...♫...on the trail again....♫.

Boy did it feel good to start hiking again.  We did a 3.5 mile hike today, which isn't much, but its a start. The sun was shining and the temperature was in the high 50s- perfect.  My foot handled it ok, but I am tired.  It's been so long since I've been active, and I have lots of "restaurant" pounds to take off.  It was even warm enough to have a fire when we got back to the trailer.  We are at a campground on the PA, NJ, NY border.  Its nothing to write home about, but there are not many campgrounds open this late in the season this far north.

The hike we did was in High Point State Park NJ, which contains, of course, the highest point in New Jersey. There is a Veteran's Memorial at the top of the hill, but strangely enough (since it's Veteran's Day) it wasn't open. Tomorrow we leave here, but we have no idea where we are headed.  Maybe Gettysburg?
       I have spent the last couple of days playing with my "new" phone.  Its been about 10 years since I've really had a brand new phone.  Somehow someone always wants the latest and greatest (Iphone etc) and I get the castoffs.  Usually I don't really care, and thats true this time as well.  My son had a nice smart phone, a vast improvement over my old flip phone. I got to have his phone because of a dilemma he had.  As he said, its similar to when I married Paul, who, at the time, had been working for Ford for 20 years.  Unfortunately when we got married, my car was a  Buick.  He was patient, and waited a few months, but then said it was a little difficult to have a Buick in his driveway, and all the neighbors were teasing him unmercifully.  Since my new car was a brand new Taurus, I didn't complain too much.
       Well, Stephen started his new job with Verizon Wireless, and has been leaving his AT&T phone at home gathering dust. He has no need of a personal phone and in fact it's annoying having two phone numbers, so he gave me his phone and made the move to Verizon.  Of course he is trying to recruit us, but we'll be under contract for quite a while yet.

the view from our window that we never wanted to see...

I guess the good news is that apparently West Virginia, our original destination for last week, got even more snow than we did.  We were originally going to leave MA this morning, but we had decided to stay 2 more days so we could spend tomorrow with Stephen since he has the day off.
Looking out the window this morning, and watching the trees bend in the breeze, I am sure glad we did!
   Its always bittersweet to come home.  I love being here and we have spent a lot of time with friends and family, but the time always feels too short, I never want to leave, and its so crammed with activity, that we are officially exhausted and heartily sick of eating out!  I am thinking that the next time we come, we should try to stay for a month, so we can spend more quality time with everyone.
    We spent some time this week getting Stephen moved into his new apartment, taking advantage of the truck to pick up a new bed and some furniture for him.  Its been a lot of driving for Paul, since Foxboro, the town we are staying in is not all that close to where my friends and family live.  In fact the other night we went out with friends and ended up spending the night at their house rather than drive the hour back to the trailer.
   Yesterday we played tourist and headed to Patriot Place- home of the New England Patriots.  We picked up Stephen and his friend Al and first headed to a restaurant in the complex, to eat lunch and watch the Patriots play.  Unfortunately we watched them lose, but it was still fun to be at Patriot Place to see the game.



View from the CBS Bar- we could see the game on the jumbotron as well as all the TVs.



    After lunch we headed to the "Hall"- a museum full of Patriots memorabilia and interactive exhibits.  It was pretty fun, and informative.



A special Dome dedicated to the "Snow Bowl". (January 19, 2002)- a game that no Patriots fans will ever forget. Although the screen appears white due to a snowstorm, you can see the football flying through the air as Adam Vinatieri kicked a 45 yard field goal. 



Stephen huddling with Tom Brady and the Patriots.  You can hear Brady talking to his teammates.



the footballs from the 21 consecutive games won by the Patriots.



Boston, MA- visiting

    Not much is going on right now that is blog-worthy. We are settled in at our very nice RV park in Foxboro MA, one of the best (and most expensive) we've been in. We spent Sunday with my brothers and sisters, out to lunch at a restaurant, then we went back to my brother's house and watched the Patriots win. 
   Our son Stephen spent the weekend with us in the trailer, so he got to see his best buddy, the cat. Part of the reason I wanted to head to MA right now is because Stephen is transitioning into a new job, and a new apartment, and I wanted to give him a hand getting set up at the new place.



my family-(from the left around the table) my brother Richie, son Stephen, husband Paul, me, sister-in-law Dawn, brother Ray, and sister Debbie

 


the two boys, reunited





  Today is a quiet day- we are hanging out this morning, then doing some errands before meeting up with Stephen again.

Stephen and I at Ray's house