The above photo was taken from Google Images and is the route to my sister & brother-in-law (bil, for short) but, if I had pulled over and taken one myself, it would have surpassed this photo in brilliance and beauty. However, I’m glad I found this one.
I headed early up to Vermont yesterday morning along a winding route between mountain ranges to my sister’s and ‘bils’ house. The purpose was to help do some cleaning or boxing or whatever they had in mind for me. They bought a house in North Carolina and are in the process of moving. It was a beautiful day; a few white clouds set against a magnificent blue and the newly green mountains of spring winding along the route highlighted by slanted sun-rays and in some places a barely-there, low mist. It was perfection. I had thought to take a photo but had already passed the best opportunities – probably should have turned around and gone back but…
This was the second trip to help, the first was a few weeks ago and it was an emotional one. I thought the whole time, “I won’t be making this trip but a couple more times”, and I’ve always loved the trip to visit them. It’s about an hour and another half from my home but it’s such a peaceful and beautiful state and route that I’ve always just put on some music and enjoyed the ride. I’m going to miss it them.
It’s very weird going ‘home’ when you don’t go that often. All the places you remember as a kid; oogling at a house where a friend lived or a playground and seeing what has changed and what looks the same – except smaller. It’s an ‘older person’s’ thing to do, I think. Younger people ‘go home’ and may notice things but, as an older person myself, I think we feel nostalgic about where we came from. We look at the geographic past and see it in a slanted way…a different perspective.
We’ve always toyed with the idea of me moving back to Vermont, either with or near my sister’s, and spending more leisurely time with her (and ‘bil’, of course) in our growing older years. She’s five years younger and I was out of the house while she was still a teen. I had my family young and then so did she. We lived far enough apart geographically and, emotionally, I guess, that we really didn’t spend a lot of time together. We spent the most time together as family when both of our children were teens and it was fun. There home is secluded and we had bonfires, cookouts, sledding parties, a pool. We just hung out -usually spent the night, long ride and all – and had a good time. Then it kind of dwindled once I had a grandchild; traveling up was ‘too much work’ and I, not only worked but did babysitting when my daughter worked so time was limited.
So, time has passed and it feels so has all the “good times”. I regret now not having made the trip more often but, as I said, we always had plans for the future, unfortunately the future had different plans for us.
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