Exploring the Catskills

Awash in farm country, I'm in love with the wide open spaces and the red barns and tall silos that dot the horizon.  Every few miles, a small community slips in to view and I drive slowly past magnificent, lumbering homes with rocking chairs perched on large decks, past historical buildings in varying stages of renovation, past cemeteries with headstones dating back to the 1830's, past Mom and Pop grocery stores, past churches built in the 1870's, past kids riding their bikes in the streets, past signs for maple syrup, garage sales, rabbits for sale, puppies to give away, pancake breakfasts.

Out here, hours away from the city, the pace of life is slower, more easygoing and more akin to stopping and smelling the flowers, or in the case of today, smelling the syrup and stopping to taste some of those pancakes for myself.