Early Thursday morning I hitched a ride with KDP's sister, the Librarian, up to The Berkshires for the weekend. We left at 9 and what should have been a 3-hour drive turned into five hours. THere was so much traffic on the Cross Bronx (isn't there always?) and it took forever to get out of the 5 boroughs.
We headed on up to the Taconic & all we had to do, according to the directions from the resort, was follow this up to 90 & them go into the state of Mass. Uh-huh. Sure. We get all the way up to 90 & have to follow Rte. 43 to the mountain road that is to be our home for the next three nights. Well, apparently, rte. 43, which is still in NY but crosses into Mass. makes a right turn & what had been 43 is now Rte. 42. What? There was no sign stating this.
So Librarian & I are driving along.....driving along.....unti lthe road stops & either goes right-left-or into the woods. Ummmm......no signs. Now what? So we panic & look around and wait. I said that we could knock on a door to a house & ask. With that....like in a movie...a cop shows up. We flag him over & ask him "How do we get to Mountain Road?" He says "Where?" We specify some of the attractions near it. He looks perplexed. I mention the ski resort name. He shakes his head & says "Not even close." What does he mean not even close? So it turns out that we had to make that sharp right turn to stay on 43 which there was no sign for & now have to backtrack a half hour to get to it again.
We find rte. 43 but it seems that we are on this road too long. So we finally find some little stand that sells pumpkins, wood carvings, and rotates tires. I get out and ask the men if we are on the right track. The one was trying to be a comedian & had us panicking that we were still going the wrong way--but he was only kidding. Thanks!
We arrive at the resort after 2 pm exhausted. Driving five hours takes a lot out of you! We hug KDP & say hi to the Beginner Comic. This is where the real problems kick in. We were so hungry & hadn't eaten lunch but didn't want to fill up because then dinner would be too late. So we ate 1/2 sandwiches and then wanted to go exploring. We hop in KDP's car & travel the 20 minutes to town to see what there is to do. BC is cheap & is a vegan & was going to make this impossible the entire time. Librarian is sarastic & decided it'd be fun to crack "steak house" jokes with BC there to get s rise out of her. And this is why you cannot have big cats share a cage. BC & Librarian did not get along at all. Things were tense. Often. So we tried to separate them as much as possible.
We wanted to eat but it was a steak house that we were trying to go into & that's when BC was not hungry & then KDP felt bad so she wasn't hungry so dinner was now being pushed off. So we head to the outlets to do some shopping. Librarian went off to her own stores while KDP & I looked for socks & BC went.....well...I am not sure where she went. But we all ended up at Coach where BC didn't want to go in because their products are leather & she is a vegan & does not want to go into leather shops......which gets Librarian saying "Hey! Let's go to Wilson's next!" UGH! Ages of these women, you ask? 29-36. UGH!
We ended up eating dinner at like 8:00 pm.....so not my dinner time. I was famished! We went to an italian restaurant where BC had to ask "How is your pasta prepared? IS it made here or packaged?" Her point was is it made from dairy because she won't eat it. Uncomforable moments but the pasta was safe & we all got to eat dinner.
We went back & watched "Never Been Kissed".....I love that movie. We then played 'Cranium' and had teams. It was KDP & Librarian versus BC & me. We were neck-in-neck until the end when the sister team answered their last question correctly before we could answer our's. They won. BC pouted. I mean literally pouted. It's a game, mind you, but pouting was the result.
Time for bed. KDP & sis took the big bed. BC took the couch. I had an aero bed (I loved it....I want one for myself!) and shared space with BC. This was not my first choice. See, BC has night terrors & frequently gets up in a panic. I was in no mood to have someone wake up screaming bloody murder because I would then wake up & start screaming because I heard someone else screaming. So, I slept with one eye open all night. Needless to say I was exhausted the next morning.
The three minds wanted to go to wineries that day. I woke up early (7:30) and had nothing to do with everyone sleeping so I read the pamphlet that they had been admiring. I look at the 20+ wineries one can visit in that area. I look at the town name & see it's Cortland area. Huh? That's in NY. That's about 3 hours away. Two PhDs + 1 masters and none of them looked for location. DRAT! So now I get to break it to them.
It's raining. The wineries are out. What's to do? Drive to Yankee Candle! It's an hour and a half away & so easy to get to. yeah, right. The resort gave us directions that took us over the mountain......and over another mountain....you know that tune "The Bear went over the mountain"? That was us. In the fog & rain it was so scary & difficult to figure out where we were & it took 2 1/2 hours their way. Could nothing go right?
We stopped to eat & that was a hassle in itself. Friendly's was the only thing there. THis was fine with 3 out of the 4, so too bad. BC got a salad and fries. She doesn't like, nor will eat, croutons so she proceeded to throw them on the table. Not place. Not stack on the side of her plate. Throw onto the table. Ummm...when's the last time you came out of your cave? Sorry--that may be harsh but the behavior was uncalled for.
We wrapped it up at Friendly's & headed to Yankee. Ah the smell of candles. The ladies were impressed. The comments went from "How long can one honestly spend looking at cnadles?" to "I'm going back to such& such. Look for me when you go around again." Oh yeah~~big hit! We were there almost three hours. I bought a few little things because if I bring home another candle......there will be problems.
We said goodbye to BC at Yankee. She was heading back to Boston while we went in the other directions (the easy way) this time. KDP, Librarian & I stopped to eat at a microbrewery. It was a cute little place with a homey feel to it that we could have settled in to for the night. The food was good, the drinks better & our waitress was a riot. We had such a good time.
Then KDP & I introduced her sister to The Chocolate Cafe. The main reason for my heading back up to the Berkshires was to eat at this cafe. The man who owns it makes all of the tempting treats himself & they are so worth the drive. We each got a piece of cake (all different flavors) and sat down with HUGE mugs of tea to relax & recap the day.
Then it was back up the mountain to go to the resort and crash. We played drunk Scrabble & couldn't figure out some words so if it sounded good we let it ride.
The next morning we had to be out by 10:00 am & decided to detour to another microbrewery to pick up some beer for friends & family and then we began the drive home. The drive--using kdp's directions--was so quick & easy & I was home in no time.
Ah~~I can definitely get used to summering in the mountains.
