After departing Maine we debated whether we should take the coastal route through New England or if we should head back into the mountains. Since driving the teardrop through heavily trafficked areas is a challenge, and since we weren’t tired of seeing all the brilliant fall foliage, the mountains won out. Our first destination was the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and we quickly realized that we weren’t the only people with this grand idea. For the most part, we have been relatively alone on this journey. Yes, some of the National Parks have been very busy indeed, but overall it is the “off season,” and we tend to travel in the middle of the week. So we were more than a little surprised to see just how crowded these White Mountains were! It’s no wonder either: the trees were aflame with vibrant colors ranging from cardinal red to dazzling yellow, and every shade in between.

Our first night was spent in a nice campground surrounded by a beautiful array of trees, and as the sun started to dip the leaves were set aglow with the last bright rays of the day. We had a very relaxing evening, and as I walked around the teardrop heading for bed something twinkled in my headlamp, and I walked towards a nearby tree to take a look. A tiny caterpillar about one inch long was suspended from a branch, dangling from a thread of silk. As I looked closer I realized this caterpillar wasn’t just hanging free, it was actually performing an intricate maneuver in which it twisted from side to side, slowly gathering silk and passing it from leg to leg as it rolled it into a ball. I was astounded. Of course everyone learns about caterpillars turning into butterflies, and how insanely complicated this process is, but to watch a caterpillar literally roll a ball of silk between its legs really blew my mind. I watched transfixed for several minutes while this tiny creature continued its weaving dance, blissfully unaware of the voyeur nearby. Who needs a television?

The next day we continued our drive through the trees and attracted a lot of attention from the mostly retiree-aged tourists. People of a certain age really do love our vintage-inspired trailer! When we got through New Hampshire we stopped in Montpelier, Vermont to buy some groceries. I commented to the clerk about all the people in the mountains, and she replied, “Oh yes! We call those The Peepers. Florida has Snowbirds and we have The Peepers!” Apparently people come from all over to enjoy what a “real fall” looks like, and I can’t say I blame them! I was happy to be known as an honorary Peeper for the day.

The next few days and nights were rainy, and we plodded on through the Adirondacks and Catskills among more trees, but with less people. The trees here hadn’t quite caught up to those in the White Mountains, but I assume The Peepers are on stand-by for when they do. We stayed a night at a campground that prohibits both dogs and alcohol, and since we were the only campers we felt guilt-free about breaking both of those rules. We each grabbed a drink and plopped into the truck to tune-in to the Presidential debate while the continual rain muddied our campsite. After an hour of misery I called it a night and crawled into the teardrop, completely exhausted from the overexertion that comes from listening to politicians pontificate.

We sat watching a perched Barred Owl for a long time, and when I finally snapped this photo it was gone. I assumed I missed it completely, but there he is, flying away on the right hand side of the frame.

A fairy wonderland mushroom garden in the White Mountains

The glorious colors of Autumn

Fiery red leaves really pop against a grey sky, my only consolation for rainy weather

There can never be too many photos of leaves!

The trailer poses for a photo op somewhere in the Catskills

Manicured green hay fields always look amazing next to wild spaces

Dawwwww aren’t we cute

You’ll notice two things right away when you enter the state of Maine. One: they love puns. Two: They love lobster. Oftentimes these two loves are combined in the form of clever restaurant names like this gem: Mainely Lobster. I love both puns and lobster, so I immediately felt at home. Our first stop was the seaport city of Portland, where my sister and her new husband Jonathan live. Portland is a beautiful old city with a history of devastating fires. To prevent future catastrophe the city mandated that all new buildings be built of brick or stone, so you can imagine how quaint it is today.

We spent some more family quality time together, enjoying lobster dinner (complete with non-dairy butter for yours truly), sightseeing Portland via the uber-touristy trolley car tour, and more or less chilling out for a few days. I felt that my sister and Jonathan needed some time to decompress after their wedding, so Andrew and I hit the road for a couple of days to see what the rest of Maine and Quebec had to offer.

Our first day was spent driving up north into Canada. This was not our first foray into The Great White North, and so we considered ourselves prepared for the little differences like driving using the metric system. Boy, were we in for a shock! First, our border crossing this time around proved a little more difficult. After some questioning by the Canadian border guard, he made us pull over and sit in the truck for about ten minutes while he took our passports and disappeared inside. I’m not sure what he was looking for, but I guess he figured we were who we said we were, and he let us go through without further probing.

Our second shock was the language barrier. Of course I know that the people of Quebec speak French, but I was assuming signage would be bilingual as it was in British Columbia and Alberta. No such luck! Without any knowledge of French and no local currency, we were at the mercy of the locals who, fortunately for us, tend to speak perfect English. We even had a construction worker practice on us while we waited for our lane to open. He tried to convince us that California was in the opposite direction and that we were going the wrong way. Unfortunately when we arrived at the campground we were hoping to use, there were neither locals nor English signage to be found. The only sign we understood was a picture of a dog with a cross through it, so we turned around and found a dirt road just outside the campground that we used as our bed for the night.

