Fall Colors, 5th
Report
October 2nd,
Wednesday
Today we drove to the Old
Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. I
was skeptical that it would be a worthwhile activity. It certainly is worthwhile. It consists of buildings collected all over
the east coast and erected in a large park type area. The area is very beautiful in itself. The old buildings and edifices are of great
quality and a pleasure to walk through and experience. Also, most buildings are fully staffed and
have very good quality furnishings, tools, devices, etc. Also, the chickens are a fun group and flocked
around us. It is an in depth looks at
rural life in the 1800s. There are more
then 50,000 period artifacts. We spent
only a few hours there and we were able to experience only a small amount of the
many exhibits, items to view. The area
is extensive. Linda and I received
lectures in the wool-spinning house, the black smiths building; the lumber
cutting saw mill (in actual operation with a water stream moving the very large
saw blade) and a cooking area. We were
served a very nice lunch.
We then drove to Connecticut
to ride on the Essex Steam Train and take a cruise on the Connecticut River on
the Becky Thatcher Riverboat. Both rides
were pleasant. The train trip was 12
miles long. The river cruise was and
hour and a half long. The train had many
coaches all of which were also dated back to the 1800s and are
operational. Both trips are narrated.
October 3, 2019, Thursday
Today we drove to Mystic
Seaport and toured the Mystic Seaport Museum area. This area is quite extensive and included
many different sailing ships; boat making buildings, navigation equipment, rope
making building and a building devoted to the history of whaling. One of my favorites was a building devoted to
the figures of people that used to be mounted to the front point of a
ship. I took pictures of them. There were people in many of the areas as
subject experts and would engage in discussions with others and me as we
entered their building, area. In the
past, this area was heavily involved in fishing, ship building.
In the afternoon we drove to
Cape Cod Hyannis, Massachusetts for our room for two nights. In the evening we participated in a rail
train excursion through cranberry bogs and lush marshes aboard the Cape Cod
Central Railroad’s Dinner Train. We
enjoyed a meal on the train as the train crosses the famous Cape Cod Canal
railroad bridge into the historic village of Buzzard’s Bay. Unfortunately, this activity was mostly at
night and we were not able to see in the dark outside the train. We did enjoy the company of our tour
director, Roy O’ Connor at our eating table for this trip. The food was acceptable for me as a
vegetarian on this part of the trip. Roy
has had vast experience as a tour guide taking groups throughout the United
States and Mexico. He has a college
degree in Theatre Arts and uses it well with his comments and tour leadership.
Our last touring day took
place on Friday October 4, 2019. We took
our tour bus to Martha’s Vineyard on a vehicle ferry, which crossed from the
mainland of Cape Cod to the Island retreat community. On the island, in the charming town of
Edgartown and visited the colorful Victorian gingerbread cottages of Oak
Bluffs. The little houses were plentiful
and very colorful. We returned by ferry
to Woods Hole, Massachusetts and on to Hyannis.
The temperature was cool and it was windy.
Overall, I found this tour be
interesting and a fine glimpse of the beauty of this time of the year in New
England.
