Wandering Maine

Wandering Maine

October 21, 2006

When I woke up this morning I had decided that Journey Travel should be called “Wandering.” That is the noun. The verb is, “wander.” When we were in Alaska, Joey went to Sitka and brought me back a t-shirt that says, “The Journey is the Destination.” My motto for this blog was, “The destination is just another part of the journey.”

This morning I think that both the Sitka t-shirt and my motto may miss the idea of Journey Travel. They both emphasize the destination. Maybe there is no destination, only the journey, and the journey is but wandering. I have another t-shirt that says, “Not all those who wander are lost.” So maybe even if we wander, we are not lost. That would be good news.

We wandered northwest to look at leaves. We started on back roads, the ones that have names, not numbers. Orange leaves on red maples shimmered along Swamp Road, flashed on the round hills above Quaker Meeting Road, and huddled in the gullies Poland Range Road crossed on narrow bridges. Depot Road led us to Gray (the village) which was not gray; but vermilion, crimson, yellow ochre, and lemon.

We turned north at Gray on a road with a number and watched the reflection of red leaves on sugar maples in Crystal Lake, Upper Range Pond, Tripp Pond, and Pennesseewasse Lake. At Bethel our old friend Highway 2 meandered west so that we could watch yellow leaves on aspen reflect in the ripples of the Androscoggin River. The leaves led us into New Hampshire where we stopped for lunch at Saladinos in Gorham and then drove to the top of Mt. Washington (worst weather in the US) to shiver in the cold wind and look at leaves as far as the eye could see. Annie and Elmo took me up a trail near the edge of White Mountains National Forest that was littered with dappled orange, yellow and red leaves.

Just before the light faded Parnelli Annie rocketed the Highlander back to Maine over Hurricane Mountain Road, and we wandered the back roads to Bathtub Cove knowing that were passing colored leaves in the dark.