You Are An American Bladdernut!

Today is warm but rainy. I stopped at Goodwin Forest Conservation Area and Pine Acres Lake because I missed the turn for Mansfield Hollow State Park.

What the what? Is this a picnic table for a baby Paul Bunyan?

I saw two trumpeter swans out on the lake.

Chestnut oak tree.

Lovely diamond pattern on the bark of the American Linden.

Why do plant names also sound like insults? You are an American bladdernut!

Wow! Big spiderweb. This one is made of twine which is better than the fake spiderwebs I see on almost every decorated house. Owls can probably disentangle themselves from this web. Owls cannot get out of the fake spider webs. Just think of the trauma a kid would experience finding an owl trapped in the spiderweb on their front porch! A friend of mine grew up on a prairie farm in SW Minnesota and she never forgot the horror of a hawk flying through their picture window while her parents went to church and she was home alone with the younger siblings.

Eastern white pine tree forest.

 

Windham Textile And History Museum

Today I went to a threat museum in eastern Connecticut. Look at that beautiful newel post!

The museum curator was so nice I bought five dollars worth of thread and buttons that I did not need.

A volunteer here told me she wishes she bought her Fit in my color because it is the safest color to drive.

This modern threading machine was built in 1953. I copied the QR link to my phone and my phone told me all about it. The bobbin workers had to pace back and forth the ten feet width of the machine for their entire shift.

This wheelchair is probably more comfortable than the modern ones. Sling seats give me a pain in my hips. Working in a thread factory is dangerous. When people work 12 hours a day for 6 days a week, accidents are bound to happen.

The thread manager's office looks nice.

The thread manager's family can faint in comfort.

The thread manager's children get to play with a lovely doll house.

The thread manger's kids get to go to school and have plenty of fresh air and exercise.

The thread manager's family gets to look out of a lovely window.

The thread manager's children don't have to work at all.

The thread manager's children don't have to breath in the cotton dust that will eventually suffocate some children.

The factory worker slept on these beds after working all day.

The factory workers ate their food in this kitchen.

The factory worker's kids had to draw water from the well and bring it in the house.

 

Fall Colors

 Today I headed east. I woke up and loaded my car. My Hungarian host was a little late so I admired the view of the Catskills, watched the traffic go by, listened to the birds, and picked some grapes growing on the sign for the hotel. I ate grapes while he got breakfast ready. I drank coffee while he told me he got into an argument with the other tenant. When she came to the hotel he asked her if she was vaccinated. She went on a tirade. She wasn't vaccinated, he had no right to question her, she was a citizen, she had her rights, he wasn't wearing a mask, and then she said she saw me without a mask. I was shocked because I never saw her and right now I wasn't wearing a mask. He told her I was vaccinated which is none of her dang business! I ate my oatmeal quickly hoping to get out of there before she came for breakfast. I sat with my back to the door. She came in. He tried to engage her in pleasant conversation but she was not in the mood. I got up to leave with my coffee and my strawberry Greek yogurt and he asked me where I was going. I told him east. We laughed, we joked and I got the heck away from that germy, crab apple of a woman. I crossed the Hudson River Valley on the Rip Van Winkle bridge hoping I would fall asleep for 20 years like he did. I went north into Massachusetts. The Berkshire mountains are also in peak bloom. I have never seen so many beautiful fall colors on trees before in my entire life. I got to Hartford, Connecticut at noon. Driving through downtown Hartford at noon on a Friday is an interesting experience. I wished I had a sign on my car that said, "She is from out of state and most likely lost." I remembered my Minnesota license plates probably do give that message. Now I am eastern Connecticut. I have one last day on my own. Rain is in the forecast so a museum might be in order. On Oct. 31 I have an appointment to go trick or treating. My odometer reads 3100.00 miles. Google says the trip from Duluth to my present location should be between 1300 to 1400 miles. I didn't rack up any miles floating across lake Michigan. Google maps lies.

CIA

While in Hyde Park I had lunch at the Culinary Institute of America. Look at this shiny statue of a sturgeon made out of hundreds of knives, forks, and spoons!

