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Published: October 7th 2020
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The Berkshires are beautiful. So many little lakes and streams surrounded by dense forests of grey birch, paper birch, yellow birch, sugar maple, beech, red oak and others . The road dips south into Connecticut, then goes north again into Massachusetts. Who is to tell? The roads and the trees are the same. As with other states in the NE, I drove through Canaan town and valley. Evidence of beaver working the forests around the lakes was exciting, though I didn't see any. The hills got higher and rockier, and the road became more difficult.
Deep in the hills I came upon a pristine pond. I was on the verge of shooting past when I was drawn to what looked like an old bed that showed at the waters edge. I stopped and took a photo, remembering the song from British comedians Flanders and Swann, which my father used to play for us as we were growing up:
When you're walking in the country
Far from villages or towns,
When you're seven miles from nowhere and beyond,
In some dark deserted forest
Or a hollow of the Downs,
You may come across a lonely pool, or pond.
And you'll
always find a big, brass, broken bedstead by the bank:
There's one in every loch or mere or fen.
Don't think it's there by accident,
It's us you have to thank:
The Society of British Bedstead Men.
The day's run finished just over the border in Vermont. I had booked into the Readsboro hotel. Turns out the hotel is the life and soul of this little town on a Saturday night. Most patrons drove up in their ATV's. I was the only motorcycle. With one of the lowest case counts in the country, they pay nominal attention to Covid, but it wears off as the night goes on. Was met at the door by the self styled town greeter and drunk, who encouraged me to doff my mask while keeping my distance. He introduced me to the barmaid and the owners of the hotel and would have gone on, but his best buddies arrived so I was forgotten. Had a great meal, politely distant from the other diners. I had left Virginia with temperatures in the 80's. That night there was frost outside. The room had no heating and I froze, covering myself with towels and all
my clothing to survive. I was moving North.
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