Saturday, July 25, 2015

Finally A Totally Groovy Day!


It was finally warm last night actually it was just perfect for sleeping. It was great to have Jasper back and we all three slept well. We had decided the night before that we would give the Woodstock museum another try. It was about an hour and half away and opened at 10AM. We headed out after having another helping of free pancakes compliments of the KOA staff. The kids at the campground were already playing miniature golf jumping on a big jumping pillow and just running about in general. Get ready Spencer Jane Miles your day is coming!!! J It was about 8:30AM when we left. We arrived at the museum at 10 and it was already too hot to leave Jasper in the car with the windows cracked so we left him in with the AC on. The Prius has a way to lock it with the AC running which is a nice since we will know he will be safe and cool. We also planned to check on him about every 45 minutes to make sure he is OK. When we walked up to the museum we noticed that they were selling tickets to that nights show for Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. They still had lawn seats for $43 dollars a piece. We were tempted but decided we did not need to spend the money and that it would be way too long for Jasper to be in the car. We went in the Museum for the price of $15 each. They had their main exhibit upstairs and a temporary exhibit downstairs called  “Threads”. It was clothing styles from the 60’s. While everyone else went to the main exhibit we headed to “Threads.” It was pretty cool and after reading all about the different styles of the 60’s they had an area were you could try on some of the clothes on yourself. Since no one else was there we had plenty of time to try on all of the clothing items and take pictures. It was actually fun and I already knew that our money had been well spent on these tickets. We went upstairs to the main exhibit and from the moment you walk in it is an overwhelming explosion on the senses. Pictures, videos, artifacts are beckoning you to come take a look. It actually starts out with information in the late 50’s and works its way through the time line ending with the Woodstock event. As you go through every piece of it so interesting you find yourself wanting to run to the next thing but also wanting to make sure you did not miss anything in the place you were at. Very few people were there so we did not feel rushed at all. They had a million facts that I had never heard. Like the fact that Crosby Stills and Nash had only played in front of a live audience once before the Woodstock event. Also the concert organizers agreed between themselves not to pay more than $15,000 for any artist or group but when Jimmy Hendrix wanted 30,000 they agreed instantly. Also during the beggining of the event there were only two highway patrol officers inside the event. The governor had the National Guard on stand by and the also 300 more patrolmen. The two patrolmen that were at the event radioed out and begged them not to send anyone in because everyone was being so peaceful. They also talked about how they were running out of food and water but the very townspeople that were against the concert came out in droves to help whenever help was needed. Anyway can you tell I loved this place?! After we got about half way through we went and made sure Jasper was OK and of course he was. So we took him for a short walk and headed back in. The rest of the tour was filled with information on the actual event which included a full size hippie bus that you could go in and another movie area where you sat in Bean Bags to watch it. Finally when I thought we were done they had a 25-minute video on just the artist. The doors opened into a small movie theatre and we got to sit back and watch the highlights of Joe Cocker, Grace Slick, Jimi Hendrix and on and on and on! Finally we were done and headed to the gift shop. Unfortunately it was the usual overpriced stuff that you usually see at these kind of things so we decided to head out and see the actual field that the original event took place. We went back and got our car and drove just a few hundred yards down the road to where the actual stage was. I was only 7 when this event happened but no matter how old you were if you like music at all this is a great place to visit. Anyway after a great visit we headed home stopping at a few flea markets on the way. I thought they may have some cheaper Woodstock souvenirs but they did not. Finally we got home around 2 and had a late lunch. I took Jasper to the dog park and then I took a nap while Lyn did some things around camp. Tonight we plan to relax at our campsite and get ready for our drive into NYC. We will be meeting Divina a relative of Lyn’s in lower Manhattan. That’s right I will be driving our Prius with coolers on the back with all three of us inside searching for a reasonable place to park. Ha Ha………what could go wrong?!?!?!??! I will have to say I enjoyed today and look forward to the rest of the trip. It is getting close to the end but there is still a little adventure to be had.










Where it all happened!















Yikes!



See the peace sign?



Goofing around!


More goofing around!



The bus!






