Suffern, NY

So last night was one of the strangest nights of camping I've had yet. The night itself wasn't bad, except that I stayed up late waiting for my fire to burn down. The fire wood you buy at most campgrounds comes in bundles, and they ask that you burn all of it where you buy it so that you're not bringing insects and things to different areas with you. Well the bundles they had at the KOA were HUGE! I didn't get through all of it and was still up to 11 watching my fire. It's funny because I had figured with camping I'd definitely go to bed early...no distractions like in a hotel room. Instead it was just as late because once I got my fire out I then had to go get myself ready for bed and all that. It's such a pain to not be able to go anywhere once the fire is lit, since I have no one to watch it for me. So I had to go wash my dinner dishes at 11:00. Ok done whining now.

The strange stuff came in the morning. When I opened the tent door to see what the weather looked like, this giant spider that had apparently been sitting on the door, dropped in next to me. Ok maybe not giant, but large enough for me to be really uncomfortable sharing my tent with it! It didn't look like any of the poisonous spiders I know, but it looked like it's bite could hurt a lot. And it was sitting in a place where I couldn't get out without first moving right next to it. I tried a few things I had in my tent to get him out, but no success. I finally ended up opening the door again and using my pillow to "chase" him out. Success!

Once I got out of the tent I picked up my tent bag (which I had left outside when it was VERY windy...oops!), and underneath it was the biggest earthworm I'd ever seen in my life! I'm not usually bothered by worms, but this thing really caught me off guard and it was so big! Could've easily passed for a baby snake! Again not a big deal but I was already jumpy from the spider.

So I go to the bathrooms to take my shower and get ready, and then head back to my tent to put it away. As I'm starting to put it away I notice, maybe 2-3 feet away from the front corner of my tent, a dead and decomposing frog. Eeeeewwwww! Not sure how I missed that yesterday since I did get to the site in the daylight, but thank god I didn't pitch my tent on top of it! Though after seeing it I got really worried about whether or not I'd stepped on it in the dark and had been smearing frog guts everywhere. As far as I can tell I was safe, but still. Ugh! I moved my tent before taking it down but at that point I was pretty much scared to touch anything or look at anything too much because I was afraid it was going to turn in to some sort of creepy something!

Things got much better once I finally got on the road. I got a bagel sandwich at Bodacious Bagels, which was awesome. I then made my way through the woods out to the town of Bethel, where the Woodstock concert actually took place. Driving through the mountains was fascinating because it was very, very Jewish. Tons of signs were written in Hebrew, and I saw lots of synagogues but only one or two churches on the whole drive. Definitely hadn't expected that.

The Woodstock site had an INCREDIBLE museum. I spent most of the day there. I didn't look at my watch when I got there, but I know it was at least 4 hours. There were two huge exhibits about the 60's in general, and then everything you could ever want to know about Woodstock. There were listening stations where you could pick out different music from the era and see the top 10 hits for every year of the decade. There were video screens all around with videos about life in the 60's, politics of the time, and personal accounts from people who were at Woodstock. There was even an "experience room" where you could sit on a beanbag and have Woodstock clips going all around you so, in theory, you could feel like you were there. And then there was an interactive map of the site where each of 8 different stations got a different character on the main map, and using your touch pad you could stear your character around the main map and learn about the different parts of the site.

I really could've stayed there all day. I skipped some of the videos I wanted to see and still barely made it out before closing time. It was really fun (everything was decorated in crazy 60's colors and the lights would randomly change so suddenly you'd see a brightly colored flower on the floor in front of you or shining down on you from the lights above, and parts of it were made to look like the inside of a VW bus and that kind of thing) but also incredibly informative. I learned sooooooo much about Woodstock it's unbelievable. Mainly I learned that I don't think I would've wanted to be there. I've always thought that I wish I had been alive then so I could've gone. But thinking about it now....I don't like lots of people around me and I get grumpy when hungry, so being on a field with half a million others, so many that people are essentially trapped there, and a big shortage of food would really not be my thing. I still think it would've been fun to make an appearance though.

