Man. It's freakin hot.

The Summertime Strikes Back

It was hot Saturday, freakin hot. And humid. I wasn't done with my work until the early afternoon. We had lunch and then headed out, looking for something to do. The clouds were looming in the distance (Cumulonimbus...) so we were expecting a good soaking.

This iconic sign signifies a roadside farm stand on Rte.47 selling fresh in-season produce. Alligator Brook Farm. To wit:

I had never noticed these trees by the roadside before, and I thought at first they were the now very rare Chestnut tree.


But looking through some books later, I found that they were actually probably Chinkapins. The Chestnut was nearly wiped out at the beginning of the 20th century by a blight probably introduced from the Chinese Chestnut tree. That once mighty and widespread tree now rarely grows bigger than 20'-40' and rarely bares fruit.

I needed an ink-cartridge for my printer and I had read an article on a company called 'Ink Solutions' on Main St. Northampton and thought I'd give them a try. They recycle/refill used ink cartridges and sell them cheaper than the insane retail prices. I was in and out of there in all of one minute, and it cost me $21 for a cartridge usually going for $32-$39 new.

We stepped back out into the blistering afternoon heat, I think I said "man, it's freakin hot" to myself about twelve times as we trudged up to Dunkin Donuts for an ice coffee. I snapped some pictures of some nice architectual work on a couple buildings along the lower section of Main St.

You just dont see this kind of detail and craftsmanship too often anymore. Now it seems it's always build'em fast, build em' cheap.

I thought they did a nice job refacing this building with the tiny blue tile work.

We got the coffees and lingered around inside the D&D, soaking up the air conditioning. It was crowded with people in there this afternoon. Again, the air conditioning. Man it was freakin hot outside...

Walking back to the vehicle, we stopped to look at this outdoor art exibit of naked bronze people.

This guy must have been another friend of Lando Calrissian's.

From there we drove up through Florence. I thought there was supposed to be a big balloon show at Look Park, but we must have missed it, or they canceled, no balloons were to be seen.

There used to be a giant sign that had a constanoga wagon train and the words 'Go West!' in giant letters atop one of the buildings. It's gone now, too bad they didn't restore it. I always thought it kind of marked the entrance to the outskirts/country.

We drove up through Williamsburg and then went north up some back roads. I wasn't sure where I was but I had my trusty GPS with me. I turned it on and followed what I thought showed a main road.

Then this main road ran out of pavement and turned into this:

Oh well, at least I knew my coordinates. We followed this wooded fire road for a few miles and ended up by the Northampton resevoir.

This spillway probably hadn't seen water for a very long time.

It had been raining lightly for a little while, and there were flashes of lightning all around. We finally got on pavement again and were heading north towards Conway. Kelly made a comment about hoping to see some really cool lightning, and I said be careful what you wish for. Not three minutes later, it was a deluge.

Lightning and thunder cracked all around us. It was real close, because there was no delay between the flashes and the crashing thunder. I was half expecting a tree to fall across the road in front of us.

It was pretty intense for about 10 minutes, then it began to ease up. We passed some beautiful farmland in Conway.

We'd had enough fun for this hot sticky afternoon. We found Rte.116, and headed back home.

Two Great Local Bloggers

Thank You to Tommy Devine http://www.tommydevine.blogspot.com/ the local blog Grand Master, for plugging this blog, hope you enjoy it.

And also thanks again to Mary Carey http://aboutamherst.blogspot.com/ for the encouraging comments early on.