So bye, bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey ‘n rye
Singin’ this’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die.
– Don McLean
Monday 13 November
Lake Placid, New York
We’ve made it to Lake Placid – population, around 2500 people – a beautiful village deep in the heart of the picturesque Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. We’re about five hours’ drive from New York City, around two hours from the state capital, Albany, six hours from Buffalo, up near the Canadian border, and much closer than that to Montreal, Quebec: just two hours.
For those unaware, Lake Placid (where we have two full days) had hosted two Winter Olympic Games, in 1932 and 1980, and is most famous for the Miracle on Ice hockey game that happened here between the United States and the USSR in February of 1980. For that reason, the town has become something approaching US hockey mecca, and many make the pilgrimage here to see where the game happened. More on that tomorrow.
Nearby, is Whiteface Mountain, some of the best skiing east of the Rockies, and where downhill competition for the 1980 Winter Olympics took place. The actual Lake Placid is nearer to Whiteface than the town where we are. Lake Placid village instead sits on the shores of Mirror Lake. Confused yet?
We are in another AirBNB rental, about ten minutes’ walk from picturesque Main Street. It’s a full apartment, part of a multi-storey house. The owners live above us. It’s very warm and very cosy, complete with an outdoor deck that, considering that it’s been snowing most of the day here – not to mention sporadically on the way up), and that the temperature isn’t supposed to get above 4 degrees Celsius all week, just about, I don’t think we’ll be using it. No word on whether mum will have dad out there cooking on the BBQ!
Unfortunately, there will be a scheduled power outage tonight, commencing in just a few minutes, and it’s expected that we’ll be without electricity until sometime tomorrow morning. Heck of a way to welcome us to the town. We were provided with a kerosene heater, candles, torches and extra blankets to keep us warm once the power conks out, and I can definitely see an early night in my future.
kitchtrips 