Declaration of Independence signed July 4, 1776

Normally, an Independence Day celebration in Bridgewater for us involves a parade, an ArtsFest, a cook-out at our friends the Woods' home, and of course a big fireworks display. On this Fourth of July, however, we were driving our daughter to Camp Unirondack. This is a fifteen hour round trip for us, so we left at 7:00 a.m, before our street was closed for the parade (as it always is), and the extent of fireworks was what we could see of other cities' and towns' displays as we traveled along the Mass Turnpike. We got back to Bridgewater well after the festivities had ended here.

We did have a lovely day, though. After dropping our daughter off we took a slightly different route than we normally do in order to stop in Bridgewater, New York. Read abut what we found there on our Bridgewaters Project blog. The Village of Bridgewater, New York is just a bit south of Utica, where we typically hop on the Thruway for the ride home. Rather than making "good time," we opted for "good time" (thanks to Robert Pirsig for that distinction), and took a Blue Highways route toward home.

In the process we visited at least two New York counties we had missed previously, and will have to update our maps accordingly. The drive was lovely, as the sunset behind us seemed to last for hours, and filled the landscape with a golden glow. We enjoy old New England houses, especially those with great porches and other architectural treasures. This route was full of satisfying discoveries, as a beautiful agricultural landscape was punctuated with charming downtowns every five to ten miles until we reached the northeastern (and most charming) fringes of Albany.

We were reminded of an important lesson: sometimes it is OK to ignore the GPS. "She" is an optimizer, always looking for the most expedient route, and sometimes that is not the best route!

(Click to enlarge route map.)