Leaving Heaven

Well, I've been to heaven and back. I've been to Pinkham Notch, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

It took me 9+ hours to get the girls there on Thursday--we left the Lukoil gas station in Montclair at 9:05 AM and arrived at Joe Dodge Lodge at 6:15 PM, just in time for the family-style dinner included in our room rate. That was after several stops for bathrooms, dog runs, gas, photo ops--and map checks. I foolishly left home without printing out Mapquest directions, and I lost my handwritten notes at a rest stop. So I asked the lady at the Vermont welcome center to map it out for me and she did, in green highlighter.

I think I was lost for about an hour in the mountains, and was so late that I missed getting Sug to the groomer [known as Auntie Cindy] by 6 PM. But no dogs at the lodge, so I had to leave the puffer out in the car, something I've never done before and hope never to do again. ["Don't mention that to anyone," said the man at the front desk, who sold me some sliced turkey for $2 to feed Sug. "It's illegal in the state of New Hampshire to leave your dog alone in the car."]

The Path of Most Resistance
It was so breathtakingly beautiful that I did not want to leave today. I wanted to move there, that's how pretty it was. I started hatching a plan on my way back that maybe Figgy can go to college there, or live there after--anything so that I have a reason to visit regularly.

When we picked H. up for the ride on Thursday morning, her mom, Barbara, said to me, "People say it's so beautiful there that it's life-changing." That's exactly how I feel.

I Will Never Be the Same
My life has been changed from having been there. My perspective has changed. I am so in awe, just so in awe. People live in a place like that! They raise their families, go to work, buy their groceries at the foot of those mountains. They breathe that air every night. Sug and I stopped at several scenic overlooks, went to Glen Ellis Falls, walked the Crystal Cascade waterfalls trail. I simply could not drink in enough of this beauty. On top of that, add the village of North Conway. Also stunning, with an L.L. Bean outlet and a coffee shop that makes an excellent iced mocha. I left phone messages for H. and Moey and Anne, too, saying I might never return to New Jersey. I said it with a smile, knowing full well that I would, but feeling completely wistful to leave that place behind. The pull to stay was magnetic. As a mother, wife, sister, daughter and friend, I resisted the force of nature. But how I would love to spend hours and hours by those falls, just listening to the rushing water.

My parents spent a couple days in New Hampshire on their June 1951 honeymoon drive to New England. My father still remembers the really fancy inn where they had dinner. I tried reaching him a few times today and yesterday to ask him about it again, but he didn't pick up the phone next to his bed. They must have seen these heavenly views, too. They must have planted the seed in my soul, and my psyche.

Weary Travelers
I wanted to push all the way home tonight, but Sis and Don live right off Route 95 in their nice condo in Greenwich, it was 10 PM, and the furry one and I were exhausted. So here we are. We desperately need a rest before completing the last hour of our journey tomorrow. Sug is already flopped on her side on the couch, in what I call her exhausted position.

Meanwhile, Figgy should be snoozing in her snug down sleeping bag in the cold fresh air. Feel that breeze, Figgy. Breathe that beauty. May the bears be few, the stars many.

P.S. I tried to blog last night, but my computer wouldn't cooperate--though the lodge does have Wi-Fi. I figured that was a message to spend my time reading and sleeping. So I did. With the window up.