New England in a day

See the photos at http://groesser.multiply.com/photos/album/35/Maine_Trip.

I have a bucket list. At least, that is what Tracy called it. I never thought I was old enough to have one of those, but I’ll go with it. It isn’t all that much of a list. I just want to visit all 50 states. So, as of last week, I had visited 46. I was missing Oregon, Maine, Alaska and Hawaii. So….where can I go in a rental car?

I’ve plans for Alaska and Hawaii, and I’ll be out west next year. That kind of limits my choices. I’ve avoided going to Maine because of its location. I had some issues in New England and I had some anxiety there. However, as I was planning, I realized that my anxiety seemed to have run its course. Much of the problem was related to my mission and my state of mind. Well, no way to find out if it is all better without actually going, huh? So I packed up Hayden and Ellie and off we went. It was fairly strange traveling without my normal angst that I carry with me. I use my trips to meditate, think, and come to grips with whatever problems I’m having at the time. This time…nothing. Oddly calm, or at least, oddly calm for me. I traveled though Indiana and Ohio with only one incident of driving a woman off the road. The car was a sports car and it had a huge blind spot and I just didn’t see this woman. Nothing seems to have come from it except my increased awareness.

The first night was spent in Buffalo, NY. Ellie lost a bet and had to sleep in my bed. Wow. That girl moves a lot at night. I think that I found the reason why Bennet always wakes up at night. She woke me up several times that night with her talking, moving and sitting up in bed.

The next morning it was raining. We drove to Palmyra to see the church sites there. We first went to the temple. I wasn’t sure if I had seen it. I didn’t think I had but the corner stone had 2000. I know I went there since then. We visited several times when friends lived there in the 90s. So we took some pics, played with a “temple toad” and went back down to Camorah. That is the place where the plates from the Book of Mormon were found. It holds some special family significance also. After the nickel tour from the missionaries there we got directions to the local Walmart (kids were sick and needed some drugs) we found that we could now drive to the top of the hill. So, we did. The kids ran out to the statue and keeping in mind the sacred nature of the place, I said a little prayer of thanks. I’ve been entrusted with some wonderful kids and I hope I am a good parent. I just wanted to thank Heavenly Father for what he had given me.

After a long trip to the “local” walmart, we again got on the road. In Albany I decided that we had some time so I took the road to Vermont. It would take me through one of my old mission areas which I wasn’t particularly fond of but the road I knew was beautiful. When we neared the Vermont boarder, Hayden threw himself forward and looked at me and said “First in Vermont!” So…now we had a game to play, didn’t we? When we passed through the valley I noticed a tower to the side. As I wondered what it was, Hayden said “It’s the tower of doom.” So I exclaimed “And every hour the laser of death shoots out and destroys cars on the road!” I glanced down and yelled “And it’s one minute to three! AAAAUUGGHH!” So we went through downtown Bennington screaming about the beams of doom. The trip up and down the mountains was beautiful. It was one of the only joys of being in that place. As we moved towards New Hampshire, I kept telling Hayden that it wasn’t near the border. Then as we crossed the river, I thrust my hand forward and looked at Hayden. He realized what I was doing and was foiled in his attempt to get into the state first.

We got lost in Portsmouth looking for our motel. Thank goodness for GPS because we had to go by the place three times before we could see or get into it.

The next day we again got lost looking for the Walmart to return our Redbox movie. Lousy layout for a retail area. The trip into Maine was via an older bridge in the middle of downtown. Lots of artsy fartsy stores. As we tried to find a nice place to view the Atlantic, Hayden mentioned that no one seemed to be smiling. I explained that people aren’t smiling because they realize they live in Maine. We got out, walked around a bit and then went down and drove to Boston. Each border crossing became a wrestling match between Hayden and me to see who was going to be first.

We traveled from there to Rhode Island, my first state-side area. I took some picks of Wyoming, RI. First to make some joke about Wyoming fitting into RI but to take some pics of the area. We traveled through there a lot when I lived in Wakefield.

Just inside Connecticut, I stopped for gas and purchased Tracy a lottery ticket. She said she wanted a souvenir and this was something. Off again on the road to Norwich. Norwich holds special significance. It was one of the most emotional times of my life, where I had to rebuild my psyche and overcome a crushing depression. It also was one of the more profound times in my life.  I loved much of that city. It was a very “character building” place. Still, we had to cross Pennsylvania yet that day so no time to dawdle. I had visited once earlier in the decade, so I did have some memories.

After racing through Danbury, my favorite area, we stopped at a rest area in NY. I had a little emotional moment as I realized that I didn’t feel any anxiety at all that day, that I seemed to have crossed that river, so to speak. It was a wonderful feeling.

