Friday, January 9th, 2009
When we moved here, I asked a few people who have been here for a while, what type of winters we were in store for. I wasn’t expecting huge changes from what we were used to, since we are only about two hours away from where we used to live. The responses I got ranged from, “same thing as your hometown,” “about 6-8 good snows per year,” and “a lot of ice.”
We have already experienced the snow storms. They feel about the same as where we just came from. Now, we are experiencing the ice.
See, describing winter in New York to someone is a tricky endeavor. There are many micro-climates. I think the temperatures vary to some degree, but what varies even more is the snowfall amounts. Rochester is a far cry from Long Island. Even the Catskills are much different from Westchester.
When Laura and I were out walking one day back at the old house, we stopped to chat with one of the neighbors. We started talking about snow, when she laughed and said, “Oh, you have never experienced a winter around here?” I was like, “C’mon lady, gimme a break. We are an hour away from where we used to live.” She was sort of right, there was a little more snow than we were used to.
Way, way, way back in the day, like 12 years ago, when I was attending Westchester Community College, we had an ice storm. This storm left the roads completely covered for an entire week. It didn’t help that it was about 12 degrees outside for all that time, keeping the roads frozen. I remember that I couldn’t get to the first week’s worth of classes because of all the ice. I would drive about 3 miles in the car down through town and turn around. It was maddening.
When I finally made it to class, I expected everyone else to talk about all their terrifying experiences trying to get to school. The funny thing is that no one even knew what I was talking about. They all lived in Westchester and got no ice. Either that, or it just melted faster.
Pieces of ice on driveway
Connecticut is a bit different from New York. The way it was explained to me from the sales guy at the John Deere dealership was like this: There are basically three zones in Connecticut. The first one is from Interstate 84 and north. They get snow. From Interstate 84 down to Interstate 95, we get icy, slushy mix. From 95 south, they get rain. Of course, that’s not always true, but most likely would occur in the early season and the late season. That’s fine with me.
We got some freezing rain a few days ago. It coated the ground and pavement and has been hanging around ever since. Yesterday, the sun melted most of the driveway, but not all of it. I was walking around on it today and nearly killed myself. For some reason, it’s like a magnet to me. It calls out my name…”Jay, come over and do the moonwalk on me. Act like you are walking on a treadmill. Do the robot and the running man, like Rob.” It just happens, I can’t help it.
Icy sidewalk
Icy driveway
Today, while we were at Home Depot getting some paint for the next bedroom, I went over and grabbed some calcium chloride snow melt stuff. It’s like little white beads. I think it was calcium chloride or the other stuff. The one I got said it wasn’t as bad for the environment than the calcium chloride. It could have been magnesium chloride or potassium chloride. It probably would have been a good idea to read the bag before I started writing. Either way, I got the snow melt stuff.
As you could have guessed, I was excited to throw some of it around on the ice to see how it worked.
When we got back to the house, I unloaded the bag, dropped it on the floor, raced over to get a small bucket and went to work. When I got everything situated, I started tossing the little white pellets all over the place. It was pretty fun. After I unloaded my first batch, I stood back and listened. I always like to hear the soft, “crack, crack, crack” of the ice being melted by the whatever chloride.
I did this a few times and some of the ice was melted. I think I need to add more because I now have a sheet of ice with about a million little holes in it. I always try to be conservative with this type of material, so I don’t think I get the best results. Plus, I don’t want to throw the whole ten bucks away at one sitting.
I’ll let you know how it looks in the morning.
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Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
Laura and I cruised up to Woodstock again this weekend. I told her that I wanted to go hiking up that big mountain everyone climbs. I am not sure the name of it, because we never actually got to it.
We drove into town with the best of intentions. When we got somewhat closer to the action, we noticed a whole bunch of traffic. I guess it was leaf peeper Sunday. I can’t make fun of them because we were there too. One thing it did do was to make us sure that we don’t want to move to Woodstock. I think when you move to a town, you want it all to yourselves. Not you entirely, but you and the people who live there. Woodstock is a town that people visit, that’s for sure.
We parked out of the way a little bit, in the health food store parking lot. Then, we walked up to Joshua’s Cafe. I was really hungry. I love the food at Joshua’s. It’s different and it’s good. The only problem is that the place was packed. Laura and I had to wait upstairs and drink some Guinness while we waited. That was rough. The reason it was rough is because it was out of the bottle and it cost $9. Even the girl behind the counter had a pained look on her face.
