Pearls On Wheels

We wake to a tranquil morning. All is calm on Lake Champlain Overnight a red peonie has burst forth. Danielle takes us to meet her brother Yvan. We have heard a lot about him over the years, especially about the family maple sugaring gatherings. Here is the Plouffe Cabane. The sugar shack. ...and the bountiful vegetable garden. .. An homage to a loved mother's quilting pattern... Perky petunias at every window. On we go - a rebuilt covered bridge on our way The clasp on my pearls came adrift in my hands today. A confirmation that it is time to go home. A time to rethread our journey with other parts of our lives. We have collected many little 'pearls' on this part of journey around the USA .. People, people, people... Kindness, smiles, friendship, consideration, hospitality... Glorious scenery... History.... Science... Safe journeys... We have been blessed. We have left Orlanda in the tender care of Pete and Dan...

We give Orlanda a sleep in and board The Morgan to cruise through the Narrows on Lake George. The narrator fills us in on the geography and history of the lake. Lake George lies on the land route linking New. York with Montreal - we were following the road signs yesterday. It feeds into Lake. Champlain in the north. Later today we will ride through Ticonderoga site of Fort Ticonderoga built in 1700s which is a significant site during the French and Indian war and which was later pivotal in the American Revolutionary war. The cannons were captured and taken to Boston and the rest is history... The Morgan - a replica of a 72' 19th century vessel takes us into the Lake George Narrows where there are 165 Islands, many are available for summer camping. The Adirondack State park manages the bookings and has a ranger station on Glen Island. The lake is frozen in winter. Boat sheds dot the shoreline. ..With smart homes nearby. This is a holiday place for New Yorkers. ... And water ...

  Ladies in pink. Cecile and Diane are in town for the vintage Mach truck fair. There are 800 Mach trucks at the show. They say I should go and see them... ... We say good bye and head east and then north. The road signs tell you where are. Blue skies after a week of overcast weather.   Sunny smiles, too. Christina made us the first cappuccino we have had in a while. She is coming to New Zealand one day. We are in Newark, New Jersey. Not far from the Newark airport. Not far from New York either. Times Square, New York is about 45 miles from this off ramp. The traffic is getting thicker but is well behaved. From my perch high on the back of the bike I can see over the tops of cars. It is easy to read the traffic from here. The compression waves as someone speeds up and passes and then slows down causes a pulse in the traffic. My driver holds a steady speed and a good distance behind the vehicle in front and I can see that the cars behind us, in our lane, seem to mirror his...

The road leads to Strasburg and Ronks and Paradise villages in Lancaster. We are now in an Amish country. This post is especially for my dear friend Barbara. We stop for a few hours and learn more about Amish society and the way faith, family, and community are tightly linked. We stop at a touristic Amish Village, operated by Amish people, and take a bus tour with a guide. Amish are anabaptists who believe in the baptism of adult believers. They were persecuted in Germany after the reformation in the 1500's. William Penn the Governor of Pennsylvania in the 17th century offered a haven with religious freedom. The Amish now number over 200,000 and are in 23 states of the USA and in Canada. Their population doubles every twenty years. Families have an average of 7 children. Families are mainly involved in agriculture and cropping, and also in metal, carpentry and other trades. The farms we saw were all very lush and green. Vegetable gardens tended by the women are bountiful food b...