13 SEP 05 - Baseball Hall of Fame and Adirondack Mountains

The HOF is very well done. There's some major coin behind this operation, kind of like the surrounding village. Even on the outside, there are sculptured walkways with baseball themes. The HOF tour begins with a slick multimedia show and moves you thru 3 floors of time-lined memorabilia. There are entire features on just ballparks or equipment or specific teams. I was amazed at the display case of World Series rings and wondered how 2 or 3 could fit on one hand of some lucky players. Mike took a lot of pictures of anything to do with the St. Louis Cardinals. The Boston Red Sox got a lot of exposure for their long overdue win in last year's World Series. Honestly, a whole day should be allocated to the HOF. Around 2PM, we needed to move on, so we purchased our pins and headed north.

The transition is quick between flat farm roads and the rolling hills of Ft. Plain, NY that begin the Adirondack Park, the largest in the lower 48 States. Those hills soon lead to desolate mountain roads with scenic lakes and wonderful pine-like smells. The s-curves are fun on a motorcycle and we were mindful of the occasional roadkill deer or raccoon on the roadside. While taking a butt break, some locals suggested Oxbow Lake or Speculator as a stop for the night.

On the way to Oxbow, we came across this wood sculpture. A sheriff was just leaving the property and described the artist as a colorful resident. Oxbow was remote, so we drove on to Speculator to only find Oxbow was better.

The Oxbow Lake Motel was interesting in that no manager was present. There was a rack of room keys, first come first served, and a sign indicating the manager would catch up in the morning. We chose the better of 2 remaining rooms and walked thru the hazy evening fog to the nearby Oxbow Lake Inn where OJ had a delish NY Strip Steak sandwich. It gets dark and chilly in the Adirondack Mountains, so we hit the sack quickly afterwards.