Update June 11, 2007

I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything since June 1!! The picture here is of my friends from Seattle that I met up with in Boston for quick trip!

The end of May was filled with getting my daughter packed up from school and a trip to Chicago with her. A road trip with someone was a new thing and I liked it! We traveled through PA and then to Akron, Ohio for our first night. We stayed in the Quaker Oats factory that had been converted into a hotel. The rooms were in the old silos and ROUND! It was fun. Ohio was very flat to Rachel who is used to the mountains and hills of the Northwest.

From Akron we traveled on small state roads to Lake Erie and then onto Indiana where we spent the night in Michigan City. Rachel got to see her first two Great Lakes in one day. The next day we were on to Ann Arbor to see a roommate of hers from school and see the town. It is a fun college town and we had a great lunch at Zimmerman’s deli. Go if you have the chance.

Off to Chicago for the Art Institute. We had planned the trip around going to this wonderful art museum and we were not disappointed! We spent five hours there and still did not see everything! Thankfully it was rainy out so we didn’t miss being in the sun. The next day we spent walking the magnificent mile of Michigan Ave. and visiting with Rachel’s childhood friend who attends the University of Chicago. I loved seeing her life and yet yearned to be back in that student life – although the crammed student apartment didn’t appeal.

I put Rachel on a plane back to Seattle and then I traveled through Indiana to Kentucky. It’s the last state for me – now I have all 50. It is beautiful there but I must admit it was the first state I visited on this trip where I felt odd and uncomfortable as a woman alone. Perhaps if I had spent time in the cities of Louisville or Lexington I might not have but in the country areas – I felt that I was being looked at often. I didn’t like that.

Since returning from that trip I have been helping my sister and enjoying NJ. I have discovered though that the NE fondness for conversational arguing just for the sake of arguing is not fun for me – I want to get away from it. The fireflies though have started and I love them and we have had some great thunderstorms. We also went to a small town display of fireworks that the volunteer firedepartment put on - beautiful and very homey.

The best storm (and the scariest) came while driving to Boston. Last week, on a lark, I drove to Boston to see friends from Seattle who were there for a child’s graduation from Law School. I drove through the most incredible storm – 40 miles of thunder and lightning and hail! I had to pull over once and then crawl at 10-20 miles per hour for some time. That wasn’t even the most exciting part of the trip!

While approaching the Tappen Zee bridge in New York state (near Bear Mtn) A BEAR ran across all four lanes of the highway!!! I gasped as I saw it and then feared the bear would be hit and then relieved when it wasn’t and then scared that the cars and trucks in front of me who braked to avoid it would then hit each other and I would hit them! Wow, it was the most exciting and scary driving day of my whole trip!

Today I am writing from Ft.Lauderdale , Fl. My sister and I found cheap flights (cheaper than driving) and decided to head south so I could fulfill a long time dream to go to Key West. It’s as far away from Seattle as I can get and still be in the US. We will drive there tomorrow so I will write more about the trip then.

I miss everyone I love a lot right now. I promise to write more and stay connected. I love to hear from you all.

Thanks, Libbie

Reunion

One of the main reasons for setting out on my adventure this year was connected to my 35th high school reunion. Now that reunion is past and I find myself still sorting through it. Why was it so important to go? What did I expect and what did I receive?

I went to a small all girls’ prep school in New Jersey. I entered in the fall of 1968 – a year after the summer of love in San Francisco. Yet in New Jersey, at my school, we were required to wear uniforms and the head of the school would make you knee in front of her to show that your skirt was not above your knees!

Huge changes were rumbling around the world. John Kennedy was gone, so too Martin Luther King and Bobbie Kennedy and yet in the bubble of the school that first year of high school it might have been the fifties for the way we thought of ourselves and the world. We were privileged white girls (we did have the first black student in our class). We expected we would always want to wear penny loafers and Peter Pan collar dresses and go on to college for our Mrs. Degree.

In the four years of high school everything changed for us and for the world. The shootings at Kent State happened, Woodstock happened, and we began to find our voices with the first Earth Day, protesting the Vietnam War, arguing about uniforms, and experimenting with drugs at school. I have some sympathy for the administration that I don’t think ever saw what was coming.


Thirty-five years later, the women who came to the reunion were a fabulous gathering of accomplished women – not all in usual ways. In our class there are doctors and businesswomen,professors annd educators of colleges ad universities, artists, whale researchers and mothers, financial wizards and explorers. Somehow in the turbulent growing up time we managed to expand and develop unique lives. We were still breaking the rules as we had done in high school.

