Hudson Day 2: Hyde Park and FDR home and presidential library

We arrived at the Hyde Park Marina which is just a tiny marina for small boats (we qualify).  It has no facilities besides a bathroom and a shower... BUT it is only a few miles from the family home of FDR.  According to Google Maps we could easily ride our e-bikes to it.  The dockmaster saw our funny little bikes, with the 12 inch tires and said "no way" can you climb that hill.  So he took us up up up this hill in his truck.  That was really appreciated.  MAYBE the ebikes would have gotten us there but it was certainly questionable.

First off, we sat and had a heart to heart with Franklin and Eleanor about our current political climate

Then we joined a ranger for the tour of the home... which had been in FDR's family for a couple of generations.  We even saw the room where he was born.  This was actually his mother's home and she ruled here but FDR loved it so that he visited here as much as he could . Eleanor didn't love it too much (two strong women living in the same home was a problem), so they built a cottage about 4 miles down the road for her to have her own retreat.  Interesting marriage for sure.  I've read several books on these two and they sure were fascinating personalities.

View off the back patio... out onto the Hudson in the distance.. way DOWN the hill

Even the barn was ELEGANT

Burial site in the rose garden next to the home

We then toured the presidential library which was designed and built by FDR towards the end of his second term... thinking he would retire then.  Inside we saw many exhibits of all of his challenges but what was especially unique was seeing his actual office where he worked during the rest of his presidency.  He invented the idea of a presidential library and all presidents since him now have them.  The exhibits were fascinating and very well done.  It makes me want to visit other presidential libraries.

Then we gritted our teeth for the death-defying ride down down down the hill... brakes engaged the whole way.  With 12 inch tires, our center of gravity is a bit unusual on these bikes.  At least that is my excuse why I found it a bit too thrilling.  We survived and it will be another memory as an adventure in and of itself.

Hudson Day 2.. Tappan Zee to Hyde Park

I thought I'd start today's blog by telling you some trivia I've learned about the Hudson and its history.  I was rereading "River Horse" (see earliest posts) with regard to their trip up the Hudson and learned a few things I didn't know.

The Hudson is mostly very straight with only one real "oxbow" and, the lower 140 miles of it is actually a fjord... the only one in our "lower 48".  I'm not sure what constitutes a fjord but is says here that the tidal reach goes the first 140 miles.  the first 140 miles brings you to Troy and the Erie Canal.

We were starting approximately at the Tappan Zee bridge which is Dutch name meanling "cold stream sea"

I THINK this is the Tappan Zee Bridge.  I have way too many pictures of bridges to know for sure

The current of the Hudson was something we had been warned about however it didn't seem bad at all.  Maybe its all "relative".  In fact, once we did pass that "ox bow" at Storm King Mountain, the water was glass like.  However, in River Horse he states that the current is "constant" and "predictable" and that a floating stick would take 3 weeks to float from Troy to the NYC Battery.  That's because it will ride a dozen miles down an ebb tide and then float back up 8 miles with every flood tide.

So after brushing up on "River Horse" last night I spent time looking for specific sights along the way up.  Here is West Point, which, in our opinion, looks more like a prison than a school.  Or at least more like a fortress with its high walls and towers.

The next place I wanted to see was called Pollepel Island (Bannerman's Island).  Here we saw the decaying remains of an American castle.  Between 1900 and 1918, Frank Bannerman, a munitions dealer built a folly of a castle on a little island in the middle of the Hudson.  He was a Scotsman who missed his home country and wanted his own little kingdom.   In his book, "River Horse", William Least Heat-Moon meets and interviews one of Bannerman's descendents.  Apparently no one besides Frank Bannerman really liked coming to the castle.  It was given to the state and for a time there were tours given.  Then there was a fire and it became so dilapidated that landing on the island is prohibited.  That didn't stop River Horse, however.  Ignoring the laws and the dangers of very shallow rocky waters, he and his crew landed and explored.  River Horse, his C-Dory, did suffer a big ding on a submerged rock.  Not an auspicious way to start his adventure to the west.

He talks of a moat, turrets, parapets etc.  It must have been something to see and explore!

The sights were so interesting and the weather so lovely that the 50 miles went by very quickly.  Rob is especially enjoying the fact that the Hudson has rail road tracks on both sides of the shoreline... right at the shoreline.  In fact, our marina tonight in Hyde Park is virtually on the tracks of the Amtrack.  Freight train just across the river.  Rob, at least, won't mind the whistles as we sleep onboard tonight.