Ed and Midge Migrate South: Days 0-6 31 Oct - 6 Nov 2015: The Search for Warmer Latitudes

Days 0-6: Halloween to Voting Tuesday & beyond

Day 0 - 31 October 2015 Halloween at Mere Point, Maine

Our last blog OR-or-bust.blogspot.com ended on 23 August. Since then, we've been based in Brunswick, Maine. Over the past three weeks we have had our final northern exposure with a 10-day trip to Acadia National Park, Lubec ME, Mount Katahdin at Baxter State Park, and Kent Island (Grand Manan, New Brunswick, Canada) in the Bay of Fundy. We'll try to cover that trip and others from the time of our Brunswick stay in another blog. That's for later.

Meanwhile, it's been getting colder in Maine and it's time to head south. Today was the final pack for the trip.

October 31st is Halloween. From early October, many houses put out carved pumpkins. That's partly for Halloween and partly a show and celebration of Fall (Autumn) and harvest time. Pumpkins, at least the large orange jack-o-lantern variety, are grown more for show than for eating. Some varieties are grown for their size. A 2,145.5 pound pumpkin at the 2015 Cedarburg Wine & Harvest Festival in Wisconsin held the record for a month only to be toppled when Ron Wallace of Greene, Rhode Island displayed a 2,230.5 pounder (that's over 1000 Kg) at the Frerichs Farm weigh-off in Warren, RI in October. When they are eaten, it is primarily for making sweet pumpkin pies rather than used as a savory vegetable.

At Mere Point, there were no trick-or-treaters all day. No tricks. But Ed's mom cooked up a treat, a big chicken that also provided sandwiches for the next day's drive to Greenwich Connecticut.

Day 1 - 01 November 2015 Mere Point ME to Greenwich CT. 311.6 miles
We left Brunswick at 11am and drove straight through to Greenwich CT where we stayed with Ed's Aunt Abby. Ed's cousins Tinker (Harriet) and Bayard joined us for dinner.

One of the gems of the visit was finding a letter Abby wrote to Ed on 5 March 1948, when he was one day old. Perhaps we'll find a way to make it available.

Day 2 - 02 November 2015 Greenwich CT to Woodstown NJ 170.4 miles.

After breakfast, Ed's cousin Baba (Abby Jr) came by and threw herself into whipping up healthy oatmeal parfaits for us. These consisted of steel-cut oats, peaches, blueberries, yogurt, almonds and maple syrup.

At 11.20am, we left Baba, Abby and the tranquility of Greenwich

to do battle with the traffic around New York City. Here we are taking hairpin bends and 360-degree turns as we approach the George Washington Bridge

... and navigating a maze of 12-lane highways thanks to the wonders of GPS, an iPhone and Google Maps.

We were heading for a rendezvous with Midge's Tufts University roommate, Jean Bao, at It's Greek To Me, a restaurant in Fort Lee NJ.

From Fort Lee, we headed for the New Jersey Turnpike and took it to Exit 2 at the south end of the state. By 5:30 we were in Woodstown NJ with Midge's mom, Betty Chestnut.

Day 3 - 03 November 2015 Woodstown NJ

This is voting Tuesday, the first Tuesday in November. Yesterday we saw TV ads for local sheriffs, judges and district attorneys. These are elected officials in some states, such as Pennsylvania. There were lots of ads telling viewers who should not get their vote, backed up by a litany of all their sins of omission and commission.

By the end of the night many results were known from elections with only about a 25% voter turnout.

Not only are we farther south, but the weather has become unseasonably warm. We drove to Parvin State Park and walked around Thundergust Lake.

Mute swans

Holly

Oak leaves, not the gaudy colors of other autumn trees, but still lovey.

That night, Midge and Betty played 2-handed solitaire -- an oxymoron if ever there was one.

Day 4 - 04 November 2015 Woodstown NJ

Lunch with Hannah Nitshe at The Ginger Cake Cafe in Woodstown.

We drove to Alloway NJ to see Midge's cousin Chuck Davis

Chuck and his dad Frank are restoring a Jeep by rebuilding the bits from two old Jeeps. It looks nearly finished, but Chuck thought it would take a few more months to complete.

At 9.30pm we went out to see the northern lights predicted for North America. Unfortunately, New Jersey was too far south and the required solar magnetic storms didn't eventuate. As a nice consolation, however, we saw a good display from the Taurids meteor showers.

Day 5 - 05 November 2015 Woodstown to Hershey PA and back.

We left Woodstown at 10am and arrived in Hershey Pennsylvania at noon. Milton Hershey based his chocolate factory here starting in 1900.

We came to see Midge's Aunt Gladys Chestnut, who was married to Midge's father's brother Dave.

We also caught up with other Chestnut relatives including Tammy, here feeding Cale.

John, Tammy and Rhiannon

Others were there including, Jim, Janet, Sarah and Ellen.

We stayed for lunch and then headed back to New Jersey at 2.30. We drove back through the fertile farmland of Lancaster County PA, Amish Country

with horse drawn buggies

and farm machinery.

Day 6 - 06 November 2015 Visit to Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania

Pierre Du Pont purchased Longwood Gardens early in the twentieth century and from the beginning saw it as a public show place.

Longwood puts on a major chrysanthemum display in the large conservatory every autumn. This 4-acre glass house is the building behind the topiary in this photo.

Midge and Betty posed in front of a chrysanthemum display.

One of the center pieces is this chrysanthemum,

a single plant with over 1200 blooms meticulously tended for 1500 man-hours over 17 months.

Other chrysanthemums had huge colorful flowers

and the variety was amazing.

There were parts of the glass house devoted to other flower varieties, including orchids such as this (Vanda Sansai Blue ‘Acker's Pride’)

and this (Lacliocattleya g. Moonwind)

One wing was devoted to cacti and other plants with lethal looking spines.

Alluaudia adscendens

A 'children's' section of the glass house had some imaginative grottos and sculptures.

Ginko trees at Longwood Gardens Café

Lunch at the Logwood Gardens Café came complete with prophetic fortune cookies for Midge (top) and Ed (bottom).

Longwood is famous for its fountains, but they are currently undergoing a big renovation which will not be complete until 2017.

By comparison with the gardens, Pierre Du Pont's house seems modest. Part of it is the original farmhouse on the property.

Beyond the house, there is an Italian water garden. The two pools in the back of the photo below are 14 feet longer than the pools in front. This was done so they would seem more nearly the same size from the vantage point of the photo.