Our class had been known to do that – break rules and so even at the reunion when we were all being ‘too loud’ while speeches were going on, we found ourselves being told to be quiet by older class groups. We chose instead to move to another part of the campus and keep talking. We shared stories how what an amazing time in history that we had been in school and how it had affected us. We had such a wide range of experiences; the pretenses of impressing each other were past.

Why was it important to go? I think I needed to know that I wasn’t crazy – that the time of being in high school had been important. I needed to see others having had made unique choices that didn’t fit the norm – it seemed like we had never fit the norm then and still didn’t now. I got to talk with kind and concerned women – to see us alive and kicking – still very much on a path of growth and change – there was no slinking off into old age for us. We got to celebrate our roots and be thrilled to see the changes at the school. No longer was there just one student of color – now there were faces of many different hues. One of our classmate’s daughters goes to the school now – the only legacy from our class. She is a bright, thoughtful girl who was so glad to meet her Mom’s friends and hear about the ‘old’ days. I left with hope that another generation of women could learn to make their way on their own terms- whatever they wanted them to be. I also felt inspired to keep breaking the rules and finding my own true way and being thankful for a place that I didn’t think set out to teach me that but in fact had.

The peeps Come Home

I think it was somewhere in Arizona that I realized I knew where the Peeps were manufactured. In the back of my mind I remembered watching a bit of a show on the Food Network that showed the Peeps factory in Bethlehem, PA. I also knew that the first leg of my trip would take me within 40 miles of the factory!

I found the Just Born (the Peeps Company name) website and searched for someone to email. Allyson is in the consumer affairs area and was the perfect choice. Off the email went – “ Would it be possible to visit the factory?”

I got my reply a few days later. Sadly, tours were not available but I could stop by the lobby and ask for Allyson when I arrived. I was so excited! The Peeps Pilgrimage would be complete!


Last week I went to the Just Born Facility! I brought hard copy pictures of all the Peeps adventures to show and asked for Allyson. To my surprise, I not only got to meet her, the great front desk receptionist as well as the Executive Assistant and the CEO and President!!!


The visit was so much fun! Everyone was so kind and happy to meet the Peeps and me. I had traveled so far to get them to see their home. I showed the pictures and we laughed as I shared their adventures and told them how everyone I met loved the Peeps. It was such a happy place to work!

We took lots of pictures (GO TO http://web.mac.com/estellas to see them) and I received wonderful gifts. I let everyone know I would continue to be a Peeps ambassador as I will be on more trips this year. I plan to keep them all posted on the Peeps Pilgrimage.


THANK YOU TO EVERONE I MET AT JUST BORN, INC. !!

Update: May 20, 2007

Too much time has gone by since my last update. Getting off the road and staying in one place is great but I notice I don’t have as much time to myself. The picture about is of my daughter, her firned and I at her college.

Since I wrote last I have attended my high school reunion. Eight fabulous women from the class of 72 joined other alums from our girls’ high school. We laughed and giggled and actually got in trouble for talking during speeches (some things never change). Leslie, one of my classmates has a daughter in 6th grade at the school and we enjoyed her tour of our school as well as seeing her star in the middle school musical. We told her stories and argued about when events happened. All of the women now have amazingly rich lives. I am so glad I got to see them.

I have made three trips to my daughter’s college to help her move stuff out for the summer. I so enjoy spending time with 20 something’s. They have such active minds and I learn new things every time I am with them. They are so much smarted than I was then or perhaps even now.

I got a chance to give an evening workshop on “Transitions” for a group of fourteen women. What a lively group. I will write more about that experience soon. I also had a good long visit with a friend from college. We had hours together in part due to huge thunderstorms, which passed through the area. I love east coast thunderstorms- we never have them like that in Seattle.

The biggest event of the past few days was going to the Peeps Headquarters in Bethlehem, PA! I will write a whole piece about that visit but though I couldn’t get into the factory I did meet lots of folks and got lots of pictures and gifts! My Peeps were so excited to see their home!

I promise to fill you all in more soon. I am finding a new pace for this part of the journey. I love every place I have been, everyone I have met, every idea of have for the future. I am holding all this at the same time and loving that as well!

Update: May 8, 2007

This is the first week I am not been on the road since the week I spent in Bisbee, AZ about a month ago. It has been wonderful to settle in, do laundry, and put clothing in drawers. At the same time I find myself itching to be on the road. I have found that the time I spend traveling is very creative and centering.

I am at my sister’s house in NJ. She and her husband have been wonderful in having me stay here. I have gotten to be part of a family again instead of a solo traveler. I have gone on long walks with their dogs through beautiful countryside, seen spring all over again (though my allergies weren’t happy) and had home cooking, which I missed.

