Indianapolis and Pennsylvania road trip!

So this definitely was NOT my first pick for a travel destination, but Matthew (yes, we’re still together, despite what you thought 🙂 –you know who you are!) is swapping cars with his brother for some reason that I don’t really understand but apparently it was something that they agreed on like 5 years ago. So…I figured I’d come along for the ride. We’ll be driving there, swapping cars, and driving back, staying in Indianapolis maybe but then driving back through Pennsylvania. We want to do some camping in the Poconos and go to Hershey Park. Then we’ll be having a very romantic night and day at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa. We’ll also spend one night in the Laurel Highlands, see of the Frank Lloyd Wright stuff in the area, and then explore some back roads on the way back to New York City.

Ahhhhhhh… blissful travels

Greetings friends. I am at peace. I have been…injected it seems…with such soaring heights of tranquility that I’m afraid to operate heavy machinery. (which is why Ryan is driving…we just stopped at an internet café…somewhere. wow, I have no idea where we are.) I have this huge goofy smile ahhhhh

I feel like I just came back from a spa. The Lake Maria State Park spa, yeah.

Meanwhile, Ryan was supposed to go back to Boston for some training thingy, but they pushed it off till June 1st which is good b/c he soooo didn’t want to leave MN. And that works out perfectly b/c now we’ve got two more weeks to get to my sister’s. I definitely need to look at a map. I’m smart, I swear, but when it comes to geography I’m a complete airhead.

Ryan just told me we’re already on our way to Badlands National Park and then to Custer State Park…and yeah, that does sound familiar. I’m not even joking. when I say I’ve been in a daze, I meant it! I’ve been in a daze for days. ha.

He even already booked a hostel. So that’s cool, Badlands here we come!

I’m so rude, I didn’t even ask how all of you are doing. I hope you’re all well!

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I’m Home

Well I’m back. I am sure many of you were wondering where the hell had Tim gone to? Well let me cut to the chase. I was sitting in a cafe in Ithaca, NY and well I got up to go to the bathroom and when I returned my laptop was stolen. I couldn’t believe it. I asked everyone in the cafe and no one had saw a thing. Well that was that. No more laptop–no more road journaling and with that I decided to return home. I hitched from Ithaca to Elmira and camped there for the night. After that I scrounged enough money to get a bus to Monsey. From Monsey I got a ride with a trucker to New Paltz and of course once in New Paltz it didn’t take me long to get back to my home.

I had a great experience. Really. I saw many different beautiful things, and experienced a tiny bit of reliance on a higher power. Actually I ended up breaking my long time addiction to caffeine as well.

I’ve decided to lay low for a while and stay in my house on the banks of the Walkill. This time the shallow rushing waters will be enough for me.

Lake Revelation

My trip planner is right. The waters of Lake Cayuga are beautiful. I made it up here using a public bus and after short dining experience at a cafe in Ithaca I decided to flee to the less settled shore line of Lake Cayuga up north. Its beautiful here and restful. I can think about the complexities by removing myself from them until everything seems just simple, just an expression of the divine. Isn’t that what this is about? Expressing the impossible, recanting and collecting thoughts in a manner that is a consolidation of revelation of one’s inner spirit? Thats my trip and yeah I guess I am a floaty and doing some inner traveling right now. So I guess I’ll post this and break.

Elmira, I Think I’ll Stay For A While

The title says it all. Its really nice here. Well most people would find it tough, but there’s something about sticking around the city where Mark Twain wrote most of his books. Something else. The Chemung River flows down the center and provides a nice walk. I feel rested and calm here after my night in a hotel room. I think I’ll check out some of the historical sites here. Maybe even sit in Mark Twain’s office. My travel planner insists its a great tourist site! Will write more later.

The Pepacton Stop

So I made it to the mighty Pepacton Reservoir–one of the sources for New York City’s water supply. Its beautiful and blue. I hiked from Beaverkill where I was dropped off yesterday and made it here before nightfall. I couldn’t fall asleep, but finally got to rest around 3:30 in the morning. I slept until 9:30. I’ve been looking out at the water now for about an hour. Its calming and quiet. In the distance I see a trout fisherman…

I just closed my eyes for a little, taking in the smell of the wild, of the one source–the energy that I feel deep inside m, inside it all. Its like that when ever I am away from humanity. I wish I could have that same feeling when I’m around people. You know that feeling where no matter what it will all be fine. Its something I need to work on–to build and grow on.

