A Different Kind of Gardening

One of my favorite gardening bloggers headed his post a few days ago: "A Funny Thing Called Parenting" - HUH?  What does parenting have to do with gardening?  He proceeded to say: "The garden, our children, they must all find their own ways in life, and we are not as much in control as we think." 

And so YOU may wonder what gardening has to do with traveling.  My garden has gone to weed this year, and I've failed to keep up with this blog despite a great many travels since the last post - it feels like I've been lazy when I look at the list of things NOT done.

But that posting in The Garden Interior blog awakened an awareness in me of what I HAD been doing instead of what I had NOT been doing; simply put, we've been "gardening" in the "family garden".  Instead of pulling weeds and fertilizing roses, we've been reconnecting with neglected family and friends, and growing relationships through wonderful times of togetherness, some of it spent in travel to distant family (distant in the sense of geographical separation), some in visits to us by family and friends far and near.  And that, as Robert Frost so famously said, "has made all the difference".

Our spring/early summer travels have occurred in Silver airplanes and Silver cars rather than our Silver Airstream, but still I feel that they should be represented here, if in briefer form.

FAMILY WEDDING:  Nephew James Miervaldis married Caitlin Moore in April of 2014, and we were there to wish them all the happiness possible, as were their friends and family from far and near, giving us the opportunity to also reconnect with family living in scattered geographical locations. Thanks Jim and Caitlin for this opportunity!  :)

On the way there and back we also were able to take a few interesting, tho' brief, highlights of the area:

Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA

Letchworth State Park

Letchworth State Park

TRIP OF A LIFETIME: I (Liga) had the incredible fortune to be able to not only travel back to my roots, but to share that trip with both immediate family and other family members.  This was such a rich experience that it deserves a telling all its own, and perhaps this (primarily) Airstream blog is not the place for it, but here are some highlights, with a possible follow-up post in the future, giving greater detail to this adventure.

NIECE KATIE'S VISIT TO US AT END OF JUNE:

NOW: We are headed west, to Vancouver, BC, to meet up with sons Mark and John, and looking forward to a month of exploring fly-fishing opportunities in British Columbia and Washington State in Sept/Oct, and even more, to spending family time with our now far-flung sons (far-flung in terms of their choice of locations: Vancouver, BC and Queenstown, NZ).

We left home on Sept. 2, planning on crossing the U.S. in a somewhat leisurely pace allowing for stops along the way, visits to areas of historical or natural history interest, friends, and appreciation of the changing geography and nature.  Our first night was spent in a really nice Army Corps of Engineers campground in Iowa City, IA, and tonight we are in a ho-hum but not-so-bad KOA campground just north of Sioux Falls, SD.  Our goal is to be able to spend some time exploring Yellowstone (weather permitting), and visiting a long-time friend in Coer d'Alene, ID along the way, before reaching Vancouver, BC.