Small Town Adventures in the Hudson Valley

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On the day we left New York City to head "upstate", it was hot. Brutally hot. While the mercury may not have been quite as high as Death Valley, any New Yorker knows the humidity and pollution make hot weather in NYC unbearable. We had decided to walk with our luggage (by this point it had expanded to 3 full-size bags plus our two "carry-on" backpacks) to Grand Central to save a few bucks. By the time we got to Grand Central, our aching backs and arms and the beads of sweat pouring off our faces let us know how silly of a decision that was.

We collapsed into a heap at a table in the dining concourse of Grand Central. I went upstairs to purchase tickets for Poughkeepsie and then waited patiently in line for what we expected to be our last decent coffees for at least a week at Irving Farm Coffee Roasters.

Finally it was time for our train and we managed to find a spot on the train to stash our suitcases. We got off in Poughkeepsie and were picked up by the rental car company. Within the hour, we had keys to another rental car and we were off to explore the Hudson Valley and visit my old stomping grounds.

If you haven't been back to an area in years, it feels odd to visit. It especially feels odd when you know that no family members live there anymore, and many of your friends have moved away. Since we had not arranged to stay with anyone, we decided to go camping at an Orange County park and campground near Montgomery, NY. Even though I lived less than 20 minutes away from this gorgeous little campsite called Winding Hills Park, I had never heard of it. It was very pretty but with very few people there. We set up camp and drove over to Goshen to start the visiting.

We passed by my old employer, and caught up with the few people who were still working there. There had been many changes at both this company and in Goshen over the past few years, but it was great to see old coworkers. Then we visited a Swiss aunt's sister who was in town, followed by a visit to Village Pizza. Now I have eaten a lot of pizza in my day, but to this day I swear Sal at Village Pizza in Goshen makes the best pizza!! I had been looking forward to a slice of Sal's pizza for over 2 years, and believe me, it was worth the wait. Yum!! Thinking about it now, I probably should have taken some photos to remind myself of that yummy pizza and of Sal, who is one of those pillars in the community that everyone knows and he remembers everyone's faces and names.

Over the next few days, we caught up with a few others in Goshen, including my former neighbours as well as former teachers and friends. Goshen is a very pretty town but it is no longer home. I was actually surprised that I did not recognise more people in this town. It left me with a bit of an odd feeling, as I recognised buildings and businesses but few of the people walking around town.

We also decided to visit a dear family friend who lived over in Ossining. We had lunch with him at a local Chinese buffet, followed by an afternoon of exploring Bear Mountain State Park. If you are ever in the area during autumn, I highly recommend this as a place to photograph the changing colours. It is a beautiful park with great scenery.

One of the days I thought it might be fun to see the Washington Headquarters, which I had visited on a school trip as a kid and I remembered they had a neat museum. Since Dave is interested in American history, I thought it would be fun to get our fill of American Revolution and George Washington facts at this museum.

However, the museum is located in Newburgh. Now, any local of Orange County, NY will tell you to AVOID Newburgh. I remembered hearing that Newburgh was terrible as a kid, but I thought it was restricted to one street known as Broadway. Naively, I figured the rest of Newburgh was probably fine. And if we went there on a school trip, surely it wasn't that bad? And I recalled that the waterfront was supposedly a safe area. So off to Newburgh we went. However, to get into town we had to drive down the infamous Broadway.

WOW. Dave saw bullet holes in the windows of one business. Garbage was everywhere on the street, broken or boarded-up windows and vandalised storefronts were common, and even though the sun was shining, it somehow felt dark. So we drove past the police station towards the waterfront, figuring it would be better there. And it was. But not much better. There was still a garbage can that had been tipped over, with garbage strewn across the parking lot by the gulls. We walked around the waterfront for a bit, but we could not convince ourselves to abandon our car and risk another break-in while visiting the Washington Headquarters. Which is terrible. Newburgh was much worse looking than I remembered, and as a result, we let stereotypes and fears prevent us from visiting a fun cultural and historical site.

Speaking to friends later about the sad state of downtown Newburgh, they agreed that it had gotten much more dangerous since I last lived in the area. It had been a depressed economic area for a long time, but the recession made things worse and the gangs were active and SWAT teams had been called in. Gangs? Bloods and Latin Kings? SWAT teams? What?? We could not believe our ears.

