Past Accord to Kerhonkson

My wife went to bed very late and the little one is up early with me on a Saturday.  Shall we head out for breakfast?  This is the first time I’ve been around these parts in the dead of winter and, looking for a place to eat this morning (or last night) is that damn near every restaurant in the area is closed, along with the university.  Students and presumably all the attendant faculty and staff have all headed off.  No one here, near the university is open.   So, we won’t be heading to Mio in Gardiner, as I’d assumed.

A bit further out, in Stone Ridge, twenty-minutes up over the Gunks there is a place called ‘Hash’ that looks pretty good and is indeed open.  We head out over the hill trail, passed the Mohonk Preserve and up into Stone Ridge.  Before we get there, we turn left at High Falls, which looks, as I've noted before, pretty interesting, with a number of: “oh, we should head back there sometime, faux-sho.”  Stone Ridge has some extraordinary old buildings though Hash, on the outskirts of town is of no historical significance.  Rather, they have a cool interior where more than one table is speaking French. 

I have a bowl of something that looked great on the specials' menu but is chock-full of beets which are interesting on the first or second bite but grow too rich to enjoy beyond those first samplings.  My daughter’s waffle is better.  The espresso wasn’t bad.  The French folks at the adjoining table have two kids who are loud and unsettled and run out the building and into the parking lot before the parents notice and scurry after them in a fuss.  I nod to the chef as we head out. 

Heading home I continue past Accord to Kerhonkson where we head left on 44 up over the Gunks.  I don’t think I’ve driven this path in seven or eight years.  It becomes increasingly mountainous and at some point, there is an asshole on my tail who expects me to race around up here at a speed of his choosing.  I let him pass and consider the parking lot for the Minnewaska State Park area.  There’s a lovely waterfall up over there, I assure my little one.  “Do you remember going there that time . . . ?” I'vef seen the photos on my screen saver dozens of times.  It’s part of my living memory, but not hers. 

She’s not interested in walking up to the Gunks to see where the rock climbers do their thing.  I have a flash of us and a few dozen other cars just parking along the highway, way back in the day three decades ago.  Is that how it was done back in those days or did we park in a proper lot and walk?  (Me suspects it was the prior.)  And, from here we can gaze down and look at the denuded winter expanse of the Wallkill River, which cuts its way out towards the Hudson. 

Saturday, 01/11/20