The route we took included state highway 23 that angles SE through the SE corner of the state, through rolling hills, then the Catskill mountains. Very scenic country. Well into that drive we saw signs saying Road Closed, Bridge Out ahead. But, there were no signs announcing a Detour, so we kept going, hoping we weren't heading into a dead end requiring a disconnect and back up, turn around effort. Shirley (sic) they would direct us to another route if the road was truly blocked, I "reasoned.". They wouldn't just leave us lined up for days waiting for the road to be fixed.
We reached the blockaded road. Didn't look good. A construction guy came out to talk to us. Said there was about a seven-mile detour - up a steep valley to where we could cross the creek, then down the other side. Eighteen-wheelers have been doing it, he said. You'll be all right. Then he asked about Tuzigoot, its size and age and how long we'd had it, and asked if we were enjoying retirement. By that time a couple of other cars had arrived, so, after a pleasant visit we trundled up, over, and down the detour, tho the road was narrow and twisting. Fortunately, we didn't meet any of those semis coming the other way.
Found our way with some difficulty to a KOA near Copake, NY, close to the MASS state line, not too far from VT and CT. (Sometimes when you enter a rural address into our GPS, the GPS lady cannot relate to it, so you have to do some map-reading as you drive. There is a maze of state, county, and local roads in this area and many ways to get from one point to another.) We picked this location because it was located where we could take day trips to see sights in this four-state area. Which we did.
Friday we did a CONN-MASS-NY loop. Susie lacked only Connecticutt to complete her bucket list of visiting all 50 states, so now she's done it. Here's the proof.
As you can see, it was a cold, damp morning.
Several years ago when we took a side trip with grandson Andrew to touch a foot down in Montana we established the rule: you get credit only if you buy something in the state - contribute to the local economy. Here, we stopped at a bakery/coffee shop in the lovely village of Salisbury, CT, for coffee, hot chocolate, and cranberry scones.
Most of the houses and businesses along main street had Halloween mannequins on display - more than we'd seen elsewhere. We asked and found out that the town had had its fall festival the previous weekend and this sort of decorating is the tradition. Here's a spooky young woman, smiling as she prepares to throw a skull across the street.
Driving north into Mass, we went through a lot of elegant horse country - barns and paddocks. Also, more attractive villages and crossroads.with houses like this.
Love those wrap-around porches.
Worked our way to Hudson, NY, where we found a Walgreen's where Susie could fill a prescription. Previously, we'd been told that in NY you couldn't fill a facsimile prescription.
We had a county map that showed various businesses, villages, and sites of interest and from that picked Jackson's, a historic roadhouse in Old Chatham, for lunch.
You can see that the weather cleared up nicely.
Here's an interior shot.
And an adjacent tree.
Had a very enjoyable lunch.
Next, went looking for Stuyvesant Falls, found the falls, but no viewpoint to see the falls, other than from above, here looking at the precipice over which the falls fall..
This website has some pictures that don't look anything like where we were, so I think we were in the wrong place. I did ask a friendly, local resident for directions to the Falls, so I must have gotten it wrong.
For our history lesson of the day we visited the home of Martin Van Buren, eighth president of the U.S.
VB was Andrew Jackson's VP and succeeded him as President. He lost his race for a second term and retired to this home near his home village of Kinderhook, NY. One interesting fact: he was the first President born as an American. The seven predecessors were born as British subjects. There are many interesting facts about him, but I'll leave that as an assignment for the reader. We had a very knowledgeable guide who told us a lot about the man and his time.
Throughout the day we mostly just soaked in the ambiance as we drove, didn't break the mood by stopping to take pictures. A very nice outing.
Next day, the objective was VT. We drove about an hour and a half to reach Bennington, in the SW corner, then sort of randomly drove the highways and byways in southern VT. Found an interesting roadside cafe for a late breakfast. It had two horseshoe-shaped counters, no tables for two or four. Each horseshoe sat 14 and was attended by one waitress. The place was packed and the breakfast was good. I had homemade corned-beef hash with my eggs. Susie had pancakes with Vermont maple syrup.
We were too late for much in the way of Vermont fall foliage - weather had shortened the season - but we enjoyed the roads, streams, houses, and villages. Here's an example of VT fall non-foliage.
I had read one VT foliage website that said now was the peak color time in some areas, but not where we were. Also, we noticed that the motels and inns along the way did not have many cars around them, and this is on a Saturday. The word was out.
The one busy place we visited was Woodstock. Granddaughter Kaci had been there recently and raved about what a perfect village it was. I had bicycled through there some 30 years ago and remembered it as crowded and pricey. The residential areas, though, are very elegant. For some lovely pictures of Woodstock and the surrounding classical Vermont countryside, go here.
We wandered around downtown for a while, had some ice cream, and then headed back to Copake. Drove the last hour or so in the dark, winding down the west side of Massachusetts. This was a route Miss GPS didn't want me to take, but I turned her volume off and kept one eye on the map and avoided all the short cuts that she offered.
Long, fun day. Tomorrow we head West.
Rob and Susie
No comments:
Post a Comment