We changed things up this
year for our annual foliage tour of New England. This was the fifth year in a row that the
wife and I took the Columbus Day holiday to do some leaf peeping along the back
roads of New England. This year we started from my home town of Keene instead of
home. This put us an hour and a half
closer to our normal target area and gave Buddy the opportunity to bond further
with one of his favorite humans, our friend, who volunteered to host him for
the day.
We start these days out with
only a general plan. I look at the map
ahead of time and get a general idea of where we’ll go but then we just end up
kind of wandering along back roads which I love but makes my wife kind of nervous
(not a lot of confidence in her sense of direction). What I think of as adventure has her worried
about being stuck in the outback without a rescue plan.
We jumped over to Vermont and followed a
river up into the mountains but the foliage was not that impressive. We were anticipating some really dramatic
colors this year based on what we were seeing around our house and in Keene but
we were seeing some pretty drab yellows for the most part. When we reached the mountains it was pretty
clear that the area was past peak as a lot of trees were already stripped of
all leaves. I adjusted route and headed
south.
We stopped off for a quick
prayer at the site where we spread my mother’s ashes almost a decade ago. This is a spot that offers some great views
to the south, claiming to be 100 miles.
We continued our venture south using some very rural highways heading
towards western Massachusetts. As we moved through this area of Vermont I felt I was in
some sort of Stephen King apocalyptic novel because we passed town after town
with no human sightings. It was down
right spooky, I guess there’s not a lot going on in southwestern Vermont. We did pass through a town claiming to be the
birthplace of Brigham Young, so I can cross that off my bucket list.
As I was about to question
whether we were the last humans on earth I spotted an old friend high up on a
mountain side. The first couple years we
did this my wife and I ate lunch at the Golden Eagle Restaurant which is
located on a hairpin turn on Route 2 overlooking North
Adams, Massachusetts and
apparently an eerie section of Vermont. Since it was lunch time we made our way up
the hill for lunch and great views. The
photos do not do this place justice – one of my favorite places (great burgers
also).
After lunch we wandered
along Route 2 and foliage was better but still disappointing given our level of
anticipation. We stopped at a monument
to Native Americans with a statue of an Indian brave greeting the rising sun
which was pretty inspiring in an understated way. We also stopped in Sherborn Falls
for the bridge of flowers that my wife likes so much.
Leaving Sherborn I struck
north back into Vermont planning on using some back roads to make my way east,
at least that’s what the map said. I
found the road I was looking for and confidently headed east only to reach a
cross roads where the paved road ended and no signs. My wife was sound asleep (clam chowder is
also very good at Golden Eagle) and I thanked the lord because she would have
immediately gone into the panic mode and insist I turn around. I looked at this as a challenge and picked
the road that seemed headed in the most likely direction. I passed some really beautiful homes and
views but did not stop because I knew she would wake up and become anxious. I was starting to feel a little anxious
myself because the GPS map just showed the arrow representing our car on a
field of complete white – no roads big enough to qualify for notice. Finally I saw a road appear at the top of the
screen and followed the dirt roads most likely to get me there. My wife awoke as I bumped back onto a paved
road. I reached an intersection where I
recognized a broken down tour bus that we passed on our way south and we were
back in business.
We ended the day back in Keene with dinner at our
favorite Mexican restaurant with the Buddy whisperer. I was pretty spent from driving all day and
still had the drive home to negotiate. I
had tried a new way up to Keene
on Sunday that saved a whole 1.7 miles, distance wise. I took the same way back and discovered it
looked a whole lot different at night. I
missed a turn and although headed in the right direction the pavement gave way
to dirt road again and my wife was awake this time. After an adventurous ride and lecture we were
back on route and home. A long day on the
road, disappointing foliage but in the end a great day spent with my favorite
Panamanian.
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