The next day we awoke early and headed into Quebec City. It was a beautiful crisp fall day, and we managed to find some street parking for the truck and teardrop and set off to explore this old fort of a town. I wish I knew more about the history of Quebec, but it was immediately apparent that this town has seen some action. The old part of the city is confined within giant walls way up on the cliff side opposite the Saint Lawrence River. All along the wall are huge cannons, and there are hidden walkways under the fort that must have provided some protection from incoming mortars. Now in peaceful times this is a lovely place to visit, and we enjoyed the European feel of the city, even as we fought for sidewalk space with thousands of mostly American tourists who were pouring in from five cruise ships that had just docked.

There are few things I love more in this world than real French fries, or frites, if you will, and so we settled down for brunch at a sidewalk café that served a delicious steak frites. Unhappily for me dairy-free options haven’t caught on in Quebec, so I had to forgo my typical café au lait with soymilk for a regular cup-o-joe (with plenty of sugar of course!). As we were heading back to the truck we passed a bike store and found some handlebar grips for Gertie that match my leather saddle. With the addition of these Québécois handlebar grips and a bell my pal Tom bought me in NYC, she is becoming quite the multicultural bicycle!

On our way back into the US we were once again stopped at the border. This time they made us get out of our truck and wait inside while they “searched” our vehicle. I watched from the window as the agent fumbled with Andrew’s keys, apparently unable to open the trailer door. After a few minutes he gave up and we were free to go. I had nothing to hide, but I am pretty glad that he wasn’t privy to our poor housekeeping; we aren’t in the habit of making our bed look nice when we hit the road!

We stopped for the night at Moosehead Lake where we enjoyed a nice fire and dinner before rain caught us. We spent the next day exploring Acadia National Park on the coast, and while we thought it beautiful, most of the views were foggy and grey. After driving all day in the rain, we learned that the teardrop has some leaks, and Andrew devised a clever way to dry out our futon mattress over a campfire using ropes and hiking poles. I like to think those hiking poles were glad to finally be of some use!

The next day we drove back down the coast and met Meghan and Jonathan at a local Oyster Festival. I don’t know if I can do this downhome festival justice by attempting to describe it. The oysters were delicious, the music was fun, and the people were drunk. The rain was relentless, but this just pushed everyone closer together under the tents and increased the merriment. The oyster shucking competition was fierce: so fierce I couldn’t see a lick of action from my 5’2” vantage point. Even Andrew at 6’2” struggled to see what was going on. I do know the winner was a young man from Colorado who was wearing a bowtie, and his reward was a belt buckle. Yes, Mainers sure do know how to have a good time!

Our last day was spent in Portland using the Laundromat, changing the oil in the truck, and generally taking care of business. The sun reappeared, we started to dry out, and we enjoyed more lobster before saying au revoir to Meghan, Jonathon, and this wonderful northern state they call home.

OMG this was soooo tasty. Photo Cred: Dale Beeson

Maine is serious about its ice cream. So is Andrew.

We spotted this mom and calf on our way into Quebec

I still have no idea what this is saying

It was as good as it looks

A view of Quebec City, complete with one of the cruise ships

Some fancy building in Quebec City

There were lots of cannons throughout the city

Hanging out at an overlook in Quebec City

Zephyr played more Fetch the Stick

Some beautiful (and wet) rocks in Acadia National Park

Our first attempt at drying out the futon, before Andrew employed the hiking poles

Driving along the interstate highways and toll roads through Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania proved to be long and boring. This is not to say that these states don’t have beautiful scenic drives and rolling hills to admire. I spent four years in central Ohio while attending Kenyon College, so I know how gorgeous this piece of American real estate can be. Unfortunately we were in a hurry, and were determined to get to NYC less than 24 hours after leaving Chicago. Since we didn’t leave Chicago until 6 PM, we wound up driving most of the night on the huge interstate to make up for lost time.

This crazy all-night drive was punctuated by few memorable moments, one of which involved grilling BBQ chicken at a rest stop outside Cleveland at midnight. At 6 in the morning we pulled off into another rest stop for a couple hours of sleep before driving through the seemingly endless countryside of Pennsylvania. We experienced several episodes of sticker shock as we paid various tolls crossing into New York, before finally making it to Queens where we dropped of Zephyr at a kennel for the weekend. Driving through Queens to my aunt’s house on Long Island with the teardrop was certainly an experience. Trailers are not allowed on the Parkways in New York, and so we had to resort to long, crowded roads that were in poor condition. By the time we arrived at my aunt’s house my knuckles ached from clenching the steering wheel as I maneuvered through those crazy New York streets!

