The End

We are beginning to scatter as the caravan draws to a close. We spent our last day in New York heading in many directions including Ellis Island, the Brooklyn Bridge, Chelsey Market, and Rockefeller Center.




Our Farewell Dinner at Houlihan’s was another wonderful buffet. We presented a small token of our great appreciation to Andi and Steve and Maxine and George for a trip far exceeding our expectations. Their months and months of work provided all of us with experiences we will long talk about and long cherish.

Our last breakfast was seasoned with hugs, flavored with plans to meet again and sprinkled with tears. We have become a family who shared an amazing trip through the Hudson River Valley and will treasure our memories.

Empire State Building

Tuesday got off to a very bad start when Emily, one of our members, fell while leaving her coach and broke her ankle. We all feel the loss of “family” members as Emily and Jackie have to leave us while she has surgery and recovers. We wish her a good and strong recovery and look forward to seeing them back on the road as soon as possible.

Our leaders arrange for us to enjoy many aspect of NYC by including in our tour CityPass cards for the tour buses, New York passes for entry into museums and other attractions and MetroCards for the PATH train from New Jersey and the subway in New York. This is an advantage of our having someone plan the trip for us.




We put these cards to use by invading the PATH train and then walking to the Empire State Building. After a taking the Skyride, a bone jolting simulated spaceship ride over the City, we joined the thousands of people who took advantage of a clear day and blue skies to go up to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. What a view!


Coming down to street level, we split into various groups and sampled a variety of cuisines. Then we either walked or continued on the blue CitySights buses exploring more of Manhattan. The guides on the buses shared history, local gossip and opinions on our tours.


For dinner we gathered together at Trattoria Trecolori where we had an excellent Italian buffet ending with cheese cake or tiramisu. Then we walked a couple of blocks through the theater district to the Ambassador Theater to see Chicago with Jerry Springer. While we gave him mixed reviews, the set where the orchestra was the center of the action and the continuing cast received great praise.

Independence on Wednesday

We improved our metro navigation skills and headed out in many directions to explore The City on foot, on bus, and with private guides. At the end of the day we gathered, wine in hand, to share what we did and plan what will be our last day together on the caravan.

The World Trade Center

On our way to the train to spend our first full day in New York.

No trip to New York can ignore the memories of Sept. 11, 2001. We took an audio tour of the visitor’s center and across the enclosed bridges that connect the remaining buildings. The audio was narrated by people who were in or near the WTC and by family members of the fire brigades. This was a solemn and moving moment for all of us. The image above is of a bronze wall memorial on the side of the Firehouse that is directly across the street from where the WTC stood.


Leaving the WTC Visitor’s Center, we set out in various groups to see the city. With our CitySights pass we hopped to the top of double decker busses. From our perches we had a bird’s eye view of Lower Manhattan, Midtown, and Brooklyn.

New York, New York

We had an uneventful relocation to New Jersey, right across from NYC and we spent our first evening aboard the boat. The Spirit of New Jersey cruised up and down the Hudson River giving us the opportunity to admire one of the greatest cities in the world. We again enjoyed a buffet dinner, one that also included crowning our caravan mates Jerry and Jackie king and queen of the cruise for their 55 years of marriage. Jim and Nancy came in second with 52 years.



Dinner was nice but totally outshone by the setting, NYC viewed at dusk and evening from the Hudson River. Clear skies and warm weather provided us a delightful setting for enjoying one of the greatest views in the world. We rode under bridges, in front of Ellis Island, and up close to the Statue of Liberty. The thesaurus went back to work to provide the right words to describe our panorama, glittering, shimmering, sparkling, glistening, dazzling, brilliant. This evening is on the list for best moments of our Hudson River Caravan.

Rainy Day

A combination of Hurricane Danny, and storms from the north and west cancelled our plans for the day so we did what we do so well, we ate. Starting with a team breakfast of omelettes boiled in ziploc bags, fruit, and some of Brenda’s tasty muffins.

We took advantage of the day to do chores, relax and play games. It was rather nice to take time off.


Our reward for the quiet day was dinner at the 1766 Beekman Arms, the oldest inn in the US. We entered through the flower lined walkway into rooms paneled with rich mahogany. There we dined well on steak, tilapia or duck followed by a difficult choice between cheesecake and chocolate explosion cake. We happily rolled out feeling the day was a success no matter what we did or did not do. We had dined.

West Point

Our ride to West Point along the mountainous shoreline of the Hudson was marred only by the increasing rain. After proving our identities with security, we took a narrated bus tour around the Point learning about its military position in the Revolutionary War. Washington built the fort to block the British from dividing the colonies.



The Cadet Chapel was described as military gothic with its vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows donated by graduating classes. A candle in a front pew burns to honor MIAs and POWs. It has the world’s largest pipe organ in a religious building with 23,500 pipes. The Lutheran Chapel has plaques honoring historical West Point graduates with George Washington the most prominent. Both Benedict Arnold’s name and date of death were rubbed out by a cadet who wanted to remove the traitor from a place of honor. We drove past both the Catholic and Jewish Chapels.




The cemetery is primarily for graduates, their spouse and one child. Among the names are Abner Doubleday of baseball fame, Sylvanius Thayer who made West Point the educational institution it is today, and Thaddeus Kosciuszko the Polish fortification engineer during the Revolutionary War. The most visited site in the cemetery is of Mickey Marcus, the West Point graduate who helped create the Israeli Army. The grave markers frequently have small stones atop them indicating that someone has come to pay respect. This is a custom borrowed from a Jewish tradition. A monument stands over the river with canons bearing the names of the battles the Army has fought.

After another delicious buffet luncheon at the Thayer Hotel (founded by former graduates), we spent time touring the West Point Museum with its displays of ancient and modern weaponry and wars.





It’s difficult to believe, but we had to eat again. This time it was pizza at the campground and cakes to honor birthdays and anniversaries celebrated during the caravan. Some people got a bit “physical” during the celebration.

Farmers Market

You’d think with all the eating we have done that we would be sated. No, we were just out of food, so we headed to a couple of local farmer’s markets. There we loaded up with tomatoes, melons, corn, eggplant, and, most important of all, pies.


Those pies were destined as dessert after our fabulous bbq ribs dinner prepared by Chef Mitch and his crew. With side dishes of special potato salad, beans and local corn, we had to be careful to save room for the pies filled with apples, peaches, cherries or raspberries. Debates about which were better went on late into the night.