Rest Day & NYC Tour

Today we decided to take a day off and just rest and relax. The party group next to us had gone to bed about 1AM. Anyway we decided to go up to the office and let them know what was going on as well as move campsites. This group was going to be loud no matter what. Luckily they did have another site so we changed and extended our time to leave on Sunday. This would be our longest stay in any one place. This campsite offers a free pancake breakfast from 8 to 11 every morning so we took advantage of that. We took our own blueberries of course and added them. Delicious! After breakfast we decided to wash clothes and I went out to talk to the KOA office about a tour of NYC they were offering. We are going to NYC on Sunday but will have Jasper and be very limited on what we can do so I thought this tour might just be a good idea. Normally I would really not like a tour like this but after three weeks of having to figure every possibility out I decided that this may just be a relaxing way to spend the day. The tour looked good and he gave a us a few kennel names so we could leave Jasper there while we went to NYC. The bus left at 7:30 in the morning and would be back at around 7 depending on traffic. We found a vet about 15 minutes away. We would have to leave Jasper the night before but could pick him up as late as 7:30 PM the next day. We hated leaving Jasper for the night but this was the best we could do. Anyway we went early to go see the vet and make sure that Jaspers paper work from our vet met their requirements. It also gave us a chance to make sure that we liked the people and the place. It was in the small town of Gardiner, NY. Once we got there we saw that they not only took care of dogs but about every other kind of animal you could possibly have. They said they would love to keep Jasper and we decided to bring him back at about 6PM. We went back to the campsite and just acted like actual campers relaxing around the campsite taking Jasper to the dog run and I even went for a swim in the pool. The water was cold but it felt refreshing for sure. We learned that Orange County Choppers was only 20 minutes away. That is the place from the tv show were the crew build very specialized choppers usually to different themes. Even if you are not into motorcycles this is a very cool place by any standard. So after dropping off Jasper we went and toured their place and had dinner in their restaurant. The place was full of everything from families to hard core bikers. We felt right at home except in the parking lot. The parking lot was full of big trucks, big cars and big motorcycles and there we were with our little red Toyota Prius and our handy dandy Luggage rack on the back! Ha Ha! Anyway no one seemed to care but we did stand out. After dinner we headed back to the campsite and just hung out and went to bed around 10. It felt weird not having Jasper there and we were already thinking about how nice it will be to get him back the next night. 

We woke up early the next morning and got ready to go for our big outing. We met up at the KOA office at 7:15 and we were on the bus and headed to NYC by 7:30. It took about 90 minutes to get to NYC and then another 30 to get down to the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. I have been to NYC several times but for some reason always missed this so I was looking forward to it. Lyn had never been to NYC so all of this would be new to here. We had a small  group of about 16 people with mostly retired people but a family thrown in as well. The weather was perfect. We got on the ferry and headed for Miss Liberty and within 5 minutes the views were awesome in just about every direction. Finally we pulled up and got off the boat and we were there standing right in front of the Statue of Liberty! We took a  moment to take it all in. This was a huge accomplishment for us. It made us remember the huge path it took for us to get to this very moment. It started with emails to each other then skype then daily calls, then two trips to Singapore, then all of the paper work to get Lyn her K1 Visa, then finally arriving in America, then getting her green card, then finally getting her citizenship last fall and now standing here in front of one of the most iconic places for an immigrant to stand!!!! Well to say the least it was a little overwhelming! As we looked around you could see people from every nationality taking pictures in front of her speaking multiple languages and smiling mostly just big grins on their faces. Well I would have to say that we had big grins on our faces as well and then we took our share of pictures as well! What a great day! After about an hour there we took the boat back and headed to Grand Central Station taking in all of the sites long the way. Our tour guide was from the area and lots of interesting tidbits along the way. The traffic was crazy as you would expect but we finally made it there. We had lunch there and then walked up a few floors to take in the station and its views. Pretty hard to capture it in photos but we tried. After that we went out and walked through a street market. Very cool! Next it would be the Empire State building! When we arrived we were told that it would take about 45 minutes to get to the top. This building always impresses me and today was no different. The lines were super short but it still took about 45 minutes to get to the top. The views were awesome and made for a lot of great pictures. Lyn even had her picture taken with King Kong himself! After we got back down to the bus we headed to times square for a  quick look around and a piece of cheese cake from Juniors! After that we settled in for the long bus ride home hoping that we would make it in time to get Jasper before they closed. As luck would have it we made it back by 7:15 and got Jasper with 5 minutes to spare. When we got back to the campsite Lyn fixed dinner and we had cheesecake for dessert! Yum yum. By this time it was almost 10 and time for bed. Tomorrow we may give Woodstock another try! We will see how we feel in the morning. 

Jasper's home away from home.


Orange County Choppers



Orange County Choppers



Orange County Choppers (Jets Bike)



Orange County Choppers (FBI bike)


Statue of Liberty



Statue of Liberty


Statue of Liberty



Statue of Liberty


Grand Central Station



NYC


World Trade Center



Empire State Building


Lyn and King Kong



Empire State Building


Empire State Building


Times Square

Juniors (Yum Yum)