Poughkeepsie Post

For some reason, I have been charged with writing the Poughkeepsie post.

“Why do we need a Poughkeepsie post?” I ask.

“It was nice. We had fun,” I am told.

“Then you write it.”

“No, you. You should write it.”

I’m not adverse to writing any post, in fact, but the thousands of miles we have traveled seem to have pummeled my brain into reduced function. Poughkeepsie is nice. We do have fun. We ride our bikes to get there…and, um…

Oh! I do remember this. New Paltz is across the river. A great big river. The Hudson? I think so. The biking to get into New Paltz starts out pretty and nice, but gets harrowing as we close in. We get into New Paltz and go to a brew pub for lunch and good beer. Beer does not help with the brain pummeling, by the way, though you only have to peddle about six times and you’re sober again, since it burns off fast and we are working hard, going up hills at this point, and in cold weather more often than not.

New Paltz is nice, but we have some rude driver issues. More on that in another post.

We leave New Paltz on a beautiful bike path that leads to a pedestrian bridge over the very large river that I think is the Hudson. There are extraordinary views. We also stop and take some nice pictures.

  
Then we ride to our hotel in Poughkeepsie. The manager of our hotel is interested in our ride. She’s very nice, and asks a lot of questions, such as, “Where did you start this morning?” This is a question that neither of us is able to answer, though we know we should be able to. Our inability to answer has to do with the brain pummeling I have already mentioned. We have no idea where we started. I think Jerry gets there, though, in the end.

In the room, we do what we always do: Jerry asks for permission to lie down, I either remove the spread first or don’t, depending on if it looks like a spread that could be damaged by our touching it in our biking gear (or a spread that looks like I don’t want to touch it or him to touch it and then be near me); then I shower while he falls fast asleep and snores, though he will deny it when I say so. If I really push him on this point, he’ll admit it, but then tell me that I snore, too. Ridiculous.

We walk to dinner – a Mexican place near the hotel that is just fine. Perfectly good.

The next day, having heard oh-so-much about Hyde Park, we go there. We take a cab, because it’s too far to walk and we DO NOT BIKE on our off days. We start with Eleanor’s house, which is pretty but closed. We walk around, take some pictures. I enjoy imagining her there. Then we walk to THE big not-to-be-missed Hyde Park experience: you guessed it – the culinary institute. We have an awesome lunch in the Italian building (wonderful bread, innovative pizza, delicious salad) then feel too full to walk over and see Franklin’s house. (Two houses! I try to convince Jerry that this is really the best way for a marriage to work. He ignores me, as is his legal right.) We call a cab to go back to the hotel.

Dinner nearby (walking distance) in another great low-key place. Eating in a city with a nearby culinary institute pretty much guarantees a lot of options.

So that’s Poughkeepsie. A good time had by all!

N.B. Some of our most beautiful riding happens in New York and New Jersey. I’m downplaying it here to be funnier, but these rides are lovely, especially when the weather cooperates. We are having the time of our lives…