There was no particular reason to go to Westhampton except that it is half way between Syracuse and Durham. However, it is in a very pretty area in mountains and has many bicycle trails.
On Wednesday the weather cleared up, although it remained cool. It seemed a perfect day to ride our bikes on the rail-trail that threads through Easthampton and beyond.
After taking a walk along the shore of a lake in downtown Easthampton (through the cemetery) we rode the bicycle path through Northampton (home of Smith College), Hadley (home of Hadley College) almost to Amherst (home of Amherst College and UMass). Mt. Holyoke College is nearby. This is a well-educated part of the country!
The bike path is very flat but goes through varied countryside. In Easthampton, we started at the lake and passed by the old factories that would have utilized the rail lines. Many of these buildings were still being utilized as factories into the 1980s and 1990s, but are now being converted to other purposes.
The path then takes you through Northampton, which looks like an interesting and pretty little town from the trail. It was so enticing, in fact, that we returned for dinner and ice cream as well as a stroll around town.
Finally, the path continues over the Connecticut River
(whose width is more impressive when one bikes or walks than from the car) and into Amherst. However, as this was our first long bike ride of the season, we tired before making it quite into town, and decided to turn back while we could still make it under our own power.
Northampton takes its bike racks seriously and most look like sculptures or spell out words.
On Thursday the weather continued to hold and we decided to go into Amherst.
First, however, I wanted a photo of an old orchard near the campground which I have been calling the Haunted Orchard. I have never seen trees in such weird shapes.
To park, we pulled into the Outlook Farm parking lot and then were treated to an unexpected delight.
The Outlook Farm store is very multipurpose. Upon entering, you are in the coffee shop, which smells unbelievably appetizing due to their on-site bakery. They also have a deli, wine shop, farm stand, grocery, and upstairs a very high quality craft shop. I particularly liked these sculptures made from wine corks.
We could not resist and abandoned our diets to eat some delicious pastries for lunch.
We then moved on to Amherst and the Emily Dickinson Museum. The house itself (and her brother’s home on the same property) was classic for its time. However, the story of the publication of her poetry would make a fine soap opera.
She carried on an extensive correspondence with both literary figures and local townspeople. Although she freely shared her poetry in her correspondence, she declined to publish anything during her lifetime. By the time she was 30, she had become extremely reclusive, seeing almost no-one except her sister Lavinia, her sister-in-law and best friend Susan and the household and farm staff. This gave her time to jot down lots of poems and poem fragments, often on scrap paper and often with multiple suggestions for alternative wording which in some cases dramatically changed the meaning of the poem. It also gave her time for voluminous correspondence.
After Emily’s death, Lavinia destroyed Emily’s correspondence (as per her instructions) undertook to edit some volumes of Emily’s poetry. Finding herself unequal to the task, she asked her best friend Margaret Todd to be the editor. Well-known to her, to Austin’s wife Susan and apparently the entire town, Margaret was having an affair with brother Austin. Needless to say, this provoked some drama with Emily’s best friend and confidante Susan.
Besides the family drama, editing was obviously challenging due to the multiple variants of the poems. As well, over a hundred poems are known only because they were in correspondence saved by others. After Margaret gave up the task, much of the work was done by Susan’s surviving daughter. Neither Emily nor Lavinia married and all of Austin’s children died childless, so there are no remaining close descendents.
Robert Frost also spent much of his life living in Amherst and teaching at Amherst College (many years later) so Amherst is a kind of literary Mecca.
Downtown Amherst is smaller than Northampton, but still pleasant. Amherst College is right downtown on a thilltop with wonderful views over the mountains.
We headed back to the RV for dinner. Tomorrow we head to Durham NH for our niece’s graduation and family time.
The drive from the Shenandoah Valley to State College on Hwy 99 takes you through some of the prettiest scenery in the NE – definitely equal to the more famous Blue Ridge and Skyline Drive in my opinion – especially the stretch from Everett to State College, which is just under Bald Eagle Ridge. (The ridge might have a different name south of Tyrone.)
We decided to get an early start so we could go to the house to unload perishables and items that might suffer in the cold before putting the RV in its resting place. Here is part of the result of the first day of unpacking.
As well, we picked up our mail – essentially everything that arrived from September through Dec. 15.
Then it was back to the storage place where we backed the RV into a mulch bin, where it is partially protected from the weather.
As well, a connector for the the mud guard which Chuck had so carefully installed in Tucson snapped. So, as usual, we have some damage to fix – although these problems are our fault.
A unique feature of the cavern in the Stalagpipe Organ. This is an xylophone, whose keys are stalactites. It is controlled by this “organ”, but the keys activate the little hammers as can be seen in the center of the picture below. 
It is an amazing instrument, but I do worry that the constant vibration of the formation will lead to crystal fatigue and ultimately damage to the cave.
The toy museum has displays of toys from America’s past, with some discussion of how the toy evolved. e.g. doll heads used to be made of bisque (a type of ceramic) so their hair used to be either painted on or wigs. Once plastic heads were developed, synthetic hair could be “rooted” in the scalp. 
On the other hand “talking” dolls were available in 1890. The centerpiece of the display was a large model train set, which was well-done but less interesting to me. However, there was also a model train set (right) that had been entirely hand-crafted by a pediatrician out of balsa wood which I found very interesting.
