Hey it’s been awhile! Due to covid I haven’t really been doing a lot of International travel but admire those who push through the regulations to make it happen. I feel like I’m too spontaneous to deal with the changes. Anyway, I’ve taken an interest in car camping and domestic travel to fulfill that need, last winter I bought a small trailer that I’m converting into a camper – for example. In the mean time I’ve been working on making my sedan more camper friendly, I got a car air mattress that actually works pretty well. I’ve designed a kitchen setup for the sedan that I’ve been dying to try that won’t break the bank. Regardless, I did my first over nighter last weekend in Catskills park in Upstate New York in a pull off. No one bothered me but I’m pretty sure there was someone who shown their lights through the car!
Thankfully with the car air mattress it fits in the back of the seat, so it was actually pretty stealth. Unfortunately after only four hours of sleep (which is actually a minimum for me), I woke up to rain at 1 am at night. It was pretty quiet and the rain came down hard. I made the executive decision to leave for home and good thing I did as it continued to rain throughout the morning. I wasn’t prepared for car camping as initially I wanted to do a wild tent camp from iOverlander coordinates but could NOT find two spots I had picked out in the Catskills! Dinner went swimmingly well, I had my famous naan pizza. I pre-made the dough and brought peppers, onions and garlic. Before dinner, I cleaned out the car and moved whatever was left over from my move to the trunk and blew up the air mattress. I was definitely under prepared as I didn’t bring a pillow and no heavy blanket, but still got some sleep.
I think my next trip might be local or to Westport, CT for some mussel and clam foraging! Whatever comes first, with these gas prices these days it makes it even more difficult to do domestic travel so I’m sticking to super local destinations for now. Check out my YouTube video of my adventure below:
Mount Tremper, NY | World’s Largest Kaleidoscope – While staying at the Emerson Resort and Spa one of their biggest features is a silo that has been converted into a kaleidoscope show. The show is an interactive display of light, sound and form and tells the story of the universe through this. The display was created by a local film firm in NYC and by two artists. After the show, you find yourself in a gift shop fill of different kaleidoscopes ranging from all sizes and prices. The team at Emerson gifted me a travel-sized kaleidoscope that I now keep on my kitchen table. Not only is it a feast for the eyes, but this experience has inspired me a bit in my own photography.
The above image was taken through a triangle tubular piece and had a mandala panting on the back wall. This image is pretty cool and makes me wonder if I can recreate the effect by creating a kaleidoscope lens. Throughout the shop there were interactive displays where you can look through kaleidoscopes and spin a bowl of marbles to create your own visuals. This activity is complimentary for guests.
Emerson Resort and Spa is a nice getaway for a long weekend, or a whirlwind of 48 hours. The property promotes relaxation but for everyone – not just couples. It aims to promote a family-friendly atmosphere by having a variety of on-site activities such as ‘the World’s Largest Kaleidoscope’. It’s got a mixture of leisure activities, a dog park, bonfires and s’mores, guided walks and hikes, screenprinting activities among other various activities.
The Emerson also offers a variety of affordable options for a weekend getaway. In the lodge they have deluxe room, luxury room and junior suite for budget rooms and for suites in the lodge they have; luxury suite, family suite streamside suite; in the Inn – where I stayed – they have; regal, royal and imperial rooms. To add a bit of flare to your stay they have ‘Emerson Amusements’.
Video Tour
Watch the video below for a video tour of the Royal Inn room at the Emerson Resort and Spa.
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MOUNT TREMPER, NY – Relax in the splendor of the Catskill Mountains & Hudson Valley in mind. Woodstock, NY is just a throws away and unlocks music history. After a hectic month, I was excited to take a short break in the Castkills hills of New York. Just shy of two and a half hours from Northampton, MA, it made for an easy getaway. In the last several years, this region in particular is going through a bit of a metamorphosis as far as tourism goes. There’s plenty to do in the region if hiking isn’t your thing. I often tend to forget this, as I’m not much of a hiker myself, but it truly is the best way to see the mountains up close and personal. In addition to hiking, the area is known as the ‘birth place of fly fishing’ and on a warm summer day you will often see cars pulled over on bubbling creeks and their drivers wading in the river beds.
If hiking or fishing isn’t your thing, the area is strong in agritourism – a branch of agriculture that combines travel and food production, as a way to promote the produce of farmers in a given area. But there’s plenty to do in the outdoor and seasonal department. The region is known for it’s plethora of striking fall foliage and spectacular scenic drives.
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NEW PALTZ, NY – This weekend I traveled to New Paltz, NY to visit a few places I had read about recently. One of these places is the Crystal Connection. They had a couple of psychic and intuitive readers who did aura photography. After building my life for the last 3.5 years on it’s cousin (Kirlian Photography), I am very excited to have finally done this. I will do a separate blog post on this based on my experience!
Tomorrow, I plan on checking out of the New Paltz Hostel and head to Woodstock. I am also experimenting on how to shoot a travel vlog, so I will be getting some shots.
New Paltz was founded in 1678 by French Huguenots settlers, including Louis DuBois, who had taken refuge in Mannheim, Germany, for a brief period of time, being married there in 1655, before emigrating to the Dutch colony of New Netherland in 1660 with his family. Mannheim was a major town of the Palatinate (in German, the Pfalz), at the time a center of Protestantism. The settlers lived in Wiltwyck (present day Kingston, NY) and in 1677 purchased a patent for the land surrounding present day New Paltz from a Lenape tribe known as the Esopus.
The people of Mannheim use a dialect form of the name Pfalz without the “f”, pronouncing it “Paltz.” Records of the New Paltz Reformed Church, which was formed in 1683, show the name of the settlement was first expressed not in German, nor in English, but in French: Nouveau Palatinat.[citation needed] The community was governed by a kind of corporation called the Duzine, referring to the twelve partners who acquired the royal patent. That form of government continued well past the time of the American Revolution, by special action of the New York State legislature.
The 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) or so of the patent, stretching to the Hudson River and augmented soon by the other patents on the south, were eventually divided among those twelve partners, their relatives, and a few friends into large plots – part wilderness and part farm. The farms were grouped principally around the heights west and east of the Wallkill River. The commercial center serving the agricultural base was located on the east shore of the Wallkill River, in the area where the first settlers had built their shelters. The street is now known as Huguenot Street. (wiki)
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