Musings from the back of the motorcycle and front seat of the car
Author: nancyb422
I am a collector of family history - pictures, stories, facts - whatever I can get my hands on. I share that at It's All About Family. I started Thoughts From the Passenger Seat because I have a lot on my mind! It started riding on the back of my husband's motorcycle and on business appointments but I don't do much of either anymore but the thoughts are still there.
I enjoy writing and I hope you find something that you connect with on either of my blogs.
Thoughtsfromthepassengerseat.blog - Thoughts From the Passenger Seat
NancyB422.com - It’s All About Family
I’ve talked about my yard before and the history of my home.
Over the last six months, my husband has been adding landscaping to all sides of the house. My father, not having grown up in a family without a home of their own said, “why do I want to plant something when I’ll have to take care of it”. Anything that grew wild, stayed wild and any spot with nothing, stayed that way.
We had discussed landscaping in the front of the house but I grew up with a father who didn’t plant anything remember? It all feels so permanent and “what if it looks bad, doesn’t grow, etc.”, is my school of thought.
Thankfully, my husband ignored me! We now have a variety of plants along the house including, azaleas, Joe-Pye Weed (fun name!) and Little Pye, Goldenrod, and Panicle Hydrangea. Most were purchased at our local nurseries and a few at Lowe’s.
My project this Labor Day weekend is to take pictures of, and lay out on paper, the plants and their locations. I (don’t think my husband cares) want to know what they are and what the colors are going to be. Some that have already bloomed, I forgot what they looked like!
The landscaping around the house and seating areaThis was a fun one when it bloomed! Poco SunsetBarberrySpeedwellPanicle HydrangeaLittle (Joe) Pye (weed)
I’m not going to go for perfection, just a sense of what we have!
All the colors have such nice green foliage too
I’m hoping that cooler and moister weather will green things up again!
If you were to look at your clock on this Saturday morning and it said 9:37 am, would your brain say, “ONLY 9:37 am yay!” Or “OMG already 9:37 am!” ?
I am in the camp of “OMG Already?!”, but I literally have nothing planned for the day, nothing to do except work out (heading there now), hit the Farmers Market (open til 1 or 2pm), read, and do some ancestry research.
Do you ever have days that you just struggle to get through it? To get work done? This is me. I am there.
What is the cause? Is it all the news that just seems to get worse every day? I don’t watch news but I do subscribe to a couple of sites for daily updates. They don’t overwhelm me and anyway, I can’t put my head in the sand and say, “oh well, so sad but it’s not about me.”
When are the congresspeople who are equally angry going to speak up? Step up? Band together? Anyone?
We packed up the bikes today and met our friends for a ride that started out on the Airline Trail. The fifty mile trail is an old railroad that used to travel from New York to Boston. We start out in Portland CT which is on the east side of the Connecticut River. One section of the railroad still exists and was taken over by Tilcon Tomasso (or what we used to call Trap Rock) and travels from there operations in Middlefield down to the harbor in New Haven, or so I’m told!
So, we headed out and although we start on the trail, it’s not too far before we take a left and start UP THE HILL. We’re on the road for a while and then head into I think some state forest which involves gravel roads and washouts, but thankfully no massive puddles of mud! I wish I could take pictures as I ride but honestly sometimes I’m just praying to get me down the steep gravel hills in one piece!
Today’s route ! Not sure what the colors mean!
It was a beautiful day – not too hot, not too cool and we stop for breaks along the way. My husband and our friends are very patient with me because I’m always bringing up the rear – especially on downhills!
The ride results
I couldn’t record this as a Peloton outdoor cycle ride because I’m at 499 rides and I want to do a live ride so I get a “shout out” by the instructor! Silly, but, whatever. I’ll do a live ride on Tuesday afternoon for that!
After burning all those calories we were starved! So what better way to fill our bellies?
Banana Crème Pie (me)Coffee Oreo (him)
I’m hoping I’ll be able to ride more often in the next few months. I’ll have to work on that!
I walked into the bank today and waited for a teller to call me over. There was one other customer there.
I handed my teller the deposits and walked to the counter to grab a lollipop. As I turned back, out of the corner of my eye, I thought I recognized the woman. When I heard her voice, I knew who it was. Someone from high school. Someone who was on the cheerleading squad with me. Someone who I’d call an acquaintance, or someone that I used to know.
Hmmm….do I just kept my head turned and sneak out after my transactions are done? Or do I find my friendly face and say hello? What to do what to do!
I turned toward her and said, “I’d know that laugh anywhere!”. We shared a hug, had a small conversation, I collected my receipts, and left with a breezy, “It was nice to see you!”.
It would have been so easy to just ignore her, and go on my way. I feel a smidge better that I didn’t.
It never fails. We have days and weeks with 100 degree heat and suddenly we wake up one morning and it’s cool and breezy!
Today is that day. But I confess, it feels beautiful, albeit a little chilly as I’m in a tank top and shorts here on the porch.
I actually wore something other than a summer dress for work and took a nice 20 minute walk around our complex. I think it’s 5 times around for 1 mile but I forget to count…
On my way home from work, I stopped at the library to pick up the DVD Troy (it’s only for rent on Amazon), and stopped at the bank and post office. I really had a spring in my step!
Heading out from the bankOur town hall (formerly the high school)
I think the hot weather has finally broken and we’ll see some cooler weather moving forward. Central Air is still on for bedtime though!
Today while reading from my “Jesus Calling”, one of the scriptures was Philippians 4:8:
“….whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me-put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”
In other words, “Because like what you spend your energy on, that’s the day.”
I may be 65, but sometimes I think my mind is stuck in my teens. Or maybe it’s because I’m a Taurus?