We ate and walked around a little bit. Then we left. We have been there so many times before, I am not sure it holds its luster.
Here is a photo of the soon-to-form drum circle. It started at 4PM, but we were gone before then.
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Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
On Sunday, Laura and I decided to hop in the car for a drive. We crossed over the ridge and jumped on Rt.209 heading North. We drove through a few back roads in the Stone Ridge, NY area, which was nice. I told Laura that I wanted to visit High Falls, NY, because we had driven through there before and I liked the area. It is tucked in the ridge, near some pretty historic things like the Depuy Canal House and the Old Stone Aqueduct.
Since I am a walking blog, I decided to take some photos…
This is one of those old signs that I love so much. Obviously, I like to take pictures of these things. This one desribes the “Old Depuy House.”
This is the Old Depuy House itself.
After walking around a little bit, we passed another old sign, the “Old Stone Aqueduct” one.
And this is the Old Stone Aqueduct, or part of it anyway. I am pretty organized aren’t I? I am not sure of the story behind this water system and the web didn’t offer too much. Perhaps someone can enlighten me.
We decided to eat because we were hungry. Laura knew of a Sushi place in the Depuy House because she had seen signs while passing by.
Here is the entrance to the restaurant. It was downstairs in the old wine cellar.
I secretly took some pictures from our table. This is what I love about the area…hidden little treasures like this as well as all the history. It’s not as historic as Europe, but I think it will do.
After we ate and left the restaurant, we walked around a bit. There was some sort of a yard sale going on with a bunch of tables. We strolled through. I kept thinking of my parents. They would’ve enjoyed it because they love browsing through these types of things. I also grabbed a few more pictures.
On the way out, we decided to take a road that is less traveled. We drove from High Falls to the entrance of the Mohonk Mountain House and then down to New Paltz. Above is a photo of the Catskill Mountains that I grabbed while driving up the hill.
I would say it was a pretty good day. Anything to get us out exploring the area when the sun is shining is a good day.
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Monday, August 20th, 2007
We went to the International Celtic Festival at Hunter Mountain yesterday. It was a good day and reminded my very much of the Oktoberfest at Hunter Mountain. They had kind of the same setup and the skyride was open, so we could ride up the mountain.
We took Rt.28 into the Catskill Park into Phoenicia. Then, we took Rt.214 to Rt.23a and made a left into Hunter.
It was pretty cool. We got to see the new building they made a few years ago. That’s where we paid our $12 admission fee (each) and the $8 skyride fee (each). Right after we got in, we grabbed two Guinness. That beer isn’t too fancy, since we drink it all the time, but it was the darkest one they had. Then, we (or I) ate my traditional funnel cake and Laura had her traditional Sauerkraut. The Sauerkraut was really good.
There was a long list of entertainment at the festival. Here it is –
- Black 47
- Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul
- Glengarry Bhoys
- Andy Cooney
- The Barley Boys
- Liz McNicholl
- Seamus Kennedy
- Schenectady Pipe Band
- Donny Golden Irish Dancers
- Broesler Irish Dancers
- Ceili Country
- Tim Quinn
- MC – Frankie Curran
After we ate, we went up the skyride. This is the real reason I went there. For the Oktoberfest, I went for the beer, for this one, I went for the skyride.
If you go to Hunter, you gotta go up the mountian. Believe it or not, the guys were still there carving the Rip Van Winkle thingy in the rock. I was wondering why it was taking so long, but I just learned on the web page that they only carve on festival days. This is so the public can see the progress. It’s pretty cool.
At the top of the mountain, Laura and I found the absolute best place to hang out and chill. There were a few benches in a partially shady section of grass. It was very relaxing…so relaxing that I spread myself out on the ground. Those pictures are a little weird, but I did take one of the grass while I was down there.
The weather was good yesterday. It was actually kind of chilly on the way down the mountain. The wind was going up the mountain, so it was a bit breezy, but that didn’t inhibit the view at all.
When we got to the bottom, we stood and watched the Irish pole toss, or whatever it was called. It is a good time to see people try to throw different sized wooden posts. Some make it, some don’t. After we watched for a while, we decided to leave.
