Welcome to New York!

We were facing a weekend, and had a hard time finding an open camping spot at a campground. We were so glad that we had the option of staying at a Boondockers Welcome site again. That has been a life-saver for this trip in the northeast this summer! It was a little out of the way, but we were glad to be heading into New York for a three-day stay in a drive-way with the birds right outside our dining table window.

On the way to New York, we had to make a stop to fill up with diesel. This is the highest price we have paid so far. In April 2020, we were taking pictures of diesel fill-ups of $1.59 per gallon, instead of $6.07! The price has almost quadrupled in those two and a half years!

We have a 100-gallon diesel tank, but we try not to let it get below half-full. We only needed 40 gallons today, but it cost $246.98! We considered not making this trip this summer because of rising fuel costs. We hope we can afford to make it back home (wherever that is).

Back to more pleasant topics, we are now situated in our camping spot next to our hosts' house in Ulster Park, New York. They used to be full-time RVers, but decided to come home to New York when Covid hit. We are amazed at the generosity of people that make their property available to complete strangers like us. Our spot is right beside Lisa's flower garden and bird feeders.

After not having a yard during the five years of full-time travel, they are enjoying planting flowers and a garden again. The cone flowers in their front yard are at their peak, and we so enjoyed seeing them from our motor home window. Denisa was disappointed when she missed getting the picture of the bright yellow bird landing on her favorite bright red flowers.

But she did get the picture of one of those birds in the lavender, eating the tiny seeds.

Denisa sat at the dining window, and took way too many pictures of the birds and flowers during our three-day stay. It was bird-watching at its best! 

But we didn't just sit inside the motor home all the time. We were busy during those three day! We went to the local farmer's market on the weekend. We are far enough north that they are still harvesting garden peas. That is Denisa's favorite find at a market, and she bought a sizable bag. When she got back to the car and tasted how good they were, she went back and bought some more. The forecast for this weekend is noticeably warmer, and she's afraid that we won't be seeing garden peas much longer.

We experienced some of that warmer weather before the weekend was over. We are always looking for weekend festivals, and it's good to see them returning in 2022. We went to the Rosendale Music Festival this weekend, with music on five different stages scattered around town. It was a sweaty festival with limited shade.

Our hosts' house is just a short walk from the west bank of the Hudson River. They explained a new problem they are having in this river. Not far from their house are areas covered with an invasive water plant called water chestnut. It spreads quickly and can cover acres of a shore line.

The seed pod of this plant has sharp points that mature into a tough dagger. Forget walking bare-foot around the water now, because those points can even penetrate the soles of tennis shoes. They are hard on car tires, and are an absolute nuisance on the Hudson River. You can see why some people call them "devils heads."

We saw a water combine sitting in the middle of a patch of this invasive species. They are attempting to control this plant before it spreads further.

We have gotten several recommendations to check out the "Walkway over the Hudson," so we also fit that into our schedule.

It is 1.2 mile long and 24 foot wide, and we enjoyed every foot of it!

We didn't have to worry about dodging cars, as only bikers and walkers or allowed on this walkway. Just downstream we could see the toll bridge reserved for vehicular traffic.

While we started our bike ride on the west side of the river in the town of Lloyd, we drove across to the east side and the city of Poughkeepsie, New York. On our way down off the bridge, we took an aerial picture of this favorite shopping section in Poughkeepsie.

We had been told about the Deliziosa Italian Pastry Shoppe, and we made a trip to check it out.

If customers like cookies, they have an entire display case of cookies--sold by the pound.

But we are here for the pastries that were recommended. Another display case was filled with all things Italian and creamy.

We left with a beautifully tied box that included a cannoli, a cream puff, and a cherry/chocolate mousse tart. We can verify that all of them were very good. We also took a box to our Boondocker hosts, in appreciation of their hospitality.

Besides riding our bikes on the Walkway Over the Hudson, we also continued our ride east. We found more of the flat paved bike trails that are well-used in this area.

We can also confirm that the wild berries were getting ripe in New York. Our biking speed got much slower when Denisa kept stopping for berry snacks.

We finally turned our bikes back to the west, and made another trip over the Hudson River. This is a large body of water, and it was fun to watch the big ships cross below us.

Besides pleasure boats, large tanker ships loaded with cargo make their way up and down the Hudson River.

While we stopped to enjoy the views, a friendly New Yorker offered to take our picture on the bridge. We feel very welcome during our stay here in the Hudson Valley region of New York!