You’ve seen this video before. It was posted on the last day of 2023 when we were ten days into our coddiwomple. I am taking you back to Thoreau’s Great Beach on the Outer Cape to remind you how healthy and happy we were with the unknowns of a new adventure stretching before us.
Another reason I’m sharing this with you again is that Samwise, after his bout with spinal arthritis and Ehrlichia, is acting younger than he’s been in quite some time. He and Emily are perpetually on the verge of a wrestling match breaking out. But these days, it’s Samwise who is the instigator. That is a perfect way to tell you he’s feeling younger.
It does my heart good to see Sam renewed and energized.
Last week, he had his third blood panel and urinalysis in five weeks. The numbers tell us what my eyes already understood. He’s in fine fettle!
The doxycycline handled the tick-borne disease, while it appears his monthly Librela injections are already helping with his spine.
One never knows where an adventure will deliver you. This latest one brought some heartache, illness, pain, and concern. But it also blessed us with wonder, discovery, knowledge, and another 17,000 miles of growth and shared experiences. At the core of it was this grand friendship and a golden thread of love and understanding.
Even when Sam was at his worst, before we checked in with Dr. Rachael Kleidon in Lexington, Virginia, there were still highlights to be had. However, I was so concerned with what my friend was going through that I was not able to capture them appropriately.
This week marks the fourth anniversary of when I first began charging for these letters. That makes this a fitting time to let you know what’s ahead, and that’s another reason why I’m sharing this video with you again.
Each week of our travels felt like a chapter in a sweeping adventure. You’ve read some of the highlights, but there are many good (and some not-so-good) souls you’ve yet to read about. I’ve not done justice to the literary aspect of our four-and-a-half-month road trip either. Nor have I captured our stops appropriately.
So, here’s what’s ahead in the coming months.
While we are back to hiking, and I’ve much to share with you about being home in the White Mountains, at least two letters per week will focus on our marvelous travel stories. I’ll catch you up on what I learned about John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Willa Cather, Harper Lee, Aldo Leopold, Robert Louis Stevenson, and a long list of others. Some have major recurring roles: Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Rachel Carson, Robert Frost, Mary Oliver, John Muir, and Mark Twain. During our miles, we crossed paths with this latter group of authors often.
When I’m not transcribing the highlights of our coddiwomple, there will be the regular letters about our woodland treks, nature, our favorite peaks, our neighboring wildlife (we’ve only seen one bear so far, so we are due for more), and how this heart and kidney failure (and stroke) survivor continues to try to walk and eat his way into healthy old age with my whole-food, plant-based diet.
I’m anticipating two shorter road trips, with one filling in for a stop we missed due to our detour to see Rachael. I was so looking forward to spending a few days with Jane Esselstyn, her husband, Brian Hart, Ann Crile Esselstyn, and her husband, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr. They live outside of Cleveland, and the plan was to finally meet my heroes. These people have helped save my life.
Jane and Ann have a wildly fun WFPB cooking show on YouTube, and we plan on an autumn visit to tape an episode with them. It will be a perfect way to break in our new ride.
Clarence is leaking oil again, and it’s no wonder since he has logged 150,000 since December 2018, and he’s crossed the country ten times (twice each trip).
I anticipate a new vehicle within the month. While I’ve not settled on a model yet, there are a handful I’m intrigued by. (There’s no name for the new “steed” yet. Our cars have a way of naming themselves.)
Consider this letter a kick-off to our new year. It is for all our readers—paying subscribers and free subscribers. As we move forward, I’ll continue the regular format of between a dozen and fifteen monthly letters to paying subscribers and between one and three for free subscribers.
In my next post, I’ll share my recipe with this heart-healthy cornbread, red bean, corn, and “sausage” bake. It was inspired by a recipe I saw when traveling through the Deep South in January. I’ve been looking forward to veganizing it since then, and it turned out better than I imagined.
Founding Member Photos
Lastly, our Founding Members receive a framed and matted photo each year. In 2024, Founding Members will choose from more than a dozen options. These are the latest and final additions to the choices.
Photo Giveaway
Congrats to reader Chris Kapalowski. She won this photo of Samwise and Emily in Canyonlands National Park during a random drawing last week. She was chosen from the list of people who “liked” a recent letter.
Random Photo from Our Gallery
