random thoughts – Day 1,335 – (Sunday) – sunday excursion

Out where Mom lives, this time of year there is an event called the "Country Roads Christmas Holiday Tour." There is a list of local shops located in several neighboring towns in central Massachusetts and the idea is to visit the shops during a certain time frame, collect a stamp from each shop, and enter a drawing for gift certificates.

Smith's Cheese Shop, Winchendon.

This year there are 19 shops on the list located in seven towns, and four weeks to visit them under the tour. Mom and I spent a day visiting shops last year and we had fun. Some shops were new to us, some we’d been to before. Today, as we set out for our Sunday excursion, I tried to remember how many shops were on the list last year. As it usually works, I found the 2022 list recently in a pile of paperwork and after a year, tossed it into the recycling bin, and today I was wondering which shops were on the old list.

We made it to six shops in about three hours today, including a farm and garden center, antiques shop, bakery and gift shop, and a cheese shop. Something was bought by one or both of us at each location, so we did our part for small businesses. I got several small holiday décor items, Finnish coffee bread, and alpaca shoe insoles. 

A Thyme & A Place,
Hubbardston.

The cheese shop had a great selection of craft beers but after staring at the case for a while, I couldn’t decide on the too many unfamiliar options, gave up, and didn’t buy anything. Unfortunate, because there is currently no beer at The BungaLowell, a situation to which I have turned a blind eye for about a month. 

The alpaca farm was cool. When we entered the barn to get to the gift shop, a couple alpacas were standing nearby, close enough to get a great photo. There were a lot of people around and I wanted to get inside the gift shop, figuring I could get a photo on the way out, so I didn't take a picture. 

The shop had some beautiful knitted items – scarves, mittens, hats, and sweaters, plus stuffed animals in many sizes. In 2013 or 14, Mom, my sister and I went to the same alpaca farm and I bought what is still one of my favorite sweaters. I was fully prepared to buy another pullover, but the only sweaters in the shop today was an open front style with some sort of ruffle and brightly colored zip front cardigans in kid sizes. When we exited the gift shop, all the alpacas had already exited the barn and headed to the field. Photo lesson learned. Or not. This has been happening for years. 

The plan is to visit more of the shops in the next three or four weeks. We like a challenge. Hopefully, the time won’t slip away like it did last year, when we also intended to hit the route again, and forgot to send in our stamp sheets for the drawing. We got enough stamps today to enter the second prize drawing for a gift certificate to a single shop. With all 19 stamps, the drawing is for a gift certificate to each of the 19 shops. That would be a sweet prize.