Thursday, September 3, 2015
We had an uneventful trip from our last and wonderful campground, to Phillipston, MA, where we will be situated for a week.  Labor Day Weekend is included in this stay, and it doesn't seem like there is a lot to do here.  Maybe we'll watch football and rest up!  We're back in moose country, and we are starting to see more of the leaves changing color.  We do believe it is because it's been so dry lately, and all these trees are rooted into a very hard rock base.  They are under stress, thus they will turn color sooner. In some areas, it's still quite green, so they have either gotten some rain, or the soil is richer. We've had some questions on the Cliff Walk we did yesterday, so I'll post some more pictures from that, so it's better understood.  I also want to explain a little more about Cornelius Vanderbilt II.  He inherited the mantle as head of the Vanderbilt empire in 1885.  At this time, they were dealing mostly in railroads, and he and his brother, William directed the family business.  Cornelius suffered a paralyzing stroke 11 years after taking the helm, and he died in 1899 at the age of 56.  At the time of his death, the local gossip held that he had more money than the U.S. Mint!

Most of the walking path was cement, and not very wide.  It was too narrow to walk two abreast most of the time, especially when meeting people.  Hurricane Sandy came through and did some serious destruction to the walkway, but the Corps of Engineers came in and repaired it.

This is an area at the southern end, and they had large flat rocks positioned, as to make a walkway.  Some people had trouble with it, but we're used to walking on rocks in AZ!  These were huge, and no problem for us.

We had a couple of these tunnels to go through, and it was very comfortable in there.  The breeze from the ocean came through and cooled the air. 

This was at the very end of the Cliff Walk, and in fact, we had to leave the cement pathway, and make our way over some rough rocks, such as those showing here.

This fancy little 'cubicle' was on the far end of the property of an Italian type structured home, and an opera singer's voice was being broadcast from it, as we walked by.

For the next week, we will only report in, if we find something exciting to do, or we see a moose!  I am finding some bike trails, but if they aren't any better than the last one, we'll pass.  We do see a couple of state parks that have hiking and geo-caching, so we may do that.  We need to get our souvenir for Massachusetts. Jim is setting up our DirecTV, as their satellite here is so-so, and we want to get the Packers and Badgers, if we can!  The fellow that parked us is a staunch Patriot fan, and he made it clear that everyone else around here is, too.  I wonder if I should put up our Packer flag!  We're fine with relaxing a bit, but I'm sure that will wear off quickly!  Jim's back is better, so that's a plus. Have a great Labor Day Weekend, and to our grandson, Greg...we hope you had a great day!  He's 12 today.