It's Quite a Yarn

Hey there, Friends.

Yesterday I got recruited to go on an adventure with my Mom. I was responsible for navigating our course and any parallel parking that might be necessary.  What was our adventure about?  I'm so glad you asked!

Yarn Shop Cruise Passport.  Yeah, you read it correctly.

My mother loves to knit and crochet, Friends.  She is involved in several different groups.  A friend in one of her groups told her about this...game? contest?  I'm not sure what to call it.  You visit all of the yarn shops in this passport, and at each location you get a stamp and a little prize.  Once you fill your entire passport by the deadline you are qualified to go on a cruise on the Hudson River, and win some other prizes.

I myself don't knit.  Oh, my Mom has tried to teach me, but it just isn't my thing.  I succeeded in making one scarf, and it was it was a hot mess: full of holes and saggy, all off kilter.  The recipient wore it at least once, so I count that as a win.

My role in this adventure was purely navigating and having a sense of direction. This is something I obviously did not inherit from my Mom.  In her mind if you turn right you will be going North -- doesn't matter what direction you were facing previously, right will always be North in her world.  I can't even tell you how many times we have had a version of the following conversation:

Mom: And I couldn't go back the normal way because of construction, so it took me forever to get home.

Me: Why didn't you use the Garmin?

Mom: Didn't have it with me.

Me: So just head towards the river.  Doesn't matter which side you are on, just head towards the river and you'll find a road you recognize, and then you'll know where to go from there.

Mom: But if I don't know where I am, then how do I know where the river is?

Me: Because it's the river!  It's a huge landmark!

Mom: But if you can't see it then you don't know where it is.

Me: OMG you were my Girl Scout Leader!  If you can't see the river, use the sun.  That will give you East and West.  

And it repeats.  It's an endless cycle of her not having a sense of direction, and me being flummoxed by the fact that she can't vaguely figure out which direction to go.  

Back to the point, Friends.

So, the yarn shops participating in this passport deal are all over the Hudson Valley. She and some of her knitting friends are going to visit 3 of them together on Tuesday.  She has already recruited my Dad to take her to the ones south of here because she doesn't like driving in all of that traffic. Yesterday we were visiting two shops on the other side of the river, and she needed my navigation skills.  I am also more familiar with the area as a lot of the parks I like to hike in are over there.  She has this all plotted out based on when the various stores are open.  This is serious business, Friends.

The first stop on our adventure?

Saugerties

Lucky enough we were able to find a parking spot quite easily, and my parallel parking skills were not needed.  

I noticed as were were driving that there were all of these horse statues in front of different businesses.  They are apparently part of the Gallopin' Around Saugerties Street Art Project run by the Chamber of Commerce.  They are pretty cool.

The unicorn was my Mom's favorite.

We also found this one nearby.

This one looks like it is made of chocolate

He was nicely color-coordinated with the building across the street

This liked this one a lot

This one is my favorite, of all the horses we saw.

After we were done horsing around (ha!), we made our way to the The Perfect Blend Yarn and Tea Shop.  

The Perfect Blend street front

Display in the shop

It was a very cool, pretty place.  My Mom got her passport stamped, and then she had a list of different yarns she wanted for various projects.  Mainly the list was to try and keep focused so she wouldn't just buy a shit ton of yarn.  

Not being a knitter myself, I was checking out all of the cool colors and designs.  They had yarn there from all over the world!  I had no idea there were so many different types of yarn -- and I don't just mean the thickness or colors.  There was yarn made from wool, cotton, silk, bamboo, mohair, alpaca, and even yak.  Yak yarn!  

Cozy scene, interesting looking wooden thing

So that's what it does!  Still not sure what it is doing, but at least I sort of get it now.

After my Mom had made her purchases, it was time to head back to the car and continue on our journey to shop #2.  Saugerties seems like a pretty cool place.  I'll have to go back and check it out when I have more time to just wander around.

Love Knot

We didn't get to far in our journey before we were stopped by a train.

There was some impressive graffiti on a few of the train cars, but didn't get a picture

Thankfully, it was not one of the super-long, 100+ car trains.  We were headed to a shop with a New Paltz address.  We drove through New Paltz, and the directions kept going.  We got there eventually, but it seemed to me like we were closer to being in Gardiner than New Paltz.  The boundaries around that area confuse me.  It has also caused chaos in Library Land, being between two different systems, but that is a long story and I don't want to bore you to death.  