Well, I’ll have to be on the move soon. I need to get to Route 17 and start heading out towards Western NY and maybe up into the Finger Lakes before nightfall. My travel planner should help in finding some good hotels and maybe some wineries if I make it the Finger Lakes.

Pepacton Reservoir

The Roscoe Diner

The Roscoe diner is a traveler’s paradise. It has Greek specialties and a great pot of coffee. I’ve been here all through the night and now its ten in the morning and I think its time to go. I got a hitch out of Ellenville with an old man in a pick up truck heading west on 17. He was a skinny man with gray hair who must of smoked about 8 cigarettes in an hour’s time. He dropped me off here. Its been fun here, eating and relaxing. I’ve seen old me chatting for a few hours and young teenagers obviously out without their parents’ knowledge. The flow of life continues on at Roscoe. Its a small town, a transient place where truckers stop and simple people live. Roscoe is at the foot of the Catskills in Sullivan county and its those mountains I want to head to next. I’m ready to check my trip planner to see the best spots for hiking and viewing the world out here. I am ready, but I’m not sure my body is. Oh well maybe I’ll take a snooze somewhere along the way ore just order another coffee before I leave.

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Going West

I feel like I’m going west. Really I’m still in Ulster, in the Catskills. There are many old hotels up here. The Nevele and the old Browns (now an Ashram) all reflect a sort of modern antiquity of lite nostalgia hugging the mountains. Walking through the old town of Ellenville I thought to myself, “how dull life is here, but how perfect.”

I’m after the quiet, the internal respite that is sought, but never found. The autumn colored trees are swaying around me as I write this on a wooden bench, cool fall air touch my cheeks. I think I can get a hitch if I look desperate enough, after all since leaving Mohonk and crossing through Minewaska State park where another mountain lake lies hidden in the sky I made my way all the while sleeping at night outside and that’s where I’ve been the last few nights; in my tent in the woods outside Ellenville. I think its time to go…

Traveling the Crags

There is a hike on the Mohonk Preserve that I used to be scared to do when I was younger. The Crags are series of of whitish-gray limestone rocks jutting out in all directions, running the length of Mohonk Lake. I used to think it was the hardest hike in the world, but today even after my 9 or 10 mile hike from New Paltz passed the Adair winery and up the slopes of Mohonk, the Crags were a bitter sweet experience. I guess my imagination as a child has given way to an adult perception.

I’m sitting writing this in the hotel lobby of the Mohonk Mountain House, a structure built around a century previous that offers luxurous rooms to the wealthy. Mohonk is a beautiful preserve, with horse back riding and hiking and boating on the beautiful mountain lake. The Shawangunks or rather they are known simply in these parts as The Gunks are home to many mountain top lakes, all are beautiful and serene.

Up here I feel at peace and at home. Its a sort of inner feeling where you know there can be no harm at the end of the journey, because the journey is inside. Boy am I tired, and I need to get some sleep. Soon I’ll be traveling on.

Stuck In New Paltz

So I’ve been laid out for a few days. I made it a total 9 plus miles South of Rosendale to the Village of New Paltz. My trip wasn’t easy. I walked along the Rail Trail, which follows the path of the old rail way from farther down state up to Kingston–the capital of Ulster County. The rail trail is a beautiful, easy hike. The trees at this time of the year are covered in their multi colored pastel imagery and the flat trail with its occasional biker is a relaxing sortie into the realm of back pack trekking. My problem came in the form of the black hole called New Paltz. The village has always drawn me, dragged me into its bowels, usually taking some dramatic, climactic event to free me from its drug induced clutches.

I have a few friends in New Paltz and the apartment I am writing in now is theirs. I’ve been here for a few days, stuck in the small apartment overlooking Main Street, which is a gathering for both the “Townies”and college students. There are nine bars on main street and I think my friends dragged me to each one, before finding ourselves back in their apartment. Its a shame I have to move on from this village, there is so much more than drinking to do here, but my trip continues on and now that I am rested from my drinking and my friends all have returned back to work I can move on and truly set myself free from these constraints. My trip planner has come in handy, pointing out with detailed precision my next leg to my journey. Out the window I can see the Mountain chain–The Shawangunks. The odd shaped mountain is called Mohonk. I’ve been there before–many times and today I will begin to go up there. Its about 10 miles from here, but a beautiful hike await me there. Its hills are orange and red now, like a multicolored blanket strewn across the mountains–autumn is in full swing in the midhudson valley.