The car museum had the best collection of antique vehicles we have yet seen, including a horse drawn fire truck with a steam-powered water pump (left) and many unique carriages, coaches, sledges, carts and buggies. The stage cage below could hold 20 passengers + luggage (although most of the passengers sat on the outside at roof level. This photo also shows a child’s cart which was pulled by two goats (the small white vehicle) and a woman pushing a vintage baby carriage. The museum also had a fine collection of very old luxury cars, many with wooden chassis and leather and brass trim and car motors. Finally, it had a lot of interesting miscellanea.
The museum also had a small display of very old toys and of quilts. I liked this cabinet for embroidery and quilting thread that was used for store display.
The main building houses a display of department store animated figures. When I was a child, the big department stores in Toronto were Eatons and Simpsons. 
They were on opposite corners of two of the downtown streets, Yonge and Queen. Every Christmas, after the Santa Claus parade, they would convert their street-side display windows to large animated displays of fairy-tales, nursery rhymes or children’s songs. 
We always made a special trip downtown to see these displays. The “Main Street of Yesteryear” exhibit was a small selection of these animations, including Cinderella, a huge 3-ring circus that was once a Macy’s display, a castle, and more. As for the displays in Toronto – Simpsons and Eatons are no more, and the street-level shops have been replaced by the Eaton Centre, which is mostly underground (and much warmer at Christmas).
The views from both Shenandoah and Luray Valleys is lovely. This is the ridge and valley system, and the mountain ridges go on for miles. Here is the view looking towards the campground.
It snowed all morning. The snow stuck to the trees and grass, making the scene very wintery and lovely. Since the daytime temperatures were in the mid 30s, we were not too worried about road conditions. However, laundry and winterizing took most of the daylight hours and so we stayed tucked in to the RV.
By taking a wrong turn, we ended up back downtown beside the aquarium and decided to have lunch there. We ended up eating at the Mellow Mushroom, a pizza chain with an Alice in Wonderland theme. The awnings over Chuck’s head are giant Coke bottle caps. We liked the seasonings on our pizza, but found it a bit too greasy and cheesy to make our “great pizza” list. (Did I mention the great pizza in Tucson?)
Never mind the cold windy weather – Chattanoogans clearly love to climb outside. 
In fact, besides the climb up the outside of the parking garage, we discovered that one of the pillars of the Walnut Street Bridge has been made into a climbing well. But don’t come to Chattanooga expecting to climb the bridge just any day. The bridge climb is special event only.
We then drove across to the other side of the river, which we had not done on our previous visit. It also has a bit of a shopping district, as well as a river walk. Perhaps it is the party or the musical side of town. In any case, embedded into the sidewalk are several dance lessons, like this one for the waltz. If you know an appropriate tune, you can learn to dance right there on the street!
Chattanooga was an important rail junction for almost a century starting in 1850. It was an important north/south connector, and because of this played an important (and to me confusing) part in the Civil War. In any case, after the war there was a rapid expansion of the rail lines and Chattanooga’s role as a rail hub. The current Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel is the 3rd reincarnation of the station and was built in 1909. Its life as a train station ended in 1970, and in 1973 it reopened as a hotel.. The station itself, which is large and ornate in the style of the day, is a conference center with hotels, bars and open space. The rail tracks into the station are filled with old passenger cars that have been converted into the hotel rooms. These are open only to guests, but we were intrigued and would like to stay there some time. There is also a more conventional wing that looks like a motel. Finally, where the main platform would have been, there is a long formal rose garden (although December is not the right month to enjoy roses in Chattanooga). A temporary and very well-populated ice skating rink had been set up between the platform and the station.
We set off on another cool and cloudy day. After the dry heat of the southwest, it seems remarkable to see ponds, creeks and mixed conifer and deciduous forest. In fact, this part of Louisiana looks much like the NE, except that the winter season is not as far advanced (by which I mean that some of the deciduous trees still have green or yellow leaves).
Since we had only the next day to see Shreveport, we decided to forego any “attractions” and head straight downtown. The Red River runs through downtown Shreveport and separates it from the town of Bossier. Texas St. is the main street of Shreveport, and the Texas St. Bridge is an old iron bridge that links the two cities. It can be walked, but we actually walked under it and drove over it.
The first building we noticed entering Shreveport is this old synagogue. It is clearly no longer being used, and it is not clear what its fate will be. According to a historic marker, it has 10 beautiful stained glass windows, which still seem to be intact. However, most of the building is boarded up and the view through a lower window showed an interior full of garbage. There was also no hint of where the congregation currently resides.
The main street is a typical main street with shops, restaurants and a few government buildings, including the large “parish” (i.e. county) courthouse. However, just off the main street things do not look so rosy. Most of the buildings are boarded up and falling down. The exception is the Strand Theatre, which has some interesting architecture and lots of billboards for upcoming events. The neighborhood looks rather scary, though, and I am not sure how I would feel about being there at night.
We walked down Texas St. to the start of the bridge, and then continued below the bridge into the tourist district. Here there are a lot of casinos and restaurants. As you reach the river, there is a path which takes you along the river bank and past the Aquarium, Space Museum and Science Museum, as well as some small gardens.
There were quite a few floral and leaf motifs, which might be related to the fact that Shreveport is home to a major rose breeder. The development quickly peters out, however, so we decided to drive across the bridge and visit Bossier.