Day 35, Sunday, July 11, 2021 Saugerties, NY
A morning visit to the coach by the grandkids to see Nana and Papa’s second home which happens to be on wheels. After marveling over the coach, the grandkids turned their attention to Rosemary’s dulcimer. A very unusual occurrence then took place as Rosemary played her dulcimer for an audience. Much applause after each piece was played. We then visited Opus 40 near Woodstock. This was an abandoned quarry that Harvey Fite acquired and spent 40 years sculpting and designing into terraces and pools. It included one area where the grandkids could play with rocks and attempt to build their own sculptures. A big hit with the grandkids. The afternoon was back at the AirBnB for a rousing game of Unstable Unicorn while it rained the rest of the day. Dinner was delivered from Namaste Indian Restaurant was good with lots of leftover sauce for the freezer to be used with future goodies. A happy visit but sad farewell with lots of hugs after a wonderful three days together.
All 7 of us piled into Daniel’s car and drove to the Kaaterskill Falls, high in the Catskills. Before we could enter the parking lot we had to wait in line about 40 minutes. The lot was full and when one car left, one car could then go in. We played a game of “Category” while waiting which made the time go faster. Once we parked, we hiked the .6 mile trail out and back to the upper falls platform. The falls consist of two sections, one on top of the other, but only the upper falls were visible from the platform. Together the falls are the tallest in NY at 260 feet, 90 feet taller than Niagara. We then ate our picnic lunch and headed to the lower falls trail. A 1.4 mile trail out and back with lots of ups and downs and numerous rocky steps in mostly wet and muddy conditions from the previous days’ rains. It took about an hour each way but the view of the falls was definitely worth it. After the long hikes we drove back to Saugerties for a stop at Alleyway Ice Cream which was enjoyed by all. Next to the ice cream shop was Windmill Wine where I picked up some wine for the next few dinners. A hot dog cook out on the gas grill at Daniel’s AirBnB got an very interested look from the grandkids who, to my amazement, had never seen an out door grill in action. One of the many down sides of life in NYC. All in agreement that it was a pretty wonderful day.
In the morning, we visited the town of Woodstock, saw the Woodstock Waterfall right in the center of town and bought tonight’s desserts at Bread Alone. A stop at ImmuneSchein Teas for Rosemary to replenish her supply of tea. An exciting day as we got to see our grandchildren for the first time in 25 months. Daniel and family drove up from NYC to spend 3 days with us in Saugerties and arrived in the afternoon. After many hugs and kisses, we all went to the Comeau Trail for a nice hike through some woodlands. Dante’s Pizza for dinner was enjoyed by all with a bottle of NY State Riesling (for the adults, of course).
Rain continued until about 2:00 so we took a car ride to explore the village of Saugerties. A visit to the Saugerties Lighthouse required a half mile hike along some boardwalk and through some muddy spots after all the rain. Nice view of the Hudson River. A visit to Krause’s Chocolates resulted in the lightening of my wallet. A grocery store stop and back to the coach just in time for the rain to begin again.
Day 31, Wednesday, July 7, 2021 Saugerties, NY (185 miles)
Travel day. The main rode off Long Island is I-495, the Long Island Expressway. Well, when I plugged the route into Google maps it indicated that I-495 was closed due to an accident and it routed us through various Parkways. The Parkways are for cars only since there are many low clearances so I cannot go on any of the Parkways. A call to NY Department of Transportation was not much help. We were advised it had no info on the clearances of Parkways and just to take the I-495 service road for the two exits to bypass the accident. We did just that and the backup of 4 lanes into the one lane exit was well, not very much fun. The 40 minute backup was not the only backup on the trip as we still had to go through NYC. Once we crossed over the Hudson River via the Mario Cuomo Bridge we were able to maintain cruising speed. We arrived at the Rip Van Winkle Campground (50amp fhu) about 4:30 and were able to hook up just as the rain started.
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