On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Captain C
And so we come to the last set of the road trip. These are mostly shots taken in Cooperstown, and of course the final book haul.

As you might imagine, there are a lot of baseball-related souvenir, paraphernalia, and memorabilia shops and allied businesses. Here we see an old school home baseball/pinball-type game.

Cooperstown has some lovely houses. I think Dame N and I could fit our combined book collections in this one. Maybe.

The railroad car/old station which our hotel (behind them) is named after.

While the brownout was happening, Dame N and I stopped for food and (in my case) bubble tea at Norbu, an excellent Indian/Nepalese/Tibetan restaurant/take out joint which is fairly new to town. Naturally, the bubble teas have baseball-themed names. The folks at the nearby (and excellent) Schneider’s Bakery we talked to were delighted to have this new eatery in town which adds tasty variety to their food choices. I would not mind a chai/bubble tea/South Asian food truck on corners not occupied by taco trucks.

Many mementos available in the shops of Main Street, including a Savannah Bananas bobblehead. If you haven’t encountered them yet, the Bananas are basically a Harlem Globetrotters-type team for baseball, touring around and combining acrobatic silliness with baseball skills and interesting rules adjustments.

Yastrzemski’s Sports is one of the collector’s shops on Main Street. Here I got some inexpensive baseball cards (2 Tom Seaver, 2 Doc) and I think my Cooperstown tie dye.

Close up of the old school railroad car by our hotel. It would be fun to ride on that back platform, I think.


Our hotel. Highly recommended due to its excellent location and comfy rooms.

Finally, the one you’ve been waiting for, perhaps. My book haul from the trip! The ones from the Lyrical Ballad are on the lower left, they are the Geddy Lee and Neal Peart books, the one on the British Iron and Steel Industry, the Novgorod Chronicle (on its side), and the Alien Sex book. Weed, How Infrastructure Works, and Network Effect came from Montpelier; the Pratchett, Alan Bester, Gnomon, and GoodFellas script came from Lyndonville, VT; Pure Baseball came from the used bookstore in Cooperstown; The Science of Hitting, the Last Icon, and Incredible Stats came from the Hall of Fame bookstore; the baseball cards came from Yastrzemski’s, the Memories Magazines we got from signing up as HoF members; and the blue Mets themed minibat/schlubwhacker came from the Hall of Fame gift shop. Normally I wouldn’t go this hog-wild, but having the trunk of a rented car to haul books around is very conducive to book buying.
All in all, a great trip, heartily enjoyed by both Dame N and I.
Trivia Man
I love old presidential campaign whistle stops. Announced in advance, crowd gathers at the station. Candidate steps onto that platform, delivers a rip roaring stump speech, and at a key emotional climax he ends the speech and the train pulls off.
I think they lasted until the ‘72 nixon campaign.
Trivia Man
@Trivia Man: Until the ‘60 Nixon campaign. Legendary democratic (!) dirty trickster Dick Tuck (!!) was hired to prank RMN on the campaign trail. At one whistle stop he dressed as a conductor. His Eminence the Slime steps out, starts speaking … and DT signaled the train to pull out. Leaving a disappointed crowd watching a furious RMN accelerate rapidly away.
JeanneT
Such a fun trip! Thanks for taking us along.
Steve Gravelle
That’s what railroaders used to call an open-platform observation car, former Pennsylvania RR from the paint. Any first-class train worth the name would have one through the 1930s, when diesels and streamlining came along. Inside you’d have a parlor (reclining seats, one each side of the aisle), a lounge area at the platform end, often a couple sleeping compartments and/or small kitchen for buffet service. Passengers could indeed ride out back if they were willing to put up with the dust cinders. Must’ve been especially exciting at 60-plus mph.
Tenar Arha
Thanks for sharing your trip, and your haul, with us. Lovely series.
Captain C
@JeanneT: You’re welcome! We’re actually going back to Cooperstown this year, so maybe another set soon.
Captain C
@Tenar Arha: Thanks! It was a fun trip and TBR addition.
Captain C
@Steve Gravelle: I think it would’ve been fun.