Today, I had to pop back into work in the afternoon, but before then, I decided to do some sightseeing in the Mansfield area. The first place I went to was the
Plainridge Racecourse in Plainville. The place was pretty quiet this time of morning, but I was fortunate to see some horses going with their riders sitting behind on an interesting contraption called a harness. This place is actually for
harness racing, which is really different from what I am used to seeing in the movies.
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| The tracks |
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| The horse with harness |
I headed next to Mansfield to try to finish my sightseeing there. I tried to see the
Comcast Center,
but security would not let me through, asking me to come later in the evening when there was an event going on.
Other places I visited, which was just average in my opinion, follow.
Done with Mansfield for now, I headed into Sharon to hike at the
King Phillip's Rock Trail, located at the end of King Phillip's Road. The trailhead was quite hard to find, but thankfully I managed to in a gap among the trees. The path I then took is shown below in pink.
Sadly, King Phillip's Rock was just a pile of rocks. The same is found at the sight of King Phillip's Cave.
The last place I headed toward was point 8 on the map, where there is supposedly a bridge overlooking Greeley Pond, but I ended up getting lost , heading to the opposite end of Greely Pond instead, which was just a small water body.
After a disappointing morning of sightseeing in the Mansfield area, it was time to head back to
Boston Badminton in Westborough for a badminton session with my meetup buddies.
I had not played for a while now, but it was good to know that I still knew how to serve and hit the shuttlecock. I tried to teach my friend how to play, but without much success. I also played several doubles games, winning some and losing some, but still perspiring a lot more than I have in a week.
I had to go back to work again, so I had to leave early. After I was done, I headed to the opposite side from where I was this morning, to the town of Ludlow to visit the
Lupa Zoo.
This zoo is pretty big, although I have to say
Southwick's Zoo in Mendon
is still better. One complaint about this place is that it looks a little disorganized, and the food for the animals is just thrown on the floor and not in any particular container. There were many chickens and birds which were running around, especially in enclosures where they did not belong as well. It is cool though that at almost every station, they allow for the buying of food to feed the animals. Pictures of the zoo and its animals follow.
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| Lupa Zoo |
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| Bobcat |
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| Patagonian Cavy |
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| Grivet Monkey |
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| Ring Tailed Lemur |
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| Sun Cunore |
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| Crested Genet |
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| Mali Uromastyx |
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| Inland Bearded Dragon |
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| Veiled Chameleon |
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| Emu and Turtle |
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| Red Bellied Piranha |
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| Potbellied Pig |
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| Turtles in the pond |
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| Muntjac Deer |
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| Mixed Peacock |
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| Indian Peacock |
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| Dromedary Camel |
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| Fennec Fox |
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| Silver Pheasant |
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| Blackbuck Antelope |
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| Great Horned Owl |
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| No food from me |
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| Nilgai Antelope |
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| Elk |
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| Himalayan Bear |
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| Ostrich |
After leaving the zoo, I decided that it was time for some chow as I had not had a single bite of food since yesterday. I had a Groupon to use at
Europa Black Rock Bar and Grill in town, so I decided to use it. This place is like a bar restaurant, pretty nice for a small town like Ludlow.
I decided to get 2 appetizers, the Portuguese Martini Scallops, with sweet vermouth, garlic, scallions, applewood bacon and banana peppers, and the Shrimp "Alninho", in garlic butter cream sauce. Both were extremely delicious, and balanced out the bland kale soup I had, to which I had to add the scallop sauce to make it taste better. My seafood paella was just so-so as well, making me lose my appetite for it and hence being forced to take it home as leftovers.
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| Portuguese Martini Scallops |
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| Shrimp Alninho |
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| Seafood Paella |
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| Kale Soup |
The was still plenty of daylight time left, so I decided to head into the town of Granby to start my sightseeing there. Some interesting places included the Earlee Mug Restaurant at 337 East State Street, which is shaped like a big milk bottle and can, and the
Dufresne Recreation Park on Taylor Street near East State Street, where there is a big field with great views of the mountains in the distance and a nearby pond. Pictures of the places I visited follow below.
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| Earlee Mug Restaurant |
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| Granby Town Hall, 250 State Street |
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| Field at Dufresne Park |
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| Pond at Dufresne Park |
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| Aldrich Pond, Amherst Street and Old Mill Lane |
At this point, when I was out in the middle of nowhere, my GPS decided to die on me, apparently from too much exposure to the summer heat, stuck in my car. Thankfully, my phone was working, so I relied on it to get me home, although I had to sit through 2 traffic jams to finally reach safe ground.
I'm definitely getting a new GPS tomorrow, or I will be lost for sure.
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