Uxbridge - September 25, 2016

The Mug Shot

Out in good time today and off to Uxbridge Massachusetts for breakfast at Mom's Restaurant on Main Street. When we arrived there was no line (we got in ahead of the church crowd I think) and a table was being cleaned..the prior patron had left one penny on the table, so I made some wisecracks to the waitress and she took them in good nature. Breakfast was served in an expedient manner and we both had omelets this morning along with our coffee.

Main Street - Uxbridge MA

Clean, friendly and not at all expensive..our kind of place. So when the waitress came to pick up the table, the tip she found was generous, and it had an extra penny on top. We got a goos smile and were on our way. Five minutes later we were pulling into the parking lot of the Blackstone River and Canal Heritage Trail at the River Bend Farm. We saw a car with some cool inflatable kayaks - I took a pic to research later. The visitor center was nice and as with all Massachusetts State Parks a map is available, and nicely done too. I chatted with a ranger and she gave us some good information for a 3 mile walk. This is not a challenging walk, but nice and flat, but pretty and tranquil with few people along the trail. The trail is the old towpath along the Blackstone Canal and it passes several interesting spots. We hiked from the farm down to a mill complex which look as though it is being converted to commercial and residential use. I would love to have a studio there.

It looked as though the exterior was completely done and the interior was gutted and waiting to be finished. Nana and I walked all around the place and imagines what it must have been like in it's hay day of manufacturing with water power and moving goods along the canal..a different time indeed.  Along the tow path there was a flood/control gate that maintained the level of the canal.

Flood gate

It is no longer operable and the water beyond the gate was all green with algae. As we were leaving the mill making our way back to the tow path there was three steps of granite and I

Green scum stuff

managed to tip my foot on one of the steps which triggered a great slow motion fall. It is curious how the mind works at a moment like this. I knew instantly that I was going to fall, and knew that I WAS falling and it was all in slow motion, yet I had absolutely no capacity to catch myself or avert the fall or change direction. But I had plenty of time to think about what I should be doing. Luckily I was able to break my fall with my face into a nice soft bush. Of course no one had a video camera running, drat - I would have liked to see what Nana saw. . . must have been awesome. Back on the trail I lamented that no one was around to cheer and Nana didn't have the foresight to videotape my misadventure, oh well. We walked to the far end of the trail where there was a small waterfall and a pond-ish area with stone bridges and such. Pretty cool spot with promise of more trails across the road, next time.  More pix,

Entrance to the tow path

Pond and stone bridge

Flattest 3 miles ever