This is David Gibson

On Wednesday we had plans to take an extended jaunt around the Pioneer Valley with our friend Sean Greene, a painter I met at UMass Amherst when I first came here in 2003. Weirdly enough he is my only male friend up here. He is a very happy go lucky guy, ex-musician, father of two, and makes beautiful abstractions that are originally inspired by the gesturality of graffitti and skateboarding but are very much about color, tonality, and what I like to call the 'keyhole effect,' a scaling of perspective beyond the edge of the canvas. Sean picked us up at our lodging and we proceeded to take a leisurely tour of the local landscape. We ended up at Cook Farm which raises cows, chickens, and rabbits. It is mainly a dairy farm and has many young and older cows in different pens. When.we arrived a young girl had stopped off the roadside to pet them. We walked around and took a lot of adorable pictures of the various animals. We bought fresh ice cream brownies and cookies to take with ...

On both Monday and Tuesday Bird and I went to Northampton, which is the larger of the two closest towns affiliated with colleges, UMass Amherst and Amherst College here, and Smith College there. Northampton is physically larger and has a fun-filled main street. It has a homegrown mall of sorts, several cafes, dozens of restaurants, a movie theatre, a fabulous old hotel, and an art museum, among other things. We always have fun when we go there. Despite being a simple place indicative of American culture, there is always a new adventure waiting to be had. Monday was a holiday, Presidents Day, which in New York would hardly raise a blip on the workaday radar, but here in New England, the cradle of American Democracy, they take it for a real holiday. The buses were running less and very slowly so we had a leisurely 90 minute wait before our bus arrived. Luckily the weather has been sunny and bright. We talked to some crows on a nearby tree and remarked about people walking around. Maybe...

Its funny how being somewhere else turns everything around. Early to bed and early to rise, as Benjamin Franklin said, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. Of course it also helps to be in a fantastically comfy bed in a great room! Looking forward to a great breakfast and to following our noses around town. Adventure awaits!

Everywhere that Bird and I go turns out to be magical. Though this is our third trip to Amherst and my dozenth, there are still new experiences to be had, new wonders to take in. We arrived at 10:30 a.m. and we were so bushed we felt ambushed. After cabbing to our B & B we checked in and crashed out. I went nearby and got us some yummy organic foods to munch on, and I took a picture of the B & B and of the Emily Dickinson House which is right across the street. We ate and slept. In the middle of the day! That's what I call indulgence. The night sky was filled with stars and Amherst opened up to us with litle lights in all the windows. 11 pm and we are ready to sleep. There's a great breakfast that comes with the room. We are looking at brochures and making plans!

Its been a very exhausting 24 hours but now we are well on our way. The bus is really moving! Its quiet and sunny and the roads are mostly empty. We just passed through Springfield MA. Bird is sleeping next to me holding my hand. Life is good.

Pre-trip exhaustion has been with us all week. Why is leaving New York so much work? Packing and organizing now. Can't forget a thing!

The day of our departure is almost upon us. Tomorrow in the early morning hours we'll pass from the frenzied hub of the city into the fresh fields and neighborly smiles of the country.