We finally reached our objective: White Barn Farm Fiber Shop.

Like the name says: white barn

This place was interesting for different reasons.  Yes, there was lots of pretty yarn and colors.

Very cute display

It also had an area of local yarn.  Like really local.  The woman who owns the store also owns a flock of sheep, and it is the wool from those sheep that is in the local yarn.  There are also yarns from other people nearby, or yarns painted by people nearby.

Can't get much more local than that

I was also digging some of the funky decor.

Sheep in a hat...maybe of his own making

My Mom got her passport stamped, and while she was paying for her purchases I was checking out the bulletin board by the door.  My attention was drawn to a big handwritten notice, and I felt the information was important enough to take a picture to share here:

I hope it came out clear enough for you to read it, or at least to be blown up and read.  

And then we made our way back home, actually passing through Gardiner.  My Mom has been there before for the Cupcake Festival, but she still didn't really know where she was until she saw a pretty obvious landmark.

It's pretty memorable

It was a successful adventure.  I'm pretty sure my part in the great Yarn Passport event is now over, barring assistance being required to make it to other shops before the deadline.

I'm not a knitter, but I would recommend checking out both of these stores.  While it is all yarn, the selections available in each place were very different from one another.  Plus you get to do a little exploring and have a quiet, calm sort of adventure.

My Flowers Have a Story

Hi there, Friends.

So, I was out in the garden yesterday morning, watering the flowers, when I came to a surprising discovery:  some of my flowers are taller than I am.

Yeah, I literally did wake up like this, and you can tell by my hair.

I'm not that short.  Some of these flowers have to be getting close to 6 feet tall! Made me feel a little like Alice in Wonderland.  

Maybe a different perspective will help.

My flowers are special.  No, not just because they are so tall -- most lilies get pretty tall.  And no, not just because I grew them in my garden.  These flowers are special because they were a gift, and they have history...

...and there may or may not have been a crime involved.....

but that would have happened over 30 years ago, and all of the participants involved are no longer with us, which makes me think it is safe to tell the tale. 

Hopefully not incriminating evidence

My street literally has the word "cliff" in its name.  Not surprisingly, it can be very hard to garden. Some spots in the yard are okay.  Other times Most of the time I can dig down about an inch before hitting solid rock.  Between the rock and the neighborhood critters -- woodchucks, deer, and rabbits to name a few -- it becomes quite the challenge to get anything to grow.

My neighbor, on the other hand, seems to have no issues.  He has gorgeous flowers, and his vegetables never seem to get munched with the same frequency as mine.  Granted, he has been here many, many more years than I have so he probably has this down to a science.  I've tried to copy his methods, but they don't seem to work as well for me.

A couple years ago he happened to be out working in his yard at the same time I was working on my garden.  He had one particular type of flower that was growing like crazy -- trying to take over his whole garden.  He had removed several of the plants, and he asked if I would like to have them.

Hell yes!  I will be more than happy to take them!  If they can grow that well next door then I should have a fighting chance of getting them to grow in my yard.  This was awesome.

I have managed not to kill them so far

And then he told me the story of the flowers, Friends.

When I bought my house, my neighbor and his mother both lived next door.  It is his family home.  I never got to meet his mother and only ever saw her briefly.  She was ill, and passed away not too long after I moved in.  

Apparently she and my neighbor's aunt were both avid gardeners.  They loved growing new and different types of flowers.  If they saw a plant somewhere that they really loved they would often ask for a clipping to take home and try to grow.

These flowers, according to my neighbor, are a bit different.  

Apparently his mother and his aunt had been touring over at Franklin D. Roosevelt's estate in Hyde Park, and they fell in love with these flowers.  This was over 30 years ago, according to my neighbor. He didn't know if they had asked for clippings and been denied or what the entire story was, but apparently they went back at some point and took some flowers.  Like under cover of darkness, just went back and pilfered some presidential flowers.  They had been growing in his yard ever since.  

Stolen goods....kinda, sorta

Now, I've been to FDR's estate several times since my neighbor gave me these flowers.  I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that before today it never even crossed my mind to see if my flowers were on the grounds.  Maybe it was because I was there to tour the library and home, or it was the wrong season for flowers. The idea piqued my curiosity and wouldn't leave my brain.

