The last day of our vacation – Day 4.
We checked into the Bradley Motel last night and it is a
palace compared to the motel down in New
Haven. The hall ways are spacious and
the paint is clean and there are chandeliers on the ceilings of the foyer. They offer a conference center and all it can
offer and the motel in New Haven offered a conference center too, but it was
small, dingy and run down – just like the rest of the motel.
We were told that this motel had a hot tub but none was to
be found. We thought we might like to
take a swim in the pool – but when we tested the water we found that we did not
have any mermaids in our midst and so no swimsuits were released from their
suitcases. A pretty sad bunch of
intrepid travelers to say the least – but we went upstairs and got ready for
bed.
We ate breakfast - really top notch food this morning and we left for Old Sturbridge Village. We have been here some years ago and I spent
the entire time chasing David down because he kept running off. Not much has changed because he gets going
and soon he is not within earshot and barely in line of sight. They had a number of camps going during
the time we were there. A number of children dressed in period
costume were following a lady around (who also was in period costume) and we
followed them to the grape arbor where they were obviously being tutored in the
finer points of behavior for children of that time period and also given a
history lesson or two I suppose. Some of
the children wore similar looking shoes to those worn so many years ago but it
caused me to laugh to see period costume and Nike shoes. A little anachronistic to say the least.
We took a tour of one of the main mansions. The furniture was remarkable but there were
only a few things from the original owners - one of which was an oil portrait of
the son of the original owner. Many of
the artifacts came from the period of time that Old Sturbridge represents, and
so one would expect to see a quilt or two or even a hand loomed blanket. I was looking to see if someone had loomed a
Lees Surrender or Whig Rose or some
other colonial pattern for a blanket. They
only had pieces of fabric over the feathers and straw mattresses and I guess
that is right because if they had the overshot weaving on the bed, there was
nothing really to stop anyone from climbing over the flimsy wooden fence at the
door and helping themselves to the prized woven blanket. The floor in this mansion was painted
canvas. The wallpaper was reproduction
and was garish. The interpreter told us
that the wallpaper had been purchased at the local shop for a song. (must have been off key!) We were told that in some of the bedrooms,
there were as many as 4 people to the bed and that this was quite common. Also a good idea in Winter because the house
was not heated. This brought to mind a
line from “The Lion in Winter” where Catherine Hepburn quipped ,”Packed in like
the poor, four to a bed……” It must have
made for interesting sleeping if someone snored or if one rolled over and out
of bed……there’s a camp song about rolling over and, “one rolled out, there was four to the bed and
the middle one said, Roll over, Roll over, so they all rolled over and one
rolled out, there were three in the bed, and the middle one said……”
We ate at the cafeteria in the basement of one of the
Refectory buildings and it was pretty good.
The next stop was the horse drawn carriage ride around the mill
pond. This was peaceful to see but I was
getting stressed out because it was getting late and we had an hour ride back
to Bradley Field to drop the kids off.
Of course we had to spend time in the gift shop and David stood eying
all the “Made in China” el cheapo stuff and wanting to buy the lot – but nary a
penny did he have! He did ask for and
got the website address so that ‘when he
gets money, he can order it online’. My
guess is he will find other things at Wal Mart that will suit him better when
he has his money in his hands….and he will forget the cheap toys at Sturbridge
Village; Not a bad idea really!
Filled the car with gas and off we went back to Bradley
Field where we left David and Sara to navigate the maze of lines, check-in
procedures etc. and drove off on our way to Maine. It was a much better trip home than the
horrendous trip through driving rain on the way down last Friday. We only had slow/go at the major interchanges
on I-90 and I-95 but other than those few interchanges, the traffic moved at
about 60mph. That trumps 15mph or less
in nose to tail traffic in blinding rain.
We drove from Bradley Field to the rest stop at Kennebunk
and there we ate dinner and changed drivers.
We rolled in at 7.45pm – about 5 hours travel including dinner – from Bradley
to Augusta.
Roxana called and said that she had been to the doctor and
he gave her some cream for the rash on her arms and that he detected a heart
murmur and referred her to a heart doctor.
She says she feels a lot better than she did in Connecticut.
Jacob received news from his doctors in Omaha that they will
not do a biopsy and they have referred him back to the specialist he has in
Lincoln. They want to take him off the
Prednisone and one other med to see how he does. Ethan is aware that his daddy is very ill
but the little ones are not aware at all that we can discern. Sara is elated about having a job in the high
School for this year and hopes that the funding will still be there next
year. This is such a wildly swinging
pendulum that it is hard to keep track of it all.
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