MONDAY SEPTEMBER 20TH

The weather is marvelous. Warm sunny days and cool nights.

We continue up the Hudson River. We passed under the Poughkeepsie Rail Road Bridge. When it was built back in 1888 it was considered a “technological wonder” and at almost 7,000 feet long it was the world’s longest bridge. It is now closed to rail traffic and is described as a “linear park.” We could see people walking and rollerblading on it as we passed underneath it.

We could see many huge stone estates along the river. Peeking out of the trees is one of the Vanderbilt estates. We plan to tour it tomorrow.







This is the Esopus Lighthouse. Those are the Catskill Mountains in the background. The Esopus were the local Native Americans in this area.

This is the Culinary Institute of America. Nice view for the students, huh?










Our stop for the next two nights is Kingston, New York. Which is located up the Rondout Creek. Marking the entrance to the Creek is this lighthouse. It was tended for years by a woman with 3 small children after her husband drowned returning to the lighthouse. One morning a schooner crashed through a first floor window and came halfway across the room before stopping. That would wake you up fast!






The waterfront of Kingston where we’ll tie up.






Passed this PT boat. A non-profit called Fleet Obsolete owns it. They purchased and restore old military boats. This one has been in Mc Hales Navy and the movie “Sleeping With The Enemy.” You can charter it for private functions, fundraisers, events, etc. I thought it sounded like a good idea until I learned the guns don’t work. They plugged them. What fun would that be?

As we tied up the boat Ross lost his watch in the water. The dock master told us they’d loan us a net at low tide and maybe we could scoop it out. It wasn’t an expensive watch but it sounded like a fun challenge. Tune in tomorrow at low tide to see what happens.

We walked to the Hudson River Maritime Museum. They had a nice display on Ice Sailing. A short video explained much of it. It was a way for the wealthy on the Hudson to continue sailing rivalries.

The Iceboats weighed a ton as they were made of solid wood. The riders would lie in the basket on either side of the mast. The rudder has a metal blade on the bottom of it. Without the resistance of water, these boats could go 70 plus m.p.h.













The museum also had an interesting display on ice harvesting. It was big business in the Hudson River and ice was shipped all over the world. They would hook this tool behind a horse and drag it over the ice, scoring a groove in it but not all the way through. Then men would use pry bars and long saws to cut the remaining way through. The ice was 6 to 30 inches deep. The cut ice blocks were moved to a chute and then stored in a building. The blocks were insulated with sawdust from local lumber mills. It was labor intensive so employed many men in the winter months.

This is the coal burning steam tug, Matilda. Last owned by Mc Allister Towing she was the last steam tug in commercial operation in North America. She sank in 1970 but was raised and then donated by James Mc Allister to the museum.








Check out the size of her prop!

You could ride the city shuttle bus for a buck so we hopped on and headed for what is referred to as The Stockade part of town. It’s called that because way back in the 1600’s when the Dutch settled here they got into some kind of rhubarb with the local Indians and built a stockade around the town made of tree trunks. They worked the issue out but the stockade remained. Probably because it would be too much work to take down. The buildings are very old and many made of stone. This had been the house of Abraham Van Gaasbeek and it was here that the first Senate of New York met in 1777. That was until the British arrived and burned to the ground anything they could. It’s typical of the Dutch style of building with the narrow windows and shutters.

We had a printed walking tour of the area and the buildings were neat to look at. There was architectural info about each one, but not much local history to give any of them a story. This was the Cornelius Tappen House. It was the first post office in Kingston but the British burned it too. In 1970 a bunch of buildings, including this one were going to be demolished for an “urban renewal” project. Many businesses rescued such buildings from that fate and restored them.

Rode the shuttle bus back to our part of the town. It was an interesting ride. Most of the people knew one another and it was entertaining to listen to conversations. Everyone knew the bus driver and greeted him by name. We were last the stop. By then even we said “Good night Walter”.