Recently, I had the rare opportunity to travel down a ribbon of road in the small town of Averill Park called Burden Lake Road. This may be the most interesting road in America.
I have no idea where Burden Lake Road begins or ends. But I do know that Burden Lake Road has mansions with dirt driveways in front built next to dilapidated trailer-house parks. If one continues further down this mutt of a road, one will find a pizzeria, a country club, and Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Author William Kennedy’s house. But not before passing houses that surely possess a young girl named Mayella and an old chifforobe in the back bedroom in need of a good “busting up,” before another string of million-dollar palaces with eight-car garages outside. I’m very confused.
Yesterday, there was no shortage of front yards that boasted tall poles with American flags and huge carriers being loaded with colorful stock racing cars. I saw one house built to be identical (in size, shape, and color) to the garage next to it. Did you know that while driving on Burden Lake Road one can take a right (or a left) onto, um, Burden Lake Road? Is there two Burden Lake Roads you ask? Logical question. Nope, only one.
So why was I on Burden Lake Road? I was en route to a wedding reception. The outside facility was on a lake. How nice, I thought, and naturally assumed that since the hall was on Burden Lake Road, the lake was, well, Burden Lake. Nope, it wasn’t, I was told. For the lake you see while celebrating a wedding on Burden Lake Road was in fact NOT Burden Lake. Ah, Burden Lake Road.
Brian Huba
7.28.13
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