Another Early Return

We'd originally thought that we might take a ride today, maybe back to Williamstown and North Adams, but it wasn't to be.

It rained pretty heavily overnight and the forecast was for clearing with a chance of showers. It was cloudy in the morning and the clouds were racing over Savoy Mountain. After breakfast and a short walk down to the pond, we thought we'd give the ride a try. I opened the trailer and pulled out my motorcycle. As I was putting down the kickstand, it started to rain. We gave up.

I reloaded my bike onto the trailer and we started home. Within about 50 miles, of course, the sky was blue and the day was perfect riding weather.

We did make a stop on the way home at the Tower Hill Botanic Gardens in Boylston. Ellen had only been there in the winter attending a conference when she was on the Cohasset Conservation Trust and had always wanted to see it in the summer. It was more or less on the way, so we gave it a stop. It was definitely worth the detour.

The gardens were great, particularly the vegetable garden. I suggested that we could just tear up the entire front lawn and make a similar one. Ellen wasn't convinced—she knew who would have to do the maintenance. The other highlight was the apple orchard. They must have a hundred varieties of heirloom apples. They have two orchards. The lower one are early ripening apples and upper one contains late ripening varieties. According to a worker in the orchards, the earliest are already ripe and the latest ripen in December. Hmmm, about 100 varieties, six months, could you have a different apple every other day?

While we just took enough time to see a few highlights, there is much of the property that we didn't see...an excuse to return. From there it was off to I-495 and the Mass Pike and home by late afternoon.

It wasn't one of our more successful trips. We probably would have spent and seen as much if we'd taken the Subaru up to Woodstock and spent three nights at the Woodstock Inn. But at least Speedy didn't break down and the solar panel worked when it was sunny (which wasn't often enough).