Well, today nothing went as planned. I had four or five attractions to visit and none of them panned out. I spent last night in Lake George, New York, an area fairly overflowing with cheezy tourist-oriented establishments. I narrowed my choices to two: The House of Frankenstein Wax Museum and the Magic Forest. I think the reason for selecting the wax museum needs no stating; who among us wouldn't make this choice? And The Magic Forest? It's an amusement park aimed primarily at children, with some fairly tame rides, a trained bird show and a diving horse. That's right, they proudly feature a horse that dives from a high board into a pool.

I slept in a hostel last night and had to vacate the premises by 9 am. Mr. Frankenstein's House of Candles wasn't yet open; the Magic Forest was but I was stunned to learn that the horse wasn't scheduled to dive until 12:15. That left me with some three hours to kill, so I had to 86 the equine platform event, much to my chagrin.

Always endeavoring to think positively, I saw this as an opportunity to cover some ground (time is running a little bit short here in the final days of the Odyssey). I headed west into Vermont, where I had no particular plans (considering how my plans were working out today, maybe it was just as well). I did stop in the Norman Rockwell Museum, expecting to encounter some of his original works; instead they had each of his Saturday Evening Post covers, many Boy's Life covers as well as a selection of his lesser known illustrations. It wasn't a total bust but framed copies of magazine covers? Not what I'd call a museum.

It didn't take long to traverse Vermont and soon enough I was crossing the line into New Hampshire. I had some plans for New Hampshire but they, too, went ka-blooey. There's an establishment, in Lincoln, called Clark's Trading Post; according to my reading, they sold Moxie at this joint. What's Moxie? It's an old-time soft drink that never really took off outside the Northeast but retains a loyal constituency in these parts. I wanted to try it and also enjoy the performing bears they proudly feature at Clark's.

The bears were through for the day when I arrived and Moxie isn't sold at the snack bar at Clark's; only inside their tiny amusement park. Sure, I could have gone in there and purchased one but admission was six bucks plus the price of the soda and seven or eight dollars for a soda, no matter how rare, is more than I cared to lay out.

Continue on the American Odyssey.
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