The trip home was very uneventful. Scranton was pretty, believe it or not. Ohio was flat and so was Indiana. Aside from an passing an accident on the toll way, it was an uneventful trip but lots of good memories. 

Live Free or Die!

Rating:	★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Science Fiction & Fantasy
Author:	John Ringo

http://www.amazon.com/Live-Free-Die-Troy-Rising/dp/1439133328/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289422347&sr=1-1

I finished reading “Live Free or Die” from John Ringo. I have avoided some of his work in the past but this seemed promising. It is based on an online comic so the ideas aren’t original to him. However, he is filling in the gaps to the comic. The basis of the book is that the earth is invaded by a group of people called the Horvath. They don’t have a lot of power, but they can drop rocks on Earth and essentially have us beat. The thing is, a man, Tyler, has figured out that maple syrup works like a drug on another group of aliens and Tyler has become rich and powerful from that trade. The Horvath have threatened the Earth to take over the trade and have told the President that Tyler must die and all syrup must be delivered to them. The following is a broadcast on Tyler’s reaction.

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“Now, as a people, we have been called upon to make great and momentous decisions. Decisions reflecting both liberty and security. Liberty is an odd word. And for a long time it has been, in truth, degraded. Many who used the term liberty in truth mean libertine. And even those who fought in our courts and legislature over questions of liberty, in truth meant things that are minor at best and puerile at worst. As we have now found out, liberty is not about where you can put your sexual organs but about the essential question of whether we, as a people, can make our own decisions. And security is not about whether the government should be able to tap our phone but about whether we are going to be allowed to take the next breath. Will our cities be ashes? Will we live? Will our children live?

“Yet…to battle over maple syrup? The inherent humor of the situation sometimes clouds the truly vast nature of the struggle. For it is not, in the end, what we give up, maple syrup or gold or platinum. It is of a piece. It is about whether we, as a people, as nations that were both conceived in liberty, will continue to cherish that concept.

“Benjamin Franklin once said: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” And in this current condition there is, in fact, neither. I understand, as few but the most specialized experts understand, the strategic situation. The Horvath control our orbitals. We can fight but there is simply no way to win. Fighting would appear to be a pointless exercise.

“But collecting this maple syrup requires the willing cooperation of thousands of people. Men and women, Canadian and American, who have been born in the concept, instilled in the idea, of liberty. These people of the fields, woods, and mountains, pour from these regions to fill our military. Not, as many city folk think, because they’re poor or desperate but because this is their essential nature. No person is happy to give their life, but the people of this region believe that there is something larger than their selves. Not just God, although many are believers in God, but a vision, a philosophy, a shared belief in freedom and justice and the battle against tyranny. From their very mother’s milk they are filled with this belief, that to die in the cause of freedom brings not heaven but a better place here on Earth for succeeding generations.

“I have taken the tenor of these people and they are determined against yielding. As stubborn as the granite of their mountains, they, almost in unanimity, refuse to yield. They may, perhaps will, be destroyed. But they, and, yes, their children, will die free.

“They, however, are not under threat. The Horvath threaten to destroy our cities, not these woods, mountains and fields. Let me touch upon that.

“The Horvath are a very monolithic and communal culture. The very concept of liberty is foreign to them. So I’m going to have to explain something to the Horvath. You may be looking upon our cities as sort of communal groups for which the people of this region are gatherers. This is not, in fact, the case. The people of this region are their own communal grouping, connected to but not of the cities. They are, in fact, almost invariably at odds with the groups of the cities. The cities, you dumb squids, are our enemies. You’re threatening our enemies, you morons! We hate the people of the cities. I hate the people of the cities! Liberal, whining, socialist pussies! They’ve never given us anything but trouble! Please, please, please nuke Washington! What has Washington ever done for us? They just take and take and take! The bastards! Kill them all!

“As for me, I’ll tell you what I think!” Tyler said shouting. He jumped up to his feet and flipped a bird at the ceiling, looking straight up. “Give me liberty, or give me death, you bastards! Live free or …”

“Lost signal from the cabin,“ Ryan said. “switching to…secondary remote.”

“Hah!” Tyler said, still flipping the bird at the ceiling. “Missed me, you egg-sucking ignoramuses! Never heard of a laser relay or a green-screen, have you? Go ahead and try to take our maple syrup! Dumb-asses!”

“And secondary remote is gone.” Ryan said.

“I think that’s good enough,” Tyler said.

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The book has some interesting points, mostly a growing outrage with the people against the government. I was kind of shocked by the bluntness of the author but if this is getting into SF, that shows there are a lot of ticked off people out there. It is an interesting read but isn’t really believable. You can tell he’s trying to mesh into an existing story and the end kind of fizzles. Oh well, it was worth it for the above exerpt.

Maine Trip

November 2010. 47 down, 3 to go.