Day 47 - 7/24/16 Manchester to Cedar Falls, IA

I was on the same road for over 40 miles today and it looked a lot like the road I was on yesterday but, the fields of green were just as beautiful as they were yesterday.  I'm staying with Mary on her family's farm tonight.  It may be her family's land but, they've been renting it out for other farmers to grow crops on their 360 acres.  

It was nice to sit around and hear Mary, her brother, Rex and his wife, Valorie talk about crops and farming and gardening – conversation you just never even think about growing up outside of Boston.  What a wonderfully different way of life, having to care for a patch of land this big.

  

After riding through miles and miles of fields, seeing the little barns and homes rising above the corn, it's really great to be able to spend the night in a place where the backyard is completely walled-off by 7 foot tall corn stalks.  No immediate neighbors, just plants stretching out into the horizon and massive pastel clouds filling the Midwest sky.  

I did some drawing in the yard while Mary read and the barn swallows flew, dove, and swooped in the sky, catching bugs before retiring to one of two barns in Mary's backyard.  One of them, she says, is going to collapse soon if a strong enough breeze comes along.

Day 4 - 6/11/16 Amherst to Cummington, MA

I am writing from an old barn.  Warmshowers.org brought me here to the top of an incredibly steep hill in Cummington where Fletcher and his wife and 2 kids and 2 dogs live.  

Their property was once used as a center for artists and musicians which is why there's a large house and 2 large barns, one of which was used for dorms for the residents.  Their children are going to have a wonderful time growing up here.  

Tomorrow, I will cross the border into New York.  It's hard to believe I've traveled 150 miles in 4 days and will be leaving Massachusetts for an indefinite amount of time.  This trip has been amazing thus far.  I don't know how reality compares with what my expectations were but I am loving every minute, even when I am going uphill and even in the rain.  

Obstacles like these are true tests I need to talk myself through.  I think that's part of growing up: being able to take the reins of our own mind when it desperately wants to be in a different situation.