There's no place like home

White Plains, NY   May 28 - 31, 2013

We left New Jersey with our route all planned out (thanks Patti) and headed to Croton on the Hudson a state RV park inside Westchester County right on the Hudson River.  We were assured that the site was big enough for us, but when we arrived in the rain we weren’t so sure.  I was able to back in with no problem at an angle.  It was a beautiful park with large grass areas and tons of greenery.  The rig that pulled in behind us was also from Texas and I thought he was waiting for us to unhook so he could get by us so we hurriedly set up in the rain and got out of his way.  It turns out that his wheel fell off when they pulled into the campground!  He said his bearings were smoking and when he made the turn, his wheel fell off.  And we thought we were the only ones cursed.  Fortunately he had the skills to fix his rig, but his axle was beyond repairing so he had to order a new one.

Hudson River view from our campsite

 

Peg was so excited to get to her old neighborhood and see how things had changed.  No trip into White Plains would be complete without a stop at the Little Spot hot dog stand.  This is the place that has the hot dog chili that Peg has been trying to emulate for her entire life.  I have to admit it was really good, but I think Peg’s is just as good.  We found out that the recipe is a secret handed down through the generations for 65 years.  We then drove to the house where Peg grew up.  She said it looked completely different, but it sits right on a lake with a beautiful beach area and clubhouse.  She even ran into a couple of her old neighbors.  We then headed over to Peg’s Uncle Ted and Aunt Di’s for the evening.  It was great to see them and catch up on the few years that have passed since the last time we saw them.  Di made us a fantastic dinner with the most delicious pie I have ever eaten.

Home Sweet Home sort of.  This is not the house of my childhood.  It has been totally remodeled.

 

Mongie's house four doors down.  This is my Grandmothers, looks very much the same.

 

My Great Grandmothers house.  Grammy.  Looks the same.

 

Lake I grew up on.  Learned to swim here.

 

Teddy,  Di and me.  Teddy is my Moms brother

 

We have had two hitch-hikers with us on our travels after we left Florida.  We picked up some Spanish Moss in Georgia that got wrapped around our antennae on the truck.  It is still with us and has now become like “Wilson” from Tom Hank’s movie “Cast Away”.  We thought we saw it fly off the truck the other day and we both almost started crying.  Alas, it was not “Molly” that we saw flying.  She is still hanging in there 3 months later.  The second hitch-hiker is a spider believe it or not.  We picked him/her up in North Carolina around April 1^st.  He builds his web in front of the passenger side mirror.  Every day we go somewhere in the truck and destroy his web with the wind of travel.  What is so amazing about this persistent little guy is he rebuilds each night.  I went out to check on him before I got in the truck the other a.m. and I didn’t see the web.  I was sad but thought “about time you wised up my friend”.  As I walked around the truck I saw he simply had moved his web to the back window of the truck and his web was still intact after having traveled one hour on an Interstate.  Our spider is showing signs of natural selection and has obviously evolved into a spider with a problem solving brain.  He thought it through and determined “I must get out of the wind if I don’t want to have to rebuild my pantry every friggin night.  More updates on “Molly” the moss and “Sylvester” the spider as our saga continues.

Molly hanging by a thread

Sylvester before he got smart

 

We were telling Peg’s college friends about Molly and Sylvester and Dawn picked up some beach pebbles from the driveway, threw them into the back of the truck and said “OK, now you have to keep these”.  Perhaps our collection will grow as we continue our travels.

Coming soon… Sudbury, Massachusetts to see Broth, Marianne and the Ursul’s!