Saturday, October 9, 2010

Day 14: Drive to Succeed (or Life in the Slow Lane)

I waited till the weekend for this challenge since about the farthest I drive during the week is a couple of miles downtown. And since our previous weekend’s getaway plans had been kaboshed by Mother Nature, I was hoping that we’d have a chance to sneak off for a little R&R in honor of Christopher Columbus. I was not disappointed.
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Hiking has been one of my favorite things to do ever since my husband and I started dating back in 1982. He was the one who introduced me to the concept of doing something with my feet other than walking rapidly through the streets of New York City to catch the express bus. For a girl from Brooklyn, the great outdoors offered a whole new world that I’d rarely seen before.

Add in the geocaching hobby, which we’d started in 2002, and we had a recipe for outdoor adventure in just about any season.

On Thursday, once we were sure the weather was going to cooperate, we looked for some likely places to choose as our destination. After considering our usual New Hampshire location and finding only overpriced hotels left available, we turned our sights nearer to home and discovered a relatively close (3 hours) and relatively inexpensive hotel in the Berkshires, right at the corner where Massachusetts, Vermont and New York meet. Better still, there was a power trail of geocaches on one of the most scenic hiking trails. Perfect!

The goal was to leave at noon on Friday, and we were only 15 minutes late. (Not that I’m counting, of course.) Oreo looked at us with those big black eyes and we had a momentary pang of guilt as we shut the door behind us. Then it was time to hit the road!

The trip to Williamstown, Mass. was mostly along country roads, much to our surprise … and delight. Interrupted only briefly by the Mass Pike, we went from just a few trees changing color in our part of Connecticut to the colorful but muted hues of the foliage in the Berkshires in just over two hours. We were even able to find some fairly decent radio stations … always a plus!

Of course we participated in our favorite sport/hobby/obsession once we got within shouting range of our destination. We picked up four geocaches: one at a town park, one along the side of the road, one in what passed for a “beach” in summer but was obviously drained in winter, and one overlooking a beautiful pond. Two out of the four were in unique, picturesque locations we never would have seen if not for geocaching – which is the main reason we enjoy it so much!

At the end of our drive was Williamstown – a place with an archetypal New England college feel. (It is home to the eponymous Williams College.) So much so that a number of movies have been filmed here, most notably “The Human Stain” (2002) and “A Change of Seasons” (1980). At our destination – the Magnuson Hotel, a.k.a. the hotel time forgot – the third millennium met the 1970s. Quirky and retro, it boasted high-speed wireless Internet while still featuring stainless steel bottle openers on the wall and pull-chain light fixtures. But it was clean and comfy, which is all that mattered.

After a satisfying dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, we were ready to rest up before hitting the trail in the morning. A very successful drive and a pretty awesome destination!

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