Potsdam to Belvidere

Monday, August 26, 2024

Oh, it was such a great night last night and now we have to pack our tents and steal away.Ben, Elizabeth, and David have to leave for the airport at nine;  but we can get on the road as early as we're able. We get a chance to say good-bye to them and to our spectacular hostess, Kristina, and to Isaac and Ella who have entertained us royally.  Ella even offers to help carry suitcases downstairs!

We stop out front for one last photo of this great old house and Janet yells good-bye from her bedroom window.  She is still under the weather and it is such a shame.  No hugging allowed there!  Covid is still nothing to fool with.

Ginger stops for gas and to get something for breakfast at the Hyde Mobil at Tupper Lake.  We wind up sharing and egg-salad sandwich and half a tube of Pringles - don't say a word!! We could have been so much worse!

We are needing to stretch our legs and maybe find a cute little shop.  We stop at Steamboat Landing and discover that it's a lodge and, although they do a few things for sale, there's nothing there for us.  We do ask permission to look at the grounds and take some photos of the lake.

Still looking to stretch our legs we pull off the road by this lovely lake.  The hippie dude there took off as soon as we parked!  Hmmm

Our GPS is set for North Salem so we can pick up Dale's print but as we're driving along we consider the idea of going first to Brewster so we can have lunch at Las Mananita's, next to Heidi's Inn.  We'll get there around two o'clock and we hope they will still be open for lunch.

Didn't need to worry!  The parking lot is packed1. We score a table outside and the beautiful weather and a waiter who is from Ecuador.  He and Ginger converse in Spanish and he approves our luncheon selections. First a glass of Modela Negro, then I have Enchilada Bandera and Ginger has Paella Valenciana.  We both wind up with to-go boxes that will be dinner, wherever we land!  Oddly enough, when we ask about Maria, the lady we met the last time we were here, we learn that she doesn't work here!  She is just the artist who painted all the murals and such, and it was just lucky that Ginger got to meet her!

We stop by the rhubarb plants and Ginger picks a few more and then we go inside to say "Hi" to Not-Heidi.  Turns out her name is really Jennifer, although her mother was a Heidi! She is ticked to see us and we have a great chat.  She tells us that the Wailers are going to be staying with her and playing at Daryl Oates place.  Makes me want to postpone my flight home!  She also tells Ginger to take as much rhubarb as she wants, so we go back and snag a few more stems!

From here we head back to the Hammond Museum to see if we can find Dale's heron print.  Turns out to be exactly where the lady told Ginger it would be and with it safely installed in the back seat, we head off again.  Ginger will bring it down with her when she comes south again.  It's way to heavy to ship or to take on the plane.

You see some fun things as you're driving along, like a road called Ten Neighbors Road, followed by Nine Partners Road!!  And we saw two deer grazing in an open field.  Luckily they didn't want to jump in front of the car!

The first part of today's drive was along beautiful forested two-lane roads but that eventually became Interstate driving and when Ginger has had enough of that we look for a different route toward Roanoke.  That's really our destination for tomorrow night;  but we'll go as far as we can today and find somewhere to settle. There's a lovely interlude through a couple of tiny little towns and we reset the GPS to exclude toll roads before we get to the first toll plaza.  It will only add a few minutes to the trip and will be worth it not to have the aggravation.

Further down the road and we could use a restroom and maybe find a place to stay. This exit has food places and a chain hotel and a Wal-Mart!  There's bound to be a restroom there!  There's also a large display of deer feed!!

In the parking lot Ginger searches Booking.com and choose the only hotel within a half-hour radius that isn't a chain!  She puts it in the GPS and we're off again. We're driving through more deep forests and can see why New Jersey is called the Garden State (Yes, Nat, it's gorgeous!) and there are cows and sheep and horses.

When we come to the Belvidere Hotel we giggle gleefully! It's an historic hotel built in 1831 and has been completely restored! There are almost no other guests so it's really quiet!  Jennifer (yes, another one) and her husband do everything themselves and she tells us how difficult it is to find someone who can make up a bed!! There is a stairway at the back which goes down to the parking lot so you don't have to carry everything around the building, and there is a hallway with a microwave and the second floor porch opens right off that hall, so you can sit outside and eat whatever you've heated up (like left-over Mexican). There is even breakfast from seven to ten!  We couldn't be happier!  And the beds feel huge after sleeping in those little singles for five nights!

We take a short walk around the town, but it's getting dark, so we'll have to take a second look in the morning.  There's time for dinner and showers and blogging before bed.  Another successful day on the road!