Etape 3...New Hampshire & beyond.

So, we left New York and headed north to New Hampshire - the little town of Henniker, to be exact. We arrived in the midst of yet another Memorial day parade but I'll spare you any more flag photos. Our old friends from Austin, Adam & Mary Catherine left Manhattan a few years back with their kids, Quintana and Levi and built a lovely house on the side of a mountain. It's all pretty idyllic - they can both travel for work when they need to, yet live in a small, New England town with other like-minded people and their kids can go to a cool school not in the big city.

Needless to say, Levi and Creed hit it off swimmingly - literally and figuratively. Toy cars and light sabers were exchanged. Quintana willed Zelda a beautiful pink dress. Neighbors dropped by for Evan's famous caipirinhias and in the evening, after Adam left to fly off to Florida for a directing job, the adults sat out on the porch, listened to the sounds of the night, shared stories and drank wine.

...and holiday: Memorial Day

...a little parade in Armonk, New York...lots of old veterans made me think of my Dad and the kids talked about PopPop. Spent most of the day running on the big green lawn - soooo, very jealous of soft grass as Texas is brown, short and spikey. Ugh.
Stay tuned for Etape 3: Henniker, New Hampshire...

L'Etape 2: Yale, a birthday and a holiday...

Evan's birthday just happened to be the Saturday of his 30th Yale reunion. Such a party with more than a hundred people under a tent. And as a group - that is, Evan's friends - we all decided we looked younger than anyone else. Having the twins with us definitely helped.
Many thanks to Jerry and Mary for their hospitality in Beford, Ann for the cake and babysitting in Woodbridge, and the Peabody Museum and the dinosaurs for not kicking us out when Zelda opened the fire door and set off the alarm in the entire building. "Mom, what's that sound?"...

Etape 1...on our "Tour d'East Coast"

So day 1, our little peloton loaded up the car with clothing, supplies, and enough Pirate Booty and Cheerios to last for 2 weeks on the road. Leaving at 8pm, we headed north towards Dallas and didn't even make it out of Texas that first evening - Texadelphia? Texarkana? But by the time the next day rolled around, we had passed through Memphis.

Dinner was in Nashville with friends, but not until we had been stopped for speeding in Arkansas. The cop looked at Evan's license and his 'foreign' last name and asked him "You're not from here, are you?" "What kind of name is that?" I personally think that he thought he was working in Arizona and had gotten his 'A' states confused...

We had barbeque with Steve - Evan's old friend from Yale - and his son, Taylor...more driving into the night. It was already Thursday and had to be in Bedford, NY by Friday evening...

Oh, and speeding ticket No. 2 was procured in Virginia the next day...but we did make it to our destination right on time.

The long and winding road...

...of over 5000+ miles. When Evan first suggested that we drive east to our college reunions at the end of May, I wanted to kill him. We'd done that trip so many times before and the last time - in 2001 - was miserable. I never wanted to see the highwways of Arkansas again. But as we mulled it over and over, the 4 plane tickets, the 2 week car rental and all of the freedom we would have on the road, our decision was made.

We set off before the end of Ecole and right before Evan's birthday, destination: Yale in New Haven for his 30th college reunion. My 30th reunion at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania conveniently happened to be the following weekend so we tacked days on for travel before, a week sandwiched in the middle and the time to get home and there it was: a 2 week road trip through 13 states and thousands of miles with 4 1/2 year old twins...here we go!!