August 5th – August 11th
2013
One of the last
“busier” weeks in our Syracuse stay. On switch day – Monday –
we went to Dinosaur BBQ restaurant, there are several in New York
state and apparently it is one of the best ones in the country. …
it was good … Some errands and shopping and easy evening at home.
Nice, mild, and
sunny day as we were driving east on route 20 (scenic and historic
route). Bunch of small towns and villages (most of them with some
abandoned buildings). Bunch of farms and farmland (many with the old
barn just falling apart – slowly and surely). Still, very pleasant
drive with rolling hills, woods, and farms, very picturesque. We took
a detour and drove to the town of Cooperstown (without knowing much
about it). Several museums and parking lot for the town's trolley –
interesting. First we saw some fancy country clubs, golf course, and
Farm museum, which we visited. The collection of older buildings and
houses more less dating to 1850. Some were staffed – printer,
pharmacist, farmer, store keeper – and producing something. Some
farm animals, “real house”, and large entrance barn with display
of farm equipment and tools. Not bad. We drove through town's center
and were surprised how big and busy it was. It was the location of
the Hall of Fame of Baseball. Who knew? Somewhat interesting, but too
busy to enjoy. Drive back northeast. Secret Caverns was another stop.
About 120 feet below ground, about quarter mile path ending by the
waterfall. It was just two of us and a guide, nice and quiet and
pretty interesting. The fall was amazing. Via road number 30 heading
south. Schoharie cover bridge. North Blenheim covered bridge – the
biggest in the world. We did not find it and later discovered it was
destroyed by Irene (hurricane in 2011). Another stop by Bilboa water
power project. J. watched a movie and I was playing with their
display (making power etc). Mine Kill State Park – waterfall at the
end of short walk. Almost six o'clock – tired and done. Another
hour of driving to the motel in Catskill. Quick stop on the hill
“Five states lookout”, pretty wide and nice view of the area.
Motel – just fine.
Wednesday.
Super easy and slow morning. Back roads drive to the town of
Catskill. Breakfast – average one with really bad waitress. Kind of
normal town, main street was lined up with pretty ugly statues of
cats (strange). Staying on small county roads – drive to Athens to
view a lighthouse. Tiny village with the houses telling the past
story of success and wealth (the times of commerce on Hudson river).
The lighthouse was in the middle of the river in significant
distance, not super easy to see. Pretty though. Back in Catskills and
driving to Saugerties, another town (this one with almost 20000
inhabitants). Stop at the end of the town and walk about half a mile
to the lighthouse. Nice one. The town – pretty much the same, we
walked along the main street, J. went into few stores and after that
we continued driving to Kingston (apparently first capital of New
York State). Nice … the same, sort of. Few stops, some wandering
around, few shops, visitor's center. Drive to the old uptown, where
we passed the intersection which had houses from 18th
century on all corners. Day was passing by pretty quickly. We drove
towards motel, it did not start raining yet, so we decided to walk up
to Kaaterskil Falls. We did not have detailed directions, so we
thought we missed it (as there were some smaller falls along the
road) or that it was not accessible. Another mile up on that twisty
road and we found a parking lot for the fall, next to the narrow road
and ninety degree turn over the creek. To get on the trail, one had
to walk along the road for several hundred yards (cars were not
slowing down much) and it was not pleasant. Next to the road, there
was smaller water falls and some people – it was pretty. There we
as well saw “stairs” up the hill which was the trail. Walking and
walking, pretty steep and hard trail, few people leaving. Drizzling
rain, on and off. Really amazing site of the fall, last people left
and we were left alone to enjoy the view. …. Walk back and drive
(in rain) to the motel. Many trails, buildings, and other stuff named
after Rip Van Winkle. Day over.
Thursday,
cloudy morning, it rained whole night. Easy and slow. We took small
county roads heading to Syracuse, so the whole drive took over four
hours. Same rolling hills and farms and woods landscape, many small
towns and villages. Goofy weather, sun, clouds, rain. Few stops –
nothing spectacular though. At about two o'clock we were back in
Cazenovia and stopped for the lunch. The same place I had “the
heart stopper burger” with J.'s parents. It was still so good. Nice
end of the trip. Home. J. switching and staying up whole night. Warm
and muggy again.
The rest of the
week – nothing special, pretty nice “end of summer” weather.
