Dreamsville, Dennison, OH

Dreamsville, U.S.A

We’ve gone back in time.  We’re at Denison depot, during WW II,  trains are passing through here, full of soldiers, and one woman sees that they are tired and lonely and hungry – and a super canteen is born. The number of servicemen who passed through here, receiving a cup of coffee, sandwich, a cookie or donut, is amazing, but their memories are about so much more – the touch of a hand, a smile, the citizens who turned out, at all hours, to greet their train, and let them know they were loved and their service appreciated. This Canteen grew so big and served so many that the Salvation Army was asked to step in – organizing the operation to serve even more serviceman efficiently.

This place is magical, with wonderfully restored railroad cars re-creating, not only the Canteen Era, with big band and jazz music, but cars representing railroad travel of the time, from the nitty gritty of how RR’s operated to the Pullman Bunk, Hobo trees with signage, and a rare WW II Military Hospital Car (one of only 6 left in the country). There’s so much to see and appreciate, but one simple exhibit stands out.  It contains a sandwich wrapper.  The soldier that was fed here, carried it into war with him, brought it back, when he survived his tour of duty, and 50 years later, brought it back to this museum. The perfect tribute to this wonderful Canteen and museum.

God Bless all who served our country and continue to serve us still. And the wonderful women on the home front – who found their way to serve as well!

Dennison Railroad Depot Museum, Dreamsville, U.S.A.

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Clermont State Historic Site and a Packer Game

Clermont, home of R. Livingston(s)

It’s hard to keep all the Livingstons straight ( in fact, our tour guide hands us a complex family tree in the entryway, knowing in advance we’re all going to be confused) but the two most famous are Robert R. Livingston who administered the oath of office to George Washington and helped draft the Declaration of Independence and – ha, easily differentiated – Robert R. Livingston, the co-inventor of the steamboat with Robert Fulton. The name of that steamboat?  The Clermont.

We see a lot of beautiful scenery, driving in the Hudson River Valley.

Beautiful Autumn Scenery

And we get back to our Saugerties KOA campsite in time to cook hot dogs and s’mores before watching the Packers beat Houston.  Go Pack!

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Mill’s Mansion/Staatsburgh State Historic Site

Mill’s Mansion

We take TWO tours of this site – we never do that.  Why?  We knew that there was a “Titanic Tour” at 3 PM – but since we were told that every tour covered that aspect of the house, we went on the 2:00 tour.  Our guide  was very informative and  responsive to questions, but suggested we tag along on the Titanic Tour that was just starting as we finished his tour, to learn more.  So, we toured the whole house again. It’s always a different  tour, with a new docent, so  we do learn more about the Gilded Age, and the owners of this mansion, who had tickets for an upcoming voyage on the Titanic, and how many of the rooms here resemble what the Titanic tried to emulate for their moneyed passengers.  I was curious about  the Edith Wharton connection, after reading that this mansion was a model for an estate in House of Mirth.  True or not, I was interested in how this site offered a glimpse into the world she lived in and wrote about. And what an amazing world/house it is!  During the tour, we learn that her aunt had a mansion nearby, that has fallen into ruin. There’s no map or guide to it, but we decide to be detectives and after about an hour of wandering, searching on my iPhone for articles about Wyndclyffe, we finally take a fortuitous turn and drive right by the ruins. So much for keeping up with the Joneses. (We have learned that phrase originated with this family. )

Ruins of Wyndclyffe, Edith Wharton’s Aunt’s Home

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West Point, Kingston, New Paltz

We tour West Point on our way back up the Hudson.  Amazing site and history.

West Point Campus

View of the Hudson from West Point

We stay at a KOA near Kingston for three nights (which is where it turns out I spent my 62nd birthday, two years ago, NOT where I reported it in a previous post – does it help any that both Dick and I had it wrong? Nah.)  We tour Kingston, the Hudson River Maritime Museum in the lower Roundout Historic District, and in the upper Kingston Stockade area, the Senate House State Historic Site –  the home that became the meeting place of the first New York State Senate. We  eat  Italian in the lower Roundout Landing area a couple nights in a row, with some nice walks down the river.

New Paltz, NY

We also day-trip to New Paltz for a guided tour of the french Huguenot settlement there, a cluster of stone homes built in the early 1700’s.  After viewing several home interiors, we drive to the nearby village of Hurley, where we take a self-guided walking tour of another Huguenot village.

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Old Dutch Church and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery/ The Blaze

Old Dutch Church

October 8 – We walk the atmospheric Sleepy Hollow Cemetery on a gloomy, rainy day. Snapped this photo a few days previously while we were touring  across the street. This is the church and cemetery that inspired Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  Beyond the Dutch Cemetery, the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery has all kinds of famous people to visit – Washington Irving, Andrew Carnegie, Samuel Gompers, Elizabeth Arden, Leona Helmsley, and so many other souls, famous or not.  It’s a wonderful, hilly and wooded cemetery to walk.

Washington Irving’s Grave

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

Andrew Carnegie’s Gravesite

There’s also a reconstruction of the Headless Horseman Bridge, which used to be near the Old Dutch Church.

Headless Horseman Bridge (not original)

We stay at Croton Point County Park for an entire week, partly to be sure that we have a nice place to stay during Columbus Day Weekend, which can be crazy – and there’s a lot to see in the area.  A very hyped event,  The Blaze, starts Columbus Day Weekend, so we buy advance tickets for Monday night, our last night in the area.  I would like to rave, but have to admit, as pretty and interesting as it was to see so many scenes with lit pumpkins, I grew a little tired of moving along in lines of people taking pictures (ha, me too, although nowhere near as many) and dare I say it, a bit bored?  Plus, we found out that some of the more elaborate arrangements, although hand-carved, are not real pumpkins, but just re-assembled year after year.  I kind of regretted not going to the scare-fest, Horseman’s Hollow (although I probably would have had a heart-attack), or a reading of  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in the old Dutch Church.  Sorry, Blaze.

T-Rex at the Blaze

The Blaze

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