Sturbridge was all that
- livewellnaturallyu
- Oct 19, 2023
- 8 min read
We saw a lot of stuff and covered a lot of ground while staying in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. We hadn't been in our campsite for more than 5 minutes, when a family came strolling along to greet us. The Dad and their two older kids all stood back aways, while the Mom proceeded to join us unprompted to give us the 411 of the campground.
'Well ya see' as she points to our location being down at the bottom of the campground, 'yer known as the flat landers. See now, those people o'ver ther' pointing to the campsites along the lake, 'them people are known as the lake people. Wez people are known as the hillz people' as she points up towards the hills that are beyond the lake.' I replied, 'oh, I bet it's pretty up there' and she quipped back 'only if ya wanna get fleas n ticks, for it's full of 'em up there. You don't dare come up into the hillz cuz of all the fleas n ticks, your dog would be eatin' alive', as her family continues to idly standby in the road... with a dog!
I thanked her for the insights and thought that might be the end of the conversation. I use that word lightly, for it was more of a broadcast and zero receive. Yet. much to our chagrin, she continued on with long stories that varied in topics, including an update on her health. I looked over and Doug had slowly backed up to the outside of the RV, trying to become one with our rig. I knew I had to find a break in her monologue before I saw an outline of his body on the side of our RV, so I thanked her for her hospitality and off she went.
The next day, we decided to go to a local attraction, beyond the hillz people, to a wonder filled place called The Old Sturbridge Village. It was based in the mid 1800's and was on 200 acres. There were 50 buildings to explore, people were placed about dressed in period pieces and were eager to chat and answer any questions.
There were sheep grazing on hillsides, horse drawn carriages (that left droppings behind, unlike Disneyland - there were not any pooper scoopers bringing up the rear, making this very lifelike and important to watch your step!) They grew their own food on the premises that was used to make meals that they sold in various eateries. They also sold items that were being handcrafted in a number of dwellings, such as iron works, crafts and wood working. It was really cool to see it first hand and was very well done. If you are ever in this area, this is a 'gotta go check it out' rating from us.
The following day, we headed East to the coast to catch up with a classmate of mine, Roger Beal. We didn't hang out in high school but we knew each other. This is one of the things I love about social media, our 84 common friends kept us in each others loops. I am grateful to be from the beach and I love the culture of our community that brings us together.
Doug and I were looking forward to seeing his life in Hingham, Massachusetts. We met at the beach for a short walk and to let Maggie frolic about. Then, we walked across the road to The Parrot, for lunch. His wife Lisa was working that day, so we missed the chance to meet her, hoping to do so next time. We had a great lunch on the patio, so Maggie could join us. This was probably one of the last days for outdoor lunches, but the sun saved the day!
Then, we piled into Roger's truck for a beach cruise. This included some local sights, the stories that go along with various places and a tour through a gorgeous neighborhood with sprawling mansions. Really cool to see. We stopped at his home surf shop - Nor'Easter Surf Shop and met the owner Mark. Roger had a board there, a photo of him surfing and some great swag, thanks! It was fun to hear about their collective stories of surfing in frigid temps. 'If you get two brain freezes in a row, then you gotta get out of the water' says Mark. 'This is ice on my hat' Roger points out in a picture of him surfing last winter. I can't imagine but props to them for being so dedicated to the sport of surfing.
As we were standing outside about to leave, a guy parks across the street and runs over to drop off a board. He sees Roger standing there and hands him his daughter's board that is in need of a ding repair. We piled back in his truck along with the board and headed back to our car. It was a really nice day and I'm glad we took the time to make the drive. Stoked we got to hang out and thanks to Roger for showing us around.
We took a day off from adventuring, in anticipation of some rain. It ended up not raining much, in fact we have had amazing weather thus far. However the day off was what we needed. We found a seemingly empty room that we turned into our own yoga studio. We brought in our mats, blocks and bolsters for a yin yoga class. About half way through our hour long class, people began to walk in. Turns out it was much more of a rec room with ping pong, pinball, and foosball, then it was a yoga studio. I tapped into Karina's teachings when the trash truck would come next door to our outdoor studio in La Jolla to pick up the trash from our neighboring taco shop. So I let the surrounding noise represent the unwanted noise in real life and used it as an opportunity to dive deeper within. It was wonderful opportunity to stretch out after our countless miles on the road.
