Still touring New York

Saturday June 22^nd. This morning we said our goodbyes and departed Hidden Acres Farm. We traveled a leisurely pace down route nine intending on stopping at the Vanderbilt Mansion. Entering the mansion from the south was not doable in our motorhome; the turn into the grounds is too small a radius when coming from that direction. Two miles south of the Vanderbilt’s is the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt. We decided to forgo the gilded age mansion for a glimpse into the life of our 32^nd president. Not only was FDR our only four term president, he led the country through the great depression and World War II.

We arrived at our destination campground in the afternoon and it was a bit of a surprise. We learned of Black Bear CG at their booth during the rally in Syracuse. Mike the campground rep at the rally made the campground sound like a vacationer’s paradise. The campground is not bad, but I would call it your run of the mill stopping spot, not a destination resort. He also didn’t mention that ¾ of the campground is occupied by construction workers.

The presence of the workers does not bother me in the least. I have a lot of respect for travelers, the name given to skilled trades workers who migrate to big construction projects. Believe me, any of the large complex projects you’ve seen spring up are not done by Cousin Ned out of his handyman van, these are the workers with the expertise to “Git er done”.  That said if a family with kids is coming into the campground for the Boy Scout camping experience, they’re not going to find it here.

Sunday was somewhat of an adventure, We decided to take a ride over to the river where we planned on driving along a scenic byway. Our old Garmin GPS got lost and started leading us in circles. In its defense, our path took us across some steep mountains which required zigzagging its winding roads. We switched to Google navigation on our phone and found our way across, but further north than we planned. We abandoned the scenic route and detoured to the water front town of Newburgh. We walked along the water in the marina district, stopping for a while in the park to watch the world go by.