Our Travel Blog

Well true to form it rained most of the day. Luckily most of the outside work was done yesterday, just the WiFi and Satellite antennas to bring in, then disconnect the water, sewer and hydro tomorrow morning chuck a few things in the truck and off we go.

We went into the local town this afternoon to mail a card and get some booze to bring home, but the rest of the day was spent packing up and cleaning.

Despite the weather towards the end we had a great trip. Scenery round here is great, and the camp site was excellent. Hopefully the leaves will be changing colour as we head north tomorrow. That’s it for now, next episode should be from Texas in early January.

Not sure if I have put any pictures of the trailer on here before or not, so here are a couple.

Trailer with Truck in Background Monson,MA

Trailer, Monson MA

For once the day started of dry, but overcast. We decided to take advantage of the better weather and get some of the outside stuff dried up and  put away . The awning was covered in fallen leaves and was still quite wet so the leaves were brushed off and the awning left to dry out.  Some of the antennas came down, and the outdoor carpet was cleaned and dried. Next on the list was the BBQ which got a good cleaning as well. The rest can wait until tomorrow.

Yet another JoAnn fabric coupon arrived on Lyn’s laptop this week-end, but she had no intention of using it…. that is until a certain daughter-in-law (no names mentioned!!) asked Lyn if she would get her some fabric. Guess where we went this afternoon.

Actually the afternoon was quite pleasant with blue skies for a couple of hours, but the rain has now returned.

Looking at the forecast it looks as though we are going to see rain for the rest of our stay. This is a bit of a pain as we could do with a dry day on Tuesday so that we can dry things out before we leave. With the cooler temperatures at night there is condensation on the windows that doesn’t completely dry out the next day. As the trailer is going into storage for 3 months there is always the worry of mold.

After lunch the rain letup and the sun tried desperately to make an appearance. Lyn had a couple of short trips lined up so off we went. The first was to the site of some “massive cave like rock shelters” formed after the last ice age. Off we went, round the country lanes only to finish up 20 miles later at the exact point we started from. Never did see the shelters and never did work out where we went wrong!!

Next stop was for a nature walk around the site of an old lead mine. Everything went well, roads were followed and towns were passed we even finished up on Lead Mine Road but all we got to see was a plaque at the side of the road commemorating the area that was part of the old lead mine. Not doing too well here.

Gave up on the organised tours and headed for the local town for a bit of grocery shopping. On the way round the back lanes were chanced upon a sign for a dam, decided we’d try our luck one last time. Success! there really was a dam, so at least we managed to get some exercise in walking along it.

See the title

Again the weathermenpersons got it wrong, instead of waking up to a grey overcast day it was clear blue skies and a little cooler than forecast. After breakfast we set off for Essex Connecticut. Essex is about 80 miles south of here and is home to the Essex Steam Train.

Essex Steam Train

The engine and carriages were all built around 1920. We (I) opted to splash out the extra $5 each to travel first class! The Pullman Carriage, also known as the Parlor Car had 34 individual swivel seats, 17 down each side of the carriage. Each one a window (and aisle) seat.

The train journey was about 30 minutes, and in the spirit of useless trivia the train burns about 100lb of coal per mile and consumes about 100 gallons of water over that distance. After  30 minutes or so we arrived at Deep River to join the “Becky Thatcher” for a boat tour on the Connecticut River.

Becky Thatcher

The boat trip lasted about 90 minutes. The Connecticut is quite wide at this point and provides some excellent scenery. At the end of the cruise it was back onto the train for the return trip to Exeter.

A a worthwhile trip and a great day out.

The rain continued through the night, then cleared away this morning. However the sky was overcast and showers didn’t seem too far away. After breakfast we did our usual e-mail check, and Lyn got all excited…. More JoAnn fabric coupons had arrived.

Well, Thursday is grocery shopping day, and (so the logic goes) there is a supermarket right next to JoAnn fabrics….. you can see where this is going. So after lunch, off we went fabric  grocery shopping. As it turned out it passed the time as the heavens opened and there was nothing much else we could have done. At least with the tablet I could play Angry Birds while waiting in the truck!!

