Day fifteen, kingston ny to goshen ny

The planned route for today had been a bit of a fill in day, heading down the Hudson more or less, to do a drive by West Point Military Academy, then around the side of Bear Mountain Park before heading to Goshen for the night. This would have put us dangerously close to NYC again and that traffic congestion we so love. Horse had been talking to a couple locals at Kingston however, who said we have to have a ride around the Ashokan reservoir, just inland from Kingston and in fact back in the Catskills. This is one of the three large reservoirs that feed New York cities water supply. We decided this looked like more peaceful riding, so had a lazy day of less than 150 kms doing a bit of a loop around the bottom and end of the reservoir and across the middle, before heading down Ulster County Route 3 toward Goshen.

Had to brake for a couple bambi’s up by the reservoir, Corina saw a bear as well trotting along in the woods. Braking for deer right on the roadside certainly is a motivator to stick to the rather slow speed limits!!

We have posted some pics of the reservoir ride, route 3 was a treasure as well, new road surface and through some quaint wee towns, most with Indian names like Kerhonkson, Wawarsing, Napanoch

Arriving at Goshen, Red and Corina went to post a parcel to Kiwi shipping and saw a hind and couple fawns grazing on someone’s residential lawn opposite some forest. Seemed pretty used to traffic…………..Only in America.

Moving along to accommodation, we are learning the hard way to pay more attention to what we ask, for instance, do you have a pool ? answer yes, but we forgot to ask if it had water in it, as the pool “ temporarily closed for the summer” has in fact been filled with gravel and Will never again have water in it ( last town). Also the question, “ do you have a guest bbq?” Means we must sight it BEFORE we buy sausages to cook on the bbq for the evening meal, as this place answered yes, but overlooked to tell us it was not gas, that we would have to smash up some pellets out the back to burn wood on it after going to the servo for some matches as they have none at reception.

Ask every minute detail we are learning the hard way.

Mark Batty and Tracey Boot have swapped coasts now, having left San Fran and arrived for a few days in NYC, before riding out to meet us at East Stroudsberg.