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Published: September 24th 2023
Shaftesbury 1
The ‘closed’ Covered Bridge Antiques store. After the majestic beauty of Mount Equinox, we headed south for a very short hop of about 50 miles into The Berkshires, a highland region, back in Massachusetts. We will be staying at a place called The Vacation Village in the Berkshires, near a small hamlet called Hancock (on the Massachusetts/New York State border and a few miles south of the main town in the area, called Williamstown. Effectively, we will be in the very north-western corner of Massachusetts and about as far as you can get from Boston, whilst still being in the same State.
This drive should be a doddle, especially in the beautiful weather, giving us time to explore a couple of places on the way and so we pulled off the freeway, intending to visit the town of Bennington, but when we reached a T junction, a road sign claimed that the historic town of Shaftesbury was a few miles in the opposite direction; Steve decided that this might be worth a small detour. Well, after driving a good few miles and following signs for 'Shatesbury Center', the best we came across was a Covered Bridge (which had been repurposed as an antiques shop....and was closed!!)
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The Chocolate Barn. and a place called the Chocolate Barn selling all things chocolate. We grabbed an ice cream there and purchased some milk chocolate 'break up' (basically, big slabs of chocolate broken up into chunks) and asked the lady serving us where the centre of the town was and she said 'well, this is pretty much it!!'. What was 'historic' about Shaftesbury, we have no idea!
As for Bennington, this was a different kettle of fish altogether. I was aware that there is a large obelisk (a bit like a giant Cleopatra's Needle) that dominates the town and which is a memorial to the Battle of Bennington in August 1777, between the British forces (and their allies) and the American Revolutionaries. The conflict actually took place a few miles away, but the reason for the battle was the British Forces trying to capture an American supply dump in Bennington and the memorial marks the spot where the supply dump was located. The American forces led by General John Stark (he who came up with the 'Live free or die' slogan used by the state of New Hampshire and mentioned in an earlier blog), defeated the British forces, saved the supply dump,
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The memorial dominates the town. with the victory considered a major turning point in the Revolutonary War. I was quite keen to have a look at this memorial and although I think the rest of the Famous Four had their own form of 'battle fatigue' and were historied out (!!), I convinced them to drive round to see it and, I'm pleased to say that we all thought it very impressive. The memorial is 306 feet high, was completed in 1889 and has a lift inside which reaches a viewing platform at around 200 feet. There is a very modest charge of $8 to go up inside, but this was simply a step too far for the other three and so off I trotted on my ownsome! It was well worth the trip; I had a lovely chat with the lift operator and the views at the top were brilliant, enabling me to see the peak of Mount Equinox (where we were this morning), looking north, together with the peak of Mount Greylock (where we plan to be tomorrow), looking south.
After Bennington, we cracked on to our final destination, reaching the Vacation Village around 2 pm and although we couldn't officially check in
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The memorial close up. until four, our rooms were ready, which was great. The resort is pretty big and is primarily (although not only) a ski resort for the Jiminy Peak skiing area. I think that most of the rooms are time-share units and whilst there is a central reception area with the usual facilities, together with both an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, there are no restaurant facilities on site (which we knew), but various restaurants accessible a short drive away. The rooms are massive and are effectively apartments, with full kitchen, lounge , huge bedroom and equally huge en-suite. I suspect most people self-cater in the apartments, which we, ourselves, largely did as well.We have three nights here, principally for a chance to relax after the full on whirlwind of the last 10 days or so and I don't propose giving a blow by blow account of this time, which would be even more boring than usual. Instead, I propose letting you have a few highlights (and low lights), as follows:
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Mount Greylock- the highest peak in Massachusetts at 3500 feet was just down the road from where we were staying and get this, the 8 mile road up to
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Mount Equinox looking north. the summit is toll free! Mandy and I have actually been here once before, about 10 years ago, with cousins Jill and Ed, but the cloud cover was so low back then, it was a complete white out and we couldn't see anything worthwhile. So, it was great to be able to come back and see it again in absolutely perfect weather (although, to be fair, Mandy was seeing it for the first time, because she couldn't remember it from the previous occasion!!). Once again the views are amazing and in addition, there is quite a special tower at the top (a memorial to the fallen of World War 1), built in 1932 and 93 feet high, it has a beacon on top with the 'most powerful light in Massachusetts', visible for 70 miles. Due to the punishing weather at the summit, the tower had to be condemned in the 1960s, was rebuilt in 1975 and was also significantly refurbished between 2013 and 2017. Mount Greylock also has the famous Appalachian Trail (a 2100 mile hiking trail running from northern Maine to Georgia) carving its way up and over the mountain!
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Pittsfield- we drove the 20 miles or so the
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Mount Greylock looking south. town of Pittsfield, but to be honest, probably wished that we hadn't bothered. There was no real centre of any interest to stop and look around (at least, nothing that we could find), although we did notice on the map that there was a large shopping mall on the edge of town that might be worth a visit. Well, we found it ok and it certainly was large, but.......it was like a ghost town! The vast majority of the shops had closed down, the massive car parks were almost entirely empty and there were weeds and graffiti everywhere. In fact, the only shop open was a very large Target, where we did manage to pick up a few gifts and also discovered that the rest of the Mall had simply suffered economic decline and disappeared. With one or two exceptions, the absence of any variety of shops (other than coffee shops, restaurants and souvenir shops) in the centre of towns was a common theme throughout this trip and probably mirrors a similar decline of the high street seen in the UK, coupled with the impact of the cost of living crisis seen across the western world.
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Williamstown- this was definitely
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General John Stark. the most attractive town in the area, with lots of lovely buildings associated and with its status as a big college town, with lots of students about giving the place a very vibrant feel. Although there were a few tourusty gift shops and plenty of eateries, even here the absence of any major shopping area was really quite marked. We did enjoy a delicious ice cream here too.
