Autumn in the North Cemetery.

Sixty miles west of Boston, Massachusetts there is the small New England town of Sturbridge. Located at the junction of I-90 (The Mass Pike), and I-84 it has become known as the "Crossroads of New England". The town was first settled over 300 years ago, and like other small New England towns it has grown just enough over the years to be in a difficult place today. How do we embrace the future without forgetting how we got to our present? How do we attract the right kind of growth, and maintain who we are? And, what about our culture out here in Central Massachusetts?



These pages will cause one to think about how to protect what we have, our future direction, and how to move on in the very best way.


Those thoughts, and other ramblings, will hopefully inspire more thought, conversation, action, and occasionally a smile...

...seems to be working so far

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Take The Other Road

Utely Road in New Braintree just off Route 67.
Click for larger image.






Sometimes I am guilty of the "it's-all-about-me" behavior.  Something I really don't like at all.  One would think Sturbridge was the only place on Earth worth writing about, visiting, living in, or dining in.


I have to take the blinders off once in a while to see beyond the tip of my nose, which doesn't make any sense at all, but I think you get my point.

There is a world outside our borders.

I am not referring to Paris, or Ankar Wat, I am talking about places like New Braintree, and Barre.  Local treasures.

Mary and I like to take off and go on "explores" to local places we have never seen.  Our horizons not only get widened, but awakened as well.

Yesterday we took off north on Route 148 to North Brookfield.  No reason, but we seem to concentrate on the other directions a lot more, and seldom go north more than a few miles.  Friday was "Go North Day", and we did.

Just past North Brookfield center we bared left onto Route 67 for a bit.  The foliage was still working its way to peak, but in some patches it was glorious.  The sun was bright, the top down, and we were cruisin' through early Fall in Central Mass.

I didn't bring my camera with me.  Big mistake, and something I don't usually leave behind, but this was a spur of the moment escape, and the camera in the iPhone would have to do.  The photo above does not do the scenery we saw justice.

This weekend will probably be the the last warm weekend of the year, so don't waste it.  There will be time for chores later, but somewhere in the weekend take a couple of hours, and head north, and open your eyes.  You will discover farm stands, and red leaves, apple orchards brimming with people picking, and waiting in line for a bag of apple cider donuts.  Go down that road you have never traveled.  You know the one, "The Road Not Taken".  You will be surprised how many of the weeks stresses fly out  the car window at 40 MPH.

The view above was taken just off Route 67.  Take a left onto Utely Road, enjoy the view, and then follow the road back home.

And, don't forget your camera.


Down Utely Road a bit from Route 67 on right.



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