, I felt like I better find a bookstore and buy Walden. Luckily, Steph had loaned me her GPS and I could just look up the nearest mall. I'm really enjoying this GPS. It lead me right to a two story Barnes & Noble where I picked up The Portable Thoreau (Walden and poems) as well as New England Hiking, Rails-Trails New England, and New England Waterfalls. I am now officially set for the remainder of this trip!

I'm not sure what I'm doing tomorrow but I may go to Maine and check out the craggily shoreline, lobster rolls, and hit a bathroom to make my visit official.