Footloose in America: Dixie to New England
Page 35
After we were all back at our new home, I hung a hay bag in a tree and tied Della so she could eat from it. Then I fixed her rope so it could not come untied–ever! Tomorrow I would start building a fence for her.
After a cup of coffee, Patricia and I walked down to the beach in front of the farm. In reality, a sand beach on the Maine coast was a rare thing. It’s mostly rocks and boulders, like the shore around Prospect Harbor. The tide was on its way out, so lots of seaweed laid exposed on the rugged beach.
Patricia walked in front of me as we picked our way across the boulders toward the water’s edge. She was shuffling across a seaweed bed when suddenly she slipped and both of her feet went out from under her. Horror raged through me as I watched my wife’s back slam down on one boulder and her head bounce on another.
Frantically, I slipped across the seaweed toward her yelling, “Patricia! Are you okay?”
When I slid down to her side on my knees, a smile slowly spread across my wife’s face as she raised up on her elbows. “I think so. This stinking seaweed is so thick here it gave me something soft to land on.”
Tears welled in my eyes as I swept my bride into my arms and clutched her to my chest. I crowned her head with kisses, then looked to the sky and said, “Thank you!”
-The End-
October 26, 2003
Mermaid’s Purse Farm
Prospect Harbor, Maine
AFTERWARD
BUD, PATRICIA AND DELLA REMAINED at Mermaid’s Purse Farm until the fall of 2006. When they hit the road again, Della was pulling a new plastic and aluminum wagon that the Kenny’s were able to sleep in. Initially they planned to tour New England for another year before shipping everything to Europe for more wandering. However, circumstances arose that required them to return home to Hot Springs, Arkansas in 2008.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE HARDEST PART OF WRITING about this trek was deciding which stories to leave out. This book could easily have been more than a hundred pages longer.
What makes doing the acknowledgments difficult is that so many people helped us. Just a list of their names would fill a chapter. You met a few of those folks in the book. I hope their inclusion will serve as my “Thank You!” To those of you who were not included, please know your kindness along the way was greatly appreciated. I wish I had room to thank all of you individually.
But here are some people I must say a special thank you to: Mike Arnold for the great cover of this book. Peter Gelfan and the staff at The Editorial Department, as well as Susan Setteducato, Dr. John Crawford, Pat Laster, Bill White, and Patricia Kenny for their help with the writing of this book.
The following folks helped in lots of different ways: John Cooksey, The Oeders of Ohio, Jack Hill, Holly Anderson, Dr Jess Clement, Diane Ellaborn, Jim Grant, Val & Kevin Karikomi, Howard Lee Kilby, Lenore Person, Bob & Susan Weiss, Peter Hersey, Maggie Meyer & Whistlewood Farm, Chuck & Laurie Morgan, Clinton Reed & Francis Cross, Roy & Gloria Haller, Gordon & Madeline Hamersley.
Thank You America!
Bud Kenny
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Author’s Note
Preface
Chapter 1 New Road Legs
Chapter 2 Keep The Faith And Let Go
Chapter 3 Della In The Delta
Chapter 4 The State Of America In Kentucky
Chapter 5 Going To Uniontown
Chapter 6 Mister Paragraph 18
Chapter 7 Autumn On The North Bank
Chapter 8 A Home For The Winter
Chapter 9 Into The Heartland
Chapter 10 Welcome To Columbus
Chapter 11 Among The Plain Folk
Chapter 12 In The Land Of Old King Oil
Chapter 13 Up Through Buffalo
Chapter 14 Where Apple Trees Speak Spanish
Chapter 15 Winter In The Snow Belt
Chapter 16 The Boys Are Back In Town
Chapter 17 Where They Called Her Patty
Chapter 18 A Life Worth Living
Chapter 19 The Adirondacks
Chapter 20 Into New England
Chapter 21 New Hampshire And Knowing Why
Chapter 22 Maine
Chapter 23 Is This Really The End?
Afterward
Acknowledgments