Travels with Gunther and Kara

Well, we’ve arrive he-ah in Maine. After a 150 mile trip today mostly on interstates we had to meander down the goat path about 5 miles to get into the campground. We got checked in fine and settled into site 15, a reasonably level 30 amp FHU site. We had originally reserved 50 amps but there’s no Passport America discount for 50 amp so since the weather is going to be cool we took the 30 amp site instead giving us a refund of about $104 for our 5 night stay. We ran over into downtown Bath and went to the Byrnes Irish Pub for dinner (starting to notice a trend here?). They had Murphy’s again so that was good. Connie had a bowl of clam chowdah and a fish cake salad thing. Neil had a bowl of Wounded Unicorn soup (a spicy, creamy chicken soup made out of leftover hot wings with some whiskey sauce, garlic, cream, and parmesan cheese in it) and a cheese steak sandwich. The sandwich was really good and would normally have been a hit but the soup was fabulous. It was so good that Neil tried to figure out how it was made so that he can reproduce it at home.

Tomorrow we’ll probably hike in the afternoon after Connie works a bit…but she hasn’t given us the detailed entertainment schedule yet.

Cyas.

Man, what a great coupla days. Yesterday the adults went to Mass then after breakfast headed off to Boston on the T. Parking is brutal down there so they drove to the end of the line station, parked, and for $2.50 each rode the T and got off right at the Boston Public Garden. After having a nice chicken sandwich picnic by the pond in the Garden they headed through the Boston Commons to the start of the Freedom Trail which highlights a bunch of the Revolutionary War sites in town. About halfway through they needed a beer break so they stopped into Paddy O’s Pub right next door to the Union Oyster House. About halfway through their pints of Smithwicks Neil looked up and saint’s be praised what did he see on one of the taps at the bar? Murphy’s Stout, that’s what. So of course they had to have one since Murphy’s is actually better than Guinness (just a lot harder to find on tap). After that they wandered off to the rest of the Freedom Trail; snapping a few pictures as they proceeded.

A beer at Paddy O’s Pub. So good they went twice! Once for Smithwicks and once for Murphy’s Stout after finishing the trek along the Freedom Trail.

Paul Revere’s House. Not too impressive, is it?

The steeple at the Old North Church where the “two if by sea” lanterns were displayed to start Paul Revere on his ride. As I discussed in the post the other day; it should really be known as “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere who got captured and William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott who actually warned the colonials at Lexington” but I’m putting the blame for this misstatement of history on the shoulders of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for using incorrect facts when he wrote his poem. Sheesh, I guess Paul Revere just trips of the tongue better than William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott. The actual lanterns were displayed on the other (north) side of the steeple but the narrow streets, traffic and people standing around made for a much less photogenic layout than this one framed by the trees.

See what I mean?

I told you it looked better from the south side, didn’t I?

The fantail of the frigate USS Constitution. Larger and more heavily armed than typical frigates it is one of the first 6 ships built for the Navy, During the War of 1812 it defeated the frigate HMS Guirriere off the coast of Nova Scotia on Aug 19, 1812. When the enemy cannon shot bounced off of the Constitution’s oak sides during the battle one of then crew exclaimed “Huzzah, her sides are made of iron” resulting in her nickname Old Ironsides. Constitution is the oldest warship afloat and is the second oldest commissioned warship (to HMS Victory, Lord Nelson’s flagship at Trafalgar) in any navy. Berthed at Pier 1 in Boston she only rarely gets underway but still has a regular US Navy crew assigned. She was most recently underway under sail on Aug 19 of this year for the first time since 1997 commemorating the 200th anniversary of her victory over Guirriere.

She proudly flies the flag of these United States on her stern as she has done every day since July 22, 1798.