On the way home, we always pass this little area near a lake. It is part of the Devil’s Tombstone Public Campground. If you decide to stop there to look at the lake, be careful. The guy is poking around to ticket whoever doesn’t pay. I almost got one, but I smiled my way out of it.
Here are some nice pictures for you…
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Monday, August 13th, 2007
I am getting a little sick and tired of traveling through little towns that are desperate for income. You see the strangest people walking the sidewalks along with a whole row of stores on main street that are ready to close down. It’s almost like no one in the area has a good idea. Who the heck knows.
So, with that in mind, I have been on a little hunt. Where are Laura and I going to spend the next chunk of life? I think we have narrowed it down to either Woodstock, NY or Red Hook, NY. Both of those town are beautiful. We have been to Woodstock quite a bit lately and found it very relaxing. It is off the beaten path a bit though. I have been thinking of something a little closer to the middle…you know, near Massachusetts, Kingston and the Catskills. Two towns close to the middle are Red Hook and Rhinebeck, NY.
Here is what I like about these two towns –
1. Nice proximity to the Berkshires, Kingston, the Catskills and Albany
2. Close to the Hudson River
3.Close to Bard College
4. Nice history of both towns
5. Nice culture
6. Clean people
So, after thinking all these things, we decided to jump in the car yesterday to go for a ride. We drove up Rt.209 and crossed the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge. Our first order of business was to visit this campground that my family camped at when we were kids. It is called Interlake RV Park. After traveling through the woods for a while and getting kind of lost, I asked for directions, twice. We passed the coolest place. It is called Omega Institute. Check it out. It was nice to see something buried way back in the woods that was thriving. The parking lot was full. We kept on driving and finally found the campground. I talked to the lady in the office and she let us look around. The reason I remember this campground is because when we went on a boat ride in their lake, a snake slithered out from under the seat. We had just gotten out of the boat, so we were lucky.
I have to say, this campground was thriving too. It was a pretty nice place, very well kept and clean. The only thing that bugged me is that the individual camp sites were kind of close together. Also, there seemed to be a lot of permanent RVs. Otherwise, it was nice.
After that, we headed down Rt.19 and some other roads into Rhinebeck. I visited Rhinebeck a while ago, but really didn’t get a good look at it. We came in from the West, so I got a better look at it this time. I had no idea how nice it really is. I didn’t get any really nice pictures, but I did get a few.
The picture above is the sign of the Beekman Arms Inn. This was a really nice place. Who knows…maybe one day we will stay there. Ok, put this town on the “move to” list.
We drove North on Rt.9G out of town towards Red Hook. We drove through Red Hook and found that very nice as well. That went on the “move to” list too. It is a small town and a little more quiet, so I like it. It is also closer to the bridge and Bard College. That is good. Since it is less crowded, I think there might be more potential for that town. I can mold it into what I want.
The last thing I wanted to see was Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson. I was telling Laura that I find it amazing that I have lived in this area for such a long time and have never seen this school. I have heard that it is nice and I wanted to see for myself. Soooo, yeah, Bard College is really nice. There were little tours going on for the new students. Either that or students looking at colleges. I guess this is the time of year they do this stuff. The people looked very nice, even a little hippy-ish. I like that too. We drove through campus to see the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. They have all sorts of shows there, which I will be bringing Laura to in a few months.
The end of the day was coming and we had some shopping to do on the other side of the river, so we headed out. During our drive back across the bridge, I handed the camera to Laura to see if she could get any good shots of the Catskill Mountians. That is a real perk…that view. Some of them were blurry because we were moving, but one came out the best. There was also the coolest little airport right off the highway on the Kingston side of the bridge. It’s called the Kingston-Ulster Airport and is for small aircraft.
We did our shopping and headed home to look on realtor.com. I will keep you informed. It may take a few years.
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Monday, August 6th, 2007
Yesterday was pretty fun. We did something that I have been waiting a while to do…to go hiking at Sam’s Point in the Hamlet of Cragsmoor. If you remember, we went up there on Christmas. That was pretty cool, but I didn’t get all that many great photos.
I have been suggesting that we head up to Sam’s Point again and I guess my suggestions paid off. Laura was gingerly excited about the hike. With the hike, came nice pictures, so here you are…
Here we are, down in the parking lot, looking up at the cliff. I thought I really wanted to do the whole walk around Loop Road, but at that point, I was thinking about just getting to the top of the cliff and coming back down. Laura made me do the whole loop. She is a woman of power and not to be underestimated.
