A Cooper Barrel In The Town

As per the normal, except for last week, 'cause ya know, I am me, here's a fresh yet highly aromatic post from I Are Writer!, and you know you just wanna be the one who knows what's what with what with my writing.

Road Trip 2016 continues with day the 2nd: slightly below mid-state New York.

So while we was having morning eats at Burger King I studied the handy dandy Rand McNally to see what non-highway driving we could do.

A couple of points I should make clear before I continues:

1. We budgeted $45 per day for meals, and yes, we were able to do a few sit downs during the trip and even did take out from the local supermarket.
2. We also budgeted $75 per night for lodging, and except for the beginning and ending price gouges ($125 & $142), we were able to either stay at budget or under budget, and with money saved, was able to go slightly over budget. Those hotel/motel coupon books that you find at the various highway rest areas come in handy.

 I am a very firm believer in road maps. I actually enjoy reading road atlases, and using a atlas on this trip came in very handy for daily/hourly plotting of the driver. After perusing the Rand McNally, I discovered that NY 7 hopscotched I-81 all the way down to Cooperstown. What I mean by hopscotch is that the road in period intervals would cross the interstate, thus giving the driver an opportunity to hop back on the freeway to experience the best dull driving (among other things) that money can buy.

So, after devouring our very HEALTHY fast food breakfast of a sausage crossanwich, hash brown tater tots and coffee, we done hopped into the car and sped through downtown Cobbleskill (road under construction, which became a common theme on this trip) through the great New York countryside.

Seriously, New York does have a fantastic countryside. Great slice of rural America. Speed limit for the most part was 50, until you approached a small town, then it dropped to 40, then 30, then 25, they you drove through, blinked a few times until you got to the other side, then got back up to cruising speed.

I won't bore you with the details of the endless amount of regular farms, dairy farms, horse farms and farmer in the dells, but it was a seriously relaxing and peaceful drive.



Alas poor Horatio, I knew Mr. Alger, we eventually reached the city limits of Cooperstown, which surprisingly enough, was built up without being obnoxiously tacky. We arrived at one of the outer parking lots, where the trolley stopped there every twenty minutes or so and ran from 9 to 9. $2 got you an all day trolley pass. And one of the stops was directly in front of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

ahem, time to let loos the inner child.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh! My! God! It's the Baseball Hall of Fame!

enter the adult.

The Baseball Hall Of Fame is the place to visit if you're a baseball fan. Reasonably priced ($23 per, cheaper if you're a member), it is an excellent way to spend 2-3 hours. A self guided tour, it starts off by showing a sample locker with memorabilia from all 30 teams. Then it covers almost every piece of history and phase that you could possible imagine, from players to teams, fans to stadiums, and everything in between. You finish up the tour in the actual plaque area, of which the picture above was taken. I did take roughly one dozen or so pics of the plaques. And yes, we bought some souvenirs: a leather key chain and shot glass of the NY Mets, and a Boston Red Sox hat for the son. Daughter didn't want anything.

This place was the main agenda of my vacation, and it exceeded all my expectations. To finish up this stop, we got an impromptu trip around Cooperstown via the trolley, since it had about 13 stops to make and the parking lot where we were was the last stop. The driver was a blast to talk to and the ride was about as smooth as you can possible get for public transportation.

Up next: Highway Driving!

(c) 2016 BOOKS BY G.B. MILLER. All Rights Reserved.