After their afternoon sightseeing they wandered back across the bridge from Charlestown where the USS Constitution is moored and headed for Rabia’s where they were having dinner. They got the primo table in the whole joint, sitting right next to the raised and open front window looking over the sidewalk and Salem Street. Neil let Connie have the “best way to eat lobstah evah” dish…lobstah, fettuccine, and buttah. After eating all of it (with the meat of a whole lobstah in it) Connie agreed that it was the best. Neil had to settle for lobstah ravioli (yeah he says, some settling). Really a great meal to top off the day. On the way back to the T station (well it was actually completely out of the way in the other direction but I digress) they went by Mikes Pastry and got a couple of Carmel Pecan Cannoli for dessert. They were so huge that they ended up splitting one and keeping the other one for today.

The original plan  was to do a tour at the Sam Adams brewery today but by the time Connie got done working it was too late to get there before the last tour started. So…Neil settled for a bike ride and then fixed the bathroom door on the rig (which wouldn’t latch closed) and built them a portable flagpole out of a PVC pipe, a piece of concrete rebar and a solar powered floodlight so they can fly the flag at their campsite.

Tomorrow it’s off to Meadowbrook Campground in Phippsburg, Maine for a couple days then we’ll get to the Accadia National Park area on Sunday for a 10 day stay at Timberland Acres RV park in Trenton, Maine. Really looking forward to moose and the many exotic things we can see at Acadia.

Cyas.

Wednesday afternoon we had to run down about 10 miles to Yarmouth to pick up the Mazda after it’s repairs and maintenance were complete. Unfortunately it was raining buckets when we left…we had the wipers on BAT on max as we headed out and were barely able to see the road. The highway over had several spots where the water was 6 inches deep and there were several wrecks that slowed us down not to mention the ambulance going the other way. We finally got down to Cape Cod Mazda and paid for the car…only to be greeted by a lightning strike about 50 yards away across the road as we tried to get out of the parking lot. Scared the bejeezus out of us. We took a different route home and after another hour or so the rain had passed so we headed out to dinner. We tried the Irish Pub…but it had zero cars in front of it and looked pretty disreputable so we punted and headed back to the Lost Dog Pub for a burger (Neil) and a clam plate (Connie) and a coupla beers. Pretty decent dinner.

Thursday morning we got up and going pretty early and rolled out of Sweetwater Forest about 0930 or so on our way to Boston. After a pretty much uneventful trip except for some really bad traffic as we made our way through a construction zone southwest of Boston we arrived here at Hanscom Air Force Base Family Campground around 1245. There was a sign on the office door that said “Back at 1330” so we made a sandwich and sat outside having lunch while we waited. Sure enough, right at 1330 Phil showed up…we had scouted the campground and wanted site 61 if it was available…took our $100 for 5 nights and we were parked in our 50 amp full hookup pull through site and completely setup by 1445. Piece of cake. Neil made some ziti with Italian Sausage Tomato sauce for dinner and they just watch a little TV until bedtime. Nice site; we’re not far from the runway but it’s mostly civilian traffic small planes and business jets so not too noisy and they stop flying around dark.

Friday was a work day for Connie so Neil got up early and went to the commissary and class 6 store (liquor store in Air Force terminology) to restock then came home and did some laundry around noon. After Connie’s work day Neil grilled a steak for dinner and they had some rice and green beans from the farm stand. They broke out a bottle of Blackstone Merlot that Neil brought from the Class 6 and had about half of that along with dinner then it was more TV and podcasts until bedtime. It did get hot around 1600 so they ended up closing up and firing up the air conditioners. Connie did some weekend planning and discovered that Rino’s Place has been closed for renovation. Rino’s is a local Italian restaurant featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives that has really, really good lobstah ravioli. Neil was really looking forward to it. Since it was closed Connie found a place near Faneuil Hall in Boston’s North End they’re going to instead. The Union Oyster House (which was their original idea) no longer sells the best lobstah dish Neil ever ate (a whole lobstah out of the shell, linguini, a cup of melted butter with a squeeze of lemon in it, parmesan cheese, a hunk o’ crusty french bread and a beer on the side) so Rino’s was going to be their fallback place. This place she found named Rabia’s has a very similar lobstah dish so they’re going there instead…third time’s a charm I guess.