Since I was writing this up, I decided I should take a ride over to Franklin and Eleanor's place and see if I could find the flowers.  It would be a long shot.  A lot of things have probably changed in the last 30+ years.  I was hopeful, but realistically there were a lot of reasons they might not be there:

1. The weather could have destroyed them over the years.
2. Building projects may have caused them to be removed.
3. Curator preference.
4. Maybe they weren't historically accurate.

At any rate, it was worth the effort to go and find out.  The things I do for you, Friends.

I decided to start in the garden, as that seemed like the best bet.

Close, but not the same

More lilies, but still not right

The garden was lovely

And so, after walking the property and around all of the buildings, my search turned up empty.  There were a lot of beautiful flowers, but none of them were the same as the ones in my yard.

Do my flowers have presidential roots?  You can decide for yourselves, Friends.  I choose to believe that they do.  I can't imagine my neighbor would make up such a tale about his mother and his aunt potentially having committed a crime.  

Even if they aren't, I still think they are special.  They were a gift, and they have the magical ability to make me feel like Alice in Wonderland.

Chatauqua or Bust!

Hey, Friends.

Last week I got to go to a conference for work at Chatauqua Institution.  I was very excited, as normally I don't get to go to conferences that involve a lot of traveling. Like so excited that when my guy at the Valero station (which I obviously go to way too often) asked me what was going on I told him about getting to go to the conference, and being a little worried about getting lost on the long drive.  He joked that next time he'd go with me to make sure everything went all right.  It was sweet.

It was a long drive.  There was a lot of driving.  Thankfully I wasn't making the trip alone. I had a friend (and coworker) riding shotgun with me on the way up, and she would be in charge of navigating with Google Maps.  Yes, again with the Google Maps.  If you've been following along here for a while then you might remember Google Maps and I sometimes have issues.  At least there would be another person on this adventure!

I did the math.  From the time we left last Wednesday morning until the time we returned home last Friday night we drove 820 miles.  820 miles in 61 hours....with a conference squeezed in the middle. That's a lot of time in the car.

I realize, Friends, that the vast majority of you do not give a shit about what happened at a library conference.  You just don't care, and why should you?  So I'm going to skip all of that and just tell you about the more interesting free-time parts. With pictures.  Lots and lots of pictures, cause that's how I roll.

The drive up was very pretty -- lots of green trees, hills, farms -- very picturesque.

Enjoy the trees!

There wasn't much traffic, which made driving very nice.  There also weren't any signs of life anywhere.  After a while we were noticing that there were no people outside any of the businesses or farms we could see from the road.  Not even any horses or cows out in the farm fields.  It was a bit creepy....like we thought we missed an evacuation order, or maybe the zombie apocalypse had started and we were driving right into the middle of it.

We decided to pull over at a rest area and stretch our legs.  When I think "rest area", I tend to picture the areas on the New York Thruway with gas stations, bathrooms, restaurants, etc.  At the very least some place with picnic tables and bathrooms.  I literally almost drove out of the thing before I realized we were in the rest area, not just on the entryway.

That's literally it, kids.

"Dumping household garbage prohibited".  

The garbage dumpster was the most exciting thing there.  And what other garbage would you have with you in your vehicle to throw away?  Like "household garbage" is bad, but if you randomly happen to have toxic waste with you -- go right ahead? There were also a lot of tires, which I think technically could have gone in the dumpster since they wouldn't be household garbage.

Why aren't you in the dumpster?  Are you "household garbage"?

We continued on our way, and this next picture is literally only because we drove near my BFF's home town.  

What's up, Deposit!

Iced coffee is a very important part of a long drive.  What...you didn't know that? Well, it is if you're me.  It really shouldn't surprise you either, Friends, since I have written a love letter to my coffee pot before.  We stopped at a Wendy's as I was sure I could get my iced coffee fix there and because it would have a bathroom.  I seriously wasn't going to depend on finding one at a rest area after that last experience.  Somehow, we managed to find a Wendy's that did not have iced coffee.  How is that even possible?  I thought that was like a menu staple.  It's on their website.  They have their own brand for it.  We've had it at home for years.  How can they not have iced coffee?!  I was not amused.  

