If the first part of my vacation was meant for doing all the touristy things that one does in New York city, and Mohonk was for doing outdoor activities, then the Sagamore was meant for peace and quiet.
The season was over at Lake George. Towns like Bolton’s landing live and die by the Summer tourist season and once it’s over they waste no time in shutting down. All of the rental boats were being coocooned away in plastic wrap, some stores had shut down for the year and even the restaurants were only open for dinner. The Sagamore itself had a somewhat empty feel about it. Less than half the rooms were occupied and all the lakeside activities had been suspended for the year. Which was fine for me since I’ve never really been a fan of para-sailing, water skiing, or snorkeling. The hotel takes up most of an island and I was in a free-standing lodge which looked like a small condominium. Out of the 4 suites, I was the only one there.
I was determined to take time to reflect on my life, to think, to just quietly contemplate. The solitude and quiet I felt would be conducive to this. Thee problem with this is that contemplation really never starts and stops on command. I felt it was too quiet.
The next day I decided to remedy this with a trip north of the border. Surely Canada could be inspirational. Crossing over was uneventful. They did the standard customs stuff and had a drug dog sniff around the car. Canada, or Quebec in this case was all farmland. The signs were in french, the speed limits in kilometers per hour, and I soon got bored and turned round. That’s when the problems began. I flashed my passport to the American agent at the border. She was puzzled as to why I had crossed over just to look around. I was sent to an interrogation room. In the waiting room sat a man who looked to be middle eastern or maybe north African. He looked depressed. I think he knew that he was going to be turned back. An agent led him off somewhere.
Three agents came in. Two of them took up tactical stances at my 3 and 9 o’clock positions with their hands on their batons. I think they expected me to put up a fight. The lead agent looked over my ID, rifled through my credit cards and money, and questioned me repeatedly about my trip. For some reason they thought it bizarre that anyone would want to travel alone or that I was just sightseeing. They kept asking me the same questions over again, trying to trip me up or to cause me to get angry and to give them a reason to hold me. The lead agent kept on saying “this doesn’t make sense to me” while the female agent kept saying this “smells fishy to her”.
Fortunately I had seen the same cop shows they had watched and I had probably seen the shows that those shows were based upon so I recognized the good cop bad cop routine. The lead agent asked me if I wanted to incriminate myself and make it easier for myself. I said no since I had done nothing. The female agent was exasperated and said “I’ve got nothing”. So they let me go. They had wasted nearly half an hour of my vacation.
The second night I sat by the lake at Sagamore and just watched the moon rise over the hills, the air was crisp and cold, the waves lapped gently on the dock. I was at peace.
The last day was totally unplanned. I got in the car and drove north along the lake shore. Every inch of lake shore had either a hotel or someone’s million dollar home on it. As I drove, torrential downpours of gold, orange, and brown leaves cascaded down and increased my calm.
Around lunch time I found a rustic roadside tavern and had a very nice french onion soup and sandwich. I found I was near Fort Ticonderoga and looked around the place. Some very nice demonstrations and the place was well looked after. Went back to the Sagamore for a massage appointment. This took out some of the knots in my back from all the driving. Had a nice Salmon dinner (when you have a good piece of fish you don’t need to add any fancy sauces or condiments).
The Sagamore is probably a very nice place but it’s a Summer place. You need to go there to enjoy the lake more than anything else. It did its job and provided the calm that I was looking for. I just wasn’t all that receptive to it.
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