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Celebrating our two-lane highways of yesteryear…And the joys of driving them today!

Happy Thanksgiving!


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Thanks Dave, to you too!

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Little late, but I hope everybody had as great a Thanksgiving as I did. If you don't really have family to share with, good friends will do the trick.

 

I was invited to Bulverde, TX, to spend Thanksgiving with friends - from my "Hudson" family. We had 15 people for dinner - brothers, sisters, step-mom and dad and two Air Force recruit trainees from Lackland AFB, which is just south of here. These two, Priscilla Revera from New Jersey and Jamie Traver from Michigan are 18 years old and away from home for the 1st time in their lives. They were part of the San Antonio military/civilian "Share the Holiday" program - there were, the girls told me, were 4000 Air Force personel participating. The Army, at Fort Sam Houston, also in San Antonio, also participates. It gives these great young men and women a day away from the rigors of the service and a chance to enjoy a home-like atmosphere. Our hosts, Russel and Vicki, gave their cell phones with loads of free minutes to the girls and they both talked to family for over an hour.

 

This is one Thanksgiving I'll long remember. I even got to participate in the Christmas opening ceremonies here in Bulverde with the Chiltons - we went downtown and watched the parade with Santa and Mrs. Santa being conveyed in the local fire truck. Bulverde is a very small town - the parade consisted of two local police cars (2 or 3 others were on blockade duty), two fire trucks and the police chief's car!!! It was all of 5 blocks long, if that. Ah, I'd forgotten how great small town celebrations can be.

 

So, now we move on to the next - here's wishing everyone a VERY HAPPY AND MERRY CHRISTMAS and the absolute best of the upcoming holiday season!! Safe Travels all.

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

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Little late, but I hope everybody had as great a Thanksgiving as I did. If you don't really have family to share with, good friends will do the trick.

 

I was invited to Bulverde, TX, to spend Thanksgiving with friends - from my "Hudson" family. We had 15 people for dinner - brothers, sisters, step-mom and dad and two Air Force recruit trainees from Lackland AFB, which is just south of here. These two, Priscilla Revera from New Jersey and Jamie Traver from Michigan are 18 years old and away from home for the 1st time in their lives. They were part of the San Antonio military/civilian "Share the Holiday" program - there were, the girls told me, were 4000 Air Force personel participating. The Army, at Fort Sam Houston, also in San Antonio, also participates. It gives these great young men and women a day away from the rigors of the service and a chance to enjoy a home-like atmosphere. Our hosts, Russel and Vicki, gave their cell phones with loads of free minutes to the girls and they both talked to family for over an hour.

 

This is one Thanksgiving I'll long remember. I even got to participate in the Christmas opening ceremonies here in Bulverde with the Chiltons - we went downtown and watched the parade with Santa and Mrs. Santa being conveyed in the local fire truck. Bulverde is a very small town - the parade consisted of two local police cars (2 or 3 others were on blockade duty), two fire trucks and the police chief's car!!! It was all of 5 blocks long, if that. Ah, I'd forgotten how great small town celebrations can be.

 

So, now we move on to the next - here's wishing everyone a VERY HAPPY AND MERRY CHRISTMAS and the absolute best of the upcoming holiday season!! Safe Travels all.

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

 

 

Alex

 

Sounds like the best of Thanksgivings!

 

And its always great to know that the small towns are still alive!!

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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Belated Thanksgiving greetings to all. Peg and I decided that after Peg had hosted the big meal for the last 35 years, she was due a break this year, so at the suggestion of my friend Tom from the British Car Forum, we celebrated Thanksgiving at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge MA. We drove up on Tuesday enjoying driving our new road trip toy that we acquired this past summer thanks to Congress. We did veer off of the Interstates for a NY section of US Route 6, but went most of the way in the fast lane. We did a little walking around the Main Street of the town Tuesday night, and had a nice dinner at the Piccadilly Pub, a regional chain that we had never visited with an Antiques Store above.

