Carol and I got back last night from a week touring New England. We toured along the Finger Lakes and the Mohawk Trail in New York. Went through Holyoke and Springfield Massachusetts. And on down to Plymouth Mass. Plymouth Rock, what is left of it after rough handling, is there.
A replica of he Mayflower is too. 102 people sailed on that, along with a lot of livestock to be either eaten along the way, or bred for herds once they landed. Family groups were on wooden slat bunks, stacked a couple to three feet apart, stacked three to four deep. A curtain provided "privacy". Some changes since I was a kid. We were taught that the Pilgrims were a mix of malcontent religious folks (the word zealot wasn't mentioned, but tiptoed all around), and dregs of debtors prison. In other words, the English were flushing their social toilet, and these less than desirable folks were the effluent. Well, in Plymouth, today's story is that they were downtrodden worshipers of the Lord, and the rest of the passengers were business partners investing a in a new company.
South of Plymouth is a few acres called the "Plimouth Plantation". Here are replicas of an Indian family homestead (only part of a village). It is manned by descendants of original Indians. They explain a lot about the life and times of Indians in the 1600's. Also there, is a Pilgrim village. Frankly, the Indians had better housing, I thought.
On Tuesday, we rode the train into Boston and walked the Freedom Trail. This is a path around and through Boston touching on such items as Old North Church, Paul Revere's home, Bunker Hill, Old Ironsides (the good ship Constitution.), and the site of the "Boston Massacre" where some riled citizens threw stones at British soldiers holding loaded guns. Not the brightest thing in the world to be doing, ehh?
Next, we went North through Vermont and back into New York again. I found New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont so heavily wooded it would be hard to hang a hammock. Rolling (what they call mountains, what folks in the Sierra's call foot hills) hills (some 1,000-2,000 feet above the valley floor) showed exposed granite, sandstone, layered limestone, gneiss, and other rocks in many places. I would love to fly over this entire area in the fall when leaves are changing color.
Whilst in Vermont, we visited the Cabot Cheese factory in Cabot. They make world award winning cheeses, and their cheddar is the best. We also visited Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream factory, and I ran a quality control check for them. We also went through Robert Frosts home town; I waved just in case he was looking. Another stop was the Vermont Country store where they sell many items from the 50's and 60's. I brought home a Bit-o-Honey candy bar.
We traveled west over the northern tip of Lake Champlain, and reentered Canada a hundred or more miles SW'ly of there. Before we hit Toronto, we go north to 407, the electronic toll road where traffic is light, Driving Route 401 through Toronto is enough to drive a rock crazy.
The big upshot of the trip for me was seeing the Eastern Woodlands in those states. Michigan has a lot of woods, but many are cleared off for farming. In Vermont, they could be grazing critters on even small pastures, keeping one or two for the freezer, and selling off one or two. Nope.
A replica of he Mayflower is too. 102 people sailed on that, along with a lot of livestock to be either eaten along the way, or bred for herds once they landed. Family groups were on wooden slat bunks, stacked a couple to three feet apart, stacked three to four deep. A curtain provided "privacy". Some changes since I was a kid. We were taught that the Pilgrims were a mix of malcontent religious folks (the word zealot wasn't mentioned, but tiptoed all around), and dregs of debtors prison. In other words, the English were flushing their social toilet, and these less than desirable folks were the effluent. Well, in Plymouth, today's story is that they were downtrodden worshipers of the Lord, and the rest of the passengers were business partners investing a in a new company.
South of Plymouth is a few acres called the "Plimouth Plantation". Here are replicas of an Indian family homestead (only part of a village). It is manned by descendants of original Indians. They explain a lot about the life and times of Indians in the 1600's. Also there, is a Pilgrim village. Frankly, the Indians had better housing, I thought.
On Tuesday, we rode the train into Boston and walked the Freedom Trail. This is a path around and through Boston touching on such items as Old North Church, Paul Revere's home, Bunker Hill, Old Ironsides (the good ship Constitution.), and the site of the "Boston Massacre" where some riled citizens threw stones at British soldiers holding loaded guns. Not the brightest thing in the world to be doing, ehh?
Next, we went North through Vermont and back into New York again. I found New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont so heavily wooded it would be hard to hang a hammock. Rolling (what they call mountains, what folks in the Sierra's call foot hills) hills (some 1,000-2,000 feet above the valley floor) showed exposed granite, sandstone, layered limestone, gneiss, and other rocks in many places. I would love to fly over this entire area in the fall when leaves are changing color.
Whilst in Vermont, we visited the Cabot Cheese factory in Cabot. They make world award winning cheeses, and their cheddar is the best. We also visited Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream factory, and I ran a quality control check for them. We also went through Robert Frosts home town; I waved just in case he was looking. Another stop was the Vermont Country store where they sell many items from the 50's and 60's. I brought home a Bit-o-Honey candy bar.
We traveled west over the northern tip of Lake Champlain, and reentered Canada a hundred or more miles SW'ly of there. Before we hit Toronto, we go north to 407, the electronic toll road where traffic is light, Driving Route 401 through Toronto is enough to drive a rock crazy.
The big upshot of the trip for me was seeing the Eastern Woodlands in those states. Michigan has a lot of woods, but many are cleared off for farming. In Vermont, they could be grazing critters on even small pastures, keeping one or two for the freezer, and selling off one or two. Nope.