The next day, we had a mission at hand, for you see we are trying to fill in our sticker map and figured out that in order to get Rhode Island and Vermont, it would require us to take a day trip to each state. It's uncanny that every day trip seems to be 1.5 hours away; Hingham, Newport and Brattleboro.
So, off to Newport, Rhode Island we go. We parked along the coast and wandered around with Maggie. They were having a festival of some kind and there were scads of people wandering around. Initially, we had a hard time finding a dog friendly eatery despite what the world wide web had reported.
Then, we wandered into a wonderful respite from the hustle and the cold. We found a bar that had a porch that was partitioned off from the outdoors. There was room for Maggie to lay down, the heater was keeping us just the right amount of warm and the music couldn't have been better, both in style and volume. I know I sound like an old lady as I type this and I'm completely ok with that. It's the little things in life, that become the big things. Truly.
Then, we took the picturesque drive, that I had taken over a decade ago with my girls of the humongous mansions with sprawling yards that dotted along the winding coast.
Rhode Island was now checked off of our list, so to Brattleboro, Vermont we go! Google led us to a lovely experience at the Robb Family Farm. They harvest Maple Syrup. Yes, I capitalized it on purpose, for it was a spiritual experience.
We drove along a dirt road for a bit and came across a modest, one story building with a handmade sign announcing 'Robb Family Farm'. We parked in one of the four or five spaces and proceeded to enter this humble building. As we entered the building, we saw a woman in what appeared to be a gift shop to the farm. She smiled kindly and welcomed us. We let her know that we were there to take a tour of their farm that we had heard about from online.
She said, 'sure, I'll give you the tour myself.' It turns out that she was Helen Robb, the matriarch of the family. This farm had been in their family since 1907, when her husband's great grandpa started it.
We proceeded out to the back and down a little ways, where we had a good view of the maple trees that ran all along there. She explained that their farm was over 300 acres in size, they had over 2500 trees where their 5000+ taps were running from.
They spent anywhere from 4 days to 2 weeks for the team of 6-8 people to set all of the fresh taps every year. This was done in the late part of January, into early February. Then, they gathered the sap to distill for about a 6 week period of time, from late February into early April. There is daily maintenance to be done, mostly repairing line that had been punctured by hungry critters, even a bear and someone accidentally shot it once while hunting!
The land was broken down into zones - so that they could trouble shoot any problems more efficiently, the machinery was impressive in how it gathered the sap and then it came into the building where we began, to be distilled. It was a wood burning arch that was old school method with modern upgrades on the material, electronics and readings.
We went back into the first room where we initially met Helen and she offered us some tastings of their syrup. I might have cried a little, as I experienced my first tasting. It was like nothing else I have ever tasted. So pure and light. It was wonderful. Move aside Log Cabin, Robb Family Farm is our new syrup for life!
We found some things to buy from her gift shop including two bottles of syrup. She thanked us for our time and then paused. I watched to see what was on her mind and then she shared, 'this was my first tour... since my husband passed away three weeks ago.' I paused also, to let space hold this tender moment. Then, I thanked her for sharing and for the wonderful tour. I asked if she wanted a hug. She said 'I'll probably cry' and I replied, 'I've already cried over your syrup, we're good.'
I remarked, 'I bet he was a wonderful man' and she proceeded to share about their long marriage, four grown kids, grandkids and life on the farm. She said they rented 200 chairs for his service on the farm and over 400 people showed up that day. This was a very rural place where houses were far and few between. That spoke volumes along with how wonderful Helen was. I could only imagine this beautiful life that they had lived together. She was a remarkable woman and I wished I could have spent the afternoon listening to her stories. I will always remember this day.
This wraps up Sturbridge, Massachusetts. We are currently in Accord, New York. I will send another blog next week, once we leave here, to share what we found here.
I hope all is well with you and your loved ones. Here's to making more memories with friends and family. Connecting with each other is the sweet nectar of life.
Sending all of our love,
Shari n Doug
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