We soldiered on and eventually made it to our destination about 7 hours after leaving home.  It was a long drive, with a lot of time watching trees.  We arrived with just enough time to catch the boat for the first evening's activity: dinner cruise. Like we were literally racing to the dock before we missed the boat.

We got to sit on the upper level, which was cold but had great views.  Did we want an alcoholic beverage?  Yes, yes I very much did.  

Not even sure what body of water we were sailing on at this point, but I did not care.

After the cruise we finally got registered and checked in.  As there were no other activities planned before the conference started the next morning, we decided to go out and stroll around the area.  It was a chilly evening, but there had been too much sitting all day long and we needed to stretch our legs and explore.

I hadn't paid attention the night before, but was horrified to discover that there was no coffee pot in the room.  The next morning wasn't pretty.  The only coffee I could get my hands on was at breakfast, and those were just little cups.  It was a rough day for me, Friends.

At lunch we were given time to explore the institution grounds.  It really is a gorgeous place.  It kind of creeped me out a bit because it was almost too perfect, if that makes sense. It was totally ridiculous, but the whole thing was giving me a Stepford Wives kind of vibe: everything looked so perfect, everyone we met was just so happy and helpful.  It's not normal for every single person to be in a good mood.  The majority of the residents weren't there yet, as it wasn't "the season".  All of the homes and businesses looked immaculate though, and the gardens were all beautiful.  They are like their own little community behind closed gates -- their own post office, library, movie theater, dance hall, churches.

Little garden area

There were a lot of pillars

View from the second floor of the library

Paintings in the post office

Another view inside the library

Also in the library

In the gift shop.  I found it amusing.

Fish fountain

That evening we got to go to the Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz Museum, and have dinner in the Tropicana room. That was actually really interesting and a lovely time.

Tropicana Room

Outside the museum

 Original Movieola.  Description below.

The "Three-Headed Monster" and tribute to Dann Cahn

Just a few Emmy Awards

After dinner we had been given a map, and we set out to find Lucy's childhood home.  I think we did...at least we found the address that was listed.  We were expecting a plaque of some kind to be there marking the place, but it wasn't so. The only hint we had the right place was a small poster on the door and large signs that the property was under video surveillance.

That's it, folks.

We had also heard that there was a scary Lucille Ball statue in existence, and it was due to be removed and replaced with a more accurate version in the near future.  It had upset people greatly since its unveiling.  That was not labeled on our little map, but the people at the museum had pointed out the general location.  We made it our mission to find the controversial Lucy statue.  Let the adventure begin!

And find it we did.  We also found Ribfest going on in the same park, and got some pretty sunset views.

The Lucille Ball statue.  Won't be there much longer.

 Sunset views from the park

We also found a Tim Horton's, which might have been an equally great moment for me.  Lesson learned -- I was not equipped to go through another coffee-deprived morning.  I was buying coffee now.  I didn't care that it would be cold by the morning.  There would be coffee in my room when I woke up, and I fully intended to refill that cup at breakfast and have coffee during my morning conference sessions.

No lie, I kind of loved Tim Hortons at this point

After the conference the next morning, we were back on the road headed home.  We had another travel buddy for the ride home, which just made it more fun. It made the miles and miles of trees much more bearable.

View from my window the last morning in Chatauqua

Flowers outside of our building on our last morning.

Mural we saw in Jamestown the previous evening.  Thought the message was appropriate.

We stopped for lunch on the way back in Olean.  I'm not sure why, but they had these giant squirrel statues all over the place, and each one was different.

Hi there, new friend!

Lunch was delicious!  If I'm ever in Olean again, I'm going back here.

I'd like to say that it was due to my super-awesome planning skills that we ended up going over the Shawangunks just about at sunset, but that would be a lie.  We were nearing the end of our fantastic journey, but had to take a break to take in the sights.

Finally, blessedly, we returned home around 10pm.  Our magical voyage across New York State had come to its end.  61 hours, a conference, and 820 miles after it had begun.  Other than the serious lack of coffee, it was fun.  I enjoyed it and learned some things at the conference.  

It only took me until 2 pm the next day to convince myself that I was eventually going to have to get back in the car, if only to acquire an iced coffee.  And when I saw my Valero guy a couple days later? He totally asked how the trip had gone.