Upstate weekends*

A bad day in the country is better than a good day in the city, a saying has it (far as I know, I made it up).

I go up to Chichester for long weekends, and don't have a bad day at all. When I headed out on Friday morning I thought of my drive on Lincoln's birthday, Tuesday the 12th, when the weather was decidedly different. This was the scene I encountered at Graham Hills Park in Pleasantville then:

This is how it looked on Friday, at noon; fittingly, it was George Washington's birthday:

I drove up to the lot, parked, and went out for a stroll. It's a lovely spot, not 30 miles from Flushing; took me a shade under ¾ of an hour to get there, a fairly normal time frame. My drive takes me up to and over the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, to the Bruckner Expressway, on side streets (I just realized I pass now familiar names: Virginia Avenue, White Plains Road, and Beach Avenue), past Rosedale Avenue, right on Sound View Avenue, onto the Bronx River Parkway, past the Cross Bronx Expressway, past Pelham Parkway, Moshulu Parkway, 233rd Street, and just as I'm passing Woodlawn Cemetery and about to leave NYC, Nereid Avenue.

Nereid is a sea nymph in Greek mythology. Why does a Bronx street nowhere near water bear that name? Story has it the name was given to a fire hose company.

It is a very familiar drive. So familiar, I can anticipate potholes and those bumps on the road which are called topes in Mexico, jarring to go over at 50, 60 miles per hour; I imagine I can feel my teeth rattle, and shudder thinking what that is doing to my car.

In a quarter hour I was back on the road. Past the Croton Reservoir, up Yorktown Heights —I'm not sure if GW slept here, but he perhaps crossed here with his army; the evidence is skimpy. It does seem nearby Pines Bridge was held, for Yorktown was deemed to have strategic importance. I can well imagine it having value. At the top, north of the reservoir, the view is commanding.

Descending the heights, the road narrows from three to two lanes, and the real Taconic Parkway begins. Many drivers continue to drive at excessive speeds, lured by the width and elbow room of the road from Pleasantville to Yorktown, but as we enter Putnam County the road changes: it narrows, and gets curvy. About a mile before Peekskill Hollow there is a particularly challenging curve, which can be dangerous, even deadly, for the unwary, the careless or the stupid, of which, alas, there are too many.

Continuing to climb, the Taconic reaches a height of 1,133 feet above sea level just by the entrance to Fahnestock Park, then descends into Dutchess County farmland.

In our early days of travel to Chichester we would junction with Interstate 84, and take it to the NY State Thruway (of Thomas Dewey fame). That road passes two state prisons and the baseball stadium home of the Hudson Valley Renegades (not, one local lawmaker warned the developers, I remember, not to be Camden Yards on the Hudson, explaining the need to rein in the expense of building that ballpark).

Years ago I stopped taking I-84; instead I continue on the Taconic. Past East Fishkill, past Hopewell Junction, past Lagrangeville and James Baird State Park (where I used to stop with our dogs). In the recent few months I have taken to stopping at the Taconic Hereford area. Already the woods look the way they do further upstate. I look forward to seeing them in spring and Summer; so far I've only seen them in late autumn and winter. *

Usually I exit the Taconic at Bullshead Road, swing west, stay on as it becomes Slate Quarry Road, and junction with State Route 9G. Now and then, primarily in spring and summer, I will get off the Taconic earlier, at Arthursburg, and take Route 82 up. Whichever way I go up, I soon approach the Hudson River, and I can finally see the mountains.

Shh! Don't tell the authorities I took this picture whilst driving; I'll deny it. But I sure did like seeing the Catskills.

One sunny, cold day I took a drive up past Hunter and Tannersville, taking a left turn at the only traffic light for many miles. I stopped to take photos of one of the great sights in these Catskills:

An old painter's tower. As it has for thirty years, it looks to not have been used for a very long time, but it does provide a look into a prior age, when a painter could climb into its top floor and get a panoramic view of the mountains and lakes and streams in the surrounding countryside. It is but a few miles from the North-South Lake, where we have gone for years.

Phoenicia is only a few miles away. A couple of years ago it was named one of the 10 coolest small towns in the US by a travel publication. It certainly has been gaining popularity over the last several years; many city people