We spent the weekend camping at Housatonic Meadows State Park.  It was very, very hot and muggy, but we had fun exploring the trails near the campground.

On Sunday, we drove down to Woodbury, CT to a recreation of the Battle of Cedar Creek.  600 reenactors simulated a battle which pitted 32,000 Union soldiers against 21,000 Confederate troops.

  

 

Lincoln surveys the Union camp:

General Grant was in attendance as well:

  

 

Union guns fire:

 

The Confederate advance cannot be broken:

Union guns pull back:

Rebel guns fire:

Lincoln looks on:

 

The two armies suffered 8,500 casualties on that day:

The Union forces regroup and press the attack:

Having pushed back the Rebels, the Union troops return to camp:

 

General and Mrs. Grant:

 

 

 

We walked through the encampments:

 

 

 

Lincoln reflects:

 

The Union camp:

 

 

A replica of a Civil War era gatling gun:

Artillery pieces in the field:

…On the way home, we stopped in Tarrytown and skated for a while on the North County Trailway.  B and I used skates, Trish used blades, and M used his Razor scooter.

Other that the heat and humidity, it was a great weekend!

We spent the 4th of July weekend in the Catskills at Beaverkill campground.  It’s not a very nice campground – it’s basically a large field with a marker every 30 feet of so for each site.  No privacy at all, and from a distance with all the tents and campfires I thought it resembled a 3rd world slum.  We arrived late Thursday night to discover that the campground is locked up after 10pm, so while my parents were in the campground, we were locked out.  The ranger told us to camp overnight at the parking lot of a nearby lake, so that’s what we did.

 

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Friday morning, we set up the RV at the campsite and then went to the Apple Pond Farm for their “Farming with kids” tour:

Milking a goat:

 

More farm critters:

 

 

 

 

We then went for a ride on the Delaware and Ulster Railroad from Arkville to Roxbury:

 

 

There was a nice visitor center at the train station in Roxbury:

On the way back, it rained, so we went into a closed car.  We had the car to ourselves:

Tickle time!

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Saturday night, we had a little campfire:

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On Sunday, I went fishing early in the morning.  Beaverkill apparently has some of the best fly fishing in the US, so I was excited to fish the creek.  On Friday, we stopped at a fishing shop in Roscoe and bought some dry flies and a type of bobber that can be filled with water.  By filling the bobber with water, the line now has sufficient weight so that the fly (which weighs next to nothing) can be cast with a standard spincasting setup.

Anyway, I got to the creek at about 6:30am, and just as I got there, a pair of bald eagles flew over, which was great.  About half an hour later, I caught a 12” brown trout:

I took M and B back, and M caught a 8 3/4” brown trout:

They were tasty!

Later in the day, we went mountain biking on what I thought was a gravel road, but was in fact at best a jeep trail.  Everyone was a good sport, especially Mom.  Dad was, in retrospect, smart for staying behind.

M found a frog:

 

Here’s the “road”:

 

Here’s the route:

 

When we got to the end of the ride, everyone drove on to Mongaup Pond, while I rode there by way of a snowmobile trail.  It wasn’t all that far, but it definitely taught me that having a mountain bike that’s less than 20 years old would be really nice.

Here’s the trail:

This is clear, right?

Here’s the route:

Elevation map:

Back at camp, the kids went skating:

 

 

The creek behind the campsite:

After lunch, the kids rode their bikes around the campground:

We had out campsite reserved until Monday morning, but we decided to come back Sunday night.  The traffic was pretty awful, but by 10pm, we were home.

Fun fun fun!

This weekend we stayed at the Kenneth Wilson campground in the Catskills.  This was our first over-Shabbos trip with the new RV.  There was a good bit of poison ivy in the campground, so we had to be a bit careful.

On Sunday, we went to Saugerties for the Purina Mills Grand Prix HITS-on-the-Hudson III:

 

If you ever wonder what the world would be like without men, go to a horse jumping competition. 🙂

On our way out, we passed a ring with younger riders:

 

We then went down to Kingston to see replicas of the Nina and Pinta:

We then drove down to Springtown where we rode the nothern portion of the Walkill Valley Rail Trail:

The four of us rode our own bikes (no towing) for about 9 miles round trip.  We were very pleasantly surprised that B could ride the entire route unaided.

At sunset, we fished at the campground but had no luck.  We came back early Monday morning.  The campground was nice, and I suspect we will return in the future.

I took the kids up to Lake Minnewaska on Sunday afternoon.  We stayed at the Newburgh KOA in the RV, and came home Monday morning.

Lake Minnewaka has a PH that doesn’t support fish, but there are salamanders

Looking out over the lake:

Photo by B:

Photo by M:

More photos:

Hopefully Trish can come with us next time!

I got up early this morning to watch the sunrise:

As we left, we spotted some horses on the marsh/bay side of the island:

At the visitor center:

On the way back home, we went through Dover AFB, and they have a great museum right off the freeway!  The tarmac houses a variety of vintage transport aircraft:

In the cockpit:

No shortage of space here:

 

In the C-130:

 

 

 

 

I love this shot:

M stands next to the largest of a series of rectangles that originate at the blue sign in the background.  This largest rectangle, which extends from where M is standing to the blue sign, represents the floor space of a C-5 Galaxy.

B in the photo-op kiddie plane:

M shows off a patch he bought in the gift shop.  B is wearing her Assateague Island Junior Ranger badge.  M and B both completed the program.  B’s program receives a pin-on badge, while M’s program for older children receives a patch.

What a trip!  We hope to take the RV out for another adventure soon!