We hope there is some future for the city of Newburgh. We saw a group of people doing roof-top yoga near the waterfront. Some of the neighbourhoods didn't feel so bad, as people have converted their front yards into gardens and sitting areas, and we saw children playing in some of those front yards. But having both recently read "The Tipping Point", we were wary of all those broken windows and graffiti on the main street of town. We suspect the police force is understaffed and overworked. Let's hope this waterfront town some day recovers.

So what did we end up doing that day if we didn't go to the museum in Newburgh? We paid the toll and went across the river to Beacon. Beacon's downtown has lots of cute old buildings that have been preserved and now house funky little shops and cafes. We spent a few hours relaxing in the deliciously cool shade of a big tree on the patio of one such funky little cafe, then wandered to the river. There we visited the farmer's market, which had to be the most upscale market we had ever seen - even well-to-do New Yorkers wouldn't pay such prices!! The contrast between the sad downtown Newburgh and upscale prices of Beacon was startling. It was as if the bridge toll kept the riff-raff on their side of the river. Very odd.

That evening we drove back to Goshen for dinner followed by sunset at our campground. When we saw the sun set over the lake at the campground, we were a bit sad we didn't spend more time at this lovely spot!

Finally, it was time to visit my sister in the Catskills. She used to live in Goshen but had moved to the even smaller town of Callicoon, NY. I had never heard of it, and only a few people we knew had. It is located past Bethel Woods (where the Woodstock festival was actually held), along the Delaware River. It has a very cute historic center with old buildings, and apparently quite a few vacation cottages. It is a lovely area. However, I have no idea what one does for a job in such an area and thus wouldn't really want to live there. My sister was living in a 1920s farmhouse on a hill just out of town.

The first night, she wasn't home so we went into town and found a fire station converted into a "brewery" that was still open. Apparently they had only just opened as a bar and hadn't yet started brewing. In true Catskills fashion, the cook warned the bar lady that she would not be staying one minute past 8pm so customers would need to place their orders quickly. Since there were only 4 of us at the bar, we all heard this. She probably said this in reference to the group of 5 people that had just walked in, who looked as equally hungry as we did and equally puzzled that nothing in town was open. The best part? The menu: Sandwiches. You could have cheese, ham or turkey on white, rye or wheat bread. With potato chips and a dill pickle. Obviously too complicated to prepare past 8pm. The cook and bar lady also complained about those "New York tourists". While we have had similar experiences in several places (Tasmania in Australia rings a bell for Dave), we cannot understand this mentality. If you are running a restaurant, cafe or bar, why is it such a bad thing to have customers?

We found the town amusing and thought it would be a fun spot to be a tourist, if only to annoy the locals who didn't seem to want to actually work. There was a movie theater in town, which served popcorn and showed one movie per week on its screen. There was a cafe staffed by two teenagers who took turns playing on their phone instead of noticing that the banana bread had gone mouldy. There was the funeral home with the sign that said "no parking" in its parking lot. And the park for the weekly farmer's market, although the grass looked like it hadn't been mowed in weeks. It sounds like we didn't like this town, but actually, we did. There was something amusing and quaint about this little town and we took a great liking to it. So yes, we would recommend visiting the little town of Calicoon. Apparently in summer it gets "busy", although I am not sure what this entails. There is a spot where you can rent canoes and rafts and go boating down the Delaware River. And there is a quaint old hotel right in town. And did I mention it's pretty? It would be a great spot to be disconnected from city life.

But soon, our stay in the Hudson Valley and the Catskills was over. Montreal, here we come!!!

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Photos

Bear Mountain Bridge
Bear Mountain State Park is a great spot to see the autumn colours.

Hudson Valley Sunset
A beautiful sunset

Winding Hills Park
One of the ponds at an Orange County campground

Cafes in Beacon
The town of Beacon, NY has preserved its older buildings, with cafes, art galleries and the like.

Mural in Newburgh
Down near the waterfront, murals depict a peaceful life in Newburgh

Downtown Calicoon
The sleepy town of Calicoon on the Delaware River has lots of quaint old buildings.