Sublime Leafy Bust

Yesterday was supposed to be our annual day trip to view the spectacular fall colors of northern New England. It had been delayed since the traditional Columbus Day departure due to the nasty cold I was fighting earlier this week. It was a fantastically clear, bright autumnal day as we set out as the leaves had only begun to turn here and we anticipated the usual explosion of color as we went into the Berkshire Mountains and southern Vermont. It was not to be. The colors were drab and most of the trees had already lost their foliage once we passed I-91 and started up into the mountains. While that was a definite disappointment, the day turned out to be one of the best I’ve had in a long time. That was all due to my co-pilot, my Favorite Panamanian.

Wife and I on the Bridge

Since we weren’t trying to one up each other in finding the next beautiful vista to photo, we spent the time talking as we drove. I know it sounds weird, especially since we spend virtually every waking (as well as non-waking) hour with each other. I marveled at the talk we had because despite all that time together we‘re usually doing something else together other than talking. Yesterday we were each other’s captive audience and I re-discovered that I kind of like my wife. She can be fun. I revealed what her surprise Christmas present was which will remain a secret for the foreseeable future. By the time we reached Shelburne Falls and the Bridge of Flowers we’d talked more in those two hours than we had in the last month, kind of cool.

The Bridge

The bridge, recently featured in the last season of Dexter, was beautiful and since this wasn’t a holiday there wasn’t a big crowd. We explored a couple of shops in the small town adjacent to the far side of the bridge which was liberally laced with hold hippies. I discovered they make really good fudge but they don’t believe in stocking sodas in their grocery stores. There were about seventy different varieties of healthy watery substances but no carbonation. We continued up into the mountains to our usual lunch spot for these expeditions, the Golden Eagle Restaurant at the hairpin turn above North Adams on Route 20. Even the views there of the Hoosic Valley were blah but the meal was superb. My Favorite Panamanian instructed me during the meal on how to recognize the difference between Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. I had to leap across the table to stop her from demonstrating the difference since the Asian family behind us in the dining room (which started her on the subject) might have noticed. It was a very fun meal.

The Rt 20 Hairpin Turn

Colorless Views from the Golden Eagle

Since the leaves were not up to their usual standard I agreed to stop by Williamstown for some shopping. I didn’t expect to run into a traffic jam in that small town but that’s what you get when you turn Route 20 into a one lane road because they had to touch up the paint. So frustrating and my wife disappearing to shop , a true recipe for head explosions. Fortunately, I’d brought a book to read and munched on a hippie produced Whoopie Pie while my Favorite Panamanian commenced Christmas shopping for the granddaughters. We snuck into Southern Vermont from there and turned west in Bennington at the road intersection my father and I had a car accident when I was very young and dad was driving my grandfather’s car. Some things just stick in your mind, it hasn’t changed very much.

Atop Hogback Overlook

Luckily the rest of Route 9 has over the past sixty years but, again, the colors were disappointing. We stopped at the Hogback Mountain Overlook to say a quick prayer for my mom as that is where we spread her ashes (she loved her native Vermont mountains). There was also more shopping to be done since the gift shop there sports a treasure trove of Maple Syrup related items and maple syrup is a huge delicacy in Panama. We’ll be pushing the weight limit in our luggage again when we go south. We continued on to Brattleboro and then across the mighty Connecticut River into New Hampshire. Leaves were once again drab but we had the added benefit of dinner with Keene Friend and the Cantankerous One.

Latest Puzzle Finished
Had So Much Fun Finding the Different Characters

I forgot to snap a photo of the dinner but it was the usual lively affair at Margarita’s with the Cantankerous One talking in high decibels. It was a rewarding end of what had already been, despite the lack of color, a fantastic day of conversation and memory troves. The Cantankerous Friend leaves this morning on his annual forage south to Myrtle Beach and will not return until the week of the annual birthday pub crawl. Speaking of that auspicious event, I’ll be returning to Keene this Saturday to conduct a final reconnaissance of the intended axis of advance for the crawl. Yesterday was a very fun day spent with three of my best friends. Why should it surprise me that I’m married to one of the three.

Two movies fell in my A-Z watch, both keepers: Gladiator, so good, forgot how compelling Decimus Maximus Beridius was; and The Glass Bottom Boat, nearly got rid of this, a bad movie but still love Doris Day and Rod Taylor together, silly 1960s vision of the future

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RECURRING CHARACTERS:                                     

ABFA – Amazing Best Family Athlete - my daughter in law; BR3 – Blog Reader #3 – granddaughter #3; BRS - Blog Reader the Sequel - second granddaughter; Cantankerous Friend – friend since grade school who likes to argue about everything, poses as radical leftist to attract women; CRC - Connecticut Riverboat Captain – another close friend from high school, renowned sailor of the big river; Curbside Girls – close friends of my daughter acquired during him her single days in Brooklyn; Deckzilla – our backyard deck which grew to monstrous dimensions once my wife got involved in planning; Favorite Panamanian - the wife (of course); FBR - First Blog Reader - first granddaughter; First Friday – celebrations to mark the First Friday of the Week; Great Aunt - my elder sister; Keene Friends 1 & 2 – friends since high school from my home town of Keene, NH; Kindergarten Friend – friend since kindergarten whom I reunited with after many years; Maine and Virginia Musqueteras – two close friends of my wife – her US sisters, my wife is the 3^rd Musquetera (musketeer); Namesake Nephew – son of Great Aunt and Soxfather named after me; Neighborhood Mafioso - wife's close friend and Panamanian mafia member; 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; PCR - Pittsburgh College Roommate– high school friend, also a “Minor Celebrity” in Pittsburgh; PCR+1 - Pittsburgh College Roommate’s wife; Riggins - also known as the Grandpuppy, son's dog; Soxfather - my brother in law; Tia Loca – wife’s younger sister; Wingman – my son in law; Wingmom – Wingman’s mom, of course