Wednesday morning we got on with a pretty leisurely pack. It’s amazing how leaving home can be such an everyday occurrence that you end up treating it with complete nonchalance. That lead me to forgetting my toothbrush, but it wasn’t the end of the world. Wednesday afternoon Kristen and I joined up with Heather, packed up the Saturn and headed up north in a direction we don’t often go: I-95. We’ll generally avoid it because we don’t want to have anything to do with the stresses that come with traveling through New York – we’ll usually go far out of our way up 83 and around on 287 to avoid the whole clusterfuck, but I’d booked something in New Jersey for the night resulting in us driving ourselves right up into the belly of the beast.
Surprisingly it didn’t go too bad at all. Getting to the Cambridge Inn in Spotswood, NJ was pretty painless and the food once we got there was really kind of amazing. It was possibly the best stuffing I’d ever had, combine with mashed potatoes and turkey and cranberry stuff and I was a pretty happy rob. Meeting up with Tommy and Abby Anton was the proverbial cherry on top – they had a couple of new songs that I was really enamoured with and they’re just such warm, wonderful people that it’s just always good to see them.
The last several days have been kind of amazing. Now, if only we had time to hit the Seuss Sculpture garden in Springfield, CT. The shows have been alright, but the wanderings have been spectacular, full of adventure and frogs. The places we’ve stayed have been relaxing and friendly, and the food has just been awesomely satisfying.
A couple of days ago we were home in Maryland appreciating the fact that the weather had cooled down. Dramatic storms and cloudscapes had been dominating our weather and the transit of Venus was all over the web. Now… well, now we’re in our element.
Okay – it’s simply going to be too hard to express in words the wonder of the past two days – so I’m going to put some pictures in here, provide links to the Facebook galleries, type what I can and release your imaginations to run amok on the provided materials.
Each day has left us with a feeling of “well, the REST of the trip is going to be a let-down!” and each NEW day has provided us with new wonders. I really wish I had the resources to just tourbus a bunch of friends from one of these gems to the next – and actually through serendipity some small example of that IS occurring on this trip…
A large space has been roofed over to preserve over 2000 individual dinosaur footprints discovered in 1967. They also do little classes and educational seminars here at Dinosaur State Park and are the home to a couple of beautifully realized Lifesize dinoreplicants.
I’m actually going to see if I can’t encourage some people to make the trek out to Saint Louis for Heather’s birthday in October and use her and her dirt day as an excuse to get people out to see the City Museum.
Part of me has always felt like I haven’t been anywhere till I’ve come back home, but the other part of that is that I often feel I haven’t been home till I’ve shared these experiences with others fully… and there ain’t NOTHING like BEING there!
Thursday afternoon we were looking for a place to just wander around and stretch our legs in the beautiful weather. Originally we were just going to hunt down some coffee and kill it, but then Kristen’s mom mentioned Dinosaur State Park was pretty close and that maybe we could check it out… she then swiftly returned with the concerned news that the ferry was out and that it wasn’t NEARLY as close if you had to drive ALL AROUND to the bridge…
One of my first finds of the day at Dinosaur State Park was this beautiful garter snake!
I like my dinosaurs Lifesize… Heather likes her leaves LARGER than Life size!
SORT of like “checking in” on Facebook or whatever else – tagging trees appeals to me and I certainly always carry the hardware, but I know it’d be the wrong thing. There are a LOT of pictures like this, you know, with a stick slowly breaking the frame from the left as Heather “helps” by poking my chosen frogs.
She then revealed that that meant about a fifteen minute drive and our plans were swiftly set.
With coffee then trapped within our watertight bodies we drove out to a beautiful park and arboretum and spent the day wandering in the woods and swamps of Connecticut poking frogs with sticks and trying to find a turtle. ANY turtle.
T’was a beautiful day accompanied by the GRUNKing of banjo frogs and the distant cries of all sorts of mysterious birds – and then the falling silence of evening slowly replaced by the rising whine of evening bugs… mosquito bites signaled that it was time to leave and get on with our adventures…
The winding, mountainous roads open up and suddenly you find yourself at the Dream Away Lodge!
It’s hard to describe the Dream Away Lodge. You’re warned over and over again not to use your GPS to get there, but google maps PLUS your GPS does just fine and I’m half-inclined to believe you shouldn’t use your GPS so that you start slipping into this beautiful faerie land a little bit early.
Tiny roads wind through Western Massachusetts, a continuum of Main Streets and Country Roads eventually connect with a dirt path with a simple scrawled “Dream Away” on a faded wood sign. The parking lot is an expanse of dust and grit and is more appropriate to some roadhouse than to the elegant dining experience we’d been led to expect.
But the Dream Away Lodge is all sorts of contradictions all wrapped into one beautiful, sprawling package. Though they call it a lodge and we stayed the night there as part of our performance agreement, I don’t think they regularly let rooms. Though it looks like a road house from the exterior, with weather beaten wood and hand-lettered signs, the food is absolutely delectable. Though it’s in the middle of NOWHERE it has a buzzing community of people surrounding it, both patrons and employees, who radiate a sophisticated, artsy aura. In short, it’s a whole lot of fun.
Dinner was unending, with food leading to coffee and coffee leading to dessert. May I recommend the crème broulee? Oh, and the singing Vietnamese chicken? And whatever it was that Heather had. Hwah. And the cocktails!
The show itself was sparse. We had a big crowd for the first part of the evening but since we were pre-camping season most parties have an hour+ drive home and our first break turned into our finale as most people gathered themselves for the long drive home but the environment was so wonderful and the people that WERE there were so exquisitely friendly it hardly mattered.
And then… we were led to the shed.
Heather finally makes friends with the unboxed beagle. And by “makes friends” I mean the dog stopped running away.
It doesn’t SOUND appealing and indeed, in the dark after having recently seen The Cabin In The Woods there some unease about the environment deep in my soul – but the rough-hewn timbers, the wood fire, the comfortable quilts and the cool night air swiftly got me over any distress.
Until I realized I’d left my toothbrush in the car.
Striding purposefully towards the Saturn under a rapidly clouding night sky with no light but the distant lamps from the shed and the swiftly vanishing stars… clicking the little button on the Saturn keys hoping I was close enough for it to flash its lights… then realizing that half-glimpsed bushes and distant dark shadows preyed on my imagination even more effectively than complete darkness…. I might’ve strode with a bit more purpose than was strictly necessary and hustled my little self back to the ladies snug in our shelter.
Yeah, that’s the interior of the shed. It ain’t too bad – although Heather’s loft position gives her sort of an awkward vantage point over the bathroom. THAT builds trust! It was a long, long day – betwixt the sun and fun and the gig and food, I was exhausted.
