Adirondaks NY State
FRIDAY, 10/1/93: Finish packing by the time Joe arrives about 9:45AM, and Suzie is a bit late, buzzing at 10:15AM, and AGAIN John is about to go out, and gives me a cassette of him reading some new stories that he says I should share with anyone who wants to hear them. We pack the trunk and head upstate until leaving the highway about 12:45PM to Saugerties for the Country Diner, or whatever the name was we'd had lunch at two years before. Out to wander the town and I pick up a magazine that has an article on the Lake Minnewaska Hotels that I think Mohonk Mountain House is one of, but it isn't. Back to car, finding more color more southerly than last year, and arrive at 4:30 to be greeted by Mack and Betsy and Gary and Betty, and we unpack and join everyone in the Happy Hour at Jo and Jan's. At dinner I order wine for Suzie and Joe and me, and we have lots of great food and stagger up to bed to sleep early.
SATURDAY, 10/2/93: At breakfast they tell us how to get to the Blue Ledges on the Hudson, and we drive to North River, though town, and follow the road to the parking lot, then through the woods until we can hear the Hudson. When we get to the river, there's lots of single kayakers and 4-6-8-10-manned rubber rafts coming over the rapids, many shouting and waving at us. I see Joe sitting on a rock being comforted by Suzie, and only AFTERWARD find that Joe tumbled on the rocks, severely hurting his right upper thigh. My umbrella's up for the hard walk back to the car about 3PM, and take nap to get ready for the buffet, where the main server is large but strangely unsexy. More wine and food.
SUNDAY, 10/3/93: Everyone decided that the Sacandaga River would be a good walk, and I lag behind, HATING everyone's shouting and talking, and photograph some great mushrooms in side trips off the trail that lead me to BYPASS the cutoff, and only when the trail steepens do I decide I have to backtrack, and get down to the cutoff in time to meet Gary and Betty and Debbie returning because of the rain, and as I photograph mushrooms it HAILS for a bit, and get to the River where Kendyl and Mary have built a smoky fire, and Joe and Suzie walk out ahead while Jo and Jan catch up with me, and we three drive to pick up those two and AGAIN back in lots of time to rest before Happy Hour and dinner.
MONDAY, 10/4/93: Everyone's out for the local trails, looking at brightly colored trees below VERY lowering black clouds, and I insist it's going to rain, and race back to the Inn just as it starts about 12:30. Great hamburg in the empty dining hall, and bring up a picture puzzle and finish it on the desk (with help from the previous solver), amused to find an EXTRA piece. Finish reading Renault's "The Bull from the Sea." Happy Hour, and dinner again full!
TUESDAY, 10/5/93: Lots of cars driving to the trail to the Sugar House, where we eat lunch, and Suzie and I show Joe the Mountain View before going down to the road and the ski-house, where we want to go up Balm of Gilead. To the top in just half an hour, and I push through trees to a better vantage point over the entire length of Thirteenth Lake. Back to rest, set up John's audiotape in Jan's player, where 8-10 of us listen for an hour before Suzie's surprise "House Warming" party, with LOTS of appetizers and booze, so we're full and soused before dinner even starts, and then the Clamprath's have set up the dining-room screen for their slides of Alaska, NOT improved by his very lackadaisical narration. We also hear about Elinor Webb's heart attacks.
WEDNESDAY, 10/6/93: I've been counting the meals left, and last night and this morning I had strange constipated feelings, as if I couldn't quite shit enough out. Leave about 9:30 and take the Bear Mountain cutoff that bypasses the Motel on the Mountain, so we're down to the city without stopping for lunch, which Joe says disappoints Suzie, but I get home at 3:20PM and get some things put away (though I don't put away the last of the unpacking for a WEEK) in time to watch the 4.5 hour "Porgy and Bess" on TV, having RUINED one tape!