Most of New York is a blur. We spent three jam-packed days there; all were full of family and friends and merriment. One of my favorite days was spent cavorting around Manhattan on my new bike Gertie, with Andrew and my old pal Tom. Manhattan has great bike paths along the Hudson River and through Central Park, and so we spent several hours exploring the city by bicycle. We also checked out the High Line, an elevated walking path and park that was built where an old railroad track used to be. Unfortunately we forgot to bring our camera that day, but I highly recommend that if you’re visiting New York go and see it! It’s an excellent example of how we can reuse and re-imagine urban spaces.  After we parted ways with Tom we headed across the Brooklyn Bridge to meet my family for dinner. It was a long uphill ride to the top, and we had to dodge tourists on foot the whole way, but the exhilarating downhill wind whipping my face, and the views of Manhattan as we coasted into Brooklyn were well worth the effort.

The dinner in Brooklyn ended with a bang, literally. As we all sat outside on the back patio enjoying each other’s company on the night before my twin sister’s wedding, a thunderclap rattled us just as a huge downpour forced us to huddle under umbrellas as we sipped port and shared desserts. It was a fun way to end the evening, and we were all grateful the rain came when it did: the next day was a beautiful one for my sister’s wedding in a park at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge.  After the wedding Andrew and I were lucky enough to have a hotel room in Brooklyn and while we enjoyed the huge bed and luxurious shower, we were a bit “homesick”. Even while staying at my aunt’s house we slept in our trailer (in her driveway), because the teardrop really has become our sacred space and cozy little home away from home.

We left New York very early on a Tuesday morning and headed up towards Maine to see my sister’s current hometown of Portland and spend some more time with my mom and step dad before they flew home to Australia. While I will always profess my love for New York, we could tell we were really going to enjoy Maine and the surrounding states. As we drove farther north we learned to gauge the relative happiness of state residents by the demeanor of the tollbooth agents. In New York you’re lucky if they say “Hello” at all, in Connecticut they said “Good morning!” and by the time we reached Maine they were asking us where we were camping, why we were in town, and if it was our first visit. We ascertained that Mainers must be very happy indeed, and we drove on, excited to spend some quality time in “Vacationland.”

A poor cell phone pic in Central Park

Me and the beautiful bride! Photo Cred: Ed Pino

Meghan and Jonathan had an excellent photo booth! Here we are with Tom and Rachel, some of our oldest pals from high school.

This must be before we got down on the dance floor. Photo Cred: Gina Mignone

Not sure what can be said here…um…nice ring Andrew! Photo Cred: Gina Mignone

On our drive east from the Mississippi towards Chicago we were chased by blustery winds and dark grey thunderheads. We managed to stay ahead of the storm throughout the day, and when we finally arrived in the Chicago area at dusk the wind was intense. We found a campsite at the nearly deserted State Park on the shore of Lake Michigan, and did our best to enjoy the ancient push-button showers before scrambling into bed just as the sky ripped apart and the thunderstorm unleashed its fury. We discovered that the teardrop is (mostly) waterproof, and snuggled in our warm, cozy den while the storm raged overhead. I felt bad for poor Zephyr, who is afraid of thunder, but he managed to survive the night in the dry pickup truck and in the morning we were treated to sunshine and warm weather.

Although we wanted to visit Chicago in part to see the wonder and beauty that is Chi-town, we also had ulterior motives. For my birthday Andrew gifted me an old Chicago Schwinn bike frame, and he has spent the last several months slowly rebuilding it into an awesome ride (I call her Gertie). We had a goal of having Gertie ready by the time we reached NYC, as we had set up a bike date in Manhattan with my old buddy Tom who was to be in town for my sister’s wedding. We had originally tried to get Gertie’s wheels built at an REI in Olympia, WA, but were thwarted when they didn’t have the right spokes. Andrew decided to call the Chicago REI and tell them exactly what was needed and what day we would be there. Thankfully they could fit us in, and we dropped off the wheels in the morning and went off to explore “The Loop” in downtown Chicago.

The Loop is what you might consider Chicago’s tourist section. It is home to Millennium Park, which houses the famous “Dream Gate” sculpture, otherwise known as The Bean. The Bean is a giant, bean-shaped mirrored sculpture that allows the viewer to walk around and underneath it, thus providing endless perspectives of the Chicago skyline, as well as the hundreds of people walking around it. We were excited to see it, but sorely disappointed by the privatized park where the hired security kicked us out for having Zephyr with us. We wound up taking turns sitting with the dog while the other person visited The Bean and took photos. In fact, we were quite surprised at how un-dog-friendly Chicago seemed. We only saw one other dog being walked downtown, and people seemed surprised (and often annoyed) to encounter a dog on the sidewalk.

