Kiwis and Fairy Bread

29 July 2025

It has been a month since we returned from our trip. Several times I have sat down to write this post, but our normal routines have gotten the way. Morning walks and runs, jobs, chores, home improvements, attending several performances of our daughter’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and all of the work I put into the upcoming county fair.

In addition, during our first week back Mike came down with COVID. Because of our exposure, Ben lived with us and we quarantined together for a week. We are all healthy now. Interestingly enough, when Mike and I were on that crammed Yosemite bus, we did think that if we were to get COVID this trip, it would be from there. Either that or it was on the plane.

After dominating our dreams for weeks, the visions of pine covered mountains with granite cliffs and impossible waterfalls are starting to fade. When I awake at night, I finally know exactly where I am: in my own bedroom, with my husband beside me.

I have to say we really did plan our cross country trek very well. But some very unexpected, and dare I say crazy, things happened that we did not plan. Here’s a recap:

Not sleeping, in an overnight sleeper car. We loved it, and I can understand how Eva Maria Saint and Cary Grant fell for each other on a similar train route in North by North West. Maybe sleep was not their intention.

Seeing so much in the changing landscape of this country. Faces, temples, elephants, ant hills, painted canyons, all on a humongous scale. Maybe it’s my always-active imagination, or maybe it really is all that grand.

Meeting Eskimo whale hunters, and learning tips on how to kill a whale. Please understand that I really like whales. Coming from anyone else, I would have been horrified. But from Tom and Lenora, it is clearly a way of preserving a culture of theirs that is disappearing. It was respectful and important.

Seeing Yosemite’s iconic Tunnel View six days in a row: El Capitan, Half Dome, & Bridalveil Fall all in one view. You don’t even have to turn your head to see it all. Most visitors drive up to see this just once during their stay. Because of our rental in Yosemite Scenic Wonders, we saw it each day on our way to and from the valley. It is a shockingly beautiful site that one starts to see half way through the tunnel. It gets bigger and bigger and voila! You are there! Wow!

Descending Yosemite’s Mist Trail. I screamed, I laughed, I cursed, I smiled. My wounds have now scarred over and we enjoy telling the story. Still, we shudder when we think about how much worse my fall could have been. Recently, we watched the film Free Solo, about one man’s no-rope climb up El Capitan. For us, The Mist Trail was equally challenging. And we too survived.

Stargazing on a roadside pullout on a cliff near Yosemite West. Deep darkness, mysterious strangers, and The Milky Way. Totally cosmic.

Riding an actual stage coach and bargaining with notorious bandit Calamity Karen. Good thing we had that chocolate.

Going to Enchanted Hills and hearing my song. It was like visiting the past and the future at the very same time. Visiting my twenty two year old self and having her visit me at age fifty eight. Had I stayed in California that first summer, I would not have met Mike. Had I stayed that second summer we would not have had Emi. Had I stayed much longer than that week in 1994 while pregnant with Ben, had we decided to move there, Mike and I would not have everything that makes our life together New Jersey so wonderful. I see it not as the road not taken, but as our road less traveled. The road that shaped us for a time. The road that we return to, to make new memories.

What’s next for us? We’ve already booked a September visit to England to visit Mike’s family. There’s some ideas in the works for 2026, including a return to New Zealand that fall.

SO our cross country trek was amazing. We hope we’ve inspired you too to explore The United States in your own way. Go ahead and do it!

Thanks so much for sharing our adventures with us.