THE LEAST COAST?
The transition has begun away from the cubicle (o.k. an office in my case, but cube sounds more like corporate enslavement). Things look different and my interactions with people feel different. I think I am becoming more patient. I hope so. One year off is a long time and I’m determined to make the most of it.
The past three weeks on the east coast were great. As we flew in and out of Washington DC on free tickets, we had a bit of a drive up to New England, but no worries, we had the opportunity to stop at Gettysburg, which was interesting, but not a recommended destination on its own unless you REALLY like Civil War History.
(Read: like to dress up in funny hats, brandish muskets, and reenact the battle monthly) It was educational and thought provoking in that so many soldiers (57,000 in three days) died IN America; something that has not happened in any of the subsequent wars.
We then headed up to my old alma mater, Lehigh University, which looked sharp and pristine, even more beautiful than I remembered; with a new fitness center, dining hall, and performing arts center, just to name a few improvements. Wow, the kids have it good today; ‘cause back in my day we just lugged engineering textbooks up the steep hills of campus for a workout and ate in the plain old cafeteria. (with no celebrity chef sponsorship)……it was rough I’m telling you.. One thing that that was very disappointing was the fact that they built a 4-story parking garage right behind the beautiful Alumni memorial building and right next to my old fraternity house (We were a mellow bunch of lads, so forget some of the stereotypes about frats, but not all…) The garage ruins the view from the building and forced the removal of some beautiful old trees.
Enrolment is about the same as when I went in the 80’s, so why the sudden need for parking. I think people are just getting lazier and more car dependent by the year,….but don’t get me started; you’ll hear enough about cars ruining the world in the next year of our travels, so no worries now. I bet most kids still walk to classes and such, but I bet car ownership is still way up; people have so much freakin’ money, especially when considering the $40k/year tuition.
We had a nice overnight in Northampton, home of a bazillion colleges and my cousin Lori, who was nice enough to put us up for the night and show us a bit of the lovely college town. Then to Boston (see Cheryl’s blog for more on this) for 2 great nights with our friend Jim. Then up to New Hampshire to see my friend Moses, his wife Rebecca, and two kids. It was great to see them so happy as a family and the kids will no doubt turn out to have a multitude of talents. Haven’t flown a kite in awhile either…Then to the farm to see my old college friend Craig and his new wife Lisa. They have 22 acres of beautiful property just west of Worcester, MA. The views fro the main house were so serene, as the house is set up on a hill with fields of grass and woods in every direction; not to mention some lovely old trees and a massive 4000-sq ft barn with portions built over 200 years ago.
And is it full of stuff…you betcha’, all the things a good Yankee farmer (and mechanic/tinkerer) needs. An Ebay historic tool collectors dream.
And then from the VERY quiet farm right into NYC on the Metro North which reminded us to pack light, pack light, and then pack light on our RTW trip. But the rest of the trip will have to wait for later as we must get back to packing….
Last Wednesday evening when we landed back in SF, the panic set in again. What have I done? We quit our jobs, we have to pack and move by Monday, and how are we going to get everything done in the next few days. Luckily, my wife is very level headed and stays cool on most situations where I panic. (and sometimes vice-versa) I think our mutually exclusive panic will work out well as we are faced with new challenges.Another thing we learned from this short trip was that blogging on the road (sans Laptop) will take some concerted effort, but maybe we won’t be having as much fun as we did the past three weeks visiting everyone, so it will be easier, right. Plus, the places will sell themselves. It’s harder to write a travel blog about Hartford (no offense M&A) than say, a street market in Mumbai. Connecticut is very nice, but not a place that cries out for edgy travel writing (or anything edgy for that matter). We may wish that we were in Connecticut many times on this trip, but that’s what it’s all about. Later,R
Tags: RTW Planning, Travel, Tag Index
rich.coffin