Last Friday, we left north-west Massachusetts and headed for Elizaville, New York. Elizaville is a small town located south of Albany and to the east of the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River. Typical of our usual "driving day", it did not rain on that day. It makes it nice for traveling, but when it rains every other day that you want to go site seeing it becomes frustrating.

We arrived at the Brook-N-Wood Family Campground about mid-afternoon. Brook-N-Wood is a nice campground with friendly and helpful hosts. After setting up camp, I ran out to get some groceries. On the way out, I passed a farm with a beautiful sunset. So I quickly pulled over and took a few photos. I believe those were the Catskill Mountains way in the distance.



The following day was another partly rainy day. Cricket was still getting over her cold. I decided to go out for a drive anyway to see what I could find. I went back to the field where I took the above photo and couldn't see the mountains at all due to the low clouds. So I continued to drive south along State Road 9. The leaves were in full color of yellows, oranges, and reds. I saw groups of dear grazing in fields. I ended the day down at the Ruth Livingston Mills mansion in Staatsburg, New York. The mansion is a 79 room structure built in the late 1700's right on the Hudson River. The mansion was undergoing some repainting on the outside.







On Sunday, Cricket was finally starting to feel better and getting over her cold. After staying in the RV all day yesterday, she wanted to get out. So we all climbed in the Blazer and headed south along State Road 9 again. I showed them some of the things I saw the day before. We stopped for brunch at the Beekman Arms located in Rhinebeck, NY. The Beekman Arms was established in 1766 and is considered the oldest inn in America. Afterwards, we continued south and again stopped at the Mills mansion as well as a few other mansions. We finished the day at one of the Vanderbilt homes and decided to take the tour inside this estate. Although a rather large home by most standards, it was one of the smallest of the Vanderbilt mansions.





Yesterday and today brought more rain. It was depressing. The temps were in the 40's and 50's, but that's ok. It's just hard to do things outdoors. The boys didn't like it either because that meant extra school work to get ahead of schedule.

Tomorrow, we drive up to Albany. I'll be reporting back in a few more days.

Mark