Across the U.S. in Die Frau Blue Car ("neigh!" -- Young Frankenstein reference), Part I

May all of you have a colorful and inspiring Autumn, fair readers!

On Tuesday, June 21st, I embarked upon a marvelous adventure across our beautiful country in our blue 2008 Chevy Aveo, loaded with bedding and camping gear for off-road catnaps between motel shower+bed stays. My traveling companions included a Google tablet full of audio books; a road atlas from AAA; an interstate-highway guide entitled Next Exit, that lists the amenities to be found near each off-ramp; plus a small baseball bat, a can of mace, and a key chain that screams when you pull it. 

Fortunately, I had trouble with neither man nor beast on this journey. Sometimes it was too hot and muggy to sleep, but only once did the weather become a problem, when torrents of pea-sized hail fell one afternoon in New Mexico, with such density that for an hour it was impossible to see while driving. However, a spectacular sight it was, accompanied by sensational thunder and lightening! Sometimes the GPS on my tablet took me to odd places, although it saved my sanity many times on obscure country roads that lacked signage.

The first notable place that I visited was the Grand Canyon, at which I spent an inspirational afternoon. There had been some rain that day, so many of the "softer" tourists were leaving when I arrived, and I was able to spend a couple of hours on the Rim Trail without having to battle crowds. Wonderful!

Two-and-a-half days were spent in Texas, visiting the three Presidential libraries/museums there -- LBJ's and Bush 41's and 43's. The LBJ museum at UT Austin was particularly fun for me because he was president during my early childhood in the 1960s, and there were copious artifacts representing my first memories of what was on the evening news -- Kent State, Watts, Vietnam, Woodstock, etc.  Bush 43's museum at Southern Methodist U. is very high-tech and interactive, much like the recent remodel of the Reagan Library. My favorite of the three is Bush 41's museum at Texas A&M, which has a very personal, home-grown feel to it, and when I visited there was a special exhibit of classic cars. The grounds near the Bush 41 museum are particularly welcoming and include a rose garden, a catch-and-release fishing pond, and a foot bridge that leads out to a peaceful gated family grave site, where their daughter, Robin, has been re-interred. One of my favorite features of the Bush 41 compound is this gorgeous sculpture of horses jumping over a piece of the Berlin Wall:

This travelogue will continue in upcoming posts, but I'd like to close this log entry with the announcement of a special project that I have begun on behalf of my family, in honor of my late mother:

The Bonnie Pryne Schaack Memorial Heritage Project

The chief aim of this project is to compile as many facts and stories about our family as possible, in order to produce electronic and printed archives for future generations of our family to explore, preserve, and append. Part of preserving our family heritage should involve maintaining sites and artifacts such as grave sites. Some of our ancestors' existing monuments are badly worn and require fresh markers.  Here is the first one I wish to refresh:

This is the marker for my maternal great-grandmother's mother, Idella Butler Segondollar, who died in 1895 when she was just 23 years old, and great-grandma was only five. This grave site also contains the remains of my great-grandmother's twin brother, Henry, who died at birth in 1890. More news regarding the Heritage Project's activities will be reported on this web log, as well.

Annie

"The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

An Example of Everyday Heroism (Sisters In Europe, Part I)

My energetic and incurably generous sister, Cynthia, had her 50th birthday in 2015.  She has worked hard her entire adult life and has raised, with her husband John, three exceptional children who are now compassionate and accomplished adults.  During the two years that our mother was ill with lung cancer, prior to her death in 2013, Cynthia earned her unquestionable status as the family heroine by giving Mom daily attention and TLC, all while holding down a job and helping to care for a grand-niece!  Cynthia lives very close to where Mom resided, so the burden of being on-call for Mom naturally fell upon her, but Cynthia never complained.  Our sister, Denise, and I live several hours away by car, and we would help out whenever we could.  Mom's brother, James, moved in with her and was also immensely helpful with her care, and these days Cynthia keeps an eye on Uncle Jimmy, as well!

For some time, I had wanted to do something special for my incredible little sister.  With the support of our husbands and Cynthia's employer, I was able to whisk her away for a five-country, month-long tour of Europe during the Summer of 2015!

It was determined that London would be our travel hub.  For Americans visiting Europe for the first time, London is an ideal launching pad, because we Yanks can understand fairly well the local BBC accent (thank you, Masterpiece Theater and Harry Potter!), and London is home to so many iconic attractions.  Who hasn't heard of The Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, or Saint Paul's Cathedral? 

Cynthia on the Tower Bridge next to the London coat-of-arms
with the motto "Domine Dirige Nos" (Lord, guide us)

We stayed in my usual London haunt, a hostel now called Clink 261, formerly Ashlee House, near Kings Cross Station.  That neighborhood is convenient for excursions to just about anywhere in England, not just London, and I like that it is close to the British Library and Camden Town, where there is a lot of good shopping and great nightlife.

It was no surprise to me that Cynthia enjoyed exploring London's rich history and culture, but I was surprised to discover that she had never tried Indian food!  We were in an excellent location to fix that problem! Some of the best and most affordable meals you can have in England are prepared by people from India and Pakistan.  Our first meal in London had to be Indian, of course, and she is now an enthusiastic fan of Indian cuisine!

Further adventures of the Sisters In Europe coming soon!

Cynthia, Denise, and myself

Annie

"Spread love everywhere you go.  Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier." -- Mother Teresa

There and back again, then get thee to the Sierras!

Home at last, after nearly nine weeks touring America the Beautiful!

