Monthly Archives: September 2024

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The Odyssey, Part 3 – Wound Up in Windham

When we last left our intrepid adventurers, they had just arrived in the Catskill Mountains and checked in to their accommodations at Hotel Vienna, a 2-storey chalet with exposed beams and cabin feel. At the foot of Windham Mountain, there is the requisite ski resort and a local golf course. The video in the above link has some aerial shots that are quite lovely.

As it turns out, Windham is a very common name in these parts. Not to be confused with Windham, NH, or Windham, Connecticut, or Wyndham Resort and Hotels (spelled with a ‘y’), the town of Windham, NY is located in Greene County, on the northern boundary of the Catskills Mountain range. It is a town of about 1,700 people but is a popular vacation spot for New Yorkers and other areas in the northeast. Fun Fact: Scott Adams*, the creator of the Dilbert cartoon series, grew up in Windham and was valedictorian of his high school.

*I should note that although I am a huge Dilbert fan and have referred to his comic strips in previous work presentations, I am not a Scott Adams fan for his views and the controversy he generates.

Like anyone who has traveled the Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia, we are spoiled by fairly frequent look-off points to grab pictures and feel infinitesimally small as we gaze across wide valley expanses between the mountains. The route to Windham certainly teased those views, but with very few parking opportunities and overgrown look-off points, my pictures from the car are woefully underwhelming and are not worthy to be shared. Further along, you can find the Five-State Lookout but you will need clear skies and a sense of what you are viewing; there are no directions or reference guides available, only a parking lot and the stunning horizon in the distance.

Like a nesting doll, the images below depict the Windham town limits within Greene County, and the county within New York state. The famous Hudson river is the bluish boundary to the right.

After that preamble, it shouldn’t surprise you that Windham was in fact, NOT our actual destination. That honour would go to a little hamlet called Round Top, within the neighbouring town of Cairo (pronounced ‘Care-oh’ because America dares to be different on occasion).

My mother had picked this location to visit a university friend she had met almost 50 years ago in Laval, QC. My parents had kept in touch with this gentleman over the years via email (and before that, the archaic rotary phone, and before that, presumably telegraph or carrier pigeons). He was gracious enough to welcome us into their home below the peak of Blackhead Mountain, where the roads are quiet but full of wildlife; there are many opportunities to encounter deer or bears, especially as streetlamps are minimal and the roadways are narrow.

My parents has last visited several decades prior. At that time, their friends had lived in a large house further upstate. On the windy road leading to the house, we weren’t sure what to expect. We were met with rock walls on either side, and the entrance to the property has an incredible stone bridge over a brook that babbles or rushes depending on the rains.

The house was beautiful. A 2-storey farmhouse style home with a full length porch across the front, was surrounded by curved stone walls to form terraces. There was only one problem. The master of the house was not there as he had left to pick up dinner. We were told the front door was unlocked and to make ourselves at home. I should emphasize that we had not been there before, so little voices cautioned us that there was a slight chance we were unknowingly breaking in unannounced to a stranger’s abode.

Inside there was plenty of artwork and interesting conversation pieces on the mantle and window ledges. I had to include a couple of pictures: one of the monkey lamps in the living room and a little parrot friend that welcomed the four of us.

When our host arrived, we were treated to some of the best chicken parmigiana we’ve ever tasted. There was a version of Melanzane (eggplant) alla Parmigiana that was just as tasty. We all had seconds and there were tons left over. They also treated us to a fine bottle of California red to wash it down. You may ask where a fine Italian meal is procured in ‘Care-O’. I shall not leave you in suspense: it was from Two Brothers Pizza off of country Route 84.

After looking through old pictures and reminiscing about what amounted to mischief in the 70s (wading around in the fountain at the newly opened MicMac Mall anyone?), we bid our adieus and trundled back to the hotel to fight with the apps on the SmartTV.

The morning of Wednesday, Aug 14, was now upon us. We ducked into the continental breakfast offered in the common room and piled back into the car around 9:30 for more highway hijinks.

Windham (NY) –> Allentown (PA)

This was a much shorter drive than the previous legs, but probably one of the most stressful. I have never seen more trucks on a stretch of highway in my life. Our route on this day was as follows:

  • Leaving Windham, we traveled East on NY-23 back to Cairo, then veered south on NY-32.
  • After about 40 minutes, we reached Saugerties and headed due south on I-87 to certain doom.
    • I should probably explain. As you can see from the map above, the I-87 runs straight along the Hudson across the New Jersey line, when it merges to I-287 around Suffern, NY. This route continues further south and at the nearest point, comes within 20km of Newark, and about 30km from Manhattan. There happens to be a wee bit of commerce in this area and as you could imagine, rigs of every shape, size, colour, with trailers hauling logs, building materials, animals, mini-homes, heavy equipment, and tankers, were all wanting to race to their respective destinations. Sprinkle in some traffic snarls that slowed their progress, and you have all the ingredients of the next screenplay in the Mad Max film series.
  • Not realizing we were bisecting New Jersey state to this extent, we passed some fun city names along the way: Mahwah, Crystal Lake (for slasher horror fans who grew up with the Friday the 13th movie franchise), Pompton Lakes, Riverdale (possible hometown of Archie and friends?), Parsippany, and Basking Ridge, which sounds like the name of a relaxing day spa. We didn’t actually see much from the highway as most of it was spent surrounded by high-sided 53-foot trailers swerving between four lanes. We continued to the fun-to-say Pluckemin, NJ, and jumped onto the I-78 due west.
  • After about 25 minutes, we made a semi-circle around the borough of Alpha, NJ to reach the Pennsylvania border. Our destination was getting close!
  • As we approached Allentown, we momentarily suffered an existential crisis when we passed the following road-sign:

Turn right to Bethlehem or left to Hellertown? I swear I am not making this up.

