Dalton, Massachusetts

Dalton seems like a sleepy town, with not much going on, but did you know that this is where the paper for our US dollars and several other foreign currencies is made?Crane and Co., a Massachusetts-based company, here in Dalton has been providing the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing with paper for U.S. currency since 1879! What?! And that’s what you get from talking to locals.

Two days in an Airbnb in Dalton, and we are ready to get back on trail. Feet and knees are feeling recovered, and the heat rash is almost healed.

We almost made it with Zero miles for Sunday. However, the bus wasn’t running, and hitchhiking is not real popular here, it appears. Dan, our Airbnb host, graciously dropped us at Walmart to begin out resupply. We figured it would be an easy hitch back. Nope! We definitely needed a sign. We also blew it when we didn’t take our empty packs to carry our goods. So, farmer’s carry it was, for 3 miles, with hefty Walmart bags filled with assorted other store items from the grocery store and Dick’s Sporting Goods in each hand. In veiled optimism , we rested at each shady spot and stuck out our thumbs, to no avail. By the time we got back to the Airbnb,  3 hours had elapsed.

Of course that included our stop at Zinky’s to cool off in the AC and drink an ice cold beer, as well as stop at Angelina’s sub shop for a sharable Philly Cheessteak sandwich.  A little nap, followed by a little packing, and all we needed was morning to come.

That’s the thing. Morning. We’re not sure when or where it happened, but Paul ate something bad. Considering the only thing I didn’t eat the same was a stick of sweaty string cheese from Walmart, we feel that is the culprit.  He was up all night in misery, while I slept soundly. Go figure.

On a side note. An interesting thing occurred while in Dick’s Sporting Goods. While reaching for the permethrin spray, I noticed a single dime on the floor at the edge of the display. What an odd place to find and/or see a dime on the ground.

And then I thought, KENNY! Dude, you are with us on this trail! Our friends Matt, Bob, Brian, and Kenny’s wife would understand.  I picked up the dime and walked over to show Paul. He looked at the dime in my hand, I pointed to where I found it, and he chuckled and said, “Kenny”. So, in fact, Kenny is now traveling with us. I got to say, he’s brilliant.  A dime is so much lighter than carrying a scane of his ashes on this constantly damp trail. He would have been mud by the end. He now rides zipped securely in my right front short pocket. It is the only change I will carry this trip. All other change from cash purchases will go into a tip jar.

Cheshire,  Massachusetts

So now, on Day 15, we find ourselves in Chesire Massachusetts set up at the Father Tom AT campsite…a mere 8.8 miles from Dalton, waiting for Paul’s plumbing to settle fully before we march out more miles toward Katahdin. Another day of rash healing won’t hurt either. Mt Greylock is hopefully on the hiking menu for tomorrow…or the next day. At this point, it is now health dependent rather than weather dependent.

While Paul was reclining in misery at the campground, I and another hiker Popeye took the campground bikes for a spin.

Now if it wasn’t for Paul’s temporary illness, I wouldn’t of had the opportunity to cycle the former rail line (now mutli-use trail) the length of the Chesire reservoir.  Miles are miles right? 

But also, in my wandering, I discovered that one of the towns former inhabitants John Leland, was pivotal and certainly influential (his autobiographers say) in the radification of the US Constitution and the creation of our Bill of Rights, particularly with regard to freedom of religion.

It appears that early on, the Anglicans didn’t much care for the emerging Baptists. And once upon a time, tithes were compulsory to the state run Anglican church. Thus Leland, a Baptist Preacher, and a free man, thought that each individual should be able to worship their God as they wished “without being prohibited,  directed or controlled therein by human law, either in time, place or manner.” In other words, government stay out of my business, or anyone’s for that matter. Hence, the push for freedom of practice of religion.

But wait, there’s more! Old Leland wasn’t satisfied with just the ratification of the Constitution and the penning of the Bill of Rights. He, for some reason, in 1802, thought it a good idea for the citizens of Chesire to create and present to President Jefferson a “Mammoth Wheel O’ Cheese”. Somehow, he inticed every member of his congregation, who owned a cow, to bring all the milk produced that day to a cider mill and see what would happen. It made three wheels of cheese, one of which weighed 1,235 lbs. That’s the one they sent to the President. It took over three weeks to get to the President. Once there, Jefferson cut the cheese, and it lingered for two years in the White House.

The things one discovers on a walkabout, and you have time to truly wander.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings.