Only on the final leg of this long road trip across the United States and the Maritimes of Canada, on my first full day on my own again, do I realize one of the major differences compared to the drive east. Instead of writing about the day’s events after checking into a hotel, I’m starting my day in the hotel room, writing about events that occurred nearly two weeks ago. Everything that happens on the drive west back to Arizona will have to accumulate as notes, only to be written about at a point in the future, likely October (it’s actually October 17th, when I’m finally working on this day.) I’m tempted to place this opening note for Monday, September 23rd, in the post I’ll be writing this morning for September 10th when we were visiting Digby Neck and Kejimkujik National Park in Nova Scotia, but time jumping in my blog posts may not make for great style, only great confusion, so I try to keep that to a minimum. However, I’m not fully against sowing some confusion from time to time.
After stopping for coffee and apple cider donuts at The Apple Barn & Country Bake Shop on my way out of Bennington, Vermont, I was soon starting to weave in and out of Massachusetts and New York, unable to choose which state I preferred. Massachusetts started out with a strong vote because this area, known as the Berkshires, is quite appealing. Falling leaves, walnuts on the ground, and apples scattered under trees, the idyllic autumn scenes are enchanting.
Considering that New York is home to the only Stephentown on Earth, it certainly convinces me that New York is where I should pay attention.
Check out the colors of Stephentown: they make a solid argument to stay on this side of the state line.
On Route 22, south of Stephentown, things are still quite beautiful.
Near New Lebanon, New York, I decided to veer back into Massachusetts to give it a second try. Scenic views come on too fast to pull over safely: a dozen turkeys crossing the road tops the seasonal mood. There is no need for pumpkin spice lattes out here.
While this old Shaker Mill in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, helped tilt the scales, it wasn’t really fair to allow it that kind of pull. I had skipped the Shaker Museum and the Ruins at Sassafras Museum, both in New Lebanon, because I felt that if and when I visited, it would be with Caroline. So, crossing the stream that once powered the mill gave Massachusetts an unfair advantage. I’ll have to ignore this, though I can appreciate the sight of the old mill.
Take that, Massachusetts, try to compete with your little mill with this historic giant of a place called Red Mills Flour Feed & Grain in Claverack, New York. Seriously through, the western side of Massachusetts, home to the Berkshires, deserves serious investigation with my bestie.
I’m flirting with overcast skies, exhaustion, and preoccupation with a distant wife who is likely dealing with her own travel exhaustion and has had to go back to work this morning, unable to share these sights with me. Traveling alone on my way east across the United States was okay, probably because I knew she’d be joining me shortly. If I linger too long on my way home, it will only delay us from returning to each other for our conjoined twins’ existence.
More than a few photos were taken here in Hudson, New York, which I’d call lingering. Further south, I passed through Red Hook when a deer bolted in front of the car. That deer was so close that I spotted a tick riding bareback on its haunches, waving at me. Properly spooked, I required a moment to catch my breath. No better location than the Red Hook Fried Chicken restaurant to truly calm my nerves and satiate my appetite for yummy fried chicken.
In a fried chicken-induced food coma [Mal de puerco! Caroline], I drove and drove, caring little for photographing the landscape, passing Rhinebeck (location of a famous wool festival), cruising right by the turn-off to Woodstock, famous with Boomers. South of Woodstock, it is abundantly clear that I’m on the Hippy Gauntlet, a.k.a. the Age of Aquarius Nostalgia Highway. I can recognize how this tiny geographic point on the map was where the world changed for a generation, even if only temporarily until the consumer culture caught up with the children of Flower Power. Some buildings are now relics, just as are the legions of Americans who claim to have been there. Twenty years from now, that generation will be mostly gone, as will the remaining businesses riding the wave of nostalgia for a time lost in the mud of a farm that hosted the largest event of its kind back in August 1969. I drove so far with nary a stop, that I almost failed to properly appreciate my afternoon in the Catskill Mountains.
Then, before I knew it, I reached the end of the Eastern Branch of the Delaware River near the confluence with the West Branch in Hancock, New York, ready to call it quits for another day, but not before I snapped a photo of the dory in the middle of the river at dusk in the foggy mountains here at the edge of Pennsylvania.