Editor’s note: Mark Bradford is contributing occasional posts from his diary on traveling the country with his wife Wendy while they rent out their Mishawaka home for six months.
Day 67 of our 190 day sojourn
Thursday, August 31 — South Bend
Wow, August went by quickly.
Wendy and I came back to Indiana on August 6, eager to see our family and friends and blessed to have places to stay until August 31. It has been a great time and now we head out for a month in Denver where we will adjust our lives again.
It is hard to really tell you how great it was to be here and see friends despite our unusual circumstances. However, the road calls and by 6 p.m. on Thursday, we should be within an hour or two of Iowa. The road calls and we answer.
I prefer to cut it down to more understandable time frames.
Assuming we return on December 31 (we may decide to spend January in Florida as well), we will simply be spending the entire college football season on the road. Week one is already done. And Saturdays will potentially be football-viewing days unless I get stuck climbing some mountain somewhere. Somehow that will make time more manageable.
People have asked me if I really like this enforced freedom. The answer is “sort of.” The original plan was to go to six cities and spend a month in each, in order to enjoy the real city and learn to know a real neighborhood. That idea was a bust before it started when it became apparent that we would be back in the South Bend area this month, sleeping in other people’s homes, after really just being the drive-around tourists in Canada.
However, it is hard to top the experience we had. New Hampshire, Maine, and every place we stopped in Canada had a large number of breath-taking moments — from the Flume in the White Mountains (New Hampshire) … to watching the sunset from the top of the mountain in Bar Harbor (Maine) … to finding out all about Anne of Green Gables on Prince Edward Island … to seeing the amazing shoreline scenes in Halifax, Lunenburg, and Blue Rock in Nova Scotia.
What I have decided is the following: If you want to visit Ireland, it is much easier to visit Nova Scotia. Same effect, same friendly people, same ocean.
And: Northern Michigan is just about as good, too.
So, tomorrow, we will meet at our house in Mishawaka about 3 p.m., toss a few more things in our car and head out for phase three of our adventure.
Just can’t wait to get on the road again.
See you physically next year. Just know that we keep our friends and family in our hearts on a daily basis.