I have finally been able to start-up my blog again. Sorry for taking so long to get caught up. We have not had any internet for a long time and even our phone data has been very spotty. So, finally, I am back at the computer working to get all of you caught up with our adventure. I will take up the story at Accord, New York. This is just a small town with farming communities all around. There were a lot of beautiful houses and churches in the area.

We spent an afternoon at an interesting working farm that also had a lot more. Kelder Farm had a corn maze, food stand, a huge bounce pillow (similar to Hawes Farm but larger), petting zoo, general store, and museum. We stopped to get something to eat and spent time watching the kids bouncing. I also enjoyed to antique farm equipment in the museum. In particular the corn sheller. I remember shelling the feed corn in one similar to this on our farm. They had some plows that were like ones that my dad had as well as smaller tools that looked familiar. It was like moving back in time to my childhood.

This area was just south of the Catskills Mountains. We spent a lovely day riding a loop through part of these beautiful mountains. Unfortunately most of the falls and beautiful spots were off the main road, and required hiking, which I was unable to do. So I don’t have any pictures other than some local color to share with you. We also stopped at an Indian Art Museum with some interesting sculpture and art circling the building. Each of these were made by Native Americans from this area. Note the rocks around the tree in the picture below.

While in Accord we made a trip to Kingston, New York, to the Hudson River Maritime Museum. It had a very large collection of miniature replicas of boats that were used on the river. It was fascinating to look at these beautiful models built to scale and so life like. There was also pictures of the lighthouses along the river as well as a light that was used on one of them. The history of the river and lighthouses was also chronicled. It was so fascinating to see all the ships, boats, tugs, and canoes that were used on this river. They had actual boats in the second part of the museum. In a building next door they actually had a boat building school and anyone could sign up to learn. It was so interesting to see the boats they were working on. I have included a couple of pictures of the Hudson River which was behind the Museum. They also had a high school crewing club that used the river behind the museum to train. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Next stop, Pennsylvania Amish Country and Hershey Chocolate World.