Day 10: Green Mountains to Springfield

Rest day over, time to move on. This time to Enfield, just south of Springfield but in the State of Connecticut.

The weather is no great improvement on yesterday, in fact it is slightly worse, so it is a damp drive today:

Breakfast at "Sugar and Spice" - pancakes in a restaurant cafe with Maple syrup making facilities on the premises. Bet that looks good in season.

On, then to Route 7 South:

• Green Mountains with some occasional photo stops of fall foliage and New England buildings
• Bennington: To the Battle Monument and up it for the misty views around Bennington. This was followed by Bennington Old Church, then lunch.
• Williamstown
• "The Berkshires" - which is seemto be the same hills as Vermont's "Green Mountains", now we're in Massachsetts they don't (won't) call them that!
• Pittsfield - not the same Pittsfield as yesterday because we're in a different state, now and this one is very busy . Why do all the states have the same place names, it's so confusing!

A short diversion here along Route 20 to Hancock Shaker Village. We've got here about an hour and a quarter before closing time to go round something that really takes half a day. The lady at the entrance is sympathetic to the plight of a young (sic) couple doing a lightning tour of New England, and she lets us in for half price. We do a lightning tour of Hancock Shaker Village which is definitely worth a longer stay.

We opt to by-pass Pittsfield and nip down a side road to the Massachusetts Turnpike, which on joining and queuing we are presented with a ticket. I ask what we do with it and am told to hand it in at the other end. Some nice bits of foliage en route and on leaving the turnpike we queue up to hand the ticket in and pay nothing - there's a nice little time waster if ever there was one. We must have missed something very important about this turnpike thing.

Arrive at the hotel and check in..

Shortly after settling in and Andrew busy with comfort break, so to speak, the fire alarm goes off and sets in motion a very disorganised evacuation of the hotel - if indeed it was evacuated:

• At the foot of the stairs there is someone in pyjamas telling people it is a false alarm - It wasn't made very clear in the fire evacuation instructions in the room that the fire wardens would be wearing pyjamas.
• No guidance at the fire exits as to where the muster point was, presumably just walk a safe distance away from the hotel.
• No information from anyone what was actually going on.
• Three fire tenders arrived with hotel guests still wandering in and out of various entrances to the hotel and loitering in the lobby.

A false alarm gives a hotel a great opportunity to test its fire procedures - if this is typical then it does not surprise me at all that there a big losses in hotel fires - residents and staff don't seem to take it seriously.

Brief dip in the hotel pool then off to bed. 

Goto Day 11: Connecticut River Valley to Newport

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