He looks up the road carefully. Old brakes are inferior to modern brakes. Interstates are endless. The Trail is almost perfectly punctuated with interesting villages, places to stop to swim or hike, mountain views, and little shops selling antiques and souvenirs. We begin in Greenfield, stop for lunch in Shelburne Falls, a vibrant village, and travel on to take the highest point, Whitcomb Summit, and then down around the famous hairpin turn, and on into a valley through the odd couple of the road, the mill city of North Adams and well-bred Williamstown, where the Mohawk Trail ends.
Mornings are the best time to be rolling along.
The mist is rising off the fields and by the river. The trees overhead glisten. The countryside is waking up. The day is opening up, and you feel as if you could go on forever. We would have missed that in an ordinary car.