The drive down the Palisades Parkway early this morning was quite beautiful. Most of our trip through the West and Midwest was comprised of large expanses of wilderness punctuated by small pockets of civilization. Here, it’s just the reverse. Everything is urban or suburban with small pockets of nature. We don’t take those small pockets for granted! In no time at all we were negotiating and navigating our way thru the maze of interstates feeling like we were part of a Grand Theft Auto video game. On our way to Long Island we made an hour or so stop in New Rochelle to visit a cemetery to check out some headstones for our friend James. We really enjoyed seeing some of the houses in this area and I particularly liked the sign welcoming us into New Rochelle. It’s a picture of an Irish looking cartoon character, surrounded by dogs, with the saying “New Rochelle - The Place to Come When A Feller Needs a Friend.” How cute is that?! We finally arrived in Long Island and rather than take the expressway I talked Ned into driving the l-o-n-g way on the surface streets through all the towns. I really wanted to get a feel for what Long Island was all about. For about ¾ of the island it’s basically just one large suburban sprawl. But, the last 1/3 is indeed a treasure! We are staying on the sound part of the island at a rather popular state park. It’s laid out like a small city with turn of the century type street lights at the end of each camper row. There’s rolling grass hills and very mature trees that cover the entire area. It’s nice, but definitely feels like we are camped in the middle of a block party. Kids are everywhere, riding their bikes, playing flashlight tag at night, and hide n seek and other ballgames during the day. I actually really like the family energy, especially after all the nearly vacant campsites or senior citizen only campers we’ve seen. It also has a completely different vibe than the southern campgrounds. Instead of huge bbqs in the back of pick-up trucks or at the campsite, here people are more into just constantly moving. We decided to explore the northern point of the island and were delightfully surprised by the roadside flower and produce stands, as well as the wineries. (Today’s pic is one of the many flower stands that dot the roadway.) I had no idea that Long Island was such a wine tasting mecca. We meandered towards the point stopping quite frequently whenever a particular winery caught our eye. Some of the wineries had live music playing or hayrides, but the biggest difference from our California wineries is that you can buy a slice of freshly made pizza pie as you wine taste! Gotta love New York! We got back to the campground in the early evening and decided to take a bike ride over to the beach. The beach on the sound side is amazing. There are no waves, the water is clear and calm, and the beach is made up of sand and the most beautifully polished marble sized stones. We took a long hour or so walk down the beach, past all the fishermen and their families until we were the only ones at that end of the beach - and there was still a huge stretch of beach in front of us. While it had been stormy looking most of the day, at this point the overcast skies had moved on and we were rewarded with beautifully filtered evening sunlight. Very romantic! Tomorrow we are planning on riding our bikes thru the Southern Coastal tip of Long Island, touring the Hamptons. Should be fun to see how the rich and famous spend their vacation, bet they don’t have any more fun than us!
