Returning home from our initial swing to the south, we spent a few days seeing family and restocking the RV, then set off again - this time northward.
First, we traveled up to Caledonia State Park in south-central Pennsylvania to have an oft-delayed camping weekend with Doug's brother Scott and sister-in-law Andrea. They have a "fifth-wheel" (where the tow mechanism sits in the bed of their pickup), and we'd been able to arrange campsites next to each other.
One day, we headed about 10 miles north to ride through another state park built on the site of some old iron furnaces. Our eBikes were very helpful on the hills!
The next day, the weather was cloudy with on-and-off rain. During one of the breaks, we did a very nice 2.5 mile forest hike in Caledonia SP.
Jeannette was also able to get her girl-mechanic vibe on trying to help Scott and Andrea stop a leak in their water system.
Leaving Pennsylvania, we drove north to the New York village of Croton-on-Hudson, about 20 miles north of NYC and about 10 miles north of the Mario Cuomo Bridge (a.k.a., the Tappan Zee) on the Hudson River. We stayed in a state park right on the river.
There was a train station only about about mile from the campground, so we rode down to NYC for the day. We decided to confine ourselves to activities within walking distance of Grand Central Station.
We had not been to the City for a few years, and decided to revisit the Museum of Modern Art.
What can you say about the MoMA other than it has an exceptional collection of world-famous works (which we thoroughly enjoyed).
We were very pleased to see that Henri Matisse had devoted an entire set of busts to Jeannette! Who knew???
We were feeling museumed-out, but refreshed ourselves with Monet waterlillies before departing the building.
New York is a vertical city...
... and we wanted to see it from above. We went to the Top of the Rock, an observatory on the highest building in Rockefeller Center.
We walked back to the train station through Times Square to complete our Big Apple fix. The City felt a bit mellower than we recalled from our most recent visit. Perhaps it was the recent uptick in COVID cases (we wore our N-95s whenever we were indoors).
The next day, we drove north to Hyde Park to visit the FDR Library and FDR's home Springwood. An NPS ranger gave us a tour of the house, which Franklin and Eleanor had arranged to be donated to the government after FDR's death.
Although FDR tried to hide his disability from the public and many visitors, there were signs around the house, like a ramp down to the living room.
There were also a few wheelchairs around the house, and you could see the ropes in the service elevator FDR used to pull himself up to the second floor bedrooms.
Both Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt are buried on the estate (as is FDR's dog Fala).
We also spent time touring the FDR museum and Presidential library, enjoying the history and exhibits. About 25% of the museum is dedicated to the life and work of Eleanor Roosevelt, who was an extraordinary woman.
One mark of Roosevelt's Presidency (compared with his predecessors) was his connection with ordinary Americans. There was a wall of letters that people had sent to Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt.
The letter on the right, from J.M. Everitt of Paramus, NJ, reads as follows:
"My dear Mrs. Roosevelt,
An article in the Saturday Evening Post informs me that you plan to entertain the King and Queen of England at dinner. Knowing that you are a very busy woman, I have gone to the trouble of thinking up a menu for your dinner. Here it is... [suggested courses are listed, as well as cocktails and wine pairings]
If you are anxious for me to come, please send my invitation a few days ahead."
We found out on our tour that one of the meals the Roosevelts did serve the royals was a picnic with hot dogs - that was definitely not on the menu suggested by Mr. Everitt.
As we started back to the campground, we realized that the main campus of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is located in Hyde Park. We stopped by on the off chance they were serving dinner, and managed to snag a table at one of the six restaurants operated by faculty and students on campus. Yum!
Leaving New York, we drove east to Rhode Island and camped for a couple of days in Newport. Upon arriving in RI, we discovered that our TV sounder, mounted on the wall of the RV, was precariously loose. It had survived all the bad roads in Alaska, but succumbed to the pothole-ridden, over-patched roads of New York! After a trip to the hardware store, we were able to secure it back in place.
Newport is known for its Gilded Age mansions, as well as a beautiful seaside location north of Long Island. The entire southern part of Rhode Island is riddled with bays from the ocean, one coming up as far as Providence.
We first hiked along Newport's Cliff Walk, which travels along the shore behind the houses and mansions of historic Newport.
We walked to and toured The Breakers, the most monumental of the mansions, built as a "summer cottage" by the Vanderbilts. We were mystified as to why the Vanderbilts considered it to be a cottage - it was anything but!
This time of year, none of the other mansions were open (most open at the end of May). Also, from signs we saw around town, HBO was filming on location for the second season of The Gilded Age at a number of these other mansions.
We drove the next day up to Warwick, RI to visit with Jeannette's cousin Bill Melone and his wife Barbara. Part of the day was spent looking through mementoes and reminiscing about their grandfather Antonio Melone who came to the US from Italy in 1902, and also learningabout Barbara's family which had pre-Revolutionary War roots. As we talked, a lot of juicy tidbits that were unknown to Jeannette were shared. For example, herUncle Paul, Bill's father, had run for NY state senate as a candidate for the American Labor Party!
Leaving Rhode Island, we continued east to spend six days on Cape Cod. More about that in our next blog post!
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