Salem Witch Trials and The Mohawk Trail

Historical Salem is a beautiful small town, dripping wet and grey skied, it certainly looked ominous today.  The Salem Witch Museum is the place to start for an excellent overview of how this troubled time started.  A fantastic presentation is given inside a huge chamber where 13 stage sets are illuminated one by one, using life sized period dioramas. The story unfolds and is based on actual trial documentation, it is riveting, the tale, the hysteria and the outcome….plus the confession of the delusional child accuser….it was the best $9 ticket each we have spent in a while.

 This ominous puritan looks like the chief magistrate….he is not.  He is the founder of the town of Salem but certainly looks the part!  He stands outside the museum and looks over Salem Common…the final walk for those 19 who were hung.  For the other 40 odd who were accused and found not guilty they languished in prison albeit forgotten for up to 7 years after all the nonsense finished.

This is a stone seat in a memorial park dedicated to all those put to death.  Everyone was hung except Giles Corey, he was ‘pressed to death’, strapped between two door like boards, stones were placed on top one after the other until his ribcage collapsed and he died.

This is the horseshoe shaped memorial garden, this shows the lovely tranquillity of part of the garden…if I did a full shot the yellow ‘do not walk on the grass’ tape would have ruined the shot….There is a lot of witchity woo in Salem, alot of freaks are capitalising on the story, the night time ghost walk would have been a good one to go on if Rosie and The Operator were hanging around, even though Rosie is a wimpy scardey cat.                                                                       Rosie has had a hankering for donuts ever since her beautiful cousin The Model went on a holiday and featured them heavily in photos….under the auspices of undoubtable witchcraft in the air Rosie found herself dragging The Operator into their first Dunkin Donuts.  Six for $4.99…The Operator slapped Rosie back to reality when she was asked if she wanted another six for an extra $1 dollar…mmm.  They were delish….Rosie could have done it!

Isnt this a beauty picture, see what a little liquid sunshine does, keeps the people away.  Take away the yellow PVC wet weather gear and you have stepped back in time.  This is a snapshot of Salem Harbour with a replica of the chebacco schooner Fame that was originally a fishing vessel until drafted as a privateer in the war of 1812.   Now it gives tours around the harbour.

 This is the House of the Seven Gables,built in 1662, it was only originally a two gabled home and has been added on while the house enlarged over the years….the last couple of gables were added in 1915.  It is now a Museum from ‘those’ times, Rosie and The Operator couldnt be bothered going in so we scurried around in the rain taking photos over the fence…………the house next door looked much creepier.

 ….and the house on the other side looked so pretty….Rosie wants little pumpkins!!!!!

Rosie cant believe the amount of overhead lines there are everywhere in built up areas.  This photo was of a relatively ‘tidy’ bunch of lines, most were bird nest tangles high above your heads.

The weather was packing in and getting worse, visibility was pretty crap and driving a little tense…well for Rosie anyway, The Operator was still cruising along at 65 miles an hour on a four lane road taking everything in his stride.  The only thing upsetting The Operator was the pre dominance of Christian radio stations instead of good ole Rock.

We were following US 2 West, a secondary road that took us over The Berkshire Hills in Massachusetts…Rosies autumnal foliage wasnt quite as yellow and red as she had hoped, but hey, we couldnt see anything anyway!  All of a sudden the rain stopped and it started getting clear, just in time to be able to get out and record a few snaps of the journey.

We joined up with The Mohawk Trail, this was originally a native American footpath that joined the Connecticut and Hudson River Valleys.

Today it is a State Forest covering 6000 acres of deep gorges, mountain ridges and old, old trees.  The locals were few and far between, the temperature had dropped to about 8c, it seemed like they knew something we didnt…they all seemed to have their snow mobiles sitting in the front yard…the little zippy type, like a jet ski….Rosie hopes there is no snow due….

Oh yeah….dont think it was all beautiful scenery, the tacky had made it this far into the wilderness.  The big drawcard was sign after sign saying moccasins for sale….Rosie was mildly curious….but could not bring herself into going into one of these places….even or postcards!

The Operator was done with driving, we were well off our driving mark for the day but who cares, we saw a Super 8 Motel sign on the highway so we took the next exit and checked in.

This is a $65 motel room, it was large with a desk and chair….we have stayed in this chain in California before….the Californian equivalents are a little newer and less run down.  This one was in a salubrious area and smelt a little fusty…it wasnt bad….before we unpacked for the night Rosie pulled the sheets back for a visual inspection and the sniff test…..oh yes, Rosie is a sniffer, The Operator rolls his eyes.  It is peace of mind for Rosies own good night sleep….it passed.

Tomorrow we are driving the Hudson Valley and exploring the Catskill mountains….tonight we lock and bar the door and sleep in Albany.