Berkshires to Brattleboro

The route from October Mountain State Park to our next campsite in southeastern Vermont takes us to Mount Greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts at 3,489 feet .

Its peak is located in the northwest corner of the state in the western part of the town of Adams (near its border with Williamstown) in Berkshire County. Although geologically part of the Taconic Mountains, most folks associate Mount Greylock's with its proximity to the Berkshire Hills to the east.

The mountain is known for its expansive vistas of five states and the only taiga-boreal forest in the state.

A seasonal automobile road (open annually from late May through November 1) climbs to the summit, where the iconic 93-foot-high lighthouse-like Massachusetts Veterans War Memorial Tower dominates the scene. What a beaut!

A network of hiking trails criss-cross the mountain, including the 2,179-mile  Appalachian Trail. Mount Greylock State Reservation was created in 1898 as Massachusetts' first public land for the purpose of forest preservation.

As we make our descent, we spy the town of Adams nestled in the valley stretching below us.

'Rhoda' (aka GPS) tells us to continue down, down, down the road...until she takes us, you guessed it to a dead-end parking lot!  Grrr,' Rhoda', I don't like it one bit when you do this to us!  Thankfully, there is no traffic and plenty of room to turn around.  I hop out, headphones snugly in place, ten-four!  Mike quickly turns the rig around and we are on our way.

The drive is gorgeous, winding roads take us through lush forests and rolling hills.  As we enter Vermont, we start imagining how the fall foliage will dominate the landscape when we return in September!  

Rounding another curve, we meet a couple of motorcyclists riding in the opposite direction, enjoying the lovely afternoon!  In the blink of an eye, the first rider hits a patch of loose gravel and takes a bad spill into the ditch.  Mike quickly brings our rig to a halt to check on his condition.  Dusting himself off as he regains his composure, he assures us he is fine.  We ask if he needs any first aid, but he declines.  I notice blood streaming down his right forearm, so I grab a new package of anti-bacterial Wet-Wipes from the glove compartment and Mike tosses them to him.   He seems okay, so we continue on.

Mile after mile of roads winding through hills until we come to Hogback Mountain overlook and its glorious panoramic 100 mile view! The Hogback Mountain Scenic Overlook Gift Shop has been a Vermont fixture since 1936, featuring Vermont foods including maple syrup and cheese.

On the approach to Brattleboro, we are soon overtaken by VROOM, VROOOM, VROOOOMING Hell's Angels motorcyclists!

Cool!

The Deerfield Valley Blueberry Festival sounds inviting, so we make the 20 mile drive to Wilmington!  A banner stretched across Main Street announces that this is the first day of the festival!  We drive and drive and drive some more, a flea market here, a few Antique cars there, but not a blueberry in sight!  Oh, well, the Snow Valley ski area is picturesque!

We mosey back to Wilmington, a quaint little village on a clear, babbling brook,

and walk around visiting quilting shops, art galleries, gift shops offering Vermont maple syrup, and a variety of Vermont cheeses, finally finding a lunch that offers....ta dah!  Blueberry ale, Blueberry soup and Blueberry pancakes.  We opt for chicken soup and a blackened fish sandwich with onion rings!  Delish!

We leisurely make our way back to Brattleboro, with visions of fall foliage still dancing in our heads....! The explosion of color can't be too far away now!

Norman Rockwell, My Hero!

For years, I dreamed of becoming an artist just like Norman Rockwell, my hero!  I could barely contain my enthusisam and anticipation as I anxiously checked the mailbox each week to discover if the latest Rockwell cover on the Saturday Evening Post had arrived!  The stories they told never failed to touch my heart and connect within me on an intense emotional level.

Studying the cover, 'Girl in the Mirror', featuring a young girl, magazine opened to a photograph of movie star bombshell, Jayne Russell, doll cast aside, experimenting with wearing lipstick for the first time, gazing plaintively into the mirror, I knew just how she was feeling.  Would I be pretty?  Would someone ask me to the prom?  What lay ahead in my future?   The gawky, skinny preteen with big feet, toothpick skinny legs and long, narrow face with big, big eyes, gazing longingly at the Saturday Evening Post was worried!

The Post cover, 'Girl with Shiner', starring the spunky girl proudly sporting her newly acquired black-eye, scuffed shoes with untied laces, knees akimbo, hair a tangled mess, blouse hanging out of her skirt, red ribbon dangling loosely from her mussed hair,  parked outside the principal's office, patiently waiting for her comeuppance really hit home!  Being a regular tomboy growing up, and not one to let anyone push ME around, I really identified with that one!  I had actually whacked one infamous bully with my metal lunchbox outside Mrs. Haynes' studio one afternoon as I ambled over to my biweekly piano lesson after school dismissal. And like clockwork, here was this kid pestering me pretty much every day that fall of 4th grade and I had had enough!