Pulling off the highway around 2pm we proceeded to the Holiday Inn on Hamilton Rd in Dorneyville, which is not a ville at all, but described as a ‘census-designated place’ in Lehigh County. With our room not quite ready, we set out to find some lunch and check our surroundings.

Please join me for our next installment when we embark on a winery hunt that eventually landed us in East Texas, a pharmacy visit to snoop pain relievers, and a lovely drive around (and through!) the Allegheny Mountains.

Until next time…

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, employer or affiliation.

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The Odyssey, Part 2 – All’s Well That Ends (in) Well(s)

Wells, Maine.

An interesting choice of townships to be sure. A resort town of just over 11,000 people, Wikipedia reports that is is the 3rd oldest town in Maine. Travel southward just a short 21 mile jaunt (sorry…34 km) on the I-95 and you arrive at the popular shopping mecca of Kittery / Portsmouth on the Maine-New Hampshire border. Follow the coast to the north for about 10 km and you land in Kennebunkport. If that sounds familiar, it might be because the Bush family has a retreat there. Their compound has hosted a number of world leaders though the years, including Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, Vladimir Putin and Nicolas Sarkozy during the presidencies of H.W and W. respectively.

Wells Beach is a popular destination spot, so here it is in all it’s splendor:

On the left, our position on the beach looking southward towards Ogunquit*. Bald Head is the point waaaay off in the distance. This area is lined with vistas, with proper two and three-story chalets overlooking the water, not any hardscrabble, clapboard cottages or nondescript bunkhouses to be found. A large number of the beachgoers spoke French, as evidenced by the succession of Quebec license-plates we passed as we walked along the strip.

*The purple blob pictured above is not to scale

So why Wells, you ask? This first leg was one of the easiest to identify as my father has an aunt and cousins in the area. I recall being here twice before: once when I was barely school age and again in my mid-twenties when we visited Loudon, New Hamphire to see a Nascar race. On the first trip, I have still images in my mind of a car museum (no longer in operation) and mini-golf (we saw a course, but not sure if it was the same one). The second trip stands out for two things:

  • 1) Mom wanted to hit every antique store along the old highway. Usually we had already passed them, so a-backtracking we would go! I’m exaggerating of course, but it seemed like more than a few. I think I may have even bought a diecast model at one, so we were all complicit to a degree.
  • 2) Locks! They lived in a different house back then, but when we had visited Dad’s aunt, her husband had a collection of locks. Old, new, large, tiny, combination, keyed, you name it. This was both eccentric and fascinating, with each show-and-tell explaining the craftmanship, location and practical purpose of various locking mechanisms.

Our visit this time was a short one. We arrived Sunday evening, had dinner at Batson River, conveniently located on Mile Rd leading to the beach. It was a very busy spot with a bit of a wait, but the pizza was quite tasty. On Monday, we spent the majority catching up with family at their home on the outskirts of town. It is a beautiful spot with ample privacy, mature trees and a pool. I also got to visit my first Hannaford’s supermarket for food and libations. They had a pharmacy, so like a moth to a flame, I flew too close and therefore had to inspect their fascia and fixtures, check for product ‘holes’ in the displays and look at foreign packaging of familiar cough and cold products. It was in the front left corner of the store and appeared closed off, with a drop off at one end and pick up at the other. We grabbed some Neosporin off the top shelf directly in front of the dispensary, but didn’t catch anyone within view behind the glass. After cruising the aisles to accidentally find an amazing red blend from California, we headed back for a evening BBQ featuring cheesesteaks and salads.

As a sidenote, watching one of these monsters in action is a treat:

Apparently you can cook anything on a Blackstone. If you have a hankering for omelets or just want to show off your Teppanyaki skills, this is the griddle for you!

One more TripAdvisor review if you’re interested: should you visit Wells, check out the Bitter End restaurant. I can let the website pictures speak for themselves, but if you are looking for an atmosphere that includes dory boats mounted in the yard, a bathroom covered wall-to-wall with pop-culture icons, and a fun cocktail list, you will not be disappointed.

Tuesday, Aug 13 arrived. We had bought breakfast supplies and enjoyed some toasted ham and egg sandwiches to start the morning. We checked out of the AirBnB shortly before 10am and began our next segment of the tour.

Wells (ME) –> Windham (NY)

For those who enjoy following along on real paper maps, like 5-year-old me for instance, I’ll give a quick synopsis of the route.