Today after breakfast they headed off to the Minuteman Trail…this National Historic Area retraces the path of the British as they left Boston on April 18, 1775 to go out to Concord to seize and/or burn military supplies. After the “One if by land, two if by sea” signal Paul Revere set out with a couple of companions to rally the colonists. He was actually captured in fairly short order after notifying Sam Adams and John Hancock in Lexington and his two companions William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott alerted the colonists along the road to Concord. Historical footnote: nobody actually said “The British are coming” as the colonials still considered themselves British at the time. What Revere and his companions actually said was “The regulars are coming out”. After a brief skirmish in Lexington where several colonials were killed in a volley that was unordered and no one knows who actually shot first the British continued on to Concord where the first actual battle of the Revolutionary War took place at the North Bridge. The British were holding the bridge itself and the ground to the left in this picture on the east side of the Concord River with about 100 troops while the remaining troops marched another 6 miles to the Bartlett farm. The colonials with a force of about 400 men on a hill to the west side of the river (about 300 yards out of the picture below to the right of the bridge) advanced upon the bridge when they thought that Concord itself (which was behind the British) was being burned. In the ensuring battle (again, nobody knows who actually fired first but the best guess is that it was the British) about 8 British and 2 Colonials were killed.

Shortly after this battle the remainder of the British troops returned from Bartlett’s farm without finding the cannon and arms they were looking for since they had been moved after the alert the evening before…and the remaining 1680 British troops began the 20 mile retreat back to Boston. By this time a total of about 4000 colonials had gathered to oppose their retreat and there was a running battle from noon when the British started back until almost midnight when they arrived back at Charleston to take boats back to Boston…with a total of almost 300 British and 100 colonial casualties. Most of these were in just a couple at a time as evidenced by this memorial which is a well where a British and a colonial surprised each other, both declared the other was a dead man, and both shot the other with the Brit perishing immediately and the colonial the next morning.

Here is a picture of part of the original Concord Road which was taken by the British both ways.

As you can see…it’s wide enough for a single car to go down but two way traffic would require driving on the grass to pass. Most of the way it’s bordered by woods, overgrown fields, or ridges so it made a really lousy place to try to retreat for 20 miles with 1700 troops opposed by 4000. Amazing that the British only lost 300 men during the retreat but that was due to the slow rate of fire of the musketry of the time period…no large magazines or automatic weapons back then and a highly trained soldier might get off 2 rounds a minute or 5 in 2 minutes.

Along the way we also visited the Hartwell Tavern which was owned by Ephraim and Elizabeth Hartwell. It was a primary way station along the road between Lexington and Concord and very nearby is a bend in the roads in heavy woods that is named Bloody Angle…the British were ambushed here by colonials from both sides of the road and 8 were killed. Neil forgot to take a picture but the road at the angle is a bit narrower than the picture above and the area is much more heavily wooded. Not a nice place to be outnumbered and attacked from both sides. The picture below was taken from atop the stone wall bordering the Battle Road.

We also stopped by the Apple store in Burlington to get a replacement charger for Connie’s laptop as it died last night…then stopped by the commissary and got a rotisserie chicken for dinner.

Tomorrow we’re off to Boston…planning on visiting the public garden and the Boston Commons. After that we’ll play it by ear depending on how tired we get and either do some/all of the Freedom Trail through Boston or stop by and watch the street performers at Faneuil Hall Plaza.

Cyas.

Well, Thursday we got underway from Wolfs Den campground and headed over to Cape Cod. Breakdown, hookup, and travel went pretty well…we did have to pull over for emergency repairs to the Mazda just before hitting the Cape Cod Canal. The spray shield under the engine came loose and Neil ended up hillbilly engineering it with a tie wrap to hold it up until they could get it repaired. They ended up getting an appointment at Cape Code Mazda and the car will be ready to pickup tomorrow. Oil change, repair to the spray shield, replacing the clips that hold the bumper on (they discovered it was loose and was probably not properly repaired after the deer collision last fall) and would you believe it a mouse nest in the cabin air filter!. Connie is sure glad there (a) is not mouse and (b) that it didn’t come out and scare the daylights out of her while she was driving down the road.

