TWO WEEKS IN THE CATSKILLS...HEAVEN

We headed westward to the west side of the Catskill Mountains. Having visited New York City recently with its bustle and frenetic pace, it is a shock to encounter thousands of acres of unspoiled forest, pristine streams and bucolic farms and tiny villages only an hour away from the City. The trees have small trunks and so are compacted very close to each other, Zoe says it makes the hills ‘fuzzy’. Downsville in the Catskills proved to be more isolated even than Grand Isle at the tip of Louisiana that we thought was really out there. We lost access to our internet and cell phone and there was only one source of groceries. Ironically, it was an excellent natural food store with gourmet cheeses and any vitamin or food supplement that you might want (plus a great goat cheese from France).

This is an area of 1000s of acres of forest dotted with little villages. These are not tourist towns. The people all knew we were strangers. Very interesting.

The isolation of the place actually forced us to relax. What else could you do? It was good for us. There were several thunderstorms and heavy rainfalls that caused us to stay inside. The blooming rhododendrons and lilacs and, of course the rain, reminded us of Washington state. The sun came out all Memorial Weekend though and brought out families from New York and New Jersey. It was nice to see the children out playing instead of in front of a TV or Game Boy.

This area is world famous for its trout streams even presidents have come here. We do not fish so contented ourselves listening to stories from our neighbor. We went to the Memorial Day parade in town but barely had time to set up our chairs before the parade was over. It was fun though to see the enthusiasm of the participants (who mostly were all related to people in the audience). One little boy about three years old was in a little car being pulled by his mother. He decided he had had enough and climbed out. Another three year old near us quickly went out to take over until his mother rescued him.

We eventually drove 30 miles to Sidney to use the computer in the library there to catch up on the 75 emails in our inbox. We had just missed the mobile internet bus in Downsville. We got a few needed groceries and then went to the ‘big city’ of Delhi (population 2000+) to get our long tresses chopped off. We felt very cosmopolitan after that.