Moving on...

So much has happened in the past day or so!

Yesterday morning (which feels like about a week ago!) was our last day in Cooperstown. I think I can uniquely claim that I was served breakfast by Santa Claus - Paul, one of my hosts there, is the town's Santa every year and has the beard to prove it. He is also an excellent cook - I was served duck eggs with an English muffin, some very tasty ham from the local Farmers' Museum where Paul and his wife work during the rest of the year, as well as some Bonne Maman wild berry jam - very impressed that my fave jam has made it this far across the water. ;) Paul and Mary also surprised me by showing me their tea supply, I was amazed with some of the flavo(u)rs they had, and I was served my tea in a really pretty china mug and saucer. (Normally I just drink out of a mug so I felt very spoiled.)



Following breakfast, my teammates joined me and Paul gave us one of his walking tours of the town, complete with replica clothing from around the 1850s and a superbly knobbly stick - very Discworld! - which was made from a rhododendron. We were all really fascinated by the unique history of Cooperstown, and took enough photos to prove it! Paul showed us all the sights and explained about the large fire which destroyed much of the main street's buildings around a hundred years ago, and pointed out the one remaining building - a stone property which is now a gentleman's club. (Wonder what Barbara would say about that!) At the end of the tour Paul gave us each a very limited edition baseball card of Santa Claus, complete with fun facts on the back. It was a really sweet and very appropriate gift, and mine will live in my purse (wallet, not handbag) for a long time.

Following the tour we headed back to be collected, with luggage, and taken on to the next stop. It was really bittersweet to leave Cooperstown, where we have all been treated with such hospitality and warmth from the folks in town. I was especially sad to leave Paul and Mary's house - they truly welcomed me right into their home and their family. I really couldn't have asked for a nicer place to stay (and their kitty was so cute!)

We made the drive to Oneonta in two cars; Barbara and James with Ann, the area co-ordinator, and the rest of us with Bill, who'd previously picked us up from the airport on Monday. We were MUCH more alert this time, and pretty soon we found The Elk club (complete with model elk out at the front!) where the Oneonta club meets on a Thursday lunchtime.

Inside we were welcomed by District Governor Sam Koury and one or two members of the club. We distributed our bookmarks before the majority of members arrived, and lunch was served shortly after - a lovely buffet of cold meats and cheeses, breads, the biggest bowl of salad I've ever seen, plus a hot pasta dish. Dessert was a new one to me - peach cobbler with ice cream - delicious!

We sat down to eat at different tables and mingled with Rotarians, who all seemed really interested in who were were and where we're from. After a speedy meeting, we began to set up for the presentation. The computer was not very cooperative and we began to think we'd be presenting without slides, but at the last minute James and Barbara managed to wrestle the computer into submission and we were set. I actually felt a lot less nervous with the presentation, and I thought that we all seemed much more at ease (possibly the dimmed lights helped!) The Oneonta Rotarians were so gracious and interested in what we had to say, and we received some lovely feedback.

After the meeting it was time for a bus tour. Our driver, Paul, has been driving buses since he was at college, and gave us a super trip all around the sights of town - we saw the railroad tracks, a war memorial that's almost complete, the town's college (university) campuses, the airport and even the sewage works! We also took in the Soccer Hall of Fame, where we had a quick photo opportunity, and then moved on.



Last stop was at the Medical Coaches facility, which was stunning in the size and scale of the coaches made there. Another Rotarian from the lunch club, Chad, gave us a short presentation about the company before giving us a tour of the workshop floor. The coaches were utterly enormous, and made to such high standards. Despite the name the company produces any kind of coach imaginable, including veterinarian facilities, dental coaches, even TV coaches. Our thanks to Chad for the excellent tour and also for the website tip - we'll be using that software for our presentation this September! (He'll know what I mean...)

After such a packed schedule, we finally came home for some rest. We're all staying with a non-Rotarian called John, who has been wonderful and allowed us to basically take over his home (I'm typing from his PC now.) We all changed very quickly into casual gear, shared a quick drink, and hit the road again. After following DG Sam and getting slightly lost twice(!) we visited Wendy's sister's place out in the woods which has a lawn of daffodils, a koi carp filled pond, and deer roaming the woods. (Wendy has looked after our schedule here in Oneonta, and is my heroine for the bottle of water she gave me on Monday!)

From there we went back to Wendy's place, where she and her husband Willis had put on a beautiful dinner for us all - gorgeous beef. There was a great deal of teasing and banter, doled out fairly evenly, and we all had a superb and very relaxed evening. Huge thanks to Wendy and her family for such a wonderful evening.