The Timeshare

When Carol, Lydia and I prepared for going to the timeshare in the Berkshires (Hancock, MA) in late June, it was exhausting. We really didn't know much to expect. We had visited other venues, and the accommodations varied widely. So we packed so much that I had to slam the trunk closed a few times. You may have heard of the preparations for D-Day, June 6, 1944; Ike was a piker compared with my wife.

I got the Mapquest directions which read, after getting on I-90, to:
Merge onto TROY RD / US-4 S via EXIT 9 toward EAST GREENBUSH. 0.6 miles
Turn LEFT onto LUTHER RD / NY-151. Continue to follow NY-151. 5.0 miles
Turn LEFT onto NY-150. 1.8 miles
Turn RIGHT onto BIITTIG RD. 1.1 miles
BIITTIG RD becomes SHEER RD / CR-52. 0.8 miles
Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto FIRST DYKE RD. 0.9 miles
FIRST DYKE RD becomes METHODIST FARM RD. 1.7 miles
Turn RIGHT onto NY-43 / NY-66. Continue to follow NY-43.
before we even got to Massachusetts. (It was only later that we figure we could just take Route 43 from I-90 all the way.)

Anyway, we get to this place near Jiminy Peak that looks like:

Of course, this being a timeshare, you don't just check in, as you might in a hotel. You need to get an in-service about their amenities and make an appointment for later in the week to see if we might want to buy a place ourselves. Oh, boy, can't wait until Wednesday.

The place had a full kitchen, a little washer-drier, a TV in both bedrooms, and a TV with a DVD player in the living room.

There wasn't a lot of kid-friendly stuff, especially 3-year-old kid-friendly, actually at the place. There were kids' movies every night at 6 pm. Monday night, Carol took Lydia to see Charlotte's Web. Lydia had never been to the movies, and the room was VERY dark when the lights were out, so they left in 10 minutes. There was an inside/outside swimming pool that Carol and Lydia used almost daily. There WAS a playground a couple miles away, but it was fairly barren.

(Which one is our car? I really don't know, but it's not one of the SUVs.)

Wednesday morning, the saleslady shows up, bringing us gifts (an oatmeal-scented candle, a magnet, a deck of cards, and most interesting to me, a hat that actually fit my head). She asked how we got there, and we explained that we were offered the space by my parents-in-law 18 to 30 months previous, that we had only now taken advantage of it, and that we hadn't been on a real vacation since 2003. We were so pathetic that she didn't even TRY to sell us.

Later that morning, I did go to one of those free demonstrations of facial, hand and other products. It was me and nine women; see, I DO have a sensitive side.

In the evening, we could see that a massive thunderstorm was hitting Albany. In fact, the timeshare was close enough that we could watch Albany stations. On Western Avenue, not far from our house, I could see there was localized flooding; our home, I learned only the next day, was fine. Still, I was glad that I watched that Paul Simon: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song thing, because the storm had knocked out our DVD recordings for the remainder of the week.

On Saturday, Carol expressed frustration that she hadn't gotten to do a lot of things on her own (like my facial, and a movie I saw - to be described), so she went off to Williams College and saw art while Lydia and I hung out. Later, Carol and I, in turn, used the hot tub, finally. Sunday, we went home. Lydia said Saturday, that she was tired of "vacation", and wanted to be around her own stuff; I was with her. I think when she's older, it'll be a better experience for all of us.

I mean, it WAS a lovely place to be, especially in the morning, when I would go for a walk and play license plate tag. I found 31 states, and 4 Canadian provinces. I took a picture of this one with GayProf, who loves Texas, in mind. Imagine: a Texas liberal - you can't see it in the picture, but the vehicle had as bunch of environmental and open-government stickers.
ROG