TRAVELOGUE OF 413 AREA CODE

“And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.” (Matthew 17:9)

Twenty-four hour vacations are always way too short but SOMETIMES you have to take what you can get!  Mary Ann and I left for western Massachusetts on Sunday around 3 p.m.  We had no reservations and did not know where we’d be staying.  We got off the MASS PIKE at Lee and drove north.  We stopped at several places which had no vacancy (what happened to the old “NO VACANCY” signs from my childhood?).  Ultimately, we stayed at Days Inn in Lenox which was just O.K.  Considering how difficult it was to find a room, I was satisfied.  That area is VERY pretty.  We stopped briefly at Laurel Lake in Lee and Mary Ann snapped a few photos.  We took out pizza from “Arizona Pizza” near the Lenox/Pittsfield line.  The menu was confusing, and the restaurant was dark and I mean DARK.  We went outdoors just to read the menu.  I was hoping to “eat in” but there was SUCH a long wait we ended up getting a take-out pizza and brining it back to our room.  It was a good pizza- not outstanding, but good.

On Monday we drove to Mount Greylock, which I believe is the highest point in the Berkshires.  It was only 20 minutes north of the motel in Lenox...somehow I thought it would be further away than that.  It took twenty minutes to drive to the summit.  Monday was a pretty clear day and the view was spectacular!  (Greylock is over 3,400 feet tall.  I’ve been up Mt. Mansfield in VT a number of times- this one is only a little smaller, but still only about half the height of Mt. Washington in NH.)  There is a tower at the summit with a narrow, winding stairway you can climb to the top.  Mary Ann and I started up and she got very claustrophobic and had to stop.  Honestly, I’m glad we went back down. It was crowded and I mean CROWDED.  It was SO crowded that it was NOT fun.  I’m surprised they don’t restrict how many people can go up in the tower at a time.  Driving down I had the Dodge Caravan in Low Gear PART of the time.  If I had it to do all over again, I’d have had it in Low ALL the time.  Low was slow BUT the trip down was hard on the brakes.  I’m glad we got new brakes on this vehicle just a couple of months ago!  I know this trip was hard on them.

We drove up the mountain from the Lanesborough/Pittsfield end, but took a different route down and ended up in North Adams.  I’ve only been to North Adams once or twice before.  It doesn’t LOOK like Massachusetts at all!  You’d swear you were in VT or in the Adirondack region of New York.  We headed east on Route 2 and stopped at a neat lookout point and gift shop in Florida.  Did you know there’s a Florida, MA?  Mary Ann had never heard of it.
After a late lunch at Friendly’s in Greenfield, it was on to the major highways and we got back to Framingham around 5.  The foliage was not as pretty as we’d hoped for but it WAS nice to get away!

In the next three weeks I’ve got an impossible load of white-collar AND BLUE-COLLAR work to do in my role of “Jack of all trades” at First Assembly of God of Framingham.  I know the Assemblies of God does not believe in cloning but I wish I could clone three other Bob Barils to help me get all this work done.  Even so, it WAS nice to have a brief getaway!