Day 30 - East Greenbush (Albany), NEW YORK to Poughkeepsie, NEW YORK

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Well the rain has gone and it is now clear, sunny skies are predicted around lunchtime and we have a late checkout today of midday which is quite unusual. I’m going to try my best and not talk about food today.



Yesterday we were in the car pretty much all day as we left Burlington around 9.00am and arrived here at 5.45pm with lots of stops so today we only have about 1.5 hours of driving time to undertake. It will be interesting to see how the wind and rain overnight has impacted on the foliage as we are now well and truly into the “fall” part of the season.



Last night we made a decision to book a cruise on the Hudson River that leaves from the town of Kingston which used to be the state capital of New York and is quite an historic place and is not too far off our route on the western side of the Hudson River. It will go for 90 minutes and the forecast is for sunny skies when it leaves at 2.30pm so we will take a leisurely drive down the Hudson River Valley today and the hotel we are staying at tonight is only about a further 30 minutes drive after we finish the cruise.



This was the first Hampton Inn & Suites we have stayed at on this trip and it’s a nice modern hotel and it was very quiet last night but we both had broken sleeps possibly due to the Air Conditioning system keep turning on every hour or so. On checking out and going to the car to load the luggage Kerry spotted a couple of deers on the grassy knowl but as she approached them for a photo they soon ran off. It was out first deer sighting and we were excited (it looks like we are not going to see a Moose after all).



One thing I had planned for his leg of the journey was to visit Chrissy and Tim’s diner for lunch at West Coxsackie on the western side of the Hudson River just before Kingston. My main reason for wanting to go there was they had a lot of images online where they have walls covered with lots of quirky slogans and some of these are also on their coffee mugs which they also sell and one I saw was a coffee mug with a slogan “you have the right to remain silent, SO USE IT !” I so much wanted to go there and buy that mug and the photos of their food looked good as well. However when I checked yesterday on google for their opening times it said they were “temporarily closed”. Bugger, I have come all this way ! This morning I checked again in case it was a mistake and unfortunately the diner won’t be opening anytime soon. On July 25th this year it was destroyed by fire. What a shame, and I hope Chrissy & Tim were insured and can reopen some time soon.



It is about 234 km from here at East Greenbush to Manhattan, NYC where we will be in 2 days time and we will be driving along the edge of the Hudson River on our way down (every time I here Hudson River I think of that movie Sully !). We are on the east side of the river here and there are only 7 river crossings from here all the way down to Manhattan in that whole stretch and some are toll ways so the people on both sides must be pretty isolated from each other and I guess we will find out a bit more about that on the cruise later today.



For breakfast I had another cheese omelette which was better today and tried some maple smoked sausages which I had one bite and yuck ! I also had some Yukon potatoes, OJ (2 serves) and 2 Blueberry Scones which were “to die for” so I grabbed the other 2 that were left and a coffee to take back to our room to catch up on some blogging before we hit the road due to our late checkout.



The drive was mainly on country roads and the fall foliage colours here in upstate New York are only just approaching their peak and surprisingly not a lot of leaf litter from last nights storm. One puts a lot of trust in google maps and on this occasion we were instructed to take a turn up a small road which seemed odd but turned out we drove via a shortcut right through the middle of a Jewish cemetery which was a bit creepy !



We arrived in Kingston at midday and the sun is out and 16 degrees with not a breath of wind. Kerry had spent the morning looking at lunch options and chose a diner. We went to Dietz Stadium diner (is that a classic name for a diner or what ?). Kerry had Clam Chowder soup in a cup with a side coleslaw and half sandwich with ham & cheese which she chose to have “to go” and I had a bowl of chilli soup with a bread roll which was delicious. Coffee was good and had the automatic refill which was nice. We finished lunch around 1pm and did a quick walk around the stockade district which has some really old buildings As Kingston used to be the capital city of New York until the British Invasion in 1812 that resulted in the city being burnt to the ground forced them to move the state capital further north to Albany.

We then went on our Hudson River Cruise aboard the Rip Van Winkle II and I was a bit worried about what might have happened to Rip Van Winkle I and for that matter I’m worried about any ship that starts it’s name with RIP !



The weather was perfect for this adventure with sunny skies and light winds and we had good commentary on the ride downstream a few miles and back about the history of this region known as the Hunter River Valley. It took about 90 minutes and was a nice and relaxing afternoon. I found out quite a lot of fun facts about the start of the steamboat industry set up here back in 1807 by a guy called Robert Fulton and not the same “Bob Fulton” also known as bozo, a well known bloke in Australia for his prowess on the playing field. He made the first journey from Albany to NYC on a steamship in about 32 hours so a bit slower than what we are doing now!



We also learned about the amazing engineering feat of building the Erie Canal connecting the Hudson River with the Great Lakes built in 1825, covering more than 500 km and is only 40 feet wide and 4 feet deep. It has about 35 locks to cover the altitude changes.



We also heard about the Delaware and Hudson Canal that was built from the coal mines in Pennsylvania to Kingston in NY that was only 30 feet wide and 4 feet deep for over 150 km and built by hand with shovels and wheelbarrows over 3 years.



Back in the car and I could not find a route to our hotel that did not include a toll as we were on the western side of the Hudson River and we are staying on the eastern side in a town called Poughkeepsie and every bridge over the Hudson River has a toll going eastbound so we’ll have to accept the $2- toll and whatever Avis charge to process it.



As we approached our hotel we went past some amazing old and substantial buildings which turned out to be a College.



We walked to dinner at a steakhouse which was super busy for a Friday night and were given some complimentary bread as a starter. Kerry ordered the crab cake salad and I had the Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich with fries which I’ve avoided on all previous trips but now was the right time to give it a try.



Tomorrow is the last day of this road trip as we head down to the big apple. Sorry I could not blog without talking about food as hoped !

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