Book Review

The Golden Spur
by Dawn Powell

This novel had a charming almost Tom Waits feel to it. It's set among the down-and-out bohemian set in New York during the 1950s, and is about a young man who has come to the city to find out the truth about his parents. However, the story ends up being just a framework for a collection of wry peeks into the lives of a motley collection of New Yorkers either living a bohemian lifestyle, or living on the fringes of it. Powell really captures the time, place, and people extremely well.

Vacation

Other Kenjari and I are returned from Vermont, where we had a terrific time. We were up in the Stowe-Waterbury area, which is very beautiful. The weather was great, too. We stayed at a cozy bed and breakfast, the Grunberg Haus. We had one of the cabins, which are in the woods up a hill from the main inn. It was comfortable and quiet.
We arrived on Saturday afternoon, and ended up spending the rest of the day driving around checking out the area. We strolled through the Waterbury 4th of July celebration going on that day and ended up driving out to Burlington for dinner and a walk around the downtown area.
On Sunday we took a long driving tour around the area to look at mountains, waterfalls, and covered bridges. The inn gives out detailed driving directions for the tour. We ended up going up into the Appalachian and Lincoln passes, where we got some amazing views. Some of it was even a little like driving through Snowdonia in Wales. Then we headed back to the inn and walked around the trails behind our cabin.
Yesterday we went hiking in Stowe, at Smuggler's Notch. It's very beautiful up there. We did the Sterling Pond trail on Mount Mansfield. The hike is about 1.2 miles, but very steep. And because of recent heavy rain, a lot of the trail had water trickling through it. Luckily, because the trail is mostly cut directly into the rock, it wasn't very muddy. It's not an easy trail, but it's very doable. I was extremely glad that I had bought good hiking boots this winter - I think I would have had a very hard time without them. (We did see one guy about halfway up doing the hike in flip-flops. Our minds boggled at the stupidity.) It's a very nice hike though, since it goes through woods for most of the way. The pond is gorgeous, and well worth the hike. A short walk from the pond, there is a ski area from which we had a great view of the mountains. After coming down off the mountain, we went on another much shorter and easier walk to the Moss Glen falls, which were very pretty. We finished up our day with some mini golf.
I'm feeling tired, but very relaxed. It was just the sort of trip I needed. I hope that work is nice and mellow tomorrow.