Russell Brook, Beaver Kill, Mike & Lillian

We drove into the Catskills from Ithaca, and threaded our way up a narrow winding track to camp next to Russell Brook at a campground of the same name. We got a nice site, backed right up to the brook, its waters providing a constant, pleasant background noise:


What the site did not have is cell phone service, and therefore no internet as well. We can make our own electricity, and carry as many as 60 gallons of water, but we cannot generate our own connectivity! So, we were a bit out of touch for a few days! Down at the camp office there was a wireless hot-spot, so Nancy checked in most days.

We found a nice little 9-hole golf course in Roscoe and enjoyed a round (insomuch as one can really "enjoy" golf!)



Then Nancy's mother, Lillian, and her husband, Mike, joined us for a few days. Arriving here after dark, they found themselves on the wrong end of Russell Brook Road, which is a narrow dirt track that has not been maintained since a flood washed out the road many years ago. They backtracked and eventually got to us via the paved road! I cooked breakfast over the fire the next morning:


We had a nice walk up the brook, where we saw this old water-wheel generator:

Lillian had brought me my fishing waders, so I was able to do some trout fishing on the famous Beaver Kill river. People travel from all over the world to fish this river, and many of the fly patterns known to all trout fisherman were invented here. How many trout did I catch, you ask? Were these fish world class trophies, you wonder?


Well, to quote from blues man Albert King: "If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all." I caught nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. I'm beginning to think that my fly rods make are better off kept hanging on the wall as decoration than they are plying the waters!

So, I packed up my rods, reels, and flies and went home! We drove back to Middletown yesterday, shoe-horned the Whale into our street parking area, and enjoyed the comfort and familiarity of home. The rhodedendrons, azaleas, and a dwarf lilac are still in bloom. The yard and house look great.

Here is the whale back home:

It's nice to be back, but a little weird in the sense that we aren't moving back in for good, so anything that we bring inside needs to find its way back onto the Whale. We'll be here until June 1, when we drive up to Maine. Lots of chores to do, so I'd better get to it!