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Dining- we did eat in our apartments a bit (especially breakfast cooked by Steve and myself and eaten on our balcony in the sunshine), but also had a couple of really good meals out, firstly at the Lakeside Bar and Grill in Lanesborough, which did some really good seafood, in a lovely setting by Lake Pontoosuc. On our first night, we also dived into a diner called Bob's Country Kitchen, when we were struggling to find somewhere open. This didn't even get close to fine dining, but it was full of locals and was really good value, comfort food. My spaghetti and meatballs was really very nice and was as cheap as chips........comparatively speaking!
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Lake Onota - this smaller lake, also in Lanesborough, was very pretty, with a nice walkway around the
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The memorial tower…… edge. To be honest, I didn't manage to walk very far because I was suffering from a stinking cold at the time, so I just sat and took in the view (with Mandy for company), while Steve and Lily walked off lunch!
Our stay at the Vacation Village did exactly as we had hoped, giving us the chance to relax a bit and recharge the batteries after the full on nature of the trip to this point. The setting was very peaceful (other than a guy in a cherry picker repairing the roof while we were having breakfast one morning, although to be fair, it was a late breakfast!!), and once again, we would be happy to recommend this place.
We left the Vacation Village at 9.30 on Saturday morning and were on the road for our journey back to Boston and our flight home tonight at 7.20 pm. The direct route is about 160 miles straight across Massachusetts, but you must know us by now, there will always be an alternative and we have decided to detour via Plymouth. Steve in particular was very keen to see the Mayflower and especialy, Plymouth Rock, the landing spot
of the Mayflower and the Pilgrim Fathers who established the first colony in, what was to become known as, New England.
This detour involved a slightly longer journey of 190 miles to get to Plymouth and then a further 40 miles to reach the airport in Boston. The weather today was distinctly cooler, with very overcast skies and by the time we were nearing Plymouth, guess what........it was pouring down again!! We found the harbour area easily enough and remarkably, parked up even easier, very close to the replica of the Mayflower and the nearby Plymouth Rock. Whilst there is absolutely no doubt that the Mayflower sailed into Plymouth Harbour and the Pilgrims came ashore in what is now known as Plymouth, there is no evidence whatsoever that they first set foot on what is now called Plymouth Rock, with the first documented reference to the Rock apparently being some 120 years later. However, it is a good story I suppose and this pretty unremarkable and quite small lump of rock is venerated in the States and now sits under a glass canopy, inside a sort of pillared mausoleum! After taking the mandatory snaps, we drove the short distance
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….and again. This time including Mandy and a contestant from the Masked Singer!! to see the National Monument to the Forefatherd, erected in 1889 and inscribed with the names of all the passengers on The Mayflower. Quite impressive, but a quick picture and we were on our way again. We grabbed some brunch at a nearby restaurant, with Lily going for a chicken sandwich (thinking that it wouldn't be too big), although it turned out to be absolutely huge, with the biggest portion of French Fries that I think I have ever seen on a plate!!
It was then back on the road for the final leg of our adventure, the short hop to Boston, where we were aiming to be by around 4 pm. We did have a few traffic delays on the way and the weather was pretty awful, but we arrived on time, dropped Mandy & Lily and the luggage at the terminal, while Steve and I fought our way back through the traffic to the Rental Car Center and the return of our 'trusty steed'. It was only as we were approaching the SIXT return area that we realised we had forgotten to fill up the car with fuel, but it was too late now and we would
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That Appalachian Trail sure is tough!! just have to pay the SIXT price for fuel, whatever that may be!! A shuttle bus took us back to the terminal and after the usual scrum of bag drop and security, we reached our gate and could draw breath!
Boarding was quite interesting in that they had a new biometric check at the gate before we could board, a bit like the E-Gates at UK Immigration. Trouble was, this system was taking so long, that in the end they had to resort to good, old-fashioned, manual checks by the gate staff to get everyone on board in time! As it happens, they needn't have worried! In a similar fashion to when we left Heathrow, the pilot proudly announced that our flight time would be only five and a half hours due to the strong jet stream and whilst we would be taxiing for quite some time to get to the far end of the airport (due to construction work taking place), we should still land at Heathrow on time. We did indeed taxi for absolutely ages only to be told, when got to our take off position, that 'cargo control' had advised the pilot that the plane was
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A view from the top….. overloaded at the back of the cargo hold. We had to return to our gate, have some of the cargo moved and then do another long taxi, before we finally took off, one hour forty minutes late and after an uneventful flight, we arrived about three quarters of an hour late!
This has been another excellent adventure for the Famous Four and as always, we have had some great laughs, some of which couldn't possibly be printed in this blog and a huge thank you to Steve & Lily for helping Mandy and I make more great memories on this trip. We love you guys. We have seen pretty much all the amazing places that we had hoped to see, with the only disappointment being the lack of Autumn colours, although the later in the Fall that one goes on this sort of trip, the greater the risk of poorer weather to spoil the views in any event! We have run the gauntlet of a hurricane close up (hopefully for the last time), been in five separate states in two weeks and seen masses of history, close up. Even though we actually got quite a good rate of exchange
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…..and another….. for our dollars, we knew that the days of bargain purchases on trips to the States are long gone, but even so, we were still shocked by the massive increases in prices across the board since we were last in the US back in 2019. The only saving grace is that although fuel prices are a lot higher than they used to be, they are still only about half the cost they are back home!
So, our 'Two Weeks in New England' are now over and here's looking forward to the next adventure!
But wait, of course there has to be a final Countdown Conundrum and fittingly this one is:
HATER FILMS GRIP And the clue is:
First footers!
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