Anyway, I’m like a dog with a bone. If I get a thought, especially a negative one, I can’t let it go. Money, bills, employees – it’s what swirls around my head all day. And if there’s a comment from someone rebutting me on a Facebook post about creating affordable housing in my town (I’m for it by the way) – yikes!
But then, I watched the New Heights podcast with Taylor Swift as their guest. It was one of the most entertaining and enlightening two hours I’ve had staring at my screen in a long time.
What snapped me to attention was when she said, “What you spend the energy on, That’s the Day!”. THAT’S THE DAY.
I have to say in my defense, I am only a week and a half back from a 10 day vacation cruising along the coast and inside passage of Alaska but even I’m saying to myself, Enough’s Enough!
I currently say a morning prayer to get myself right with the day and try to get a 5 to 10 minute meditation in, but, it looks like I need to add an additional mantra to the day.
After 2 flights equaling 9+ hours, one suitcase (my husband’s) put on a “later flight”, and a 2-1/2 hour bus ride, we are on the Viking Orion for an Alaska inner passage cruise with approximately 928 other people.
We booked this trip last August. We took a Viking cruise in October of 2022 down the Seine from Paris to Normandy and back but this was our first ocean cruise. It always seemed so far away. Until it wasn’t.
The countdown started at 60 days
Our embarkation was in Seward on Saturday evening and we spent Sunday there with the ship departing at 5pm. This, we thought, was going to be the opportunity to have his suitcase delivered to the ship.
Our embarkation and 1st dayOur first view of the ship!
“Just in case”, we went shopping for hiking shoes and a fleece jacket for our afternoon hike. Because my husband only had Sketcher slip ons from our trip, we knew he would need some shoes for hiking. I knew there had to be something in town for clothing and luckily there was. We headed to Seward Outdoor Store at 8am which was a short walk from the ship. They had what he needed and it was a necessary purchase for him to enjoy the day.
We also paid a visit to a gift shop which is owned by a friend of a hometown friend! We walked in and introduced ourselves and talked with the owner about our trip and our friend who directed us there. It was nice to make the connection and to tell my friend we visited.
If you’re ever in Seward, tell Fred we said hello!
For our excursion in Seward we decided to do a hike to the Exit Glacier. The cruise has an included excursion at each port but sometimes they can be a little dull so we usually pay the money for something that really interests us. A hike is right up our alley.
At 1pm we boarded a bus right off the ship and it was a 15 minute ride to Kenai Fjords National Park. 50 of us got off the bus and divided up among four young guides. Ours was a delightful young woman named Morgan. Morgan has done more in her 24 years than some people will do in a lifetime. She was very knowledgeable about the area and the glacier.
View from the busOur guide, MorganGlacier viewing siteLookout spot on way out – the driver stopped for us
We all expected (and packed) for temperatures to be in the low 60s. Well – Sunday afternoon it was 78 degrees! Thankfully I had my own water bottle and one provided by the tour group because I needed every drop.
It was a 2.5 mile round trip which took us over areas where the glacier has retreated over the years. Morgan explained how they determine how long ago it retreated by the types of trees that have grown. We also saw the striations in the rock and the angle which tells the direction the glacier retreated. It was worth the money and the exertion!
First of many sights to come!
Sadly, we didn’t receive the suitcase by the time the ship left at 5pm. More on that in my Day 2 post!
Since Hamilton, I’ve had a fascination with George Washington.
I take that back. My fascination began when I could read the markers to commemorate his stops in my town, Wallingford Connecticut to gather provisions for his troops in 1775 and after his election on a New England tour in 1789.
One of the many markers along the route
Years later, there was Hamilton and the dreamy Christopher Jackson in the role of our leader which prompted a visit to Mount Vernon on our trip last year to Washington DC.
I never read Hamilton and I’ve never read Ron Chernow’s biography of Washington. I have read “You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington” by Alexis Coe, published in 2020. It is a lighter biography and although she does spent a little time in the beginning bashing the men-centric biographies written about him, I appreciated the timeline, list of family, friends, enemies, likes, and dislikes, and even diseases survived. All that, the biography, and index come in at 261 pages compared to 900+ for Chernow’s version.
Since I have visited Mount Vernon and read a biography, I’m now reading “Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy“ by Nathaniel Philbrick. He’s the author of quite a few books, and one sitting on my shelf, “Mayflower”, that I might have to dig into after this.
Although I’m not far in, I like an author who gets into the story – He’s traveling the routes Washington took for four tours! The first is his Inauguration route from Mount Vernon to New York City. Second is his New England Tour, which will take him through Wallingford on his way to Boston. Visiting the states that ratified the Constitution. He was using his popularity to talk to farmers and others along the route to create a feeling of unity. The third trip was to Rhode Island after they ratified the Constitution in 1790. The last, and the longest was the Southern Tour going as far south as Savannah Georgia and back north through Augusta.
I was surprised to read that Rhode Island was a hold out but I also didn’t realize that Rhode Island was a major hub in the transatlantic salve trade during the 1700s. This was both because of numerous natural harbors conducive to trading, the shipbuilding industry, and economic incentives. Maybe I had learned this, but forgot it over time.
Back to George!
One of the stops he made on his way through Wallingford was to the Nehemiah Royce house, constructed in 1672 where George address the townspeople in front of the house in 1789.
As seen in WikipediaOne of my visits – door in the other picture is on the right
I have a feeling as I read this book, I will have more to say about George, and I know I’m not done telling you about the Royce House and its restoration. Stay Tuned!
What historical figure has been your favorite to read about? Let me know and I may add it to my list.
Thoughts From The Passenger Seat 