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February 26, 2007
Project 351: Along the Border
HELLO UNIVERSAL HUB READERS: Here's the entire set of Project 351 entries; scroll down to the bottom to see what this is all about.
Time for the latest installment of Project 351! Sunday I met up with the family for brunch at Rom's in Sturbridge. It was perfect, since I need regular doses of French toast and it had been a while.
Afterwards, we went our separate ways, and I meandered along the southern border of Massachusetts, stopping first in Southbridge at the impressive Notre Dame church. The next town along the border is Dudley, but I frankly hadn't written down any ideas for it, and a quick drive along the campus of Nichols College didn't find anything particularly scenic. So I'll be back in Dudley someday soon.
The next town is Webster, famous for its lake. It's called either Lake Webster (if you're a wimp), or Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, if you're being precise. The legend is that the name means "You fish on your side, I fish on my side, no one fishes in the middle", but that doesn't seem to be a very good translation. The lake itself was frozen over - people were walking on the ice, and one group seemed to have set up a little picnic area out in the middle of the lake. I make it a point not to walk on ice, so I just looked around for a sign with the lake name on it. No dice. I was ready to file Webster in the "Later" category, until I saw this strip mall with the name conveniently spelled out.
Next up is Douglas, where the MA/CT border turns into the MA/RI border, but it probably better known for being the town where my first car caught fire and died. I was taking the looooong way home from a trip to Worcester (there were some kids hanging out at my house that I was a little sick of), and driving through the Douglas forests, I saw smoke coming out from under the hood, then flames. Whoops. Luckily, this trip was uneventful, and I got a shot of the Jenckes Store in East Douglas, which is a museum but isn't open in the middle of February.
I don't know that I'd ever been to a National Corridor before, but there is one along the Blackstone River. The Blackstone Canal was a major industrial connection in the mid-19th Century, and parts of it still exist at the Blackstone River and Canal State Park, headquartered in Uxbridge. I definitely want to see this in warmer weather, but it was still cool to walk along the frozen canal and see the stone bridge in winter.
The next town is Millville. I saw a turnoff and parking area for the Millville Lock, so I stopped the car and started walking along the path. A good way down, it occurred to me that I didn't know where the Lock was or what it looked like (no map at the parking lot - that's a faux pas). And a big dog started barking nearby, so I did a 180. There was a neat little inexplicable tunnel along the path, and in Millville Center, there's an inexplicable stone tower. Millville - Town of Mystery!
Last stop was the town of Blackstone, and its impressive Blackstone Gorge. If it weren't winter, I would have wandered a little more - the Gorge is literally right along the state line, and it would be only the second time I've walked across a state line (the first being the bridge from Cincinnati to Covington). But not today.
53 down, 298 to go!
Filed Under: Project 351 | Permanent Link, Comments (6) | Linking Blogs
Comments
The long way home from Worcester??? I guess!!!
Posted by: cherylann | February 27, 2007 12:46 PM
Hello-
Every week Worcester Magazine scours the web for the best of locally meaningful blogs, and reprints excerpts from these entries in our Blog Log column. It’s sort of a blog in reverse, if you will.
We wanted to let you know that one of your entries has been chosen to run in the coming week’s issue and will appear with full credit given to the author and blog we got it from.
Be sure to check out this week’s issue, and feel free to contact us at editorial@worcestermag.com
Thanks!
The staff
Posted by: Scott Zoback | February 27, 2007 01:22 PM
Cool! Thanks!
Posted by: michael | February 27, 2007 01:50 PM
I hear its been a pretty nasty winter this year for cold-cold-cold, but its nice to see this little tour while theres snow on the ground and ice on the water. I hope you had fun.
No matter what anyone says, NE winters are pretty. they really are. : ) If I actually learn how to drive someday I'm totally checking out Millville.
Congrats on the blog sighting.
Posted by: Laurie | February 27, 2007 03:58 PM
"there were some kids hanging out at my house that I was a little sick of"
i surely hope you don't mean any little sisters underfoot.
ps - you do so many nice things.
Posted by: christine | February 27, 2007 10:56 PM
Are you familiar with the song Entering Marion? You could write lots of new verses for it!
(Stupid software won't let me do an "a" tag, so here 's the URL: http://www.johnforster.com/ENT_MAR.html )
Posted by: Gary M | March 6, 2007 10:15 AM