 

Wednesday we spent the morning and a bit of the afternoon enjoying Old Sturbridge Village without many patrons. It was interesting that when we tried to leave the admissions building to enter the 1830's town, the doors were blocked by a flock of turkeys that must have been in fear for their lives. It turns out that the bird that we saw them cooking on Thanksgiving Day had been butchered a week earlier, so their panic was for naught. When the mist started to turn to rain we went driving in the area visiting some shops including some in restored mills. We found a great place for a lunch in the one restored mill at "Soup to Nuts" where the Butternut Squash soup included apples and cinnamon in the recipe. In the evening we went to the old Publick House and ate at Ebeneezer's Tavern and also visited their very busy bakery where people were picking up orders for special items for their Thanksgiving tables the next day.

 

Thursday morning we returned to OSV using the second day of the admission ticket and rode the Stage Coach, and met my friend Tom in person for the very first time. He is retired from UCONN and works as a gardener at the Freeman Farm. He showed us some of the behind the scenes items such as the inside of the smoke house as well as taking us into the root cellar where he was storing cabbages and potatoes from his crop this year. We learned a lot from this wonderful friend who knows so much about life in New England about 200 years after the landing at Plymouth by the Pilgrims. He also did tell us that some times tourists do not realize that Sturbridge is based on the 1830 years, and the uninformed tourists arrive in Pilgrim costumes. In the middle of our tour of the village this day, we used our reservations for the sumptuous buffet served at the Oliver Wight Tavern on the grounds between the entrance and the parking lot. They also had a sit-down dinner in the Bullard Tavern inside the village. After several more hours learning from the re-enactors in OSV, we returned to our motel room to recover.

 

Friday we drove to Bradley Airport near Hartford CT to visit the New England Air Museum where Tom also volunteers working as an archivist in their library. Black Friday is the one day each year when they open the restoration shop to the museum visitors, so we went to see how they do things at NEAM. We were quite impressed at the work they do restoring these planes to factory condition. They had several projects going including a Sikorsky helicopter and an A-26, plus a cruise missile (they did tell me they would not put the nuclear warhead in when they finished). The main part of the museum fills two huge buildings, and the displays include a perfect B-29, a B-25, a Lockheed Electra, a Navy Blimp gondola, and so much more. I never did get to see everything in detail as we became "museumed-out" and spent the rest of the day checking out bargains Christmas shopping.

 

We drove home on Saturday hoping to miss the main traffic, but still the roads were filled with people who did realize they were not alone on the highways. For a section we jumped onto old US-202 and had a great final road meal at the Oakland Diner in Oakland NJ. It was a great trip. Photos can be seen of Old Sturbridge Village and NEAM on my Flickr page.

Edited by Dave Reese
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Old Sturbridge Village for Thanksgiving!!! Now that's a great idea. Actually, I didn't realize they were still operating. It seems to me that it was suggested for a tour at the 2008 Massachusetts National, which was close enough, but was not added because it was thought to be closing it's doors. I'm glad to see that it is still up and operating.

 

I've also been to the aviation museum at Bradley - a really interesting collection. When I was there they had an HU-16/SA-16 Albatross amphibian. Since I'd been connected to those when I was, briefly, in Coast Guard aviation I got a chance to see it up close and personal and give the museum some information on it.

 

Glad you had a great trip (and I have also been on parts of U S 6 in New York - but it was a while back).

 

Safe travels everybody.

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

Memphis, TN

 

Oh, PS - coming back from Texas today I came up I-30 from Texarkana to Little Rock due to bad weather. I-40 was even worse with all the trucks tossing water all over the place, so I dropped over to U S 70. Sad to say the by-pass of the beautiful old bridge in Devalls Bluff is complete. The by-pass almost runs over the old, now abandoned, railroad bridge - tho the top of that sticks up beside the by-pass. You can still get to the old bridge, but I'm not sure if it's even passable - it probably is, but I'll have to check it out someday.

Edited by Alex Burr - hester_nec
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Alex,

Sorry to hear that the traffic was still bad today, but rain always makes it worse.

Sturbridge is doing well, but I do understand from my friend Tom that attendance was down at times this summer. He kept asking me how America On Wheels was doing but since we are only in our second year, it was hard to compare. But on Thanksgiving Day the parking lot was nearly full, and the stores were quite busy as was the Village. I think that once the economy becomes stabilized, they will see attendance growing too.

 

I am glad to hear you are well and that small town America still is out there too.

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