Day #3-one heck of a day

Good evening friends, this time from Lowell, MA., still 1,600 miles from home.  This day has been an eventful one in many ways, some good and some sad.  Let's start with the good, ok?  


I woke up very early this morning in the New England village of Owego, NY.  It was dark when I left there in the very early morning hours.  I actually felt sad to leave it~it's a place that is very easy to become enchanted with.  Right before I pulled out onto the highway, I took one last glance back down the Susquehanna River bridge.  Even in the early morning darkness, it still reminded me of a fairy tale kind of place.  I couldn't get a good picture of it, because of the constant rain yesterday, but please take a moment and "google" Owego, NY and you can see for yourself just how beautiful it is.  I would recommend it as a place to visit to any of you.  Well worth the time it took for me to get there.  


By 12:30 pm., after MANY trials and tribulations in driving there, I arrived at Cape Elizabeth, Maine ....  the home of the Portland Head Lighthouse.  My #1  item on the Miller Bucket List can now be ceremoniously crossed off!  It was an experience like nothing I ever had before and the 3 hours that I spent visiting there were some of the best ones I've had in a long time.


It was every bit as beautiful as I imagined it to be.  I was not disappointed in the least!  I took several photos, but am including a few with this blog.  I hope someday to see it again before I die.  

Wow, I look EVEN shorter than I normally do!  I went up the first adults I could find and asked if they would take a picture of me by the lighthouse.  Little did I know that they were from France and spoke hardly ANY English but we managed to communicate with one another and got the photo regardless.  Good folks, just visiting the New England states,  like me.

The sea!  In the book, "Sarah, Plain and Tall", Sarah talks of the "colors of the sea"....its blues and greens.  It was every bit as beautiful as she described it.  I'm so glad that I finally saw it.


It was strange, the moment that I opened the car door, it was as if I had stepped into another world, one so very far away from me.  A visit to the Portland Head Light House is a treat to all of your senses...the smell of the sea, the sad and melancholy sound of the fog horn, the sound of the waves lapping up against the rocky shoreline, the sight of the boats scurrying back and forth to Portland Harbor, and the feel of the cool wind across your face.  I wished that I could "bottle" those feelings up and bring them back to Kansas with me.  I do not know if I shall ever see such as this again.  What a beautiful day.


And now, for the not so good...only, I think I want to say it in a different way.  I always remember to thank God for what I have, but sometimes I forget to be thankful for what I have not.  So tonight, I am thankful that even though today's drive was tremendously stressful, I am so thankful that I didn't get lost~even if it seemed like I was.  I am thankful that I don't have the opportunity to deal with rush hour traffic involving 40,000 other people each day.  And I am extremely thankful that even though my trip is going to be a short one, I still had the chance to finally realize my #1 Bucket List item...."to travel to Maine and see my very first lighthouse."  


I will start out for home tomorrow from here in Lowell...planning on getting out of here by 4:30 a.m. once again. I need to be home, I want to be home with my family. This morning, my children lost their grandfather, Runold Hemman of Coffeyville, KS.  He was a retired farmer there...a stubborn German Lutheran man who took my 3 children under his wings and was the best grandpa a kid could ask for.  He had been ill but his death was not expected. I plan to leave early in the morning, hopefully by 4:30, and drive as far as I can.  With luck, I may make it to Indiana.  Rest asssured I will stop for the night if I should grow too tired.  


For this night, I give thanks to God above for helping me get to Cape Elizabeth, Maine to see my lighthouse.  A lady there who was also visiting asked where I was from.  When I told her that I had driven over 1,700 miles from the state of Kansas to see the lighthouse, she couldn't believe it.  She was kind enough to take my photo from the steps of the front porch of the lightkeeper's house.  


Friends, please if you would, may I ask you to pray for me on the journey home?  I need to be there and even though I know that the kids are ok, it's still a sad time.  And you know, sometimes we can even be specific in our prayers...so if you would, here's what I need the most....


There is a turn off coming up very soon after I leave Lowell in the morning.  Hey, as a matter of fact, it's Exit #22 ....I have to be able to get off on that exit, this morning I didn't and spent 3 and a half hours on the "Trail from Hell"...pardon the language, but it was.  If I get on the right exit and can get 625 miles down the road, then it will get me through the hardest part of the journey through Massachuttess and New York.  I'll feel a lot better knowing that you are praying me through it.  I believe that prayer works....it will be important for me tomorrow to keep my head on straight and not miss that turn.  Thanks for helping me get home safe :)


Well, good night all from New England.  You know it's beautiful here and lots of people would love to live here.  As for me, this Kansas farm girl thinks that the flat lands are much more appealing.  My name, Peggy Ann Scott Miller, is written in the soil of the Sunflower State.  And that's all right by me!

Today, May 30, 2012 was a great day to be alive in....it was also, a great day to go "home" on.  Rest in Heavenly Peace, Runold Raymond Hemman.  He served the Lord all of his days on earth.