Dr. Seuss Museum

On October 2, Mom went to Springfield for a concert. This gave me a chance to visit the Dr. Seuss Museum. The museum is located in the museum quadrangle. (Mom used to have a voice teacher who had a studio not far from here.) There was also a sculpture garden of the Dr. Seuss characters but since the weather was rainy, I opted to not try to photograph them.

I have very fond memories of Dad reading Dr. Seuss tales to us as bedtime stories. He could always pronounce the weird words and make everything rhyme.

Check out these photos from memory lane...

10/3/18 Deerfield, MA to Northampton, MA

Happy Birthday to Paula!

In celebration, we rode from mom's house to Northampton, where the coffee is strong and the women are stronger. 39.1 miles!


Our route took us through Hatfield, MA where they have several historic preservation districts. Here's an example of a spectacular and very well-preserved/restored Victorian era home along Main St.


By John Phelan - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

There are also tobacco barns, livestock barns, and yes, a school. The oldest home still standing was built in 1790.

Next stop, Paula's favorite kind of shopping, a grocery store. 😀 The River Valley Co-op is member-owned, with abundant local produce and a fabulous cafe. This area does a wonderful job of supporting their local agriculture and endeavoring to preserve farmland. They've created a Local Hero program where both farmers and consumers participate. We shared a Niman Ranch Pastrami with an excellent swiss cheese on a ciabatta style roll for lunch on their lovely outdoor patio followed by a chocolate chip cookie. Ride to Eat, Eat to Ride.

With our fuel tanks topped up, it was back on the trikes and on to Northampton, where we planned to visit a homebrew store called Beerology located on Pleasant Street. Pleasant Street is quite pleasant indeed as it features not only a home brew shop but also Northampton Bicycle and Northampton Coffee.  Since the bike shop had spacious parking lot, we stopped there first and used up a parking space to lock up the trikes. In the shop, the birthday girl scored a new rainbow jersey and an ORANGE bottle cage, which the bike shop staff kindly installed in the parking lot as we were pretty sure the trike wouldn't fit through their door.

Of course, while we're hanging out in the parking lot, Leslie is busy peddling the trike kool-aid to another shop customer, a local ER doc and avid mountain biker. After a spin around the parking lot, he had developed triker grin syndrome.

Next, Beerology welcomed us with an inviting storefront featuring chairs, stools, and tables made from reclaimed/recycled wooden barrels, locally produced in Greenfield, MA by the Wood & Barrel Co. We discussed New England IPAs and various beer styles, and got to sample their Oktoberfest and IPA. They offer beer tasting classes, but none before we leave. 

The day had kind of gotten away from us, and we were a little concerned about running out of daylight. On the other hand, we hadn't covered as much mileage as we had planned so we had plenty of battery charge left. We poured on the steam and averaged 19+ mph on the way back. 

The siren song of ice cream and a pit stop lured us back into Pasiecnik Farm Stand for a Moose Tracks refueling. While there, we shared a table and lovely conversation with Julie, a life coach from Whately. 

With plenty of remaining charge, we rolled up River Road and through S. Deerfield at 20-22 mph and arrived back at Leslie's mom's house before 5pm.

Great day!

10/1/18 Short Ride, Deerfield, MA

We're still "grounded", so today was another exploration of the Deerfield area. We didn't have a ton of time, so we did a very fast 10 mile loop on Upper and Lower Roads, covering some of the same ground as the previous ride.