Catskill, New York State

17 – 20 Sep

Monday we travelled through Vermont into New York State; a journey of almost 7 hours.  Each state is divided into counties and we are staying in Ulster county, south-east of the Catskill Forest.

As we drove around we noted signs saying “Sunny Ulster”.  We smiled – especially as, on Tuesday, it rained ALL day!  A storm came thorough this region over a 24hr period; it brought down trees, blocked roads and created power outages.  We camped within a few feet of a small stream at this camp ground and during the day we watched it turn into a proper River.  We were told how the whole site had flooded last year, and they had to renew all the electric hook-ups, so we kept an eye on the waters as they crept up the sides of the river bank.

After the storm we have lovely sunny skies and went off for the day to visit the historic home of President F D Roosevelt, at Hyde Park, on the Hudson River.  This was the main family home as opposed to the summer holiday cottage we saw at Campobello Island.  Because of the electricity not working the Park Service were not charging any entry fees.  We also had a free tour of Eleanor Roosevelt’s home retreat, 2 miles down the road.  She had her own house which she used when FDR was away, as the main house was still owned, and lived in, by FDR’s mother.  Eleanor lived in the main house when her husband was there.