June 9, 2010

OK. For those of you who read June 8, scratch McGregor. I just found the actual most charming, most picturesque town I’ve ever seen, except for my all-time favorite, Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, the standard against which all towns are measured. (I’ve even worked up a rating equation: 

x = [H(G + y)]

This quantity is all divided by 2. 

x is the town’s rating,  H is the constant, (Harper’s Ferry), G is the “grabbing” factor, and y is a variable,  which can be positive or negative, such as weather, schools, recreation, etc. The whole quantity is then divided by two, leaving no chance that any town could be half as good.) The town that IS half as good is Galena, home of Ullyses S. Grant, after the Civil War.  It is so historically intact, and every type of architecture from the 1800s is represented. The town is lively and full of interesting shops, and a beautiful riverfront park stretches along the length of the town, providing many places to sit in the shade beneath ancient trees. The residential areas are perched upon terraces that reach upward from the river, so that nearly every house, from brick Victorian mansions to log and mud miner’s cabins, has a river view. Numerous staircases were built to allow “easy” shortcuts to the ascending neighborhoods. I walked one of the stairways and lost count after 300!

This most charming town also provided me with the second-best ice cream cone of my life! The top scoop was Almond Joy, the bottom scoop was peanut butter fudge. The middle scoop--naw, just kidding! One of my favorite traveling joys is eating an ice cream cone on the curb or shop stairs. You wouldn’t believe how many passersby INSIST that I share with Jubilee. As if I wouldn’t!

I’m staying at a beautiful state park for $10 a night. Jubilee and I walked 18,797 steps today, so we’re turning in early. The weather has been perfect all day and it’s chilly tonight, which pretty much guarantees a good night’s sleep. (I don't know what's happening to the font here. sorry!)