September 29 - “A side trip …”

With a fresh tank of gas and a bin full of clean engine oil, we left for the next New York leg of our journey. First stop?  Walmart!  We needed a new memory card for Chris’ camera. The new battery didn’t solve the problem, so this was next on the list. As luck would have it, the closest Walmart was about 30 miles away. But … it was right on the way to our next stop.  But wait. So was a cute little detour potential. Just a mile or two off the road. After Walmart we could go to … Cooperstown.

 

Yep, THAT Cooperstown. Baseball Hall of Fame Cooperstown. Not that I was particularly excited …

 

So … we were on that Road to Cooperstown. We were just casually driving along, and all of a sudden Chris said, “Dam.”  Imagine my chagrin. Oh, the horror. Oh the … actual dam over by the side of the road that she was pointing out. Oops. My bad.

 

The little town of Cooperstown was bustling. A steady stream of visitors followed us into the Hall of Fame. Others shopped in the shops on the main drag. We roamed through all the exhibits. Nothing was as we remembered it. Chris was terribly disappointed that they didn’t have an entire room dedicated to baseball cards. Not just rare cards, which they did have displayed. She meant the entire room of nothing but cards - whole sets from whatever year you wanted to see. It was the only thing she remembered from our last visit - me searching through each year, looking for some player I knew. She was sad to miss it. After that little side trip, we headed on in the direction of the next national park.

 

But first we had to make our way through the middle of … and Chris noted this one out loud as well, although she altered the pronunciation: the town of Rotterdam. She pronounced it “Rotterdum.” Close enough. The route we were on kept us away from tolls as requested, but it also allowed us to become intimate with the inner workings of the Rotterdam/Schenectady/Albany metroplex. She was even called upon to navigate numerous roundabouts. Woohoo!

 

We almost stumbled upon another hidden treasure. The National Bottle Museum. We were but 20 minutes away.  But we were also at the mercy of Google Siri and in the middle of nowhere. We knew we had better leave well enough alone when we were told to turn onto Coons Crossing Road. Scary stuff.

 

I forgot another of Chris’ “most enjoyable” car driving experiences. Narrow bridges. And boy, did we ever find one. Somewhere up in New York near Vermont. We had just seen the site of the Battle of Saratoga (Revolutionary War this time).  Yep. She still hates narrow bridges …

 

Finally, we landed in Vermont. First time we’ve ever been there, so we had to spend at least one night. Found a hotel in Rutland. Kind of in the middle of the state if you’re looking for it. Today we begin our search in earnest … for dead leaves. Multicolored dead leaves. Multicolored, still on the tree, photogenic dead leaves. We are off …

 

Isaiah 6:8 says, “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!””

 

Father, thank you for this chance to see a different type of the beauty of your creation. Colors in dead leaves. Amen.