So, it was on a crisp, sunny, autumn afternoon, that truly fedup with his boorish behavior, I just started doing a whirling dervish and let 'er rip.  Not sure where I landed the blow, but he never bothered me again, nor did anyone else, for that matter!  Although fear of getting into enough trouble to result in a trip to the principal was ever in the back of my mind, busting this bully's chops was worth the consequences!  And the band aid plastered on her left knee?  The scars are still visible, proudly earned from many a skinned and scraped knee, acquired while roller skating, jumping rope, climbing trees, sliding into home, walking on stilts, riding bikes, or playing hopscotch in that sleepy, rural Texas hometown I grew up in.

What a thrill to discover that one of my most favorite covers, 'Going and Coming' was published on the very day I was born, August 30, 1947! The painting is a split-screen snapshot of a family outing, according to the pennant fluttering in the breeze, to Lake Bennington, Washington, near Walla Walla.

'Skippy,' the boat, and a fishing pole lashed to the roof, fortell of the one activity dear old Dad is surely looking forward to! In the 'Going', the enthusiasm level of the cast of characters ranges from ecstatic, giddy and obnoxious to cautious, complacent, and just along for the ride. In contrast, 'The Coming' depicts the condition of the family after a long day of having fun in the sun: content, exhausted and just along for the ride!

Mike's personal favorite, the 'Family Tree', relates its tale of the ancestry of a typical New England family from the mid-20th century, to the Roaring Twenties, to the Wild West, to the Civil War, to the American Revolution, Puritan Days, and finally to the swashbuckling Pirate and his Spanish Senorita!  Interestingly enough, we discover that Rockwell used one model, a handsome young man with a distinctively broad nose, for each male depicted in the Tree, save one couple. The Puritan minister was Rockwell himself and his wife...the male model! Rockwell was full of humor and mischief, methinks!

The Norman Rockwell Museum, founded in 1969, is located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where Rockwell lived for the last 25 years of his life. It has been at its current location since 1993.

Displaying 574 original works of art by Rockwell, the museum also contains the Norman Rockwell Archives, a collection of over 100,000 various items, which include photographs, fan mail, and various business documents.

His studio was moved to the museum grounds and is open to the public.  We scurry to it as thunder booms all around!

After a quick look-see, we hurriedly make our way back to the parking lot, getting soaked in the process as the bottom falls out of the cloud menacing us!  No worries, neither of us melts!

A Tanglewood we weave at Jacob's Pillow

October Mountain State Park is in a perfect location to enjoy the Berkshires!  Our first night is a little rough, with no electricity and temps in the 90's, we sleep with wet washcloths on our foreheads to help us cool off.  Thankfully, the nighttime temps are in the 50's and 60's for the rest of the week!

My brother, Rick, piqued my interest about Tanglewood, the Berkshires, and the Boston Pops summer home when I visited him at Harvard way back in '79. Our dear friends, Frank and Linda, introduced us to the idea of taking in a dance performance at Jacob's Pillow, thanks, you two!

We are thrilled to have tickets for two events at nearby Tanglewood.  'In August, 1934, a group of music-loving summer residents of the Berkshires organized a series of three outdoor concerts at Interlaken, to be given by members of the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Henry Hadlin.  The venue was so successful that the promoters incorporated the Berkshire Symphonic Festival and repeated the experiment during the next summer.  The Festival Committee then invited Serge Koussevistzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra to take part in the following year's concerts.'    And the rest, as they say, is history!

'In the winter of 1936, Mrs. Gorham Brooks and Miss Mary Aspinwall Tappan, her aunt,  offered Tanglewood, the Tappan family estate, with its buildings and 210 acres of lawns and meadows, as a gift to Koussevitzky and the orchestra.'

Funds of about $100,000 were raised in 1937 for the construction of a permanent structure for performances.   Trustees decided that 'just a shed...which any builder could accomplish without the aid of an architect' would do perfectly for their needs.  'The Shed', a huge open-air structure which seats over 2000, held its first performance on August 4, 1938.  It still retains the original clay floor!

