Hiding Away on the Hudson

Friday we left Croton-on-Hudson and headed for the town of Kingston, NY further up the Hudson River.  It was a very nice day and we seemed to have the river mostly to ourselves for the 50 mile trip.

Someone built this as an exact replica of some European Castle (how's that for vague?)  The state of New York took it over in the late 60's, it had a fire two years later and has been vacant ever since.  Nice going New York.

The US Army Military Academy at West Point

Apparently an upcoming opponent?

I said "almost to ourselves", you still had to keep an eye out for the big guys.

We always seem to focus on the construction jobs...and, I'm not sure you can see him waving, but the guy on the far left of this painting crew was focusing on (and waving to) the pretty lady in Once Around far below.

Yet another remote lighthouse. 



I had been told that the Hudson was nice, but I did not expect it to be so beautiful.  The granite walls in places surprised us and reminded us of the Sierras, although in smaller doses.  The Hudson River was dotted by beautiful homes and buildings.  Carrie must have taken a hundred pictures, but we narrowed it down to these to share so that you could get a feel for the place.



The Rondout Creek enters the Hudson about a mile from Kingston.  You turn in here just before this lighthouse.

A short cruise through town and we came to the Rondout Yacht Basin where a nice lady named Ruth met us on the dock, helped us fuel and then move the boat to tie up for the night.  She spent a lot of time with us telling us about Kingston and answering questions we had as to some of the homes and buildings we had seen on the way up the Hudson.  We had passed, among other things, Franklin D. Roosevelt's home, the Vanderbuilt mansion and the Culinary Institute of America.  I am sure they are among the pictures above...maybe.  Anyway, the marina has a little restaurant attached (the Oasis Cafe) which advertises, "Cuban and Puerto Rican food, and the best rib-eye steaks around". 



Here is part of the marina.  The red roofed hut is the "Oasis Cafe".

It sounded interesting, but there were several great places to chose from in town which gave us an excuse to launch the dinghy and tie up across the river.  We had a great steak at  Ship to Shore and free desert and coffee compliments of the marina gift card Ruth gave us.

It was nearing dusk when we got back to the dighy, but we rode right past our marina and explored a couple of miles of the creek.  It was winding and deep, and we were surprised to find everything from more small marinas to old vacant factories along the shore.  When we thought we had just about reached the end we saw a trawler anchored in the river in the middle of nowhere.  As we circled it we recognized My Dream, the boat we had followed through the Dismal Swamp five weeks ago!  We had not seen Ted and Sue since, and they were as surprised as we were that we found them in this out of the way spot.  They invited us on board for a glass of wine and we traded stories of our escapades these past several weeks.

It was nearly 10 PM when we headed back in the dinghy and very dark.  The only light came from our running lights, which had the downside of attracting every bug in this part of New York state into our dinghy with us.  We arrived back to Once Around a little eaten up and faded fast for the night.

I awoke to a "brriinnggg" at 5:20 AM.  I recognized it as the sound an iPhone makes when someone makes a play in WORD, the scrabble game.  I later learned it was my sister-in-law, Katie, who I did not know was such a night owl (2:30 AM  her time).  That's OK, what goes around comes around on Once Around, as our Canadian friends put it!

So, this morning came early for me, but Mrs. Howell slept till 7:30, so we didn't get too early of a start, and things went downhill from there.  We were scheduled to go to Waterford today which would have taken us through our first lock on the NY Canal System, and it was raining.  We had several chores to do to prepare for the lock, and before we knew it 11 o'clock had rolled around.  I started calculating when we would get into Waterford and quickly decided we were staying put for another day.



My buddy Tom in Florida told me, "You gotta have really big balls to go through all those locks".  I sure hope this is what he meant...

When the taxi we called was 45 minutes overdue, Mark, the cook at the marina, offered to loan us his car.  We gladly accepted and used the opportunity to hit the auto parts store (wiper blades) hardware store, pharmacy, grocery store, the Hudson River Maritime museum and Rosarita's for a Mexican food lunch, all in about 2 hours.  Mark was reportedly a little worried about us until Ruth reminded him he could always take our boat if we did not return his car.  He thought that was a pretty good trade, but we got back before he took posession.



Since I know you never tire of looking at her either, here is Once Around in Kingston, NY.

So, with all our chores double-done, tonight we are going to relax, try one of those Cuban/Puerto Rican rib-eyes, and hit the sack early.  Katie, go ahead and play WORD as late as you want, Carrie's phone will be off tonight!