Trip Report: Detroit, Glens Falls, Boston, Glens Falls, Pottersville, Clifton Park, Glens Falls, Detroit.

Okay, a quick update on the rest of my road trip, with perhaps a few photos thrown in for good effect.

I drove out to Glens Falls on a Friday, and arrived around 10 pm or so. In addition to the lovely 40+ mpg mileage, the Honda Civic Hybrid has another great feature for long road trips, a stereo with XM Radio and a connection for my iPod.

On Saturday I had a nice visit with my Mom and my stepfather Dick. I made a successful delivery of some yummy chocolate-chip cookies that Monique cooked up, as well as a much belated birthday present for Dick: a very interesting book called The Big Burn, which is about a huge forest fire in 1910 that led to the creation of the National Forest Service.
Dick reading The Big Burn.

It was a nice, relaxing day. My sister Katrina stopped by for a while, and my Mom and I went to the Glens Falls Farmer's Market at the Methodist Church, then went to a display of American Impressionists at the Hyde Museum.

I have no photos of the Farmers' Market or the art display, but here's a link to the Northeast Corner Herb Farm in Fort Ann, NY. I bought a jar of their Ginger-Rhubarb soft-set jam, and it made an entirely and completely delicious glaze for the pork roast that Monique and I cooked the next weekend for Easter Dinner.

Saturday night I resisted the extreme temptation to go out drinkin' with Vernon Fuss (who had noticed I was in GF from my Facebook update) and had a nice, quiet evening at home because I had to get up early and drive off to Boston. Sunday was taken up with the drive to-and-from Boston for our fantasy baseball draft, plus the draft itself.

On Monday I drove up to Pottersville and visited my Dad for a few hours. Unfortunately, his wife Elena had to zip off to work shortly after I got there, but she left behind a delicious pot of bear borscht. However, left to our own devices Dad, Ariel (the visiting daughter of one of my Dad's friends) and I dug into the large pot of bear borscht with much glee.

I feel I should take a moment to explain to my non-Adirondack readers that the "bear" in "bear borscht" is not a metaphor or a clever recipe title. The recipe for bear borscht starts like this:

Step 1) Kill a bear.

There are lots and lots of steps afterwards, but the result is a delicious and savory stew that tastes just right when topped with a dollop of sour cream on a blustery March afternoon.

We also went out to cut a bit more firewood. My Dad has a clever firewood storage facility. He calls it, "the trees out back."

Here, we finally have a few more photos:


Ariel proves to be camera shy, while my Dad gets the chain saw ready.


The stream behind my Dad's house.


Adirondack loggers. Okay, one genuine Adirondack logger. The junior member of this woodcutting firm is strictly an Adirondack occasional firewooder.


And with a haze of blue smoke, we're ready to cut!


John Henry may have been a mighty rail-driving man, but I'd put my old man up against him any day in a woodsplitting competition.


After leaving my Dad's I took the scenic route and drove back to Glens Falls by way of Hague and Lake George:

The view back up the Schroon River valley.


Fog sweeps in across a frozen pond.




A dark, cloudy March day on Lake George.


... and that was pretty much the end of the blog-worthy parts of my visitation. On Tuesday I went down to my company's Clifton Park office and worked a day, then drove back to GF and drafted up my second fantasy baseball team. Wednesday I drove home.

So, it was just a quick visit, but I'm glad I made it. Monique and I didn't get out to Glens Falls for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year, which meant that it had been since last Summer that I had visited my folks in New York. Ideally, I would've liked a longer visit that gave me a chance to see a lot more folks. But since my original plan was to drive to Glens Falls on Saturday, drive to Boston and back on Sunday, drive down to Clifton Park for a 1/2-day of work on Monday morning, and drive back to Detroit on Monday night, I'm glad I took a couple days off work to at least do what visiting I could do.