BEYOND MY WILDEST DREAMS

Beyond My Wildest Dreams is one of the enchanting and “stick in your head” songs on All The Road Running, the record by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris. We have listened to this record since it came out in 2006. Emmylou is quoted as saying, "When you combine two unique voices it creates a third, phantom voice ... I love the third voice that Mark and I create. We noticed right away that our voices blended pretty effortlessly." That’s one of the wonderful mysteries of music. Anyway, treat yourself to a few minutes of sitting in your favorite chair, put your headphones on (or not), and play this record.

We were sad to leave Cape Cod. What a great place. Alas, we are roadrunners so we started making our way west. Our path took us through southern Massachusetts, across Rhode Island, and into Connecticut. We were close to the coast so we saw a lot of industry and business related to shipping. We made our first stop just outside of Mystic. The only cultural reference to Mystic of which we are aware is the movie entitled Mystic Pizza which came out in 1988. It was the typical coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama. It was not a memorable film for cats. The real restaurant called Mystic Pizza has probably made a couple of fortunes as a result of crazy tourists. We didn’t go for it. However, we thoroughly enjoyed seeing Mystic.

The town of Mystic is on both sides of the Mystic River and is as charming as it can be. Colonists started settling along the Mystic River around the 1640s. The Mystic River flows into Fishers Island Sound, then into the Long Island Sound, and then out to the Atlantic Ocean. These early settlers made Mystic a significant Connecticut seaport. Beginning around 1784, shipbuilding companies built more than 600 ships during a stretch that lasted until 1920. The harbor for Mystic is actually called Safe Harbor!

In the quaint downtown area, the Mystic River bascule bridge crosses the river in the center of the village. A bascule bridge (also referred to as a drawbridge or a lifting bridge) is a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances a span, or leaf, throughout its upward swing to provide clearance for boat traffic. It may be single- or double-leafed. The bascule bridge over the Mystic River is a single-leaf with huge counterweights. Its movable span is 218 feet long and employs two concrete-filled counterweights which weigh 209 tons each. We’ve included a couple of photos of this unusual looking draw bridge.

The Mystic Seaport Museum is one of the largest maritime museums in the United States which has preserved a number of sailing ships, such as the whaling ship Charles W. Morgan. There’s a great boardwalk along the river and the downtown area is bustling. We walked the main streets of the village and then drove around some of the neighborhoods. The highlight of the beautiful village is the riverfront. It was very serene when we were there.

By the way, our truck is still limping so we have spells of cat crankiness which is above-average in intensity. We’re on our way to get the truck repaired, so we pressed on from Mystic.

Connecticut is pretty and is a stretch of rolling hills even along the coast. We thought that we would make a quick overnight stop on the way to the Hudson Valley, but the places where we wanted to stop were not suited to our big house or they did not allow overnight stays. So, we sucked it up and made the drive to our next stop in New York. So, more hills, more limping, and therefore, more crankiness.

Our stop in the Hudson Valley was a little village called Florida. Florida, New York is just a regular work-a-day village about sixty-five miles north of downtown New York City. There’s a cool little downtown area. We had lunch at Zoe’s Latin Cafe, a Caribbean restaurant which Juliana owns. Juliana had moved to Florida from the Bronx to put her daughter in a better school. Juliana’s grandmother was in the kitchen churning out traditional recipes with a lot of love in each plate. Juliana’s uncle and cousins came and went. If a table needed waiting, one of them took care of it. If the garbage needed attention, one of them took care of it. It was true family operation.

If you’re like us and are old enough to remember when the United States purchased Alaska, you’ll recognize the name of William Seward. Florida is the birthplace of Seward. Seward was politician who served as United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869, and earlier served as governor of New York and as a United States Senator. His father was a slave owner, but Seward was a determined opponent of the spread of slavery in the years leading up to the American Civil War. It was Seward’s work that deterred the United Kingdom and France from recognizing the independence of the Confederate States. He was also one of the targets of the 1865 assassination plot that killed Lincoln. He was seriously wounded by one of the conspirators. It was during the Johnson administration that Seward negotiated the treaty for the United States to purchase the Alaska Territory.

Florida is close to Newburgh, where we had an appointment with the local truck dealership. So, the big news - we got the truck repaired and we’re no longer limping. That is beyond my wildest dreams.

We’ll hit you later with more,

Betty and Buster

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