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A much clearer and cooler day, still got to the mid 70’s but the humidity has gone. Finally the rain they have been promising for the last week has arrived (1015 at night!).

Not a very productive day at all. Just lounged around the place and did very little…. just like being on vacation really!

Walking around the campsite showed that many of the seasonal campers had packed up their trailers for the year, leaving the place very quiet apart from the bl**dy chipmunks. If the state mascot for Massachusetts isn’t the chipmunk then it should be, they’re everywhere.

The neighbour across the road has us confused. Every day, and some times 2 or 3 times a day he will come out, start up his truck move it 10ft or so then switch off and go back inside. Each time he move it he parks it at a different angle… very intriguing.

Yet again the weather people got it wrong. After a foggy start the morning turned out to be sunny and warm.

After our previous mountaineering experience, we decided to try again. This time we checked the height of the mountain before setting out.

Our destination was Greylock Mountain in the NW corner of the state, a few miles south of the Vermont border. As we headed out westbound initially, the skies got darker to the west and I thought that maybe the weather man had got it right after all and we would get rain. As we turned northbound though the weather cleared again.

Yet again the scenery was great with wooded rolling hills, getting higher as we went north. Once off the freeway, and ignoring the fact the steering wheel was on the wrong side, many of the roads could have been English country roads.

We got to the base of the Greylock which was about 750ft ASL. There was a good road going up the mountain with a few switchbacks thrown in for good measure. We climbed to the summit at 3491ft, the truck handled it fine, but it did suck back the diesel! Unfortunately there was still some fog lingering around, so the views were not as good as we had expected. This was the highest point in the state.

We left the mountain and went in search of Natural Bridge State Park. On the way there we kept seeing signs for Highway 2 detours, which was a little off putting as the next part of the journey was a scenic trip along the Mohawk Way, aka Highway 2. Anyway, we found the park, but the road into it was closed, so we parked at the bottom and started to walk up. We met a Park employee who told us that the road had been washed out following hurricane Irene a few weeks ago, but we could still walk up to the Natural Bridge.

The area is full of marble and was the site of a marble works until 1947, when it burnt down. The Natural  Bridge is a bridge formation caused by the water eroding the marble from the bottom. The falls the water flows over before the bridge are shown below.

Waterfall at Natural Bridge State Park MA

After we left the park we went into the town of Adams in search of a Tourist Info so that we could get some information on the Highway 2 detour. It turns out that Irene had been busy that day, and there were numerous washouts on the highway, causing it to be closed. The Tourist office were well prepared with sheets detailing an alternate route. Next stop was the glacial potholes at Shelburne Falls. The potholes which, you should be able to see in the next picture, were formed at the end of the last ice age by pebbles being caught in a water vortex and wearing away the rock.

Pot Holes, Shelburne Falls MA

We continued along the Mohawk trail, which was scenic, but really no better than we had seen earlier. Perhaps the more scenic part was missed by the detour.

We decided to head home via the back roads rather than the freeway, only to discover a quilt shop along the way……… coincidence???

Well despite the forecast, it turned out a pretty nice day, mostly sunny around 80F.

Lyn headed off to do the laundry while I had the dubious pleasure of washing out the black water (toilet waste!) tank. Actually nowhere as bad as it sounds, I just pull a handle and let it all run out so to speak. Don’t panic the tank is connected via a long pipe to a sewer receptacle. We’re lucky with this trailer as all I have to do when the tank is empty is to connect a hosepipe to an outside connection to flush out the tank with a high pressure spray. The older models required sticking the hosepipe down the toilet to flush out the tank. Just what you all wanted to know.

After lunch it was time to go fly the helicopter, this was a mistake! All that needs to be said is that blood was lost and new parts for the helicopter are on order.

Other than that a quiet day doing very little. The new WiFi gizzmo is doing very well, we have a much better connection, and don’t have to worry about the bandwidth as we did with the 3G USB stick. Skype is still an issue, and I am beginning to think that the campground may have some sort of block on it.