We woke this morning to the sad reality that the good weather that we have enjoyed for so long had finally left us. We were IN the clouds, literally at the bottom of the ski run at the bottom of Mt Okemo. On the way to breakfast we managed to find our way down the fire escape stairs and across the property rather than going the hiking route from our room to the Roundhouse for breakfast. This meant that we could see the resort more clearly and we discovered that there is even a bobsleigh run at this resort... that is some serious winter to be had. We asked Michael when they would be expecting the snows to start falling and he told us that sometimes they fall as early as Columbus weekend, which is next weekend. That is a fairly sobering thought,although there is certainly a chill in the air that had not been there yesterday.
On the bus rotation, we were in the front seat today and so we were on moose spotting detail, but were not feeling very confident because we feel that the Vermont Moose have been warned of our arrival and had no intention of showing themselves. Still, on this very overcast fog bound day, it was great to be in the front seat looking at all the beautiful scenery as we headed down to our first stop of the day, The Apple Barn at Bennington. This is a quaint roadside business that specialises in all things apple and maple. They have everything from apple cider doughnuts to 3 different grades of maple syrup, all available for tasting. Out the front of the store they had the biggest display of pumpkins that we had ever seen, all for sale of course and in amongst them, a blue painted moose, reminiscent of the painted rhinos and elephants that we had seen in England. I guess it was an omen... chances of seeing a moose? Once in a Blue Moose??? It was a fun stop and we would have loved to have taken home some of the apple produce if only we could have got the chutneys and jams home and through quarantine.
Next stop today was the Norman Rockwell Museum, not far out of Stockbridge. Now not being an art connoisseur, Norman Rockwell had not been on the radar. It appears however that he is a very much celebrated American artist who illustrated the front of the The Saturday Post from the early 1900's until his last issue, the memorial issue in 1963 that covered the assassination of John F Kennedy. This gallery is amazing. The illustrative nature of the work was amazing, the details on the facial expression of the characters, especially the children were just phenomenal. The "Four Freedoms" were beautiful works as was the Main Street painting and many others. The lower level of the gallery shows every original cover of every Saturday Post that Rockwell illustrated. Very interesting to see the change in the style of cover, but very much the maintenance of Rockwell's style. It was a pity that the weather was so wet while we were at the museum because the grounds were amazing and they had set up a replica studio exactly the way that Rockwell had them. One thing we certainly did see was the impact that the rain had on the fall leaves. When we arrived at the Museum it was only lightly sprinkling and the tree nearest to our drop off was resplendent in red foliage. By the time we got back 75 mins later about a third of the foliage was on the ground. Nature's fragility in action.
After Rockwell we went into the town of Stockbridge for a lunch break. Such a cute little town. Rockwell's Main Street featured some of the stores in the Main Street of Stockbridge: the general store is actually the one with the Christmas trees in the window and the original Alice's Restaurant was just around the corner. We spent some time in the St Paul's Episcopalian Church which again had fabulous examples of Tiffany stained glass in an otherwise very dark church building. Outside the lawn screamed of Fall as it was covered in a golden carpet of leaves. We mooched around a bit, had Butternut Maple Squash soup for lunch in a little cafe called Once Upon a Time and went for a walk and saw the hugest pumpkin imaginable at the Red Lion Inn, before the call of the bus came again and we responded, heading this time towards our accommodation at the Marriott in Springfield Massachusetts.
Dinner tonight was to be held at a place called the Salem Cross Inn at Bickerford, about a 40 minute ride from the hotel. We felt very sorry for Kevin as the weather conditions by this time had become atrocious and the driving was seriously hazardous, and not a fabulous spectator sport from the front seat of the bus. But we arrived there safely in time to see our dinner, a Prime Rib Roast roasting on an open fire in this restored 18th century farmhouse. It turns out that the farm had been owned by one family from its inception in 1703 until it was bought by the Salem family in 1950. Original designs had been to turn it into a golfing country club, but with a bit of help from a restorer who worked at the nearby Sturbridge Village, the farmhouse and surrounding buildings were converted to a restaurant specialising in old fashioned foods, hence the Prime Rib Roast. The food was lovely especially the apple pie for desert, but of great interest was the irony of the name of the inn. As I said it was bought by the Salem family, but they changed the name of the property to Salem Cross during the renovation process when a restoration historian told them about the special marking on the front door: The Salem Cross. During the Massachusetts witch hunts there was some significant hysteria around about the risk of being possessed or named as a witch. The Salem Cross, a triple lined marking crossed with an X was a sign of faithfulness intended to protect the inhabitants from witchcraft and was a declaration that no witches lived there. Given that Salem Massachusetts was one of the key places for the witch trials, the name of the owning family fitted very nicely with the significance of the newly discovered symbol. Meal over it was back on the bus and a trip home in somewhat improved weather. Here's hoping for tomorrow. End of a great day, regrettably no moose found, but all is well.
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