We got over to Sweetwater Forest Campground in Brewster, MA pretty easily and are parked in site T2. Pretty nice campground with wide, easy to back into sites. No satellite TV due to the tree cover but we have cable from the campground and over the air signals from the Boston area as well. We originally paid $324 for 7 nights of 50 amp full hookup (FHU) but discovered that the 50 amp circuit has an issue preventing it from actually being used. The power management system sees low voltage (103 vs the normal 120) and shuts the power off. We ended up using the 50 amp to 30 amp adapter and that line works fine. Since the weather is cool and dry we don’t really need air conditioning anyway so 30 amp is plenty of power. The campground owner credited us 2 nights ($104) for the inconvenience so we ended up paying $220 for 7 nights on Cape Cod…about the best deal one can get in this area. We would stay here again.

Thursday evening we ate at the Lost Dog Pub…food was really good there, the Guinness was cold and the crowd friendly. 

Friday we went kayaking in the salt marsh at Cape Cod National Seashore. Had a good paddle of about 4 miles but came back earlier than we expected as the current was a lot worse than anticipated and it seemed like we were always going upstream. The marsh probably averaged 18 inches deep and in a lot of places was 8-10 inches so it was a fairly difficult paddle. Sorry no pictures as it was too rough to get the iPhones out. We’re going to buy a Panasonic Lumix TS4 waterproof point and shoot camera for carrying with us everywhere and when the real camera might get wet…that will let us get better photos in ad hoc situations than the iPhone does. Although the iPhone is really good for a phone camera…it’s still a phone camera and has no optical zoom or exposure controls for taking more than just a snapshot.

Saturday we rode our bikes to the beach nearby at Breakwater Beach in Brewster, Mass. This is on the bay side of the peninsula so it was a little more sheltered from the wind although it was still pretty windy. The water was very cold so we only dipped our toes a bit. Laid on the beach awhile, ate lunch, then rode our bikes back home after stopping by a farm stand and getting some apples. Saturday evening there was a picnic at the RV park; Neil made a Waldorf Salad and they went over and ate burgers, chili, beer, and cake. After that they came back home and watched Alabama (God’s Team) crush Michigan at football 41-14…starting off right where last year’s National Championship team left off.

Sunday we drove around Cape Cod and took in a bunch of the sights. We visited Marconi Station where Guglielmo Marconi built his wireless station that sent and received the first trans Atlantic signals. Not much is left as the station was abandoned right before WWI…the equipment was salvaged for use elsewhere due to security concerns about the German Navy and the buildings were abandoned. The beach cliffs where the transmitter was have continued to erode over the years and there is little of the original installation left. We did get a couple of pictures of one of the tower foundations and the area that used to have the antenna on it. There’s a little display model in the shelter in the picture and the antenna site was on the left on the off shore side of where the shelter is.

We also ate a lobstah roll at Arnolds…according to Yankee Magazine it’s the second best one in the Northeast. It was decent but not outstanding. We stopped at the Eastham Windmill on the way back; it was built in 1680 and is the oldest windmill on Cape Cod. Originally used for grinding corn into flour and was in use up until the early 1900’s before being abandoned.

Monday was Labor Day so in anticipation of many crowds we stayed home. Neil had a nice long bike ride on the bike path then we wandered down to the lake and had lunch. After an early dinner of steak and corn on the cob we headed off to the Wellfleet Drive-In theater…haven’t been to one of those in years so it was double feature time. We watched Moonrise Kingdom which had Bill Murray and Bruce Willis in it but was terrible. Next was The Candidate which was funny in places but was only slightly better than terrible. The popcorn was good and the company outstanding but the entertainment was sort of lacking. Still, a successful evening overall.

Tuesday we dropped the Mazda off to be fixed and drove up to Provincetown which is at the very end of Cape Cod. On the way we stopped and ate breakfast at Ruggies which is supposed to be the best breakfast on the Cape. Pretty good grub; and only about $20 with the top. Home made sausage, eggs and French Toast with a couple cups of pretty decent coffee. Arriving in Proivincetown we hiked a mile across the breakwater than along the beach for another mile and a half to Long Point Light. It was raining a bit when we started across the breakwater but stopped after awhile and the remainder of the hike (although it was pretty long and strenuous) was in the dry. The mile or so across the breakwater consisted of a lot of hopping from rock to rock and trying not to fall into the cracks. Connie was really scared going across. We happened across a Great Blue Heron on the way across…sorry about the lower quality iPhone picture but it was still raining too much to get the real camera out.

