From the time we “closed the deal” and made the commitment to create a new life on Mt. Faith until the time we actually arrived,  encompassed nine months!  How’s that for perfect symbolism?  And the whole process was truly so very much like a birth of sorts.  I definitely felt morning sickness at times.  And great elation and expectation at others.  I kept repeating the phrase from Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” and feeling utterly at times just like Little Red Riding Hood who declared that she was “excited AND scared”.  That has been ME from day one of the gestation period until the arrival, these nine months later, at Mt. Faith.

The “getting here” was a sometimes stressful and often wondrous process. Just like birth.  It was up, it was down, it was frankly at times, more than I could compute.   We deliberated, we planned, we re-designed and imagined without full knowledge of what we really had or were going to experience once the new life began.  Or rather, I did.  Robert it seems has been full steam and assured from the get-go.

We fully intended to make it a once-in-a-lifetime vacation once the due date arrived, but in the end, some inner homing instinct pushed us on with greater speed than we had intended.  And yet, that didn’t hamper the glorious sights along the road and what will remain memorable hits and misses.

Here is our photo journal to fill in the visual story of our journey.

Tsuda Cafe and Bakery - Auburn, California

Gold Country, Gateway to the Sierras - Auburn, California

Over the Sierra Nevadas in May?

Sierra Sky

Nevada never disappointed

Casino - Elko, Nevada, across from our motel

Yankee Doodle Cafe - Alpine, Wyoming

The Grand Tetons from a distance

Our "alternate route" OVER the Tetons!

A chilly Yellowstone with Old Faithful only puffing!

Herd of buffalo (with baby) meandering along the highway

Big Boys passing the car

1950's motel - Gardiner, Montana - with Marine Corp. Flag

Yellowstone Mine Cafe, Montana

Fabulous Quartz wall - Yellowstone Mine Cafe

Closeup

And finally the highlight of our journey – the Painted Canyon at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.  Take my word.  GO THERE!

The best of Mother Earth!

JOURNEY COMPLETE.