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I Am Going to Leave Her Here: The Rebel Yell of Edith Wharton’s The Mount
The homes of favorite authors are always must-stops on my travel itineraries. But the old adage “Never meet your heroes” might well be applied to writers’ homes, where the reality is usually less than remarkable, running the limited gamut from the spartan and unexceptional to the unkempt, if not derelict. Edith Wharton’s The Mount, the Lenox, Massachusetts, seemed destined to follow the same pattern. My first visit, shortly after I’d moved to the area in 1996, was, to put it politely, underwhelming. Having been benignly neglected and sometimes outright mistreated for half a century, first as a girls’ boarding school and then as the backdrop for theatrical productions, The Mount…
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The Secret Lives of Northeastern Muffler Men
They’ve been standing guard along roadsides, in front of car and boat dealerships, and atop restaurants for decades. They’ve been subjected to target practice, kidnapped by college students, and used as unofficial mile markers for military planes. They’ve been transformed into pirates, flag-waving patriots, and amusement-park bogeymen. One even foreshadowed the resurgence of Wonder Woman, ten years before she raked in millions on the silver screen. They’re the Muffler Men of the Northeast, and nearly 75 years after they rose, with a mighty squeak, from their molds, they still serve as inspiration for travelers like me. While the largest density of Muffler Men is in the South, Northeastern Muffler Men—30…
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Small Travel: Grafton Lakes State Park
I live in a part of New York State that hasn’t changed much in the nearly 25 years that I’ve been here. Sometimes this is maddening. “How is it that we have only two new restaurants?” I’ve whined to friends, in the way that only those plagued with first-world problems do. (“Why does that have to open here?” I’ve simultaneously bemoaned, after noticing a Dollar General going up in my rural town of about 3,000.) But oftentimes, the things that changed the least are the things I have the most affection for. One of these is Grafton Lakes State Park. The park is in Grafton, a conservative rural town not…
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1000 Islands Road Trip: Penn Yan to Clayton, Cape Vincent & Sackets Harbor
Many thanks to CM Communications and the 1000 Islands Harbor Hotel for hosting me on my 1000 Islands road trip. The support of businesses and organizations such as these helps me to create useful guides for readers like you. All opinions are my own. This is part 2 of a road trip through the Finger Lakes and 1000 Islands. If you missed part 1, start here. 1000 Islands Road Trip Day 3 Itinerary: Watkins Glen to Clayton Along Route 14, on the western lip of Seneca Lake, broad fields tumble down to the shoreline, their flat-topped hills crowned with enormous rolled bales of hay bleaching in the sun. We make…
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Finger Lakes Road Trip: Watkins Glen & Seneca Lake
“Wait,” my husband, Floren, says, and catches my arm. He holds out his hand, a blue surgical mask dangling from one fingertip. I take it and pull it over my nose and mouth. I’ll never get used to this, I think, and head for the coffee shop. Four months into the pandemic that’s finally loosening its grip on New York State, and I still step out of my car and, as if nothing has changed, head toward the store or office, only to double back when I remember the one thing that seems to be keeping most of the world’s population healthy.
Writing the waves of coastal travel
