2020 - The Year We All Stayed Home

 I usually write a year end blog on New Years Day.  I have been thinking about what I wanted to say about 2020.   I went back and reread my year end blogs from 2019, 2018, and 2017.   I noticed that each of those years I started out by saying this has not been one of my best years.  And I ended each blog saying I was sure the new year would be better.   This year I just don't know what to say.   So I think this photo taken in Meredith, New Hampshire is the best way to start.  What a long strange trip it's been.  

Last years blog said we were already planning travel for February 2020.   Well that didn't happen.  Mark did buy his new car in February.

 And we did take a road trip to Odessa, Delaware where we went to a restaurant for the last time without a mask.  Also with the new car we went to Woodland Beach, Delaware.  That's a place I had not been since I was five years old when my family rented a boat and went crabbing in the Delaware Bay.  The high lights of Woodland Beach were my photos of a lone house on the beach...

..and a nuclear reactor on the New Jersey shore across the Delaware Bay.  When I edited my photo of the reactor to a black and white image there was a spooky blue haze all around it like radiation coming out of it.   Oh 2020 this was just my first surprise of the year.

We started hoarding toilet paper, stocking up a two week supply of emergency groceries and hunting for masks to wear next.    While doing this we got the word from my daughter Danielle that she had been hired for a job in Boston,  She had been unemployed for most of 2019.   She and her wife ended up selling their house in Atlanta, packing up a rental van and moving to Boston right at the heart of the original quarantine.  List this under things to stress out Dad.  Just as Danielle was preparing to move my other daughter Katie was diagnosed with Crohn's disease.  She was hospitalized and of course we were not allowed to visit.   Another item to add to the list of  things to stress out Dad.   We did go the hospital parking lot and wave to Katie's window.  You can see Katie in the window above.   I will not be embarrassed to say I cried on the way home. 

So what is next to add to the list of things to stress out Dad.  After leaving the hospital Katie was told due to Covid and budgetary issues she was being let go from her job.  Perfect timing.  Just what a person with a major medical diagnosis needs.  No health insurance.  Lots of prayers were said.  That's one thing 2020 has done.  It has increased my prayer life triple fold.  And within a couple of weeks Katie was offered a temporary job in New Hampshire!  The company provided her with a beautiful log cabin on isolated dirt road with a view of  Mt Washington in her back yard.  

I was a bit concerned when she accepted the job.  The idea of her just being diagnosed with Crohn's disease and moving to an isolated cabin on a dirt road in New Hampshire was definitely another item on the things to stress out Dad list.  She had to drive up for an initial interview and introduction to the new company.   I did not want her to drive from Baltimore to Lancaster, New Hampshire by herself so I drove up with her.  We were booked into a resort that had been closed for twelve weeks.  We were one of a handful of guests there for opening weekend.  Other than one or two other people were were the only guests in a 180 room resort.  I will say in the midst of a world wide pandemic with quarantining all around this was a wonderful escape for three days.  

I wanted to be trendy and follow the big fashion statement of 2020, a Covid beard.  I had never grown a beard before and I have to admit I liked having one.  I still have it to start out the new year 2021.  Add this to the list of things to stress out your husband.

We were able to visit Katie in New Hampshire later this summer and also spend a day in Boston with Danielle and Andrea.  It was a bit tricky going to Boston.  Massachusetts had a ban on visitors from Maryland due to Covid that came with a healthy fine if you tried to spend the night there.  We did drive to Danielle's house and drove with her to see some of the sites in Boston but that was the best we could do under the circumstances.  

2020 continued to haunt us the rest of the year.  Everyone has been affected by 2020 no matter who they are.  It was no respecter of persons.  I had friends who died.  Friends who were very sick.  And our beloved dog Delilah died this year.  She was fourteen years old and had health issues.   We did get to take her to New Hampshire before she died and she loved the cabin and the huge fields around it.  She died November 8, 2020.   We had a vet come to the house and we said our goodbyes on the back deck of our house.   