Then we hiked another mile and a half out to the lighthouse, took some photos of the lighthouse and the Provincetown Pilgrim Memorial across the inlet in downtown Provincetown, and headed back.

On the way back we saw a bunch of Great Skuas. This is a gull like but larger shore bird and we’re in the southern end of it’s range. We’ve been seeing them ever since we arrived in Connecticut and finally figured out what they were.

By then the tide was getting pretty close to high and we had to detour slightly a couple of times around areas that were dry on the way out. Connie was a little happier about the breakwater trek back as the rocks had dried out and she was only scared in a couple of places. Total hike was almost 5 miles but given the difficulty of the breakwater and the soft beach sand it felt more like 7 or 8. We were so glad to get back to BAT and head back home.

Heading home we stopped and bought some fresh Halibut for dinner…Connie had found a recipe awhile back with mayo, sour cream, onions and peppers and a cracker crumb topping that turned out really good. They had an apple, goat cheese and pecan salad with a mustard, honey and lime juice vinaigrette dressing. Both were really yummy. 

Today it’s raining so Connie will do some work and Neil will go on a run. Dinner is another pub run (albeit to a different pub) then tomorrow we head off to Boston for a 5 night stay at the Hanscom Air Force Base Family Campground. Nothing major is planned for this stop…laundry, clean the rig, mount the new phone booster antenna and other minor household chores like that are planned. We will go into Boston one day for lunch and some touristy stuff but haven’t decided when yet.

Cyas.

Life here in East Haddam has been pretty good this week. Monday Connie worked a bit and then we headed off to Gillette Castle for a picnic on the grounds near the Connecticut River. William Gillette was an actor in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s that made a career of playing Sherlock Holmes on stage. While wandering through the visitor center we found out that he invented the 3 mannerisms that people associate most with Sherlock Holmes; the drooping pipe, the cape, and the famous double billed cap. We decided not to pay the 15 bucks to tour the castle but did get a couple of pictures of the outside which is pretty cool.

We then hiked about ½ mile down to the bank of the river and had a picnic lunch; then hiked back up the cliff and headed off for the second part of our day; a visit to Devil’s Hopyard State Park and Chapman Falls. The falls were right off of the parking lot and were pretty nice…glad we were here on a weekday as I’m sure there would be too many obliviots swimming and climbing illegally on the rocks on a  weekend.

We then headed up to the vista point which was about a 3 mile loop trail. Pretty steep and rocky and headed through a 50 acre or so section that had a fire back in March. Once at the top the view was pretty nice

After a brief rest we headed down quickly since it Dark Sky (weather program on our iPhones)  said it was going to be light rain in an hour or so. After passing 2 20something mothers with their 5 kids on the way back down and having a little difficulty with staying on the trail a couple of times we got back to the park and headed home right before the rain started. Once home and showered Neil made some Guinness Shepard’s Pie out of a bit of leftover grilled sirloin from Saturday, some frozen corn, a package of mashed potatoes and a bit of cheese. That and a wine cooler made an excellent dinner.

Tuesday dawned dreary and raining so Connie worked some more then we went off and did laundry in town. After getting back the weather had cleared up but Connie was tired so we took a nap in the afternoon (Neil did get a picture of our campsite before sunset)

We had Jamaican Spiced Chicken, rice and winter squash for dinner. Connie watched some of the Republican Convention (Neil was bored with it after about 2 minutes) then we headed off to bed.

Wednesday Connie worked a bit early in the morning then we headed off to Rocky Neck State Park. There was a nice 3 mile hike through the salt marsh area…we saw common egrets, snowy egrets, ducks, swans, sandpipers and shore birds. While on the hike we ended up at the Vista overlooking the marsh and took this panorama shot (sorry it’s an iPhone photo, we forgot the DSLR).

