Hello everyone! We apologize for not getting a blog up until now. Our service in this area isn't the best, and the WiFis at the hotels aren't working great until now. But let's go back to Friday. Lila and I woke up in Lee, Massachusetts and we continued our Journey through the bottom of the Berkshire County. We were hoping to complete all of the Berkshire towns along with all of the Hampden towns in one day. Our first town of the day was Tyringham. One of the most interesting things we have seen on this journey so far has been in this town. We were heading down a long wooded side road, and out of nowhere is a house that looks like it's made out of a giant tree, or mushroom. It's called Tyringham's Gingerbread House, and it was originally a house designed by Sir Henry Hudson Kitson in the 1920's. You can view a photo of in our Instagram tab (which I will also include in the blog). We continued through the bottom of the Berkshire and Hampden counties on what seemed to be never ending roads. Some town halls in towns like Mount Washington, New Marlborough, and Tolland, pretty much only had one road in that would lead to the town hall. Some of these towns took about 45 minutes just to get in and out of because we had to head back on the same road we came in on! Needless to say our goal of finishing both counties in one day was way out of reach. We do enjoy stopping along some of these roads when we see interesting things. In Sheffield we traveled along a road that had at least fifteen antique stores. If you have ever been to Essex, MA, it was similar to this. A few towns over in Sandisfield we stopped at the Tolland State Park. We have noticed that a lot of long roads out here have beautiful rivers flowing alongside (pictured below). It almost reminds us of what you would see in the White Mountains of NH. We walked along some of the rocks in Sandisfield, and out of nowhere popped this creature. It ran down the rocks, jumped into the water and started swimming cross stream. It looked just like an otter, but we thought that was impossible! Lila was convinced it was one. We started looking it up on our phones, and found many articles that say river otters are making a huge comeback in Massachusetts. This one was only about a foot long, so it must have been a baby. But it was very cool to see. We continued on through the towns, and once the flash started going off on the camera, around 7:30, we decided to call it a night and took our last photos for the day in Agawam. We ended up staying over night in West Springfield and continued there the next day....
Day 3 - Day three was a breeze compared to day 2. All of the towns to the east of Springfield are much smaller and civilized. It was near impossible to find a gas station or even a Dunkin Donuts in the bottom towns of western Hampden and the Berkshire County. We found a Starbucks in Springfield where we stayed for about an hour and uploaded all of the town photos to our website. We finished eastern Hampden, with the only delay being some traffic in Brimfield due to the antique market that was going on. It seemed like a cool place to stop, with thousands of different vendors, but we know we would have spent hours there. And so we continued up into Hampshire County. Although the radio stations kept warning us of severe thunderstorms in the area, we seemed to avoid them all day. We did go through a few little showers, but nothing that really hindered our progress. The sun was starting to set and we took our last photo in South Hadley. We were checking all sorts of hotel rates in the Amherst/Northampton area, which all were extremely high due to it being Saturday night and the location. All of a sudden we got caught in one of the severe storms they were warning about all day (see the picture below!). We quickly called a few of the hotels we stayed near in West Springfield, found a good rate, and got there as quickly as possible, dodging the tremendous amounts of lightning. It was funny to think that we were driving for 10 hours throughout the day, yet we ended up just a few towns away from where we were the night before, and stayed there again.
Today, Sunday, we have a slightly different plan. And as sad as Lila and I are that we have to miss the first Patriots game of the season, we must continue on!! We have been welcomed by some amazing people in Greenfield in the Franklin County when we visit. They have some special plans for us, which were set up for Sunday. Our route for today is to head up to Franklin County, do the eastern most towns, and end in Greenfield around 4:30. Ann Hamilton, who is the President of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce has been in touch with us for a few days, and has kindly set up some things for us when we get there. She has also graciously set up for us a stay in the House on the Hill Bed and Breakfast in Greenfield. The owners are Donna and Alain, and we absolutely can't wait to meet them.
We would like that thank everyone who has reached out to us throughout our journey. We will continue to post as often as we can about where we are and what we are doing.
Thanks again,
Ross and Lila
Day 3 - Day three was a breeze compared to day 2. All of the towns to the east of Springfield are much smaller and civilized. It was near impossible to find a gas station or even a Dunkin Donuts in the bottom towns of western Hampden and the Berkshire County. We found a Starbucks in Springfield where we stayed for about an hour and uploaded all of the town photos to our website. We finished eastern Hampden, with the only delay being some traffic in Brimfield due to the antique market that was going on. It seemed like a cool place to stop, with thousands of different vendors, but we know we would have spent hours there. And so we continued up into Hampshire County. Although the radio stations kept warning us of severe thunderstorms in the area, we seemed to avoid them all day. We did go through a few little showers, but nothing that really hindered our progress. The sun was starting to set and we took our last photo in South Hadley. We were checking all sorts of hotel rates in the Amherst/Northampton area, which all were extremely high due to it being Saturday night and the location. All of a sudden we got caught in one of the severe storms they were warning about all day (see the picture below!). We quickly called a few of the hotels we stayed near in West Springfield, found a good rate, and got there as quickly as possible, dodging the tremendous amounts of lightning. It was funny to think that we were driving for 10 hours throughout the day, yet we ended up just a few towns away from where we were the night before, and stayed there again.
Today, Sunday, we have a slightly different plan. And as sad as Lila and I are that we have to miss the first Patriots game of the season, we must continue on!! We have been welcomed by some amazing people in Greenfield in the Franklin County when we visit. They have some special plans for us, which were set up for Sunday. Our route for today is to head up to Franklin County, do the eastern most towns, and end in Greenfield around 4:30. Ann Hamilton, who is the President of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce has been in touch with us for a few days, and has kindly set up some things for us when we get there. She has also graciously set up for us a stay in the House on the Hill Bed and Breakfast in Greenfield. The owners are Donna and Alain, and we absolutely can't wait to meet them.
We would like that thank everyone who has reached out to us throughout our journey. We will continue to post as often as we can about where we are and what we are doing.
Thanks again,
Ross and Lila
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