Our 3-week journey from Colorado to Maine focused on visiting family, friends and making a few stops at points of interest across the Midwest and Civil War Historical sites in Virginia. If you drive across the United States as often as we do, it is amazing what there is to stop and see.

Trip through the Midwest

July 6: We stopped in Hamilton, MO to visit the Missouri Star Quilt Company. We often take side trips in our travels to visit unique and famous quilt shops around the US. I bet you didn’t know that there are actually famous quilt shops! In this case, the Missouri Star Quilt Company has turned Hamilton, MO into Quilt Town USA by buying up most of the downtown businesses and creating 12 quilt themed shops. Amazing! We even found parking on the side of the road.

July 7 – 9: We continued across the Midwest spending a couple of days in the Indianapolis area. We spent an afternoon with my cousin, Gretchen Matsuda and her husband, Dale and daughter, Midori. They moved from Elizabeth, CO in late 2021 and were happy to have Colorado family visit! We had a lovely time checking out downtown Indy.

The next day we drove down to Columbus, IN to visit my former workmate and officemate, Sharon Masterson. When we decided to stop in Columbus, Tom pointed out that Columbus is a mecca for mid-century modern architecture. Really?? Where does he come up with this stuff?

J. Irwin Miller came up with the following concept as Columbus was growing in the mid 1950s and it has carried on through the years:

Getting starchitects of the day to work on public buildings was the brainchild of industrialist J. Irwin Miller, chairman of the Cummins Engine Company, which established its headquarters in Columbus. He believed that inspired architecture and well-designed community facilities would lure top engineers to the remote town. Exposed to modern art and design during his studies at Yale and Oxford, Miller persuaded Columbus city officials to choose architects for public projects from a shortlist of five that he had drawn up. In exchange, Miller’s foundation would pay the architects’ full fees.

 

July 9: As we continued our way east to Virginia, I made a last minute call to old friends from our England times, Bob and Gloria Shannahan in Dayton, OH. They were able to spontaneously meet us for lunch and we caught up on the past 25 plus years.

July 9 – 21: Civil War Sites of Central and Southern Virginia and Visiting Family in Northern Virginia

July 9 – 14: Who would have thought we would become Civil War junkies, but the past 5 years of retirement lead us down that path as we visited the various National Park monuments and historical sites in the South East. Our interest in the Civil War and visiting these sites lead us to visiting a number of Civil Rights sites and a greater awareness of that part of our history up through today.

We had a handful that we hadn’t gotten to over the years and managed to visit Appomatox, George Washington’s Birthplace (OK, not a Civil War site), Chancellorville Battlefield and Fredricksburg Battlefield. I only captured Appomattox Court House and the McClean House where Confederate General Lee the surrendered to Union General Grant on June 15, 1865. It was quite amazing to stand in the exact room that this event took place.

Side note, I didn’t take any photos of the mentioned battlefields as they are mostly expansive park areas with a few statues and cannons.

July 15 – 21: Our main focus with our trip across the Midwest and up to Maine was a week-long stop in Northern Virginia to visit our son and his wife, Will and Chrissy. They were expecting our first grandchild, Lillian Olivia Lounsbury, and would not be traveling up to Maine to see us like they did last year. In addition to visiting Will and Chrissy, we get to see two sets of Tom’s siblings. Needless to say, Virginia is not just for Lovers, but for Family Visits!

July 21 – 27: Trip north to Maine

We took a week to drive north up the east coast to our final destination at Acadia National Park in Maine. A few days in New York allowed a much-needed visit with Tom’s brother Alan and his wife Robin.

We made a stop in Mystic, CT (after watching Mystic Pizza with Julia Roberts with Alan and Robin) and spent the day in Newport, RI touring the Newport Mansions on the coast.

We rolled into the Schoodic Institute on the Schoodic Peninsula, part of Acadia National Park on July 27th ready for our 3-month volunteer gig at their Welcome Center, the same gig we did in 2021 and will repeat again in 2023.

July 27: Moving into our apartment at our final destination at the Schoodic Institute. We don’t live in our rig while we are volunteering at Schoodic Institute Welcome Center as we are housed in a 2-bedroom apartment.