Going on a Bear Hunt

After Washington Lou and Harriet took us to their mountain home in New Jersey, just out of Butzville, Bear Country. Only, the bears were all hibernating. Slightly disappointed I didn't encounter one in the woods as was hoping to see which was the superior creature: Mad or the bear. Have small suspicion I would have triumphed.

The snow had arrived before us so it was all around - perhaps it wasn't the thickest coating of snow you've ever seen but in our eyes it was perfect. That afternoon we made the trek to High Rock (with Harriet's cousin Merna, who also took us to see her log cabin - one day I'm going to sneak back there and stay a few days), the highest point on the mountain (what qualifies a mountain, I wonder. Can anybody out there tell me as I'm too lazy to Google it), and the views were worth the hair-dishevelling winds. The woods are a wondrous place: tall bare trees stretch mile high to the sky, and my favourite rust-coloured leaves compete with the snow and hickory nuts for ground space. We saw some fleeing deer in the distance - it's still hunting season so they were probably running for cover.

We took a tour of the neighbouring towns the next morning, and Lou and Harriet are the best guides you can ask for (seriously) - not only do they know all kinds of useful things like, there was a mammoth found in that lake, and if you have a lake on your property you don't have to pay as much on your fire insurance, but we also were privy to local and personal history like, Harriet's parents where stationed at this crossroad as fire wardens during the war, and the man living in that house farms strawberries and is also the mayor, and can you see that house there - that's where Lou was born.

If I ever make a lot of money - enough to have an American home as well as one back in Australia - this is the kind of place I'd like to live. As you drive through the small towns (not really realising that you've left one behind and you're in the next) every store has a friendly name: Leo's Pizza, Rita's, Johnny's, Luigi's - the fire department is called Good Will Fire Comp. What more could you want? Maybe a sign saying, 'watch us make our peanut butter'? They have one of them too.

They also have some of the best diners around so if you're ever travelling through New Jersey and want a good breakfast, I can whole-stomachly recommend the Thisilldous diner in Belvidere and its scrumpsious ginger nut pancakes.

Lou and Harriet are terrific company and it was awfully sad to say goodbye as we've just had the best week. They've been incredibly generous and welcoming, and we're so lucky Marg's mum had the good fortune to meet them!

We're in New York now, and if we thought we'd already seen the best book shops America had to offer, we were wrong.