We were lost without her and knew we wanted another dog to fill the void as soon as possible.  We found Tallulah just a few weeks later from a rescue site.  We drove to central Pennsylvania to pick her and bring her home.  

But 2020 was not finished with our home yet. Two days before Christmas Tallulah darted out of our house and was hit by a car.  We thought she was gone for good.   Once again many prayers were said and out faith was tested but she survived.   She had a dislodged shoulder and a multi fractured leg below the shoulder.  There was concern this 18 month old pup would have to have her leg amputated.  But as of New Years Day she is recuperating at home and her leg has been saved.   We will have eight weeks of recovery and hopefully the leg will heal properly.

As I said in the beginning "What A Long Strange Trip It's Been".   2020 is a year no one living now will ever forget.   This truly has been one of the worst years of our lives.   But my girls both have jobs.  They both had adventures moving to New England during the pandemic.  Mark's mother had Covid while in assisted living and recovered but sadly is fading from Alzheimer's every single day.  Our dog survived.   We have toilet paper.  And as a family we all have each other.  

What is my final image of 2020?  This about sums it up.  A dirty mask left on a table in Littleton, New Hampshire.  I'll this year here at the table.   

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.

                                                                                                                      

To Helena Hand Basket

We dine out a lot.  We have a lot of respect for waiters and bartenders.  My mother was a waitress at one time.   We have many good friends who are bartenders and waiters.  When traveling we always appreciate the advice of local waiters and bartenders.

We recently took a road trip with our friend Gillian through the southern part of the U.S.   Gillian flew from her home in Manchester, England to meet us in Baltimore.  From here we drove south through Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas.    While in Mississippi we stayed at a Casino in the town of Tunica.   It's a very small rural community but it has several very large Las Vegas style casino's.

Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, Mississippi

Tunica is very near the Arkansas border.  We decided we wanted to spend an afternoon driving to Arkansas.  We were nearby and it would be fun to add one more state to our car trip.  We asked one of the bartenders at the casino if there were any places nearby in Arkansas that would be of interest to visit.  We wanted to drive someplace for lunch the next day and wanted to cross the border to Arkansas.  The bartender had been very friendly to us and gladly gave us some advice.   She told us to drive over to Helena, Arkansas.   She told us there were places we could have lunch and that there was an active blues music scene in the city.   So we trusted her.

The scenic route to Helena

We drove thirty four miles through some of the emptiest landscapes I have seen. We followed US 61 through miles of mud filled empty cotton fields.   There was nothing to see for miles and miles. 

We really didn't mind the boring drive at first.  We were assured there were some interesting places for lunch in Helena and we looked forward to exploring a small town.
   
We found that Helena is located in the eastern portion of Helena-West Helena, Arkansas.  It's located in Phillips County.  And it has a population of 6,323 people.   Had we asked Alexa on my google app she would have said to us "Why in the hell are you going to Helena, Arkansas."   When we arrived in Helena there was absolutely nothing there to see.  We found no place for lunch.  And we did not really feel safe to even stop for photos.  We saw open drug deals happening on the street corners.  

I still have no idea why the bartender sent us to Helena.  Maybe she was still fighting the Civil War and didn't like us Yankee carpetbaggers coming down from up north.  Perhaps she did not appreciate Gillian's English accent.  Whatever it was she did provide us with an interesting afternoon.  We laughed about it after wards.  

After we returned home I did some googling on Helena.  I found out it was listed as the number one worst place to live in Arkansas.  It has a 20.6% unemployment rate.  There is a 1 in 88 chance of being robbed in Helena.  

I was curious about the music scene the bartender had told us about.  I found that there is an annual blues festival in Helena every year in October.  But we found no music in April.   I guess we were just six months too early.   But I don't think we will be returning in October.

No regrets.  The experience gave us a good travel story to share.  We never saw the bartender again.  She goes on my list of interesting people I have met while traveling.  I'm sure she will remember us also and is probably still laughing at the gullible tourists she sent to Helena and back.