What a road trip ~~ We drove through two states to get to the Ben and Jerrys Ice Cream Factory saturday Took us about 4 hours one way: Massachusetts to New Hampshire to Vermont (at one point we were an hour from CANADA!). It ended up being a beautiful day, but started out chilly and thickly overcast. We drove into some breathtaking mountains, and were at one point about an hour from Canada. The weather here reminds me of what I know a Georgia October to be: chilly and rainy air, with leaves changing colors and slowly dropping. Ive seen purple, orange, and red. Good news is that a week ago it was warm enough to lay out: so I did; on the seminary campus hill in my tank top and short (but modest) shorts. Ahh, it felt good to soak up some sun! Im learning the trick to surviving the New England climate: wear layers.

Driving to Ben and Jerrys reminded me of our trip up to New England. Considering we drove 16 of the 24 traveling hours on the first day of our departure, I didnt think I was up for another road trip. But Krissy, one of my best friends, was visiting, and she wanted to go to the Factory. Drew wanted to make the drive, so we headed out. And, just like the trip up to Boston, I took some tourist-style pictures from our car window On the way to Boston we passed through seven states basically the entire eastern sea board. My favorite was driving over the Hudson River, which actually looked more like a large lake It was HUGE, and surrounded by a few steep plateau-like pieces of earth. Driving through Delaware was a joke, it is about as big as Glynn County. And, it seemed to take as long to drive over the Delaware bridge as it did the entire state. We headed through the beautiful farmlands of New Jersey, and also past a few marinas and inland waterways of the Connecticut Coast. But, I wasnt totally awed over our Country until we reached the mountains of Vermont. The scenery truly made me appreciate various ways nature displays its Creator throughout our nation. Embarrassingly, I found myself remembering the words to America, The Beautiful. There were some sights to see namely a lot of moose crossing and bear crossing yellow warning signs along the way. And beautiful rolling mountains decorated with trees I still dont recognize but Im sure the New Englanders and Canadians are very familiar with the trees and birds around here. We are definitely NOT in Georgia anymore.

But, there was plenty of civilization along the way. We passed a Target and Home Depot, and I remembered my first witch sighting up here. She was walking into the local Target. Dark clothes in the gypsy style, with her hair tied back in a telling black silk scarf decorated with gold stars and moons. She mustve driven over from Salem. I was warned that they headed our way for shopping trips. Drew drove me to Target that day, because I find Massachusetts drivers to be absolutely terrifying. People will pull out in front of you They dont really take stop signs or red lights seriously, and merging onto the interstate is a death wish trust me, its nearly impossible. Rumor has it that a few years ago the MIT students designed the areas freeways I dont know how they passed their classes! Between scary on/off ramps, NO signs along the roadways and intersections, NO warning when lanes merge into one, and ZERO courteous drivers, the rule is: do whatever as long as no one gets hurt (no wonder this state is so liberal.) Si, instead of forcing myself to panic on the interstate, I found a quick back-road entrance to Target, the grocery store, and the mall!! These crazy driving conditions are not going to keep this southern girl from shopping! Sigh, even though its not the bible belt, I think I will learn to adjust.

More to come