Tanglewood annually draws more than 300,000 attendees with their Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts, weekly chamber music concerts, evening Prelude Concerts, Saturday morning Open Rehearsals, the annual Festival of Contemporary Music, daily concerts by students of the Tanglewood Music Center,  along with concerts from a variety of popular artists, from Yo-Yo Ma and James Taylor to Steely Dan.   Folks with lawn tickets tote in their beach chairs and umbrellas, coolers, and picnics for a relaxing time while they camp out on the grounds prior to performances.

The All-Ravel Program,  performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, includes the 'Mother Goose' Suite,

Piano Concerto in G, Piano Concerto in D, (for the left hand) and Bolero.  Mike decides that Bolero is his new favorite classical tune, purchases the CD, imagining that Roman Legions are marching along the dusty Appian Way.  Can't get it outa' my head!

Ravel wrote the Piano Concerto in D (for the left hand) for Paul Wittgenstein, a Viennese WWI vet, and an accomplished pianist, who lost his right arm during the war.  He made quite a name for himself as a one-armed pianist!  The piece is so active and full that you would think it was being played by two hands, not one.  Needless to say, it is an extremely difficult piece to play.  Truly an amazing feat to witness!

Steely Dan performs to a packed crowd on a cool night following a heavy afternoon thunderstorm.  'Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Steely Dan is known for its unique sound which blends elements of jazz, rock funk and R&B. Band founding members, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, began collaborating while both were students at Bard College. They released their first album, "Can't Buy a Thrill," under the name Steely Dan in 1972. Throughout the ’70s they released the hit albums Countdown to Ecstasy, Pretzel Logic, Katy Lied, The Royal Scam, Aja, and Gaucho. They won 4 Grammy Awards including Album for 2001’s Two Against Nature, their first album in 20 years. That same year they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After time off to work on solo projects, they reunited for a tour of the US and Europe in 2009.'

We are fortunate to be at Tanglewood for Steely Dan's Shuffle Diplomacy Twenty Eleven Tour!  Everyone is on their feet, dancing and clapping before the night is over!  Fun evening!

'Jacob’s Pillow Dance is a dance center, school and performance space located in Becket, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires.

The organization is known for the oldest internationally acclaimed summer dance festival in the United States.

The facility also includes a professional school and extensive archives as well as year-round community programs. The facility itself was listed as a National Historic Landmark District in 2003.'

'The Pillow, as it is often called, was first settled in 1790, by the Carter family, as a mountaintop farm at the crest of a stagecoach road between Boston, Massachusetts and Albany, New York. The zigzagging road from the bottom of the hill resembled the rungs of a ladder, so New Englanders named it "Jacob’s Ladder."

A large, pillow-shaped boulder behind the Carter’s farmhouse was thought to resemble a pillow. The Carter farm acquired the name "Jacob's Pillow" as a combination of the story of Jacob from the Book of Genesis, which tells of Jacob laying his head upon a rock and dreaming of a ladder to heaven and the farm’s proximity to the "Jacob’s Ladder" road.'

'Lar Lubovitch has been hailed by The New York Times as "one of the ten best choreographers in the world," and his company has been called a "national treasure" by Variety. Lubovitch is a master of musicality; for more than 40 years his work has captivated audiences with luxurious movement and lyricism.'

'This program features two new works from 2010 including Coltrane's Favorite Things which reimagines the choreographic possibilities of jazz music, inspired by and danced to John Coltrane's 1963 "Live in Copenhagen" interpretation of Richard Rodgers' "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music. The Legend of Ten, also from 2010, is a dramatic work danced to the first and fourth movements of Brahms' "Quintet in F Minor (Op. 34)," recorded by Glenn Gould and the Montréal String Quartet. '

'Lar Lubovitch's North Star was one of the first contemporary concert dances set to music by Philip Glass. North Star was first performed in 1978, and in this revival dancers command the stage with grace and boundless energy, delivering a "trance-inducing aesthetic at its purest and most satisfying" (Boston Globe).'

The dance performance by the ensemble of eleven is energetic, and full of whimsy....we are seated front and center on the second row....so close we can actually see them sling the sweat from their hair as they twirl and leap across the stage!

We enjoy ourselves so much, we make a vow to return for TWO weeks next summer!

It was the Wurst of times....

Located in northeastern Pennsylvania, the Pocono Mountains is a 2,400 square mile region in the upland of the larger Allegheny Plateau.  The escarpment overlooks the Delaware Valley and Delaware Water Gap to the east, with the mountains bordered on the north by Lake Wallenpaupack, on the west by the Wyoming Valley, and to the south by the Lehigh Valley.

