One of the words this month was Fool's for the treasure hunt. There is not an abundant amount of locations with that name. Matter of fact I only found 2. One was in Salem which we got a couple of weeks ago and one in Kent, CT. I took the day off, since this was going to be a nice day and with no big journeys planned in May, a day off for riding seemed like a good plan.
Todays ride was chock full of landmarks, theme tags, state tags, Harley dealers and 3 planned places for the treasure hunt. It would cover state roads, interstates and some very small back country roads. Weather wise it was clear and just about perfect temperature wise. Crisp enough in the morning they both MeAsWe and I donned our rainsuit jackets. We use the rainsuits more for an additional layer than for inclement weather.
Kent, CT was our turn around point and we arrived at Kent State Park right around 6 pm, which is around 3 hours behind schedule. The next stop was Fool's Day Farm. As we made our way from Kent Falls I kept looking up at the sky watching the sun dropping toward the horizon, wondering if we were going to make it to the farm before the sun disappeared. I figured as long as we hit the place by 7:30 we were in good shape.
Traveling down Camps Rd on our final approach to the farm, I started to have my doubts we were in the right location. I had that sinking feeling I placed the mark wrong in MapSource. I also had a feeling this road was going to turn to something other than pavement. Just as I started to say to MeAsWe I think I may have......and the sign appeared, it's 7pm.
MeAsWe dismounts and for this one I do too. I pull the rally flag, get it positioned and snap off a picture. Out of the corner of my eye I see 2 gentlemen approaching us from 2 different locations. As it turns out they were father and son. Of course a conversation started up and they asked what we were doing. We explained the treasure hunt, and the son thought that was just really kewl. They told us they did notice another couple taking pictures as well.
Our conversation continued and I asked about the name of the farm and how it came to be. The son explained that his father and mother purchased the farm about 25 years ago in
a very dilapidated state. All of his parents friends thought they were out of their minds and foolish to purchase such a run down place. Apparently they coincidentally closed on the purchase on April 1st.
During the ensuing years the mother came home from a fair with 2 calves. The story goes that her grandmother had some cows and she always liked those days way back when, so she bought two for herself. Neither the father nor the mother ever had any intentions to start a diary farm, however those 2 calves were the beginning of dream that really was never dreamt.
With 2 calves comes cows and they provide milk and on April 1 they delivered their first tanker of milk to market. The son then named the farm Fool's Day Farm for all the foolishness that had gone into the farm and business.
While this story is kinda of neat by itself, what was really special was the instant camaraderie that was established between the four of us. It is these moments that makes riding all that more enjoyable.
And that's the way it is, April 23rd, 2010.
