Day 42: Allentown PA to Bolton Landing NY 480km

 

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 behaviour. That feels good.



We are now in New. York state. Albany, Montreal and Buffalo ahead.

It can wait, text stop 5 miles.

What a good idea.

If you are caught three times texting while driving in New York state you lose your license.

Getting close to the hills.

Lake George is our destination. Both Lake George and Lake Champlain feature in the battles during the revolution in 1773.

Over the bridge...

...to the smart tent my driver has set up for tonight.

The moon lights up Lake George.

... And we sit around the campfire listening to folk music and toasting marshmallows on long bamboo poles.

I am shown how to squeeze my charred marshmallow between two graham crackers along with a piece of chocolate inside. Yikes, it's sweet.

Ever since our conversation with Ralph at Gettysburg I have been thinking about music. We talked about how importantant singing and music was in building togetherness in families and communities.

I will never forget the feeling of being at the Space Shuttle launch in 2010 when the crowd on the bleachers stood a few minutes before the launch and sang the American National anthem.

So was being at the Big Sing in the Auckland Town Hall when over a thousand high school voices sang the New Zealand National Anthem.

So was being at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo when 200 pipers came through the mist at the castle. I was moved to tears - My maternal pride and my Scottish heritage responded to the sound.

Those are big spine tingling moments...

...Memorable personal music moments for me are marked by a sense of listening, of being one voice; loving the sound; being touched by the spirit in the simple songs, of thinking of a song and someone begins to sing it, unbidden.

A real joy is seeing little ones freely singing. What happens as children get older?

It is as if a fox has stolen the joy of singing from the vineyard.

Singing is something we all can do. It is not about a performance by others.

It is about being together, listening, letting go and forgetting about ourselves.

I love to sing under the helmet on the bike.

Sometimes I am singing along to music. Three cheers for folk music.

Sometimes I respond in song to what I see.

Songs come, and go, and time flies and my hearts lifts.

 

Psalm 104:33

I will sing to the Lord all my life.

I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

 

 

The copyright for the photographs on this blog, Pearls on Wheels, is assigned to the author.