“New York State of Mind”

Croton, New York (about 30 miles from NYC) May 17 – May 24, 2022

The highlight of this stop was definitely spending time with friends. One night we had dinner with Dave and Cindy (both are friends of Steve’s from Johns Hopkins). On another day, Dave and Cindy came by the campground and we walked the trail near the Croton Dam and then Dan and Susan (Dan is a friend of Steve’s from Hopkins) joined us for a leisurely afternoon lounging by the camper. We had a great time.

Croton is in the Hudson River Valley and – you guessed it – runs next to the Hudson River. It is beautiful, although I have to admit, I have never seen the area in the winter. To get to the area, we passed over the Mario Cuomo Bridge and arrived in Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow. Yes – this is the Sleepy Hollow with the headless horseman. We visited the sculpture, the bridge and the church in Sleepy Hollow. Tarrytown had a small but quaint downtown area. It is also the location where Major John Andre of the British army was caught behind enemy lines during the revolutionary war. There is a memorial to the militiamen from Tarrytown at the location of his capture. I personally liked Major Andre in the series TURN and thought he got a bad deal – he was hanged. But who knows, he was working for the enemy.

North of Croton in the Hudson River Valley is Hyde Park, home of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Museum and Library. This is an awesome museum. Steve liked this the best so far, I am still a little partial to Lincoln’s. The beauty of this museum is that it contains FDR’s home, his Wife’s home (still closed for COVID), the museum and library in one location. The museum was very well done and huge. Because of the volume many of the exhibits are rotated. FDR was born to a pretty wealthy family in Hyde Park and his home was beautiful.

Next door to the FDR museum was the Vanderbilt Mansion. The children of William Vanderbilt (8 of them) lived in the Gilded age ( 1870 – 1900) and built approximately 45 houses between them. You have probably heard of the Biltmore in Asheville, NC and the Breakers in Newport RI. The home in Hyde Park was built by Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt as a spring and fall home. The home is designed for two people which in the Gilded Age was 22,000 square feet, not including another 22,000 square feet for the housing for staff, kitchens and other working areas of the home. As you can imagine it was way over the top.

My favorite part of the trip (besides seeing friends) was our visit to NYC. We took the train into the city and went first to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and we saw “Wicked” on Broadway. The MoMA was awesome and I was able to see “Starry Night” by VanGogh, my all time favorite. The museum is huge. “Wicked” was awesome.

Next up Mystic, Connecticut and Newport, Rhode Island.

“New York State of Mind” by Billy Joel