Chapt. 2 of "I'm Back"

["laurel Fechner" <laurel@spiritone.com>]

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Hello,
This continues the saga of my 600th adventures.  I hope I haven't left out
some things others feel are more important.  I expect that I might have some
facts wrong so welcome comments to get it right immediately.
I haven't mentioned all those West Coast people that we met and enjoyed so
much.  That was another nice serendipity .
OK.  Last day.........
On Wed. we drove to Amesbury, MA which is in the NE tip of MA on the
Merrimack River where we located the historical marker for the home of
Susannah North Martin who was hung as a witch in Salem.  When her husband
died she then owned a bit of property which evidently the magistrates
wanted.  By declaring her a witch, none of her children could inherit her
property and it reverted to the officials.
    Then we went on east to Newburyport, MA where we boarded a cruise boat
and were taken around the harbor, a bit out to sea and a bit up river.
Aquilla Chase, the brother of our Thomas Chase (his son[our ancestor] then
went on to own most of Martha's Vinyard) was the first river pilot on the
Merrimack.
    Then we drove just about 10 miles north to Exeter, NH.  The Clan
Sinclair had planned a luncheon for those of us who were descended from John
Sinkler, s/o Henry who was the natural son (illegitmate) of John, Master of
Caithness. John  Sinkler (Sinclair) , my ancestor and also ancestor of many
of you, arrived in America about 1754.  There a Mr. Chase (descendant of
both Aquilla and Thomas Chase and former CIA employee in Arab countries and
now Exeter town historian) gave a talk about our John Sinkler and we were
able to view two documents that involved some transactions of his.

    After this we took our own route back to Westford, MA where the main
Clan activities were headquartered.  We just happen to have had with us also
Gordon Flaws from IL who needed a ride back to Westford.  Gordon turned out
to be a friend of Nevin Sinclair of London who has sunk nearly a million, I
think, into documenting and researching Prince Henry's trip.  It is he who
has produced nearly 80 hours of film on the subject and is trying to find a
source to produce programs from it.  Gordon is an antiques dealer and has
returned to London by now where he will see Nevin again.

    Well I had learned from a Martin researcher in ME about a certain place
in southern NH named America's Stonehenge.  It sounded like a crackpot place
but thought we would stop and see it anyway.  It turned out to be a most
interesting place with astronomical lines and stones lined up for various
seasonal changes.  Gordon, who is really into this stuff and had been
telling us about dousing (using sticks to find water and wierd ground
attractions) around England's Stonehenge, was totally excited about all that
he saw.  This place  also had a lot of underground chambers that people had
lived in built right into the astronomical area which Stonehenge doesn't
have.  Years ago the locals used them for root cellars and then took 40% of
the rocks away to build things elsewhere.
    Anyway when we got there, we suddenly realized that it was the Autumnal
Equinox and who should be there filming but the Discovery Channel.  I got
them into a conversation and Gordon jumped in and really wowed them with his
contacts.  They knew of Nevin and Prince Henry and many of the Nova Scotia
elements of the story.  They seemed really interested so Gordon exchanged
addresses and can hardly wait to let Nevin know all this.  The Discovery
Channel, I am told, has had several stories already about parts of Henry's
voyage but they didn't seem to know about the Westford part and all the
films that Nevin has made.
    D'layne Coleman (Mrs. Richard and not related to we Colemans) pres. of
Prince   Henry Society of North America (one of the two Nova Scotia groups)
is in London now conferring with Nevin (who has been to Venice to research
that
part of the story) about her trip now to Venice.  She has connected with a
man retired in AZ (owns a palace in  Venice that is rented to an Arab) who
has put at her disposal his agent in Venice to  do more research.

    Back to my story now.  So here we are on Sept. 23, 1998 at this ancient
astronomical site (some "authority" from a univeristy in PA says this is
maybe the most important site of its type in this hemisphere and I think he
will add his two cents to this Discovery Channel program).  So we decided to
hang around another hour and see if it really did line up properly, etc.
Well it did!!  As we were watching this, I called Matt, our son, in
Portland, OR on our cell phone and described the whole operation.  I can't
get over the
contrast of standing there watching this astronomical calendar perform
perfectly (maybe built 1500 BC) and then talk to someone 2000 miles away
without wires.  Wouldn't those people have thought that was a most wonderful
thing!!  Of course, none of this is related to Henry's trip but the
Discovery Channel meeting could be very timely.
    Then the next evening at that same time we were flying at 38,000 ft.
chasing the setting sun with miles and miles of thick mash-potato clouds
below us.  It almost takes your breath away to slip in and out of these time
warps!

THE END

Laurel
Portland, OR

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