Reflections

A year ago we were waiting for repairs on GeeWhiz to be completed so we could resume our life on the road. We were recovering from our trip to South Africa and neighboring countries and thinking about our travel west. Today Rosh HaShanah is behind us and we are in the interval before Yom Kippur and we are taking stock and making amends for any wrongs we have committed. If by my actions or words I have harmed any of you my readers, I apologize, and beg forgiveness and If any of you have inadvertently injured me I forgive you.

The arc of our travels in the past 12 months is fairly straightforward. We drove from Rochester to Jojoba Hills SKP Resort in 11 days, a record crossing of the US for us. We saw nothing. Other than a stop in Las Cruces to visit dear friends we, just, kept, moving. Once we got to Jojoba Hills, we planted ourselves. We took a week in Palm Desert with friends and a couple of weeks in Arizona including Escapade near Tucson. Other wise we were content in Jojoba Hills SKP Resort (here after JJH). Our travel back East had a couple of interruptions. First a stop in Flagstaff for Josh’s graduation from NAU and then a stop near Kansas City to fly to Ashgabot, Turkmenistan for the beginning of our trip to the Stans. Four countries – we had an overnight stop and a day in Istanbul and back to Kansas City to pick up the coach and return to Rochester for Jazz Fest!

Whew, Avi, our youngest grandson, flew in to spend 4 nights of Jazz (46 Performances) with us. and then we were off to NJ where we picked up Corey, and NYC and Cape Cod and Boston where we put Corey on a plane home, and NS and finally the ferry to Newfoundland (emphasis on land). and another ferry back to NS and returning toward Rochester via Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. I’m getting tired just writing this all down. The details can be found in the blogs along the way.

Our next travel should seem a bit more relaxed. Rochester to C’ville and four days with Dan’s family – Happy Birthday Dan – you can’t be that old, we’re only . . . forget it at least its a square. Then on to Hilton Head, OMG a real resort, for a Tiffin Travelers Rally and then across the country to JJH arriving before Oct 25 if Murphy will leave us alone. There is more foreign travel booked, but that can wait.

Lessons learned, keep moving. We try very hard not to let the ailments of body and coach slow us down. We both feel better if we can move, get out and take a walk, or take a hike or just saunter and enjoy the day or the evening. The coach is easier, a generous application of $$ seems to keep it working just fine and every now and then some elbow grease to make it look nice and to fix the little stuff makes me feel better about myself.

I have skipped over the most important part of our life, after family, that is community. We keep addressing the question of why we return to Rochester, so many friends and acquaintances have moved on. The question can be found in our community in Rochester. Carol and I still belong to the synagogue where we met in kindergarten 70 years ago. We can walk in after a years absence and be greeted with hugs and kisses from people who know us almost as long as we have known each other. I am going to a board meeting of the Jewish Community Federation where I was President 30 years ago and I will know many of the attendees and be welcome to take a seat and participate as if I never left. And then we rush across the continent to Jojoba Hills SKP Resort where we have found a new (to us) and wonderful community that will welcome us with hugs and kisses when we arrive and we can’t wait to get together with them and share our tales of the summer just past.

Rochester

We are comfortably ensconced in our apartment on Saint Paul Street enjoying watching the people and the traffic in constant motion beneath our windows. We even venture out from time to time and walk when we can in our very diverse neighborhood. We are next to the central bus terminal and all city buses pass through this one terminal with a half hour delay for people to change from one line to another. For us we can go most anyplace we choose by bus and return is easy cause any inbound bus must get here eventually. The cost is 50 cents for Seniors. We also now have Uber and Lyft should we choose. Of course Ruby, the red Jeep, is in the parking lot for most of our travel beyond our walking range.

Read Carol’s most recent blog to see the current status of our walking range. This coming week is filled with appointments, I have not seen so many different doctor visits packed together, with no one sick, in one of visits here. Of course I did have to add one to tell me how to deal with the kidney stone, which seems to have taken some time off from tormenting me. Mixed in we will catch meals with people we want to see and even some time with Ray Ciccarelli, the Financial Planner who bought my practice and acquired me as a client as part of the deal. It’s fun for me to sit on the other side of the desk these days. Oh, just occurred to me his other office is in Naples FL and his sister is there as well as other family, hope they are safe.

I am reminded that the Jewish High Holy Days are not far off. It is a time of thinking back over what I have done and looking forward to how I can contribute to my community in the coming year. I have already made some decisions concerning our community in Jojoba Hills, but that is really only one community of the several that fill our lives and make life interesting and exciting as we approach the middle of our 7th decade. Funny, I shifted from me to we without even realizing until the words were on the screen. The greatest blessing of MY life is to be partnered with Carol for essentially all of OUR lives. I hope we are an example and inspiration to others in our family and circle of friends.

I could ramble on, but I am not sure I could keep your attention, so until the next time, as we say when we part from members of our RVing world “Safe Travels” wherever they may take you.

Retracing – Museum of Jewish Montreal

I am responding to a request from a reader to describe our time at the Museum of Jewish Montreal. We booked a tour “Making Their Mark, Montreal Jewish History Walking Tour” which met at the Jewish Museum. Car, Metro and hoof brought us to 4040 St Laurent the location of the museum with two hours to tour and have lunch. We walked right by it! Twice. This is more of a virtual museum. It hosts a cafe serving Jewish food.

I had a gefilte fish club sandwich for lunch, interesting. There were books on display and for sale and some pictures of old Jewish Montreal. There was a counter for the tours. Our walking tour was about two hours and we saw old synagogues, former synagogues, sweat shops, meat restaurants and schools. We walked though many of the alleys where life had thrived. One sweatshop in particular dominated the neighborhood. I was built by Leonard Cohen’s grandfather and today it is instantly recognizable:
In short the Jews moved north in the ’50’s and ’60’s and many left Montreal with the development of the Separatist Movement. Most large corporations moved their headquarters to Toronto to continue to be able to be Canadian Corporations. 
I would highly recommend the tour and the Food Tour which we didn’t have time for. Don’t allow two hours to tour the museum as we did 🙂 Two minutes is more like it, but have lunch.