What really amazed me was that Max Yasgur, the guy that offered his land for the event, as well as most of his neighbors in their tiny little town, were very conservative. He didn't agree with their cause or their lifestyle but he wanted to support their free speech. Then, when it got completely overrun with people, all the locals, even some who admitted to being afraid of all the kids coming in to their town, ran to the store and made sandwiches and brought drinks to the concert-goers. How amazing is that?! It really did bring people together. All sorts of people who probably wouldn't have even spoken to each other otherwise. The more I learn about Woodstock is hard to believe it actually happened. I mean the stories are just so, unbelievably crazy!

After seeing the museum I went out to walk around on the actual site. It's interesting because they've left the site an open field. They mow the grass but otherwise they leave it alone. I was expecting to see a model stage or signs around it describing it or something, but it's cool to see it in its semi-original state. There's a small monument in the corner but otherwise one would never know what it is/was.

Once I finally pried myself away from the area, I drove down to Harriman State Park, home of the summer camp where I worked years ago. I wasn't sure exactly where it was, since I never drove there, but I had a general idea and figured I could at least see the area. I followed signs to the big lake that was near our camp, and suddenly I see the little sign for Camp Homeward Bound, my camp, off to my right. I immediately pull over, turn around and go check it out. It was roped off, but I parked the car and walked around a bit. I didn't want to go too far because I was afraid of someone showing up and being upset with me for being there. But I got to see the main area and the lake, which was awesome. A few things had changed since I was there. The horribly messy storage shed had been turned into an arts and crafts room. What I knew as the arts and crafts building is now photo and video....something that we didn't have when I was there. The hand painted signs around the dining hall were gone, but those may get packed away for the winter. It was so amazing to be there again. With how amazing my last summer was, I sort of forgot how great and how meaningful my NY experience was, and what great things that camp does for kids who need it so badly.

I had hoped to get to spend some time at the swim beach on the bigger lake where we took the kids on special days. It was a public beach, though the public rarely came because it was typically overrun with summer camp kids. Unfortunately it was closed for the season as well.

It's funny how certain things can jog a memory more than others. Even though the beach was closed, the sign saying "Sebago beach this way" really got to me. It's just a simple wooden sign, but it instantly brought back soooo many memories. Almost moreso than the camp itself. Maybe because I remember walking by that sign with big groups of kids....all dressed in their oversized, bright-red, donated CK cologne shirts, trying to convince them to stop whining and keep walking, while also trying to keep them from walking on the road. The funny thing is, we didn't walk with kids on the road I was on, so I think the sign in my memory was a different one that looks like that one....or maybe it was just that I remember seeing that sign and knowing camp was near. The other thing that really got the memories going was the giant rock face that the road camp is on dead-ends in to just south of camp. It's one of those strangely beautiful things. Just a big rock face that rarely sees sun and has moss growing on it from the humidity. It has vegetation growing on top. No idea why that jumped out at me but I had a major deja vu moment as I got to it.

I'm now staying in Suffern, which is one of the two towns we could get a shuttle to on our days off to catch a bus. The other was Sloatsburg, which I also drove through. Though I liked Suffern better because there were more busses and the schedule was easier to follow. I'm in a part of Suffern that I've never seen before though. I thought it was a really tiny town but now I come to find out there's a whole city-like part of it that touches the highway that has a holiday inn, and applebees, and all sorts of fun stuff. I'm staying at the Holiday Inn (which is good because it's freezing out right now....Thanks Mom and Dad!), and I drove up to the little local diner for dinner, which was a wonderful experience in people watching. I also got to watch the Red Sox lose to the Yankees, which I continue to do from my hotel room. It saddens me a bit because I did become a Red Sox fan during this summer in New England, but it probably made for a happier diner!

I'm now working on plans for tomorrow. I told myself all week that I'd make sure to find something fun to do for the weekend since all week I've been finding fun looking things only open on the weekend. Instead, here it is the weekend and I'm heading into an area that I know absolutely nothing about and have nooooo idea what to look to do. Oh well...I'm sure I'll find something! :)