This Paul Simon tune has been playing over and over in my head while we have been touring around in the big van. Even though part of the tour included New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia in Canada, the words are still appropriate because the Canadians consider themselves Americans too.

Our hardy band of travelers have seen some magnificent sights: grand vistas, rolling seas, extreme tides.

Acadia National Park, Maine

hard-to-come-by alone time!

traveling in a van so big, people thought we were a church group

We have heard some wonderful things: guided tours in the capitols of New Brunswick and Maine,a live concert in St. John, NB, ferry whistles, waves crashing, buoys clanging and most importantly cooing from our newest family member who gives us a daily report from baby land.

Hopefully we have all even relaxed a little.

Yesterday I had the Jackson Browne tune playing in my head, “Riding down 295 out of Portland, Maine. . . ” But at the last minute we turned off the main highway before we got to 295. We opted for the back roads. It took us about a half hour longer. We all thought we’d spent a little too long in the car on the whole on this vacation, the roads in Canada were so bad it took us a lot longer to get places than we had planned. But the scenery we saw along the way was amazing. We found America in the back roads and in our conversations with the natives. And America is beautiful: filled with unbelievably beautiful scenery and good hearted people.

I cherish this time together with my family.

© Jane F. Collen August 14, 2015