When I went to Sicily about 14 years ago, I immediately felt a connection.  That was odd since I had never lived there and all my grandparents had left between 100 and 115 years before.  But it was familiar, the food, the sound of the speech and the faces that I saw.  That was how I felt when I crossed the border between Pennsylvania and New York.   I saw the massive NY sign, with the familiar NY crest and way too many words to read while driving.  A bit verbose and pretentious, but then isn’t that part of the charms of NY?  When you cross the state border into Illinois it always says – The People of Illinois Welcome You – friendly, simple and also in my experience true.  Regardless of the big ass sign I could not totally read and the drivers that were way too impatient, it was familiar, it was home.  I thought immediately – Welcome to the Mother Land, the place you were born and lived the first half of your life.  You have returned.

The return has come at a cost.  Jerry has willingly left all his friends, his place of birth and his family so I can be with mine.  I so appreciate what he has done for me.  Due to the closing date on our IL home and previous travel plans, we had to pack our house up in less than a week at a cost of our sanity.  Perhaps you know about our tire disaster and how we replaced all six of our RV tires because of a blowout and significant wear on all the other tires.   Moving and tire costs were very expensive.  Because of the shredded tire, we lost a travel day which causes us to drive way too many hours on Monday so we could arrive in NYS on Tuesday, at a cost to our sleep. 

Tuesday has a story of its own.  We are staying in Wilcox Memorial Park near Red Hook.  I am driving my car and Jerry is driving the RV.  When we left PA, we were doing so well and were so proud of ourselves.  That confident cockiness came at a cost.  We were driving along on Route 84 and Google Maps told us to take the Taconic State Parkway.  At the very last minute I realized the RV could not go on the Parkway because there are many low bridges over the Parkway and they would knock off the A/C on the roof!   The travel time taking the Parkway was 35 minutes.  I passed the exit and then we tried to get to the park.  The problem was that the Parkway is the quickest and shortest way to go north/south through the Hudson Valley.  When we exited 84 Google Maps kept directing us back the Parkway.  We began going around in circles until I was able to remember a way north that did not require using the Parkway.  The trip took an extra hour.   When we arrived at the park around 4:30 Jerry asked if I wanted to go look at one the homes we were considering.   I was honestly exhausted but I agreed.  When we are leaving the park, I saw a sign that said the park closed at 6 pm.  Jerry said that probably was an old sign.  We looked at the location of 2 homes and then it was close to 6 and I thought we should go back.  Jerry wanted to eat and we mistakenly had a delicious dinner at the Red Hook Dinner.  When we got back to the campground the gate was locked.  We checked Google Maps and it said 1 ½ miles to the campground.  I knew we could walk that far.  We had Ernie with us and so he had to walk that far too.  At first it was dusk and not so dark and we could see where we were going.  That did not last very long.  Soon it was so dark the stars were lighting up the sky, but not our path.  All of the roads in the park are one way and there were no signs giving directions.  Did I mention there is no internet or cell service in the park?  Soon my Google Map app was useless and we were no closer to the campground.  We discovered after about 45 minutes that was because we were walking in the opposite travel direction of the road.  For the second time that day we were going in circles.  We were getting tired of walking and seeing the same things.  Since we had no internet service, I couldn’t look for a map of the park.  There were no signs showing the park roads or campground location.  We ended up at the same bathroom location three times.  By the third time I was thinking it wouldn’t be too bad to just sleep in the bathroom.  It was lit and had a door you could close to keep the animals out.  It also had a long bench.  Ernie was dragging his feet he was so tired.  I sat down on a bench and said to Jerry, I wish you had a find my RV tag like your find my phone tag.  He said he had a find my MacBook tag and his MacBook was in the RV.  He searched for it on his phone and we followed the path back to the RV.  By time we got back we had walked for about an hour and a half but my Fitbit only recorded about 8,700 steps, very disappointing.  There was a Wilderness Survival class Wednesday, and I think I could have taught it.  I just kept thinking about that song – My Eyes Adore You – So close and yet so far away……..