I am a Lumberjack and I'm OK

Saturday Aug 7, 2010

Woke up with a start with an American Bald Eagle staring me in the face. It was the fake one that made up the bedside table lamp at the Eagles Nest motel, sports bar, restaurant and juvenile delinquent work site that we called home last night. Actually the boys working on the motel were probably not JD's at all but I am getting old and cranky. Sorry boys. After surgically removing the cot springs from Dave's back we packed up and loaded the bikes. It is more efficient in these kinds of motels to pack up since you don't waste all that time stealing the little bottles of shampoo, conditioner, hair nets and soap since there are none.

I had an epiphany last night laying there listening to the buzz brothers doing their chain saw impersonations. Hotels like these offer a much needed safety net for people with low standards like ours. That woman last night that refused to stay here was proof of this new revelation. If bad motels didn't exist, there would be no rooms left anywhere. These keepers of low end motels are providing a much needed service. They are not money hungry opportunists gouging customers for smelly rooms during the busy season. No. They are offering rooms far enough below the norm that 99% of the people who look at them refuse to stay in them. This allows the other 1% (that would be us) the comfort of knowing that there will always be a place to stay, a safe haven so to speak.

So we rode to Old Forge to find breakfast, noticing that the air was cool but nice and dry from yesterdays north wind. We found a place called Walt's Diner and it was early enough in Old Forge that nobody was really out and about yet. By the time we finished our eggs and left, the place was packed and the tourist traffic was substantial. We walked down the street to what has to be one of the neatest hardware stores around. They have an entire building 2 stories high with just about anything you could want, or as the sign in the store read, "If we don't have it, you don't need it". The usual hardware store stuff and fly rods, furniture, washboards, toys, a bookstore, you name it. If you read the previous blog you may remember I never did get a pair of waterproof gloves, and the Old Forge Hardware Store had them. I bought a nice pair with long cuffs so I will not whine about that any more, I will whine about something else.

So on to the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mt Lake which I had been to 15 years earlier. We arrived to discover that we were in for a special treat. It was "dog day" where everybody (but us) brought their dog and they had special activities for the dogs and owners. It was actually kind of fun having dogs all over. Those poor dogs must have all gone home with worn out sniffers and collapsed at end of the day.

The museum has some of the most beautiful Adirondack guide boats I have ever seen. Those are those boats that have layers and layers of varnish on them so they look too beautiful to sit in.

They also had an amazing map of New York and New Hampshire before Vermont was even a state. The date we think was 1779 and it shows the towns along the Connecticut River, some with names long since gone. Dummerston was there, which would have been 9 years after our Miller ancestors moved there (in 1770). And there was no Burlington on the map at all??

The exhibit I remember from coming here years ago was the history of logging section. Those loggers were some tough guys. They worked 5am to 8pm, ate like horses, smelled bad, and when they got their week off every year, spent the 3-400 bucks they had saved on booze and women, and then went back to work for another year. For anyone in the logging business, this is a must see. We saw a great movie about the history of New England from the 1600s thru the 1700's which explained the French, Indian and English roles and relationships (or lack thereof).

We saw a bunch of other exhibits, but we were ready to get back on the road. So we decided we would head back to Vermont since, while we like the lakes over here, the roads were kinda straight (no offense NY). So if we were going back to Vermont, and it was Saturday night, we should go to....

Yep, the rodeo in Castleton, VT.

I heard about this a few years back on a camping trip with some other families and went and was astounded that I had never heard of it before. It is a place called Pond Hill Ranch in Castleton, and every Saturday night all summer, they put on a real live rodeo. There is bull riding, bucking bronco riding, calf roping, barrel racing, the whole thing, right here in Vermont. We popped over to Rutland, got a room, got some chow and then headed back to catch the opening of the rodeo. There were 3-500 (or more, men can't do math) spectators that completely filled the bleachers. There lots of cowboy hats, pickup trucks, country music and pretty girls (Dave and Dick looked, but I abstained), fried dough, and one rodeo clown (he was pretty bury). We got a kick (pun intended) out of the novice class bull riders. You are supposed to stay on the bull for 8 seconds and their times were more in the range of zero to 2 seconds. Absolutely no criticism here as I wouldn't go near those things, say nothing of riding one. It was a great way to spend a few hours on a Saturday night under a beautiful summer sky. Back to the hotel and collapse in bed.