I have started to connect with old friends and this weekend will attend a high school reunion – my 35th. I went to a small girls high school and so the group will be small but I hoe we will have time to really share about life since high school. Yesterday I got to visit the parents of my best friend from high school. Sarah died in her 30’s and I have tried to stay in touch with her parents – not as well as I would have wished but it was so good to see them and share a bit. I missed my friend.

I also have had the opportunity to help my sister with her retail store. She owns a great dog and cat boutique in Chester NJ. It is fun to meet new people, see how hard it is to run a store and be of help. The picture is of her, a friend and the Peeps at a fundraising run for the volunteer fire department in Chester. I am getting to experience small town living in NJ!

I will keep up the updates and stories as they come. I will be on the road again at the end of the month with a “Gilmore Girls’ trip with my daughter! Stay tuned!

Weekly update 5

The big news is that I have arrived in New Jersey ending the first leg of this adventure!! The trip has been great and I have enjoyed most every minute.

Since I wrote the last update I have spent time in North Carolina with a friend from graduate school. I watched three soccer games and one rugby game that her sons were in. I don’t know how I would have parented boys – they play hard and eat so much! It was great to see the Charlotte area.

From Charlotte I drove north through western Virginia, West Virginia, and a tiny bit of Maryland before spending my last night on the road in Chambersburg, PA. I enjoyed that last night and then headed to eastern PA. I had planned on seeing my daughter in a dance show at her college near Philadelphia on Saturday the 28th but surprised her on Friday with a stop and a hug (see pictures). It was great to see her, as I hadn’t been with her since Christmas.

I left the Philly area and drove on to western NJ to my sister’s. I felt so grateful for a safe trip and for all the love that had helped me on my way. Spring is late here so I was surprised and delighted to see daffodils blooming just as I got off the exit on Interstate 78 to go to my sisters.

It seems like the circle was completed. Those wonderful flowers had encouraged me my first day on the trip in Oregon and now they were welcoming me to New Jersey at this first ending.

What is to come now???? I think a road trip at the end of May with my daughter – west to Chicago and then through Kentucky (one of only two states I have never been in). Then sometime this summer another leg will be to travel to Key West, FL so I can say I got as far away from Seattle as possible in the USA.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement. I will continue to write and post pictures. I love hearing from you either by email or by posting a comment.

Resurrection

After reading the diaries from 6th, 7th, and 8th grade I was eager to see my old friend. Marie and I have known each other since we were eight years old. Our paths went separate ways when I went to a different high school and then on to college. Marie got married and had children right out of high school and soon moved to Louisiana. My visit with her would be only the second time we had seen each other since around her wedding – 35 years ago.

The first time I saw her after her wedding was 28 years ago, when we were 24 years old. I was in graduate school and had spent the summer in Alabama teaching African American children in summer school. Marie lived near New Orleans and had two small children, grew her own herbs and vegetables and was looking to have a plant nursery. I drove from Alabama to Louisiana along the gulf coast to get to her house. I loved the old hotels of Biloxi, MS, the beautiful white beaches, and the steamy weather.

We had a good visit. We shared our history and told each other some secrets from our childhood. I vividly remember going with Marie and her daughter to see The Muppet Movie. It was great, funny, and uplifting. Kermit sings in the last song of the movie:
” Life’s like a movie, write your own ending, keep believing, keep pretending. We’ve done just what we’ve set out to do, thanks to the lovers, the dreamers and you.”

The lyrics have stayed with me. They spoke to me of how my life felt then – full of possibilities and optimism. Marie and I were just getting our dream lives together then and we were ready to be all that we could be.

This trip I saw Marie again. Twenty-eight years later, life had added wrinkles and challenges to us both. We laughed about our childhood but also shared the pain of our families. We had lost parents, babies, and money. We both had had health challenges and parenting challenges, marriage challanges and generally been thrown around by life. Still we were happy to have our history and to know we had weathered it all and that life still held possibilities and hope.

After I left her house I again drove the gulf coast as I had done 28 years ago. I wanted especially to see Biloxi since Hurricane Katrina. As I turned onto Rt. 90 a piece of music came on a classical station I was listening to: Requiem for a Dead Princess by Ravel. It was so moving and so appropriate for all the destruction I saw. I cried as I listened, for the town of Biloxi and for Marie and I. We were no longer young princesses of our lives. We had lived through many life hurricanes and losses and yet…

I stopped in Biloxi and talked with a local man. I asked how they were doing and he was filled with hope: “ We will be better than we were, we are doing well, thanks” and then I remembered Kermit’s words: “Write your own ending, keep believing, keep pretending. We’ve done just what we’ve set out to do. Thanks to the lovers, the dreamers, and you.”

Marie and I would flourish and so would the gulf coast, thanks to all those who have and will support them and us.