POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK

So here we sit, in Poughkeepsie, NY, under a tornado watch and a severe thunderstorm alert. I don’t think it’s as bad as it sounds…

Thursday June 11

We weighed anchor (with some difficulty due to the clay at the bottom of the river), cruised up the Hudson a couple of hours to Poughkeepsie and pulled into a nice marina called Shadows. As nice as it is, however, it has minimal protection from wakes on the river. This includes wakes from power boats charging through the area to tug boats pushing 300 foot barges to ocean-going ships passing by. Even at our anchorage last night, we occasionally were rocked by passing traffic throughout the night. There is also the train traffic. On both sides of the river, tracks are constantly busy with freight and commuter trains (which blow their whistles for the slightest reason). Even with all that distraction, however, this is a beautiful area and we’re glad we came up this way.

Once we were settled into the marina, we got the bikes out with the idea of riding around Poughkeepsie, especially across the converted train trestle now known as Walkway on the Hudson.

Walkway on the Hudson

Unfortunately, my back tire was flat, and with the internal hub that I have on my bike, it’s not the easiest thing to fix. We abandoned the bikes and started walking… and walking…and walking. We couldn’t figure out how to get up to the trestle, and after walking a good 3-4 miles in 85 degree heat and 85% humidity, we stopped in a pub to have a cold beer. The barkeep directed us (after our cold beers) to the elevator up to the trestle, only about a block away.

Hudson River, north

Revitalized and rehydrated, we walked across the trestle, south to the Mid-Hudson-Bridge and back to town and our boat. All in all, about 5-6 miles for a hot afternoon.

Mid-Hudson bridge

Since we did not have TV reception for ABC and the Warriors game, we went up to the restaurant associated with the marina and watched most of the game on their widescreen TV in the bar. They closed before the 4th quarter, so, back to the boat, we managed to find a live stream of the game on the internet and watched the Warriors even the series with the Cavaliers at 2-2.

Friday, June 12

First things first, I fixed my bike tire which went flat because there was no rim strip inside the tire. I fashioned one out of some HDPE tape I had on the boat, repaired the tube, then checked the remaining three tires on our bikes to make sure they were set up correctly. 

We rented a car for the day so we could get up to Hyde Park and tour the Franklin D. Roosevelt home and Presidential Library.

FDR home in Hyde Park, NY

It is managed by the National Park Service and they do a very nice job of presenting the history of FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt, and the impact the two of them had on the US. We were there until early afternoon when we went to Val Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt’s home a few miles away. Another interesting, and provocative, tour.

We had a couple of hours before our evening reservation, so took advantage of the rental car and ran some errands to Home Depot, a bike shop for spare tubes and the grocery store. Got back to the boat just before a thunderstorm hit with lightning, torrential rain and very strong wind. It only lasted about 20 minutes before the sun was out again, which was nice since we were getting ready to go to the CIA for the evening. No, not the dark suit, ear-piece CIA, the Culinary Institute of America - one of the premier culinary training institutions in the world.

CIA Hyde Park campus

Elaine had made reservations for dinner in one of their restaurants. We had a fantastic meal and are now back on the boat with the bad weather forecast to pass through about 1AM and another front about 4AM. We are safe and secure, tied up in a marina, so I don’t anticipate any significant issues…