Its wooded hills and valleys have been a popular vacation area for a long time. Resort hotels with fishing, hunting, skiing, and other sports facilities are plentiful.

The Poconos are famous for honeymooners!   For generations, these Pennsylvania hills have been the go-to spot for newlyweds and other lovers. The brochure says 'With their heart-shaped bathtubs, big round beds, and relentless promotion of priapic pleasures, Poconos honeymoon hotels go all out to create a setting for sex.'  No heart-shaped beds are anywhere to be found in the Silver Chalet, sadly enough...

It is our first night here, and the new pink flamingo garden kite is just a twirlin' and a whirlin' in the breeze.  From just across the road, I hear....wait is that a bagpipe?  No...it's a trumpet!  No, no...it's a guy playing an accordian!  And, he's pretty darn good!

Is this our accordian-playing neighbor...???

He reminds me of one of the lounge lizard skits on SNL, you know the one I mean...Bill Murray as Nick, the Lounge Singer in the Honeymoon Room, crooning 'Strangers in the Night', 'Feelings' and 'The Star Wars Theme' where he made up lyrics like 'Star Wars/Nothing but Star Wars/Give me those Star Wars/Don't let them end!'  'Margaritaville',  'Under the Boardwalk', 'You'll Never Know How Much I Love You', and on and on for a couple of hours!  Mike is thinking of going over to add to his tip jar!

Just a few miles away, we are thrilled to find the Pocono's Wurstfest.  'Oktoberfest in July' is in its third year.  One ad proclains 'Get the BEST at the WURST-fest!'   Yumm-oh...wursts, wieners, kielbasa, pierogies and crafted brews!  Polka bands and German Oom Pah bands, Polish & German dancers and craft vendors galore!

Is our serenader 'Krzysztof the Polish Accordian Player'?  Is he going to be playing along with Eddie Derwin & the Polka Naturals, the German Hungarian Schuhplattlers, The Schwarzenegger Connection ? ! The Bavarian Juggling Shows and the 'Hot Dog' Races....yeah, fun!

We score primo seats, a front and center table with a great view of the band and the dance floor.  Eddie Derwin & the Polka Naturals are playing and the dance floor is crowded with polka enthusiasts.

Young and old, moms and kids, dads and kids, women dancing with women...It is impossible for me not to tap my feet and clap to the beat.

Bratwurst, kraut and a Hoegaarden beer!  Lawn chairs, hay bales, benches, the Main Stage/Fest Tent is packed!  It is a pleasant day, temp-wise, and yet  I keep hearing....'It's so hot, today!'

I just reply, 'Well, when you're from Florida and having lived in Texas for 50 years...this is a cold front!'  hahah  'Yeah,' they always reply 'everything is relative!'  I have to agree!

Jimmy Sturr and his Orchestra take the stage.  They are back again by popular demand and once they start playing, the energy level in the tent perceptably rises a few notches!

We soon learn that Jimmy Sturr and his Orchestra have over 106 recordings, 18 Grammy Awards and are listed on the Top Ten list of All-Time Grammy Awards. They are truly the hottest musical attraction in the polka field and we soon find out why!  The eleven  piece orchestra features clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, accordian and fiddle players.

His band is touted as the most popular polka band in America, and have their own TV show on the RFD-TV network, a network devoted to rural America.  They have had numerous sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, as well as one at the Palace of Culture in Warsaw, Poland.

Jimmy is Irish-American, but his fans don't care.  The multi-talented clarinetist, trumpeter, saxophonist carries off the 'I'm Polish' persona to perfection.  The band constantly attracts crowds of screaming, adoring fans wherever their travels take them. Their tremendous popularity has resulted in not only their numerous Grammy Awards, but also in being voted "The #1 Polka Band In The Country" for the past ten years.

Due to the great demand for live appearances by Jimmy Sturr and His Orchestra, they have an extensive road schedule. While on the road they travel in Jimmy's forty-five foot customized tour bus.

We are so fortunate to have stumbled upon this Wurstfest featuring a polka band with a huge fan base, voted #1 in the country, and considered the best in polka music.   I am even able to cajole Mike into one dance!  A slow one, of course!

Things wind down around six o'clock....we thought 8 o'clock was quittin' time!  We are disappointed to see the band pack up their equipment, so we slowly make our way to the parking lot.  And there, gleaming in the twighlight is a vintage '57 T-Bird.  Nice!

For more information about the festival:  http://www.shawneemt.com/s_poconoswurstfestival.html