The Mountains Are Calling - Travel in 2020

I did not think I would be traveling this year.  We have been under quarantine for three months. We had cancelled a planned trip to Sweden for June.   We had grown content staying at home.  No complaints.  We had our masks for when we ventured out locally.  All was good even in trying times like these.  Then fate stepped in.   My younger daughter had  gone through a period of unemployment.   She lived in Atlanta and had been offered a job in Boston.  So she ended up moving in April from Atlanta to Boston and was driving all that distance in the midst of the the quarantine  My older daughter ended up in the hospital in May for a week.  And when she returned home to recuperate she was informed her company was going through a COVID caused reduction in force and she no longer had a job. So I had a lot more on my mind than just a pandemic and no masks could cover my anxiety.  I was escaping a lot of this by looking at my photos and at Facebook pages related to Switzerland.   Switzerland is one of my favorite travel destinations.  The mountains calm me and bring me peace.   

The first week in June my oldest daughter Katie received an offer for a contracting job in New Hampshire.  She had only been unemployed for two weeks so this was a God send.   The company interviewed her over the internet.  They liked her and thought she would be a good match for their company but they wanted to meet her in person first.  This was completely understandable.  So she planned her drive from Baltimore to Lancaster, New Hampshire.   

Lancaster was not only in New Hampshire.  But it was high north New Hampshire.  This would mean at least an eight or nine hour drive from Baltimore.  Not wanting to see her drive all that distance alone I offered to go with her.  She happily agreed this would be best.  So it wasn't Switzerland, but the mountains were calling and I must go.  During our quarantine Katie sent me  a few surprise gifts from Amazon to lift my spirits.  The cup in the photo at the beginning of this blog was one of those gifts.  The cup was imprinted with the words The Mountains Are Calling and I Must Go.  So it does seem like fate was playing a game with us all and all things were working for the best.

Travel during a pandemic is different.  I expected it to be different.  I wasn't packing passports, power adapters, or language guides.  I was packing masks, rubber gloves and hand sanitizer.  Food was also an issue.  It was a double problem.  Katie was on a restricted diet from her hospital stay.  And there was no place open for food other than fast food drive throughs and order in advance carry out.  Luckily we were able to stop in Boston to visit my younger daughter Danielle and she prepared lunch for us.  She was trying to prepare something for us that would be ready when we arrived so we could eat, visit and  then hit the road again.   But this was not easy.  We had a major hiccup on the road.  We were dependent on a maps app that streamed from the phone into the car through blu ray.  We stopped at a rest stop where we gloved and masked up for a break.  When we restarted the car the phone app for the map started an automatic update and we had no map for a few miles.  When we finally had map service again we had missed a major exit making us arrive in Boston two hours later than planned.  We had to text Danielle updates on our location so she could make sure not to cook too early or too late.   It all worked out.  We arrived two hours late and stayed longer than  we had planned but it was all good.  We would just arrive a little later in New Hampshire.  

We also luckily had Mark at home giving us guidance.  Mark is a map guru.  I hate maps.  Mark loves maps and studies them.  When he and I travel he will have the trip all worked out in his head from the maps he studies at home.  He then hands me the atlas, points me to the page, and asks me to watch for exits.  I then get confused, read the map wrong, and end up having no idea where we are located.   Mark was texting us helpful directions while we had the phone app updating.  He mentioned to watch for the Tappan Zee Bridge near Tarrytown, New York several times.  Once again I am useless with directions and maps and now apparently useless looking for bridges also.  I never saw the Tappan Zee bridge.   

A while later Mark calls me on the phone and asks if we ever crossed the bridge.   I said no.  I never saw the bridge.  But we were now past Tarrytown, New York and back on our way.   He said then you had to have crossed the Tappan Zee River.   I said no.  There was no sign for the Tappan Zee River or Bridge.  But we did cross a beautiful bridge about twenty minutes ago.  It was the  Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.  It appears that Cuomo is the name for the Tappan Zee Bridge.  Yes once again the map guru was right and I was not.   Even when we aren't traveling together we still get into arguments over maps it seems.    

Driving through New York State we saw signs of locations that immediately hit me with nostalgic memories.   We passed New Rochelle which immediately reminded me of the home of Rob and Laura Petry on the old Dick Van Dyke Show.   Then we passed Brewester, New York which gave me my best memory.   I said to Katie we should stop in Brewester to dine at Lou Marie's French Restaurant.  Katie glanced over at me kind of puzzled wondering where that came from.  I told her he was Ann Marie's father.   She was still a bit confused.   Then I explained it was That Girl which she knows is one of my favorites.

It was on to Massachusettes to see Danielle and Andrea.  We had not been to see them in Atlanta for at least a year so we were excited to see them now in Boston and to have a quick visit. 

After spending an extra hour with Danielle we finally left to continue on to Lancaster, New Hampshire. We had originally planned to arrive around eight o"clock but by now we were three hours behind schedule.   We arrived at the Mountain View Grand Resort and Spa at eleven o'clock that evening.  It was very dark on the back roads in New Hampshire with no kind of street lights.   Katie mentioned she was glad I was with her on these dark roads.   It would not have been fun navigating them alone.  We finally found the hotel on a very deserted dark road.  The hotel was immense.  It is a 300 room resort.   The hotel had been closed for eleven weeks due to COVID quarantine rules in New Hampshire.   The had just reopened two days before our arrival.   There were only two or three other cars in the parking lot when we arrived.   We found they belonged to the staff and that we were the two of very few guests actually at the hotel.  We had to wear our masks in the hotel lobby while checking in.   The lady at the front desk said she thought we might have cancelled due to our late arrival.  But she was very pleasant and told us she was glad to be back at work again.

Mountain View Grand Resort and Spa

While in New Hampshire I spent my time walking and hiking the small roads and trails near the hotel while Katie was interviewing for the job opportunity.   I saw signs warning of moose crossing.  Although it would have been exciting I did not see any moose.   I did see some deer along the road.  And some wild turkeys on the farm at the hotel.   We were told to watch for moose on the roads at night.  It was difficult to see them in the dark.  The same for deer.  And to our surprise we were told to watch for wild turkeys also.  We were told hitting a turkey could total you car as well as a moose or deer.   Who knew?

Our return trip home was  not very different from our drive up.  We missed one of our exits on the interstate and decided to back track to find the exit rather than continue to drive out of our way.   Food was still an issue for us.  With Katie's restricted diet and a lack of open restaurants we had to resort to fast food drive throughs again.   We drove back through Vermont and stopped at a small gas station with a small store attached.   The area reminded us very much of some old country stores we had seen in the southern part of the US.  We noted the only difference was the accent.   We were tired.  It had been a whirlwind road trip.  Leaving Baltimore early on Sunday and back home late Tuesday night.  But it was a nice break from being house bound in quarantine.  As always the mountains spoke spoke to me.  I was refreshed but tired.  And Katie returned home with a new job which is the best part.  

It wasn't Switzerland but the mountains were beautiful.  They called me and I answered.  Even if only for a day.