From Chelmsford to Chickapee, Longfellow to Dr. Seuss

Today we began our slow move westward across Massachusetts. It was a dark, cold rainy day.

 The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains. and the wind is never weary;
..............................................................
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
     Some days must be dark and dreary.
                                           H. W. Longfellow from "The Rainy Day"

This is the Wayside Inn in Sudbury, made famous in Longfellow's collection of poems "Tales of a Wayside Inn"

 It sits on the Boston Post road, a road marked by history.


George Washington was here.

 This writing desk belonged to the Wadsworth family.  Although Longfellow did not stay here at this inn, he wrote of it from tales his good friends relayed from having spent many summers here.

 While the inn was closed in 1831, it is very much open for your business now, and looks like a wonderful place to stay of dine.


The Grist mill at the inn.

 From Sudbury we traveled the back roads to Sturbridge to the outdoor museum at Old Sturbridge village.

 This is a living museum, with museum workers in character of the period, 1830.  They were wonderful to talk to.

 There were houses small and grand, farms and flocks and shops and everything a 1830's village would have had, all housed in period buildings moved to this site.

 The tin smith and his apprentice.

 The school keeper.

 The potter was quite a character.

 The cook/housewife.

 Skimming the clabber cream.

 The cooper.  I was unable to come up with anything to trade for a new milk pail.  He was entirely self sufficient.

 The blacksmith.

 The water-powered saw mill.

 This bridge lover is no relation, at least that we know of, but after this trip, he could be, since we share a love of covered bridges.

 We spent quite a while here before heading to Springfield, again on the backroads.  In Springfield we especially wanted to see the Dr. Seuss Memorial.  Theodor Geisel was a "local boy", and the sculptures were created by his step-daughter.

 Thing 1 and Thing 2.

 We finished our day at the Student Prince and Fort Dining Room, a German restaurant in old buildings on the site of the original fort in Springfield, a city begun in 1636.

 Tonight we are in Chickapee, at the southern end of the Pioneer Valley.

Revolutionaries

Lexington and Concord, MA are well know as the location where the Revolutionary War began.  This area is steeped in history.  But the Colonists were not the only revolutionaries to come from this area.

 We began our day on the Battle Green in Lexington.  Here the British Regulars and the Colonial Militia faced off for the first time.  It was meant to be a bloodless surrender of the colonists, but somebody fired a shot.  When the shooting ended, seven militia were dead, ten wounded, and the Red Coats were marching to Concord to capture the arms stored there by the colonist "Minute Men".  And so the War for Independence began.

 We visited as many historical sites as we could squeeze in today, beginning with a tour of the Buckman Tavern, an old inn on the green where the Militia gathered after Paul Revere arrived with news that "the Regulars are out".

 Next we walked the five or so blocks to the Hancock-Clark Parsonage, where Paul Revere arrived to tell Sam Adams and John Hancock that the Red Coats were on the move.  This was a particularly interesting tour as the house was full of the actual furnishings used then, and we learned a lot of family history.  It was John Hancock, a wealthy man, who was funding the Revolution.

 This building on the green is the first teachers school in this country.

 We had arranged to have lunch with my sisters before we went our separate ways, so we shot up to Concord, to the old Concord Inn, to meet for lunch.

 I had Yankee pot roast, of course.

 The War for Independence was not the only revolution started here.  Revolutionary thinking also found its home in Concord.  Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, and Nathaniel Hawthorne all lived here, and died here, and are buried here on Author's Ridge in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

                                    Thoreau

                                         Louisa

                               Hawthorne

                                          Emerson

 The North Bridge on the Concord river was the scene of the second battle, which sent the Red Coats fleeing back down Battle Road to Boston.  And as they went they we ambushed by militia around every bend and from behind every stone wall.

 Right next to the bridge was this farm owned by the Emerson family. Yep, the revolutions get all mixed together in the Concord pot.  And Nathaniel Hawthorne lived here too for a while.

 Over at the National Park Headquarters, located in an old "summer home" mansion, I had to have a photo of the magnificent old Copper Beach trees. 

 As you know, Thoreau was an early environmentalist, and dare I say, Hippie?  For about a year and a half he lived in a "hut" on Walden Pond.

 This is a replica of his house.

 It was located down this path, on the pond shore.

 Emerson's house was practically across the street from the Alcotts.

 This is where Louisa wrote Little Women.

 Her father's school.

 And the house where she grew up, which was another place where Hawthorne also lived.

 It was even a small part of the Underground Railroad.

 We were headed back to Lexington, following the Battle Road.  The Hartwells witnessed it first hand from their tavern along the road.

 Back in Lexington, the Munroe Tavern became a field hospital for wounded and dying Red Coats.

 And by now we needed a little aid ourselves, which we found at the Lexington Starbucks.