I know a little about TRAVELING

Fall is definitely upon us. The temperatures are getting cooler, the trees are changing colors and there is not as much sunlight. But we all know that.  "Tell us something interesting Harrold."  

Travel to me is not just going to see your grandparents, or friends, it's going to a special place, maybe some place you have never been, or a place that makes you happy. Whether it is a beach or to the mountains away from people, or to a big city. I like to go  see and experience different ... 'experiences'. Some of you know, Nancy and I have travel all over the world and been to all but one state in the USA. I am not bragging, just lucky to have done that. To me travel and immersing into the local culture. That way I try to understand how and what they think and live. That is exactly what we and another couple did over a period of 2 1/2 weeks.

We did a road trip all through New England in a mini-van, due to all the luggage we took. We started by flying to Boston from Phoenix and began walking the 'Freedom Trail'. If you have never been to Boston and walked the Freedom Trail, you should go. Take comfortable shoes. You walk in many of the steps of our founding fathers. Eventho Boston does not look like the town when the saying "Give us Freedom"  was common. Huge skyscrapers next to historic meeting houses. But that feeling and desire was still there.

I won't bore you with every place we stopped or ate, just some highlights and particular place of interest. Yes, the east coast has MANY lighthouses, and we saw a few. They interest me because of my curiosity about the people who lived in them, living in solitude. The one place I still think about was the Hancock Shaker Village and the basis of the religion. A religion where men and women are equal, but never mix or marry. Everyone works for the good of the community, including ALL farm work. Meals were served separate. Sleeping quarters were separate. Any children were housed and raised separately. Sex was forbidden. They craftsmanship was excellent from handmade brooms, wooden round and oval boxes, to cabinetry. 

The Vanderbilt family was big on building mansions in several places in the USA. One renown was the 'Breakers'. A place with unbelievable technology in the 1840s and opulent ornaments from gold leaf trimmings, to crystal  chandeliers, to marble and granite carving everywhere, to telephones to call for servant service and unbelievable frisco paintings. And they only used it 4 times. The modern day descendent today would be Gloria Vanderbilt, the clothing mogul. Most of these mansions are not lived in, they are museums.

But the real reason we wanted to go to England was to see fall in it glory with brilliant colors and covered bridges over slow moving small rivers and streams. To eat fresh seafood in quaint little fishing villages, to see first light rising on top of Cadillac Mountain in Bar Harbor Maine, to look East over the cold northern Atlantic Ocean and not see any land. And to head the different accents of Boston, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. To drink their beers, see their houses, to see the traffic ... not that was not it. Don't like traffic. But the rest was great. Nancy and I have been to these states, but didn't really slow down to totally see them like this trip. 

I now call myself an Arizonian, due to the fact I have lived here for more than 45 years and will always say this is home. But it is good to get away to see how other people live and think. Try it, it'll open a whole new part of your life. Take care and stay safe.