Before we left we made sure we secured two important Chicago food items: one was an Italian hot beef sandwich with peppers for Andrew (thanks to Tom for that recommendation!), and the other was coffee from Intelligentsia (thanks to Meghan for that one!). The coffee shop was exactly what you would expect in a renowned urban coffee house. Everything was metallic and sparse, the employees were tattooed and hip, and the coffee was delicious. I was able to sip on iced coffee without any sugar or creamer, which is saying A LOT for me. After spending $30 on two pounds of beans (yikes!) we headed back to REI to pick up Gertie. Andrew spent a couple more hours outside REI putting her back together while I took advantage of REI’s free Wi-Fi, and later that evening we set out for NYC with the insane goal of getting there by the next afternoon.

They call them The Great Lakes for good reason. From the shoreline Lake Michigan looks like an ocean!

Yeah yeah, I wear that sweater too much in photos.

After a few failed attempts to take our own photo, a nice passerby offered to help us out

Chicago is quite a pretty city

Dream Gate sculpture, aka “The Bean”

This sculpture has inadvertently become one of Chicago’s main tourist attractions, and it’s easy to see why!

Getting artsy fartsy

Andrew is a clever man

Pretty wild stuff, right?

My boys!

Imagine that out in front of you, as far as the eye can see, is an enormous amount of grey matter. That squiggly, squishy, weird material that composes our brains, but instead of in the shape of a brain it is spread out all over the ground. And instead of being squishy and slimy and grey, it is hard, calcified, and pasty white.  Add some pointy pinnacles and towers of chalky rock reaching for the sky and some deep gorges, and you have a pretty good visual of Badlands National Park.

It’s no wonder this alien landscape acquired the name of Badlands. The ground is completely arid, the weather is extreme, and very little life is supported in the area. In the grassland surrounding the park we saw more bison, coyotes, and a few prairie dog towns. After spending the night in a primitive campground that was basically a dirt field, we drove through the park and stopped to “hike” around on the brains. Since the ground is so hard and there are no trees or plants to speak of, the “trail” is marked with little posts that are numbered, and you have to tromp around looking for the next number in the sequence. It was a fun diversion, but we needed some more adventure so we attempted to scramble up one of the spires. We made it to the top with much difficulty, since every handhold we found would crumble if we applied too much pressure. Once at the top we realized there was no getting down the other side without serious injury or death, so we carefully climbed down the way we came, with Andrew making a ladder for my feet out of his hands.

Our next destination in mind was Chicago, and so we hightailed it across South Dakota and into Minnesota on the boring interstate highway. We drove all night until we hit the Mississippi River and then spent the next several hours trying to find a spot to camp. It wasn’t until about 3:30 AM that we finally found some kind of park on the flood plain where we could pull the trailer and sleep. I awoke the next morning to the sounds of Trumpeter Swans, and pulled myself out of bed to see just how lovely the park was. It was a beautiful place to camp, and we let Zephyr play more Fetch the Stick and swim while we attempted to cook a hearty breakfast, only to discover we were out of fuel. Blurg. We were unable to make our coffee, and as we drove through the small riverside towns we discovered that coffee really hasn’t caught on in rural Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.

Caffeine migraines aside, I was really enamored with the Mississippi border towns in this region. When I think of the Mississippi River I always picture the South, and I was unprepared for the beautiful foliage and rolling hills of this area. I am sure the winters are frigid, but the fall weather was lovely and I can easily picture myself living in a little farmhouse with a red barn in the back. Although I think I’ll wait until they open up some more coffee houses.

Our only real stop on the way to Chicago was Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa. The Effigy Mounds are Native American burial grounds from pre-Columbian days, and we spent an hour hiking with the dog through gorgeous oak and aspen trees that whispered with the voices of ancient spirits. We marveled at the burial mounds built in the shapes of bears, relaxed in the warm sun that was tempered with a cool breeze, and enjoyed amazing views of the mighty Mississippi River before getting back on the interstate and heading to Chicago.

The alien landscape that is Badlands National Park

Sometimes we forget just how insignificant we humans are until we visit a place like this!

This is how we know we are on the right trail

Workin’ it for the camera…despite desperately needing a shower

We managed to find some flowers! Life prevails!

This is the spire we scrambled up and then slid back down

Some of the beautiful scenery along the Mississippi. The leaves were just starting to turn; fall is upon us!

The light filtering through the trees was so peaceful

Admiring the view of the Mississippi and searching for Bald Eagles at Effigy Mounds

We found one really cute funky coffee shop along the Mississippi. Unfortunately it was closed. On a Wednesday. At 10:00 AM.