On the way back we ran across this road sign

so we had to stop and get a shot of it as well.

Getting back home we showered (good thing we’re leaving tomorrow as our gray water is at 83% full) and are having some potato/Italian Sausage/Bacon/Cheese/Onion concoction for dinner. Sitting outside under the awning now typing this blog post…Connie is out in the sun but I had to sit under the shade so I can see the laptop screen. Tomorrow it’s off to Brewster, Mass on Cape Cod for a week of beach, lobsta’, and beer.

Cyas.

Well, another busy couple of days for us. After the weekend’s pork fat overdose we just stayed around the rig on Monday. Neil did laundry while Connie worked at her virtual job. After that they cleaned up the house for a couple of hours and just were homebodies. Tuesday the fun started again. After a bit more work by Connie they went to Tivoli Bay which is series of marshy inlets off of the Hudson for a kayak trip. It was a steep carry down to the water but once in they had a nice paddle for 2 ½ hours. Probably a mile and a half out as the tide started to come in…with the result that it was a pretty constant paddle to get anywhere. They say hundreds of Red Winged Blackbirds, some little swallows or kites that they couldn’t really identify, and a Great Blue Heron on the way out. They got out to the railroad bridge where the inlet enters the Hudson and decided to turn around. Coming back in was a nice float; the current basically carried them along with just a bit of paddling to maintain course. On the way back in…more Red Winged Blackbirds and an otter. The otter submerged before they drifted close enough to get a picture and they weren’t able to get the iPhone out of the dry bag fast enough to catch the blackbirds so you’ll have to be content with a couple shots of the mountains and streams. Neil took a little movie but it didn’t work out so well so I’m not gonna post it.Overall it was a really great paddle. They got back to the dock and Neil broke down the kayak while Connie walked up and got the car from the parking lot…then trudged up the hill, packed and headed home. Neil is going to research a smaller point and shoot waterproof camera for their kayak trips because while the iPhone is the best camera phone going it’s still a camera phone and trying to carry the Nikon digital SLR in the kayak is just too hard. That way they’ll be able to get better pictures out on the water.

Today was a trip down to the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) to have lunch at the American Beauty Restaurant. After giving a neighbor in the park a jump for his TOAD and a quick run by Neil they headed off for lunch. Connie had a smoked chicken breast which was very good. Neil had some wine braised short ribs which were kinda tasty but were texturally more like pulled pork than the short rib consistency he was expecting. The cheddar biscuits were excellent and the beer was decent (albeit not served in a cold glass). Neil thought it was decent but probably wouldn’t go back there as it was nothing outstanding. Here’s a shot of Connie quaffing her beer and of the front of the main building.

Next they headed off to the Duchess County Fair for the afternoon. It was your typical fair…midway, cows, ice cream, mediocre entertainment, and all sorts of food. They watched the horse show jumping demonstration  for awhile, went by the pregnant cow barn and watched the two newborn calves try to nurse (pretty much unsuccessfully), wandered around awhile, saw a golden retriever that was the spitting image of their long passed puppy Kara (my buddy’s namesake) and pretty much passed on food since they were still full from lunch. They finally split a garlic and butter pretzel for dinner and Connie had a soft serve frozen custard cone then they headed home. Stopped by the Feed and Seed to buy a can of white spray Rustoleum paint for the steel plate Neil glued to the roof for the new magnetic mount cell phone extender antenna then got home just in time to fold up the kayak (which was drying on the picnic table) and stuff it into BAT before the rains fell. It rained for 20 minutes or so and really cooled the air off…it feels a lot better now.

That’s about it; we’re packing up and heading for East Haddam, CT near Essex for a week. Don’t know what’s planned for the week except I know Neil is going over to Spiro’s Pizza in New London for a pie at least. Spiro is long gone from the place but he was this Greek submarine sailer during WW2 and after the war opened up a pizza place in New London near the US Submarine Base there. It was a small joint that always had lines out the wazoo so he came out with pitchers of beer and told sea stores while you were waiting. Sometime in the ’80s they moved to a larger building out north from the base and the lines are gone but the food is just as good. Back in the day whenever a sub from Charleston would go to New London for training they would always take orders from the rest of the squadron and would usually bring back a hundred or two frozen unbaked pies from Spiro’s for their mates. I wonder if it will be as good as they remembered…will let you know later.

