Wanted: Virtual HitchHikers for Single Mom Solo Westward Ho! Road Trip - Part 5

Welcome back, virtual hitchhikers! Single Mom Westward Ho! Christine back here with you at the Honda wheel, hoping that you're enjoying our restful auto-lounging this fine summer day. After our well-deserved rest and delicious pina colada muffins at the Mt. Greylock Inn, we are making our way from the Massachusetts Berkshires to Cooperstown, New York, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

This, my friends, is my inaugural drive from the Berkshires to NY state. I've done the Boston to NYC snarl via Rte 95, but I had no idea what I was missing on this western highlands trek. The MA to NY border crossing is stunning, ahead and behind me. Really, totally gorgeous. I crank up James Taylor's Best Of, Stockbridge to Boston, and revel in the mountain views.

New York farm land rolls and rises by for miles, spotted with cows, sheep, and an Amish horse-drawn carriage or two down the line. I suspect that these NY cows are indeed happy cows and much more so than those star-struck California TV heifers, for sure. The final few miles into Cooperstown wind past some fine lakeshore cottages and past the home of GlimmerGlass Opera, a must for a future venture with a bit more time and artistic focus, perhaps. I enjoy the contrasts in roadside signage - a Tractor Crossing or Slow Horses sign here, an Opera Crossing sign there, blending nature and nurture in these here parts.

Before we turn back to our baseball mission, this animal-loving road traveler has one serious question for New York, though. WHY, oh WHY, do I see soooo many dead deer along NY highways? I almost hit one frolicking fox, but I do not see a single live deer prancing across my driving path. Although I try hard NOT to look at the roadside carcasses, I cringe at more than a dozen mangled and departed deer. Are NY deer less intelligent or slower than other state deer? Do New York drivers TRY harder to hit them? Are NY animal control folks just really slow to remove the bodies? Important life questions to ponder while we mosey on ahead to more joyful BASEBALL happenings!