We're in the Berkshires!

Today when we got into the car we found a surprise -- Orv had convinced one of the Sesame Street toys to join on our ship! The new guy calls himself Captain K.

Lots of driving today and lots of ups and downs. We drove between the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains in New York and then into the Green Mountains here in Massachussetts. Beautiful scenery and another beautiful day for driving.

Unfortunately the weather forecast for tomorrow is not so nice. Rain is predicted for a good chunk of the next week. We'll have to see how that effects our plans because there are some plans that really won't work well in soggy weather. This will be a good test for our flexibility.

Here is a photo Joyce made me stop to get. I don't know why. I think Orv was especially insulted. He didn't talk for the rest of the trip!

On our way to our featured stop of the day, we were able to get a close-up view of the Erie Canal. All along the top of New York state you drive in a National Historic Site of this famous waterway. I guess I was never to impressed about this until we drove this distance to see how long this canal really was. Impressive! Took only about seven years to complete and it traverses the whole state of New York. WOW! Especially impressive when you consider the terrain and lack of power tools in those days.

Then it was on to our featured stop: Cooperstown, New York. Yes, it is the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, but we actually went because of the Fenimore Art Museum.

This fancy, fancy museum is built on the property of where James Fenimore Cooper wrote his early Leatherstocking tales featuring his amazing hero -- Natty Bumppo.

We arrived in the small village of Cooperstown about lunch time. Hmmm, where to eat. We drove downtown and it was crazy - couldn't even find a place to park. We discovered, though, that the museum had its own cafe. As we walked in, we smelled the special of the day -- BLT sandwiches. Couldn't pass that up. Homemade sandwiches with a chef on premises - delicious. Seating was on a lovely and peaceful veranda. Joyce remembers this as the best part of the day.

If you look carefully on the photo, you will notice that we chose water for our beverage. Kind of funny. We asked for water - the cashier asked "bottled water?" Joyce (not wanting to pay for water but also not wanting to sound cheap) asked her "Do you have any other kind of water?" That confused the cashier and she looked at Joyce with a blank stare (clearly implying "what other kind of water is there?") She then said, "Well, we do have TAP water..." So, the water you see in the photo is indeed New York tap water .

The museum itself was pretty cool. Got to see an authentic Mohawk bark house and check out the scenery that is so much a part of Cooper's novels.



After seeing it for myself, I understand now more why he had to include in his writing. This area is gorgeous! The amazing Otsego Lake is like 8 miles long and a sparkling natural diamond. He called it Glimmerglass. This town was founded by his father who owned "tens of thousands of acres" across upstate New York.



Also at the museum were authentic manuscripts he had written - he had great handwriting -- still easily readable today. Also letters to his family from George Washington and Lafayette -- pretty cool! Couldn't take photos of those because no photography was allowed in the museum itself. :(

Here is a photo of me reading my Cooper novel at the site where Cooper himself lived.

Across the street from the Art Museum is an equally amazing Farm Museum. We didn't have time to do that or the Hall of Fame. All were gifts to city -- in addition to the hospital -- by the Clark family of Cooperstown.

On the way out of Cooperstown we "enjoyed" a meal at McDonalds - again.

Then it was off for another 2 plus hours of driving to Massachussetts! We thought it was ironically appropos that the last toll both stop in New York state was Canaan! Were we entering the promised land?

We are staying in Lee, MA tonight at a Rodeway Inn with the Berkshire mountains in our back yard.

Hey, if any of you folks out there are reading this blog - let us know if you are enjoying this or not.

Blessings to all!

Dave & Joyce