Day 30, Tuesday, July 6, 2021 Long Island, NY
A 60 mile car ride to the Montauk Point State Park at the east end of Long Island. Google Maps indicated 1 hour 20 minutes. Google was way off as the drive was 2 hours 5 minutes. However, the lengthy drive was soon forgotten as the park was sunny, windy and cool. The Montauk Lighthouse has an interesting museum which includes the original letter from President Washington authorizing the construction of the lighthouse in 1792, the first lighthouse built in NY. Built in 1796 in 4 months by a crew of 50 men, it originally was 300 feet from the shore but now stands only 100 feet from the cliffs. Further erosion has been stopped by a 1960's method developed by Giorgina Reid who, with no engineering background, patented a terraced process with grass, clay and really big rocks. Maintenance work was going on while we were there. In fact, on the drive we were behind a truck with a load of one big rock - bigger than a car and I am certain weighing much more. We had a picnic lunch and hiked along the shore for a bit. Amazingly, the car ride back took even longer, 2 hours 12 minutes! A lot of driving but I am glad I went. Won’t be going again though.
Day 29, Monday, July 5, 2021 Long Island, NY
On this Monday holiday we visited Fire Island National Seashore. The parking lot is a half mile away from the Fire Island Lighthouse which we reached by a nice boardwalk through the coastal plains. We hiked around a couple surrounding trails and then back to a picnic lunch. After lunch, we had handmade gelato at Fire Island Beach. A heaping serving of coconut and pistachio allowed us to share as Rosemary always desires. We took a view of the beach and it was more crowded than any beach I had ever seen before. From the south shore of Long Island, we headed to the north shore to visit Cold Spring Harbor. A quaint little town that Rosemary had visited as a young girl with her mother. Across this harbor was where Louis Comfort Tiffany had resided. His residence burned down but a portion survived and is now located in the Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, Florida, a place well worth a visit as we have done in the past.
We bought advance tickets to Old Beth Page Restoration Village and it being a holiday, the website indicated a morning parade of military equipment and some afternoon events also. We arrived just moments before the parade of tanks, armored cars, troop carriers, jeeps and more. The parade was making it around a second time when we began walking toward some of the village buildings and found out the village was closed and we were required to leave by noon as the afternoon events were a separate ticket. Nowhere was any of this disclosed on its website. Well, this gave us time to do other things we had on the agenda. We went to Beth Moses Cemetery to visit Rosemary’s mother, Denise, and her younger brother, Kenneth, who survived only 8 days. We found Denise’s headstone overgrown to where only her name was showing above the flora. I pulled out a scissors and wire cutter and started to trim when fortunately a nearby maintenance worker handed me a hedge clippers. I went to work and trimmed as best I could. The clippers could not cut through the thicker branches so I put my foot down, several times, and finally the headstone was fully visible. This area was home to numerous cemeteries, one after another, so it so happened that the next door cemetery was New Montifiore Cemetery where a very good friend’s mother and sister were buried. We visited their graves and sent our friend photos. A 30 minute drive away we visited Beth David Cemetery where Rosemary’s maternal grandparents and a great uncle are buried. Next on the agenda was to visit Rosemary’s childhood home and her elementary, middle and high schools. After Rosemary’s trip down memory lane, we still had time to visit the Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park. The 409 acres of greenhouses, gardens and natural habitat are beautiful. When we walked into one greenhouse we thought we were back in our backyard in Florida with all of the tropical plants. The site contains Coe Hall, a 65 room Tudor Revival mansion, built 1918-1921. Coe was one of the bigwigs at Standard Oil.
Cloudy and rainy day. Our first day in NY so naturally we had to get NY bagels. We got Rosemary her dozen sesame at Freshy Fresh Bagels. After cutting and freezing the bagels (except for today’s lunch) we visited Stoney Brook University, Rosemary’s alma mater. We drove by all of her relevant places including her dorms. Since we were at a college town, no trouble finding bubble teas and Rosemary’s favorite, Kung Fu Tea, was nearby. While in Stoney Brook we visited the Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages. The Carriage Museum has 10 galleries displaying more than 100 horse drawn carriages, wagons, fire fighting equipment and more. Much more interesting than it sounded at first. One of the carriages was included in the funeral procession of Abraham Lincoln. Several Studebakers were displayed as the company made carriages long before it got into automobiles. The Art Museum had mostly local artists only one of whom I was familiar, Louis Comfort Tiffany. The History Museum had several buildings on the site including a one room school house and a privy.
Travel day with 3-1/2 hour drive taking over 5 hours due to ridiculous traffic and rain. Checked into Southhaven Campground, a Suffolk County Park (50 amp, W, DS).
We arrived at the Bellview Winery, a Harvest Host host, for a one night stay.
Day 24, Wednesday, June 30, 2021, Galloway Township, NJ (Atlantic City) (43 miles)
Checked into Shady Pines MH and RV Park (50amp FHU) for a one night stay to visit Atlantic City. With hot temps, we decided to walk the boardwalk in the evening. On the drive into Atlantic City, we are surprised at the run down appearance of the area. Even the high rise casinos do not seem very impressive. We were expecting more similarities to Las Vegas but no cigar. Definitely a poor man’s Vegas. The boardwalk was cool and breezy with hilarious chairs on wheels to have someone push up to 3 people at $5 for 5 blocks. If not for the casinos it would just be another Wildwoods. We walked for 1-1/2 hours and at least we got our steps in. Otherwise a completely avoidable area.
Day 23, Tuesday, June 29, 2021, Cape May, NJ
We always enjoy attending farmers markets when we travel so we were eager to attend Cape May’s today. Well, one farmer, many craft booths and several food trucks meant no goodies to bring home. We went back to the Cape May State Park to hike the longer blue trail. The first half was through a nice shady path but the return of the loop was basically a straight dirt road. Not much fun in the heat. For dinner, we picked up 2 large mushroom pizzas and a caesar salad from Vicenzos which had a special deal for 2 large pizzas. The pizza was very good - NY style. And 2 or 3 more meals to come.
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