At the top of the mountian, past South Gully Trail and High Point Carriageway and about half way through the almost three mile walk, I took a few photos of Lake Maratanza. Using my awesome Photoshop skills, I pasted them together.
A bit past the lake, there was a trail down to the ice caves and Verkeerder Kill Falls. We didn’t walk down that way, but it was a good opportunity to get a shot of some mountains, probably the Berkshires, because we were facing East.
After we made almost all the way around, I begged Laura to take a picture of me. Here it is.
These are some pictures I took of the Sam’s Point lookout. There were a bunch of shots, but I had to narrow them down to these. They all kind of look like each other.
This was a cool big rock we passed on the way back down to the lodge (if that’s what it’s called). Again, I pasted a few shots together to get this one.
This is the bottom of the trail, back at the lodge. Prett cool, huh?
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Wednesday, July 25th, 2007
I took the day off yesterday to visit Cooperstown, NY with Laura. I woke up to discover that I really didn’t want to be in the car for all that long, so we decided to go up to the Catskill Mountains for a day trip.
We started out by driving up Rt.209 through Ellenville. Then, we made a left on to Rt.3 in Kerhonkson all the way up past the Ashokan Reservoir. I wanted to show Laura the New York State DEC on Rt.28a. We pulled into the park like thing next to the DEC and I grabbed a photo…
That was pretty cool. I think the hippies from Woodstock come down here with their kids to walk around.
Ok, we continued on our way. One of the main reasons for this trip was to go up to visit the fruit and veggie stand up on Rt.32. We go up there every year and stock up good. The eatin’ in nice after that…
Since it wasn’t really harvest season all that much, we just picked up corn, green beans, tomatoes (which are really good) and some other things. Oh, by the way, the fruit stand is called Story Farms Home Grown Produce. I am thinking they are located in Catskill, NY. If you make a left while heading up Rt.32, you can go up to Hunter Mountain.
Every time we drive around in this area, Laura always starts talking about her past with the Catskill Game Farm. She used to up there with her grandparents and pet the animals. Well, she wanted to show me what it was all about. She knew they already closed down, but still wanted me to see it.
It’s true…the Catskill Game Farm is closed down. It was quite depressing to look at the place. The parking lots were barren and not a soul was in sight, except for the girl who was tailgating me all the way up the road. At least Laura got to show me what the thing was about. It kind of reminded me of Binghamton’s Ross Park Zoo.
On the way back, we found a shortcut down Rt.33 into Woodstock. Of course we had to visit there. We are considering a move to that area in the future and are doing a little driving around to get used to it. It was pretty nice just hanging around.
Back in the day, I would’ve just driven through town and went home. These days, I am stopping and sitting around like a lazy fool. Laura was looking for a birthday present for her mother. It’s coming up fast. We even had lunch at Joshua’s Cafe in Woodstock. That was nice. We had a good vegetarian lunch.
Right after lunch, we walked up a few shops into Woodstock Wines and Liquors. I like to get crazy wine from that place. I think this time we got honey berry and rasberry wine. I don’t remember, but I know it was fruit wine. I got a blueberry wine from there last time I was visiting and it was really tasty.
The last part of our day was a bit of a mission. I wanted to cruise over to Phoenicia, NY. I am all about checking out campgrounds to possibly stay at in the future. The campground is called Phoenicia Black Bear Campground. Every time I passed by in the past, I always thought it was really cute. I just had to walk inside this time.
We took Rt.212 and then Rt.40 into Phoenicia and took a look around. This campground is situated really nicely right on the shore of the Esopus River and is across the street from Town Tinker Tube Rental. People like to float down the Esopus.
Well, I took a little stroll inside the campground and thought it was really cute. One thing I did notice was the smell of septic. I also noticed a few kind of “permanent campers” scattered around. I saw the flex pipe coming out of the sides of the campers. This is for the septic, I think. That kind of turned me off. They did have really nice tent sites right on the side of the river though.
I walked back to the car, where Laura was and decided to drive through, just to see how big it was. We got in and made a quick left and then another quick left and realized that we were on the way out. Ok, not that big. Laura also noticed the septic smell and we crossed that campground off our list.
Overall, we had a really good day driving through the Catskills.
