Three Stating

I know this will confuse people from the West with their huge states but I spent the last two days bouncing between three states on both days.  It was an extension of the usual Columbus Day leaf peeping exercise when I surprised the wife with a Sunday night stay over at a Vermont Bed and Breakfast. After our usual Sunday morning chores we hit the road in a meandering path with the goal being to avoid major highways and use the back roads to get north. We set out for Royalston, Massachusetts and saw some truly striking foliage literally in our back yard. After reaching Royalston I used the GPS to map our route to the bed and breakfast. I did something I’ve always wanted to do. Instead of using the quickest route I selected the shortest which meant lots of back roads and definitely not the fastest.

Two Visions - New England Foliage & My Favorite Panamanian

Great Weekend

I’m kind of weird in that I absolutely love to drive on roads I’ve never been on before. That’s a tall order since I’ve done so much wandering over the past half century. I, however, succeeded for a while until I ended up in the town of Warwick. From there I eventually realized I was on the same road my dad used to drive through the Mt. Grace Forest to take us to the family Thanksgiving in Palmer. That memory warmed me but less than ten minutes later I realized our route would take us by the exact spot on a different highway in New Hampshire where my father was killed in 1977 by a drunk driver. Ups and downs, a little bit like life I guess. Our route took us through the Vermont town of Brattleboro which is the closest Vermont location to my hometown. My Favorite Panamanian awoke from dozing off a little to notice the available shopping locations (even in her sleep she’s alert to opportunities). I promised we would return after checking into our lodging which was about nine miles west of Brattleboro. I noticed how much more traffic where was on a true weekend day than our normal Columbus Day Monday with legions of leaf peepers out in force. We arrived at the bed and breakfast a little early so I continued on another five miles to the Vermont mountain top where we spread my mother’s ashes so I could pay her respects.

Old Friend Mt Monadnock in the Distance

Mom Saying hi with Sunbeams

I was a true hero when we checked into the Colonel Williams Inn a half hour later as I had splurged on the best room in the place, complete with a king sized bed. It offered fantastic views of the colorful surrounding mountains and was really convenient to route 9. After a short inspection we were back on the road to Brattleboro and the promised shopping opportunities. I left my wife to her routines in town while I wandered around to see how it had changed in the past few decades. I tried to pinpoint the location of the bar which I had my first ever beer just before I turned 18, we won’t, after all this time, argue the legal niceties of that event. We set of in search of a dinner location but found very few non-fast food type places. We lucked on the very place my high school buddy showed us last year when he took us out on a Connecticut River cruise in his boat. The Marina was the perfect stop before returning to the Inn.

The Col Williams Inn

Our Room

Views from Our Room

One of the cool things about B&B stays are the people you meet since they so much more communal than hotels. We spent nearly an hour with the owner over a couple beers. He had a very interesting story. He and his wife had owned the inn for three years after spending their entire lives in Austin, Texas, which explained the longhorn painting in the main room. He was a computer engineer while his wife was an artist (creator of the long horn painting). My wife just found it hard to understand why anyone would leave the heat of Texas for the mountains of Vermont. Our hosts were both exhausted because they had just completed their fifth consecutive weekend hosting weddings. After that we adjourned to the main living room to watch some football and met a very nice couple from Syracuse, New York. They were farmers and the guy was a story teller to rival my wife. They both spent time trying to outdo each other while their spouses nodded sagely to each other.

Wife on the Hunt in Brattleboro - N.H. Hill in Background

Main Drag in Brattleboro

Connecticut River in Brattleboro

Dinner Time

We slept in Monday morning since we were already set up in the middle of some of the best foliage in New England. We stopped off in the nearby town of Wilmington to do some (you guessed it) shopping. My wife sent me off so I wouldn’t lurk while she touched everything in every store. I ended up in a book store for the first time in a long time and it was like coming home. I miss the atmosphere that moving to a Kindle has robbed me of. After this interlude we used some back roads, compete with a couple eagles, to travel south into western Massachusetts. We jumped onto the Mohawk Trail and headed east for our preferred lunch spot – the Golden Eagle – which offered fantastic views of the mountains of three states. In a huge surprise my wife agreed to dining alfresco, granted there was a plastic covering and she used some hot mulled cider to keep her hands warm.  

Wilmington

Golden Eagle View

After lunch we continued east through the fabulous scenery of the Mohawk Trail. My wife dozed off and I made a tactical error by not pulling off the highway to visit the bridge of flowers at Shelburn Falls, figuring we could do some of her shopping in New Hampshire (boy was I wrong). We ran up the Connecticut River valley back into Vermont for about fifty miles until crossing into New Hampshire near Claremont. I had hoped there would be some shopping available there or nearby Newport or Sunapee. I was totally unprepared for Claremont to be a virtual ghost town. We wandered around a little but it was almost spooky. If Stephen King needs a new setting for a zombie apocalypse Claremont would be perfect. Newport offered little more and Sunapee was also dead. My hero status took a serious hit. We used some picturesque back roads to reach my hometown where we linked up with Keene Friend for dinner. We got back into Worcester a little after dark with the annual Columbus Day mission more than accomplished.

Ghost Town - Claremont, NH

Sunapee

The granddaughters also had a busy weekend. The FBR was charging around her street which was closed for the annual block party, one of the very cool traditions my daughter and Wingman fell in on when they bought their house. The BRS was also exercising her parental units with a hayride, corn maze, and animal visiting. We all had great weekends.

FBR Getting ready for Halloween

FBR(r) With Buds at Block Party

Practicing Letters

Being her Usual Goofy

BRS Ready for Action

With her dad

Trying to Help Goat Escape

Hayride with ABFA

Corn Mazing with Dad

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RECURRING CHARACTERS                                           

BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter, ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete = my daughter in law; Wingman – my son in law; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Soxfather - my brother in law; Great Aunt = my elder sister; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; Pittsburgh College Roommate – high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd musquetera (musketeer); Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog, surrogate grandchild while awaiting arrival of the BRS; PanaGals – female relatives/friends of my wife from Panama; Panamanian/Latin Mafia – inevitable group of Latino friends my wife accumulates wherever we have lived & their spouses; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member, Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Deckzilla Dude – senior citizen carpenter/contractor; Voices of Inappropriate Worth - members of public who come to every Worcester public meeting to complain, all are on public assistance along with demeanor issues