Fun With Nan and George

 June 30 to July 6

Hi Blog!

After leaving the Promised Land in Pennsylvania, we drove over to East Canaan, Connecticut to catch up with our friends Nan and George. We first met them at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in 2015. Our paths have crossed a number of times over the years. When we arrived on Wednesday, they invited us to join them at the Little Red Barn brew pub. No sooner did we get our brews and BBQ, then the heavens opened up. Like true RVers, we huddled under our umbrella and waited out the storm.

On Thursday, we hung out and played cards until the weather cleared enough for us to take a tour of their lake.

Connecticut is experiencing some weird weather this week. Yes, it is July 2nd and we are wearing our fleece jackets! With all the unsettled weather, we decided to tour the Norman Rockwell Museum. The museum was founded in 1969 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where Rockwell lived the last 25 years of his life. Originally located on Main Street in a building known as the Old Corner House, the museum moved to its current location 24 years later, opening to the public on April 3, 1993.

The new museum space, has room for traveling exhibits. We were treated to a great exhibit called Enchanted: A History of Fantasy Illustration. There were sculptures like the one pictured below. There were a number of original oils used as cover art for various sci-fi and fantasy books and comis. We loved all the dragons! There was even some Lord of the Rings art.

As much fun as the fantasy exhibit was, we came to learn all about Norman Rockwell. In addition to 574 original works of art by Rockwell, the museum also houses the Norman Rockwell Archives, a collection of over 100,000 various items, which include photographs, fan mail, and various business documents. We loved seeing the before, during and after images. Rockwell loved to stage his works and always used models for the folks he painted.

One room of the museum was dedicated to all the Saturday Evening Post covers that Rockwell painted. There are 320 of them! Here is just a sample.

After immersing ourselves in all things Rockwell, we enjoyed a tour of downtown Stockbridge and a scrumptious lunch at a local Greek restaurant. On the way home, we stopped at Berkshire Mountain Distillers to sample their FIVE gins! We don't remember what happened after that! (g)

On Saturday, the two of us visited the Norfolk Farmer's Market. It was our turn to treat Nan and George for lunch. We found a cold strawberry soup and a Mediterainan frittata with creamy dill dressing. Kathy made her famous blackbean and corn salad. Patty, our patio tomato plant, graced us with two ripe tomatoes in time to make a tomato and basil salad with baby zuchini. The centerpiece was a wonderfully artistic focaccia bread we gound at the farmers market:

On the morning of July 4th, our campground held a Rubbet Duck Race. We had stumbled across one in Deer Lodge, Montana, so we were family with the process. There are 500 numbered rubber ducks, and campers could purchase their favorite numbers. The proceeds go to a local food bank. Pictured below are all the duckies that escaped after the race.

We did our part to fetch the errant duckies.

Our campground was only a 20 minute drive from the Appalachian Trail. On Monday, George joined us for a hike to Lions Head, one of the most scenic overlooks in Connecticut. No hike would be complete without a trailhead selfie!

Since the area from Maine to Pennsylvania was once covered with glaciers, it is not uncommon to find glacial eractics littered about the countryside. Here George posed with a particularly handsome specimen.

Here George and Kathy give perspective to the ever changing trail, with George at the bottom of a drainage ravine and Kathy up the other side:

You never know who you are going to  meet on the Appalachian Trail. We encountered a number of thru-hikers and section hikers. This fun guy snuck up on Kathy and gave a quite a fight!

Just as we reached the summit of Lion's Head, we were treated to a brief moment of sunshine.

We wanted credit for bagging the peak, so we asked George to record the moment for posterity. 

After the hike, we cleaned up and joined Nan for a great seafood dinner.

On Tuesday, we met Nan and George in Collinsville at the trailhead for the Farmington River Trail. The Farmington River Trail forms a 16.5-mile arc that connects to the larger Farmington Canal Heritage Trail. The rail-trail was built largely on the former Central New England Railway right-of-way.

As soon as we left Collinsville, we crossed an impressive railroad trestle.

From the trestle, we could look back at some of the old warehouse and factory buildings that are being converted into office space and condominiums.

Just a few miles down the trail is an impressive spillway.

There were a number of stops along the way to enjoy views of the Farmington River. We even picked some black raspberries. In a couple hours, we were back in Collinsville enjoying a great lunch at Lasalle Market and Deli.

We spent the rest of the afternoon floating in the lake at George's and Nan's place, and enjoying a great BBQ dinner. Thanks, Nan and George, for a great visit. See ya' in Florida!