Till next time…
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Tuesday, June 5th, 2007
A while ago, Paul told me that the Frost Valley YMCA is a hidden treasure up in the Catskill State Park. I wanted to see for myself, so I annoyed Laura into joining me for a car ride at about 6:30PM on Sunday. The weather was a little iffy, but I was gung ho because there would be enough light for us to get there and back.
We headed up Rt.52 into Ellenville, NY and made a right on Rt.209 North. After a few miles, right before Napanoch, NY, we made a left onto Rt.55 West, towards Grahamsville, NY. I didn’t really know what was up in this area, but on the way, I did recognize a lot of names I have heard on the radio…you know, when callers dial in and tell the DJ where they are from. Boy, some of them are really out there.
Continuing on Rt.55, we arrived at the Rondout Reservoir Area. This is a pretty huge reservoir, so I handed the camera to Laura to grab some pictures.
You can see the clouds in the photos. Those were from Tropical Storm Barry.
As we continued on a pretty scenic road, we passed the end of the reservoir and the intersection with Rt.55A into Grahamsville. Grahamsville is a very small town, with a police department, a cemetary and a school. There are also a few houses, but the town was very quiet. It’s nice to listen to nothing for once. Also, there was a great looking wooden bridge that we grabbed a photo of.
I think this sign says, “Welcome to Grahamsville, Home of the Little World’s Fair.” I am not sure what that means and people were probably wondering why I was taking a photo of it.
Well, we were supposed to take a right onto Rt.19, but since there was no sign for it on rt.52, we blew right by it. We started down a hill and I saw another reservoir coming up and I began to think we were heading in the wrong direction. Yup, straight ahead was the Neversink Reservoir. I remember that feature on the map I looked at before we left. Oh well…I suppose this day wasn’t right for us to visit Frost Valley. I kind of didn’t want to visit on a rainy day anyway. We turned around and headed back.
On the way back, we decided to head South on Rt.209 towards the Nevele Grande Resort & Country Club. We see a nice view of the golf course when we cross over the ridge. We pulled down the road and headed towards the parking lot, when we saw a gate that you had to stop at to get in. Of course, we turned around and headed home. We didn’t feel like explaining why we wanted to get in to the resort to some security guard.
See, that’s why I called this post an “Almost” trip to Frost Valley.
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Thursday, May 3rd, 2007
Wow, what a long day! If you read my previous posts about Stephanie and James’ visit, you know what the heck I am talking about.
As I mentioned before, we got a little lost on the way to our destination, but it was worth it. As we were driving to Woodstock, we happened to get a few glimpses of Ashokan Reservoir. When we first saw it, I think I said, “What the…?” It’s is a very neat place. The pass right by the New York State DEC. Their little area kind of reminded me of Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The landscape, not the music. HAHA.
Anyway, I am going to keep this quick, but I just wanted to post a few photos. If you are in the area, stop by and take a break. You can also click the link above to get all the details about this cool reservoir.
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Thursday, May 3rd, 2007
As I mentioned in an earlier post, my sister, her son and I visited Woodstock, NY on Tuesday. We had a few adventures on the way there, but when we did finally make it, we had a great day.
First, let me give you a little background on where exactly Woodstock is. Ummm, it’s a little SouthWest of Albany, NY and West of Kingston, NY. It is right on the Southern border of the Catskill State Park and tucked to the SouthEast of Hunter Mountain and to the East of Phoenicia, NY. It is North of the Ashokan Reservoir.
Now, I know that I just threw a bunch of places and links in there, but I did that on purpose…I wanted you to be able to click around to see how cool of an area this is. It really is…but that’s just the location. Just wait until you see the town.
This is the Woodstock Library.
This is the Woodstock Town Hall.
Since we visited town on a Tuesday, the masses of tourists weren’t there. Most of the shops were open, so we were lucky to get some bagels and something to drink. There are tons of little shops throughout town…
…and a good number of art galleries…
Have you ever been to one of those towns were there is absolutely no rush? When we were in the bagel shop, a woman was baby talking to James. She looked up at Stephanie and said, “Hey, it’s better than working, right?”
So Woodstock is full of art and cool people. But what about the nature? Yeah…that too. There is a river that runs right through town. It’s called Tannery Brook. It has some nice waterfalls and is very clear.
Overall, this town is a bit out of the way for the average person, but no one ever said we were very average. That’s why Laura and I have been having short little conversations about how nice it would be to live in Woodstock, NY (hint, hint).
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