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Herkimer,N.Y.
Saturday, Aug.12, 1939.
We spent the morning packing and saying good-byes. The Winstons shoved off before lunch and he asked me to look him up in Chicago - Fred Winston of F.L.Winston Co. - and was very cordial. They were going to Quebec for a week or two. The Tafts leave tomorrow and "Franco" has to go back to New York tomorrow night for a day or so. We had a wonderful steak dinner at the Shane at noon - our first steak since arriving - but it was worth waiting for. After dinner we shoved off regretfully and headed west through tough traffic over winding hilly roads. Had supper in Johnstown at Massones just two weeks to the hour after we had supper there going up. Then we pushed off up the valley and wound up in a tourist place here at Herkimer - $3.00 vs $10 at the Hotel Utica last year, and about as comfortable, maybe more so.

I say we left regretfully. That is not entirely true. We would have welcomed another week at the Shane, but we didn't leave down in the mouth and unhappy. We had had a full and satisfying two weeks with no regrets and we left feeling we had had all we expected and more and we were well content in a way. And yet, in another way, we would have liked to stay longer had it been practicable. I know one thing - I would have missed Taft a lot up there - we all would have missed the Taft family. They are a great crowd and I am very much attached to them all. I shan't forget the interest Roby took in my dissertation on the stars to her and Bab one night in the dark out in front of the Big Shanty.