  • This journey took us further down the I-95, spending about 15 minutes crossing the corner of New Hampshire before entering Massachusetts.
  • Jumped on the 495 at Amesbury to venture southwest across the state. Thankfully, the main highways were mostly free of construction and road rage incidents. I learned fairly quickly that with any decent volume of traffic on the road, adaptive cruise control was not my friend. If we were stuck in the middle of three or four lanes, it was a constant speed up/slow down as cars and SUVs flew by on either side.
  • Next onto the 290 at Marlborough. We passed through Worcester and once we hit Auburn, merged back to a highway with an ‘I’ in front.
  • Other than driving through Springfield, a city of over 150,000 people, the I-90 wasn’t too interesting to drive. It was hilly and forested but the US does do a great job at rest stops; they are never too far apart and provided all the conveniences of gas, snacks, coffee and restroom facilities.
  • We crossed the NY border at Stockbridge and across the Hudson River to begin heading south on the I-87 until we reached Climax, NY (no really 🙂
  • Another 40 minutes west into the mountains and we arrived in Windham, the ‘Gem of the Catskills.’

It was now mid-afternoon and we were ready for a bit of reprieve from the car. It’s also a good time to pause the narrative and invite you back for part 3, where our story takes us to visit family friends, eat some amazing Italian takeout, white-knuckle through New Jersey, and watch tourists scream on the Talon: Grip of Fear!

Stay tuned…

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, employer or affiliation.

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The Odyssey, Part 1 – The Intro

Having some extra time this summer to ponder next steps in my career has come with a helping of spontaneity as a welcome side effect. One of those moments led to another, that became one of the most enjoyable road-trip adventures I’ve ever experienced. As a pharmacist on hiatus, much of the trip was divorced from my professional side, although it crept through here and there. If you would indulge me, the desire to recount this story has stoked a small fire within me to begin writing again. I will do my best to refrain from wandering off on too many tangents, jumping down rabbit holes, or hopping off tangent holes.

It began back in the spring when I was finding my way back to old hobbies and discovering new ones. It was a commitment to learning a new routine and involved connecting with friends on a whole new level. I help mom and dad out in the yard, or grab coffee with a friend in a neighbouring town. Running errands during non-peak retail hours is an added bonus! On a random Thursday, I asked Dad if he had any plans and we took a drive to Lunenburg for lunch. In the course of sampling some craft beers and deep-dish donair pizza, the topic changed to planning summer trips. Last summer we had flown to Toronto to do some sight-seeing and take in a weekend of Blue Jays games at the newly renovated Rogers Centre. It was a great time as we were in an AirBnB across the street from the stadium.

Suggesting we could do another weekend of baseball, it was met with an underwhelming response, mostly due to the air travel and the congestion in the city. Quickly, the discussion pivoted to bucket lists. I wondered if he had one. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting a firm answer; through the years, I couldn’t identify any single place or attraction that would elicit excitement. His answer rather surprised me: “I had always wanted to see the Fallingwater house”.

I will pause for a moment in case some of you are deciding whether or not you should know what that may be. My bet is that the vast majority will not. I certainly couldn’t recall anything by that name coming up in previous conversation. As an aside (one tangent isn’t too many…), Dad had taken architecture in university and had therefore studied some of the greats, including the esteemed Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). Known for pioneering architectural moments in the early twentieth century, he influenced countless architects and apprentices over a 70-year career. One of his philosophies was to let the environment dictate the design of a structure. If it was pastural, forested, hillside, or urban, the look and feel of the structure would complement the surroundings. His crown jewel was Fallingwater, a ‘summer house’ built from 1935-1937 in a small locale called Mill Run in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Now that we had a destination, we began plotting our route with a few guidelines:

  • Keep the bulk of travel to main highways and interstates.
  • Whenever possible, avoid more than five hours of driving on any given day.
  • Stay in towns outside of large downtown cores. We wanted to avoid excess traffic and keep lodging costs down.
  • All four occupants in the car, mom, dad, myself and my fiancee, each needed to suggest destinations or attractions for us to map out along the way. Although we had an endpoint, this was a trip with experiences we all would share.
  • All food, accommodations, gas, consumables (ahem…wine with dinner?), etc. would all be split 50/50.

So on August 11, to celebrate my parents 51st wedding anniversary, we emptied the car of any contraband (joke 🙂 and set off to enjoy half the fun of getting there!

Tantallon, NS (Canada) –> Wells, ME (US of A)

The drive wasn’t notable, with a handful of stops for gas and bio breaks. The border was weird, as it always seems to be. Trying to remember the last time I had set foot in the US was harder than it should have been. With the pandemic in the rearview, I usually just add three years to whatever time period I ‘think’ makes sense. Thankfully it was wasn’t more than ten; in that case, border agents start asking more pointed questions about past convictions and reasons why you haven’t visited such a fabulous country in such a long time.

By Sunday night, after my calculations, we already had experienced 1/6th of the fun! We had an unflashy new currency, a brand, spanking new time zone, and shrinking distances to drive (silly metric conversion)! We settled into our AirBnB off the main drag and fought with the smart TV until bedtime.

Stay tuned for Part 2, where the adventure really begins!

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, employer or affiliation.