Life Outside The Borough

Sometimes you just have to leave The Borough, y'know? It becomes imperative to commune with nature and visit with friends who live outside of the city limits, and you just gotta go! Those who know me, know that I love to travel. More often I travel to far flung places, but also to more local habitats.

This particular visit was to the other tri-state area near my tri-state area - Falls Village (Canaan) CT. Twenty minutes in one direction you're in NY, 20 (or more) the other way you're in MA.

Aside from clean country air and delicious food - I was lucky enough to get an agricultural primer - going to the Goshen, CT State Fair. This was such a great experience - art displays, period crafts, wood splitting contest, a smithy and barns housing all kinds of animals including rabbits, cows(heifers) and pigs, chickens and horses. There was even a tractor pull - with all kinds of vintage tractors. - Plus as a bonus seeing the largest pumpkin I have ever seen - 461 lbs. Having never been that close to farm animals in my life and having no idea what an FFA was it was quite educational- even with all the smells.

Now on the down side, the food was overpriced (a sausage sandwich which is like $4 here was $6.50 there), and though most of the people really looked like they needed a salad and a good run on a treadmill - on the upside there were some amazing choices - fresh pulled pork sandwich, onion rings, mexican, cinnamon buns, kettle corn and any number of hamburger, hot dog and french fry stands. The smells wafting over the crowd of people with double and triple strollers.

Considering that for a two hour train ride out of NYC, you can be in rural America is amazing, but having spent many summers up that way, I see how the suburbs have encroached in the farmlands - civilization is much closer these days. Luckily Falls Village is removed from all that.

Falls village doesn't have much - its a town that seems to have had a heyday sometime in the past - in fact if you were speeding along from Cornwall to Canaan, you might pass through Falls Village and not even realize it. There is a post office and a sandwich shop, some beautiful Victorian architecture and some fabulous estates. The amazing thing is that a lovely stroll takes you to this amazing waterfall..thus the name Falls Village. A sleepy little town, where most people have to drive 20 minutes just to get milk.

It felt good to see the sky full of stars, one thing that you can't get in The Borough (or anywhere near), due to the city lights. So get out of town - see the stars, breathe in the air and take it all down 5 or 6 notches - you'll be so glad you did.