"Thankfulness is the quickest path to JOY." ~ Jefferson Bethke

 In search of autumn colors...

we flew to Boston...

for a road trip through the nooks and crannies...

of New England.

No highways allowed.

Family owned... 

farm shops...

Four Star Brewery

and breweries...

hidden lakes...

and fields surrounded by yellows, oranges 

and the slightest hint of red.

We explored a few bridges...

and dipped into New Hampshire...

for a full coverage.  Ha!

We meandered through the quaint Montague Book Mill

to the sounds of the babbling brook below.

When you find your town...

you take photos.

(fyi...package stores in the north are not where you mail packages)

Humpty Dumpty in Stafford, CT...

had a great fall...

 

and enticed us to stop...

and enjoy their community 'scarecrow' festival...

and beautiful photo ops.

Don't miss 

Stafford Coffee Co. for your morning brew.

Our drive across the Willimantic River

 under the gaze of four bronze frog sculptures required research.

Funny story if you have the time.

I love that we had breakfast in Amherst, Mass...

coffee in Stafford, CT...

and made it to Grey Sail Brewing of Westerly, RI...

in time for lunch.

Such a great place... 

to hang out ...

for a few hours...

 before heading down the road a bit...

for a lovely stay at Margin Street Inn.

Before the day ended...

nearby Watch Hill was calling...

for a sunset,

 a moonrise,

and new friends at the Watch Hill Yacht Club.

 A perfect ending to our New England road trip

was a lovely dinner at the Watch Hill favorite for over 100 years, 

Olympia Tea Room.

So thankful for these carefree days exploring beautiful New England.

"The only way to save a rhinoceros is to save the environment in which it lives, because there's a mutual dependency between it and millions of other species of both animals and plants." - David Attenborough

  It is fitting to continue our serendipitous journey in India to Assam

 where the greatest population of the Greater One Horned Rhino roams.

Happy World Rhino Day!

Dinner at Bomte's lovely, hospitable home was an example of how real travel should always be.  Getting to know the locals and hear their stories.  

Bomte is well traveled and full of stories.

Upon hearing of our next adventure and where we would be staying, he, of course, knows the manager and encourages us to give him his best regards.

This message was met with an immediate upgrade.

Upon arrival at Diphlu River Lodge...

we immediately hopped into a jeep 

and headed through heavy traffic to Kaziranga National Park...

where our hopes of seeing a rhino...

became a reality so abundant...

we were reevaluating our request to only see the rhinos.  Ha!

But today is their day so there.

"They described a city I didn’t recognize as the place where I had spent the first 20 years of my life. There was no mention of Calcutta’s beautiful buildings and educated middle class, or its history of religious tolerance and its vibrant literary and cultural life. Besides, other Indian cities also have their share of poverty, slums and destitution, as would be expected in a country where a third of the population lives on $1 a day — for example, more than half of Mumbai residents live in slums, far more than in Calcutta. Why were they not equally damned in the eyes of the world?" ~ Chitrita Banerji, NYT

 As the daily breeze of wanderlust mussed my untamed hair (thank you covid),

I finally pulled myself out of this 'new normal' haze 

and declared a hiatus on 2020 bossing me around.

This signage in Kolkata is my declaration to 2020.

No more nuisance from you 2020!

As we flit around preparing for a hurricane predicted to land too close for comfort,

my tardiness in taking a stand is almost as late as the Kentucky Derby and Indy 500.

Hunkering down back home in Texas since March, 

there are audible sighs as I look back on our time in West Bengal.

While Ren Man flew off to nearby Assam for work,

I was left to drag myself away from the comforts of Oberoi Kolkata,

                                                    to explore this "City of Joy".

The Culture Kaleidoscope Photo Tour ...

was the perfect introduction...

to Kolkata, or Calcutta

as it was known formerly as the capital of British India.

  When the name changed in 2001...

street names eventually changed from English, Anglican names...

to those of Indian freedom fighters.

As I meandered throughout...

the "kaleidescope" of faiths...

 are woven...

 basically...

next door...

 to each other...

along with a cultural...

melting pot.

Our early morning stroll...

provided a viewing...

of school transport...

and smells of the neighborhood waking up.

Goat milk is delivered to homes in that large leather bag...

unless of course, you need proof that the milk is fresh.

Yes, this guy will lead his goats to your front door.

As mentioned above, Calcutta does get a bad wrap for its poverty.

Meanwhile, this doesn't seem to bother this city as it resists modernization 

and embraces its cultural richness.  

  Serendipity update:  Bomti has invited us to dinner in his home!