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.
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
It's unfortunate that such wide swaths of the American landscape are accessible only via bus. I do enjoy the great views of land and sky, and there is a serene quality to passing through all the places and non-places in such a conveyance, but at the same time, oh, it just takes forever.
And this is the neat corner!!
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