Cyas.

As promised; here is the second part of the post. Following Wednesday’s trip on Thursday they headed out for more hikes. The destination was Bastion Falls and Kaakterskill Falls in the Catskill Mountains nearby. After picking up more bug spray and the dry cleaning they headed out and pretty quickly found the winding and steep road up to the park. Neil is starting to notice a pattern here in NY; everything is uphill.

They quickly parked and found Bastion Falls right next to the road…very easy to get to and a decent 80 foot or so drop.

Next stop was Kaaterskill Falls which unfortunately was about ¾ of a mile up the trail and probably 400 feet higher. The climb was pretty steep; almost like climbing stairs for the first 300 yards or so then leveled off and had just a few gentle dips and climbs across the ridge with another short steep section towards the end. It wasn’t too bad with hiking shoes and the aforementioned hiking sticks (see first rule of hiking) but they were amazed by the number of people climbing in what seemed to be the completely wrong shoes. About ⅔ of the 100 or so people they met on the trail were Orthodox Jewish folks…all dressed in black with the men in street shoes and the women in low pumps. Being Catholic Neil and Connie understand keeping up with your religion’s tenets and guidelines but climbing up a rocky trail in skirts and dress shoes seems like a good way to end up over the side of the cliff to them. Anyway; they finally got to the base of Kaaterskill Falls. This is a 220 foot total drop in 2 sections and while there was a trail up to the intermediate pool it is not maintained and was just too steep and dangerous to go up…so you’ll have to make do with the pictures and video from the bottom.

Here is a short video of Kaaterskill Falls.

The hike down was more challenging than the one up; although descending is always easier on the lungs the steep and rocky trail made the footing a bit dicey. They got down safely though and headed back to the park for dinner.

Friday was a nice easy hike at the Falling Waters Preserve. This preserve is the home of an abandoned Dominican Nun retirement home and has several trails that were built by a priest who lived there as his recreation. A couple of nice falls…only 10-20 feet but burbling and babbling nicely with benches for contemplation; and a hike back to the parking lot along the Hudson and low and behold 2 ½ miles later the hike was done. Great hike on an even better day; nice and cool with some breeze to keep us cool.

The only drawback was the trail along the river on the way back was a bit rocky…again. The outgoing trail was a dirt road but coming back was a bit more challenging. After getting back to the car they stopped by a farmers market and got some fresh blueberries and sweet taters that Neil made a Pork and Sweet Tater hash with Blueberry Sauce out of (it was pretty yummy but will have a dash of Franks Hot Sauce next time to get that whole sweet/hot thing going as Rachel Ray would say). As soon as Neil posts this for me he’s headed off for a bike ride then it’s Winery Road Trip and the Roast Pig Hawaii Style at the park this evening.

Oh, before I forget I guess I better tell you about the beer and meeting the town drunk…don’t want to keep you in suspense. Thursday evening Connie got dressed up in her LBD (little black dress) and they went out for Date Nite. First stop was the Beecham Inn which is supposedly the oldest inn in America. They had an attached tavern with Mothers Milk Stout from a local microbrewery on tap. Yum. While they were enjoying their first pint “Bobby” introduced himself, er, I mean latched on to them like a drowning man.  Aiyaii, what a loser he was. Larry the bartender told us while Bobby was out having a smoke that he had only served him two but Bobby had clearly had a half dozen or so before that as he was three sheets to the wind. At least he was a friendly drunk if a bit clingy. Wanted to tell you all about his world travels, condo in Vero Beach, and stuff. We finally left the tavern just to get away from him and went across the street to Fosters Tavern where once again they found beer on tap. It was only Sam Adams Oktoberfest which isn’t bad but it wasn’t as good as the stout. The burgers and London Broil dinner were excellent though and after eating and drinking they headed home for dessert. A good time was had by all.

Cyas.