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I walked in those doors straight ahead and headed to the Apple Pie café because I didn't have a reservation to dine and the dining rooms were full.

I had tomato soup, a crusty bread roll, and a little apple dessert with a cracker bottom, baked apples, some kind of creamy topping and pistachio glaze. Delicious!

Here is the view looking away from the main building over the Hudson River Valley. 

 

Eleanor Is My Heroine

Today I drove south to visit Eleanor Roosevelt's home on this creek. I admire her work, her attitudes, her determination, and her spunky personality.

Here she started a factory to employ people in need with her friends Marion and Nancy.

Upstairs, in that sunporch on the left is where Eleanor slept when Princess Margaret of Norway or Winston Churchill came to visit. Notice how inaccessible this house is? Franklin had to sleep elsewhere. Even though they were semi-separated she kept a large portrait of Franklin on her bedroom wall.

Here I am peeking inside a playhouse. I had a play house too but mine did not have electricity and running water.

The play house is on the right. At the left is a grill where she made food for the boys who visited from a local institution that took care of troubled boys ages 8 to 18. Can you imagine Eleanor Roosevelt serving you a burger? I would bet she touched some young lives doing this work.

Here is the door where Winston Churchill and Princess Margaret probably went in.

Here is a rose from Eleanor's garden with a tiny fly on it.

Why are strawberries still growing near the end of October?

Here is the pool built to help Franklin exercise. Happy times were had here with her five children and numerous grandchildren.

I walked over to the Roosevelt farm. When I took a picture of the code on the sign on the tree I learned that this farm was designed to sustain wildlife including salamanders and fishers.

They had a lovely forest.

Franklin started a holiday tree farm. He made $400 profit and was happy with that. He had a Christmas tree shipped overseas to Winston Churchill in a bomber.

I don't know what kind of tree this is but those yellow leaves are bigger than both my hands put together.

I drove 20 miles east to the property Franklin inherited from his mother. Here is the tomb of Eleanor and Franklin. Eleanor is my heroine.

Finally, here is okra growing in the Franklin garden.

 

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

A friend of mine was complaining about her sister driving her crazy with the comments. My dear friend was completely frustrated because the comments her sister made sounded nice but felt anything but nice. As it turns out, my friend's sister is a church lady like the kind you see on sketches on Saturday Night Live. So that is why I read the Secret Lives of Church Ladies. Deesha Philyaw writes hilarious stories about women that are also poignant and totally not suitable for work. 

But Why?

This morning I drove for two hours before stopping for coffee. I got off the interstate and pulled in to a MacDonald's to buy a cup of joe. My total was 1.47. I felt like I should not use my card for such a small amount. I wasn't hungry. I remembered to pay it forward. I told the young man I wanted to pay for my coffee and for the bill of the person behind me.

He said, "There is no one behind you?"

I laughed so hard. He didn't think it was funny. But it is funny! What are the chances that no one would be behind me at a MacDonald's drive-through, just off the interstate, at 11:30 a.m.! 

This is a photo from a small town in New York that I drove through today. The town's name started with But. I can't remember the name. Was it Buthill? Butfield? Buttown? But why? There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. If the town name starts with but, you bet I will take a picture!

A Hot Spot

Today I drove east across northern New York.

I arrived at my destination at 2:30. My host immigrated from Hungary. He is starting a Hungarian museum that will open soon.

I asked him what Suchy meant in his language. He responded, "Soaked." He suggested I hike by this railroad depot that has a scale a lot like the one I saw on a farm in Vining!

Soaked is appropriate because it rained so hard yesterday there were flash floods where I stayed last night in Mark Twain country.

I was lucky I didn't get in a flood.

I crossed the Susquehanna River about a dozen times today. Farms were flooded. Picnic areas were flooded up to the top of the picnic table!

My walls in my room look like chocolate. Also I found the cure to a sore spot on my shoulder blade today. I got a hot spot just like my dog, Ruby, used to get. I bought this in Tannersville and this was a lot less expensive than the human cures. The pharmacist said this would be better for me anyway.

Look at the muddy river flow.

The Catskill Mountains are gorgeous but I got mud in my new shoes.