It was a tremendous experience to be able to take my time meandering through our magnificent country, taking the southern route east and then the northern route west.  Any of you who happen upon the chance to explore the highways, country roads, and hiking trails of our glorious United States, do yourself a favor and do it, at least once!

The first time I took a long cross-country drive was in December of 1980, heading out to Illinois to visit a friend.  This Southern California girl was only 19 and had never before driven on snow or ice, so much of the trip was slippery and not particularly pleasant.  To make the journey worse, that was the December that John Lennon was murdered in New York, so radio broadcasts were replete with memories of Lennon and his music, which created a fog of melancholia over the psyche of this child of the 60s, who had grown up with his music and whose grandmother shared the Beatles' working-class Lancashire County accent.  The bummer of Lennon's murder added injury to the insult of having my '73 Datsun 710 wagon pulled out of snow drifts along Route 66 by passing truckers.  The negative memories of that journey were destined to be counteracted.  In upcoming posts, I'll be recounting the wonderful ways in which that road-trip redemption has been accomplished.

Interspersed between tales from this Summer's adventures, there will be long-overdue postings about the adventures enjoyed by my sister Cynthia and I when we spent a month in Europe last Summer.

The final five days of my trans-American adventure was spent in the magnificent Sierra Nevada mountains camping out with family and close friends to celebrate the 94th birthday of my inspirational mother-in-law, Aida.  It is a tradition for us to sing to Aida on one of the Sierra trails for her birthday, and this year we did so about a mile into the trail leading out to Green Lake.  The last half of the 2-1/2-mile Green Lake trail involves crossing streams and climbing large rocks, which is dangerous for Aida these days, but she conquered the early portion of the trail, hiking poles in-hand, with her usual determined grace that inspires us all!

To honor and imitate our beloved Matriarch, some of us traversed the remainder of the Green Lake trail, and here is a peek at the grandeur to which we were treated when we reached the lake:

Here is a photo of me with Aida, who has me captivated with the wisdom and experience she is likely sharing.  There seems no end to what I can learn from her!

A safe and memorable Labor Day weekend to all of you!

Annie

"God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well." -- Voltaire

Embarking upon research vacation.

Greetings upon the arrival of Summer!

For about the next five or six weeks, I'll be on a cross-country road trip for the following purposes:

(1) To attend The Thoreau Society annual gathering and a seminar with The Walden Woods project, both in Massachusetts, with a research focus upon Thoreau's philosophy regarding the natural economy and its applications to a person's awareness/sense of place, both in the world and in the moment.

(2) To attend The Freedoms Foundation's Medal of Honor seminar at Valley Forge, as part of an ongoing study of the personalities and contributions of U.S. presidents, particularly in their roles as commanders.

(3) To visit as many presidential libraries as I can, also as part of a survey of presidential character.

(4) To conduct field research for the book I am writing about our family history and genealogy, including visits to local historical societies, burial sites, and other sites of importance to our ancestors, focusing upon the gathering of stories and photographic images for the book.

Marty and I will meet in Philadelphia to visit friends and explore sites together, particularly places related to his father's family in Tennessee.  

Upon return home, I'll resume these posts, including reports about discoveries made while in Europe last Summer with my sister Cynthia and the trip upon which I embark today.  Some book reviews are also in the works.

Annie

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you have imagined." -- Henry David Thoreau

Welcome To My New Web Log!

CHRIST IS RISEN!!!  (We Orthodox Christians are still in the Paschal season.  Our Lord rose from the dead--Hallelujah!--on May 1st, and His Glorious Ascension is June 9th.)

Fair Readers, it has been a while!  The last posting on my previous blog, classicswithmrsb.blogspot.com, was in March 2015!  Gives you an idea how busy things have been.  I'll leave that blog live and may refer back to it now and then.  Gotta fix some of the photos links, though!

Given some projects looming upon the horizon, it is time for a web log with a broader scope.  

One project that will be discussed frequently in these postings is a book I am writing (with help from my aunt Beverly, cousin Lynn, and anyone else I can recruit!) about our family.  

Last summer, my sister Cynthia and I went to Europe for her 50th birthday.   Cynthia has been amazingly generous toward the family over the years--particularly with our mother during her long illness--so it gave me great joy to plan this trip for her as a "thank-you."  As part of the journey, we endeavored to visit places related to our ancestry, particularly Manchester, England and Trier, Germany, from which regions our paternal grandmother and great-grandfather, respectively, had emigrated to the U.S.  Our family also has strong ties with Scotland and France, so we visited those countries, too.  Of course, I had to take her to Rome for a few days, as well!  (Someday Ireland, Latvia, Belgium, the Netherlands, etc.)  Postings that give reports about our European genealogical sojourn will soon begin, so stay tuned!

On about June 21st, I'll embark upon an extended U.S. road-trip, in part to attend three educational institutes (with The Thoreau Society and Walden Woods Project in Massachusetts, and The Freedoms Project at Valley Forge, PA).  Along the way, I'll stop in areas important for my mother's family background in America, which goes back to the 17th Century (we are descended from at least 7 Revolutionary War Patriots through our maternal grandfather!).  I'll also flash my presidential-library-membership card to visit museums dedicated to the presidencies of Bush 41&43, LBJ, Lincoln, Eisenhower, Truman, Hoover, and maybe Ford--we'll see how it goes!  Marty and I will link up in Pennsylvania and travel together for a while, too.  He will be working on webcasts for the Democrat political convention this summer.  Should be interesting...!

Let us be hopeful this summer!
Annie

The Lord is King; He is robed in majesty. -- Psalm 93:1 (LXX 92.1)