Today it is time to return back home to Peekskill. I stayed at the house this morning watching the kids all morning while everyone except for Madeline went off to Dave’s Diner for breakfast. Madeline just slept so I never saw her. This was my last window to spend time with the little ones before I leave to go back down to Peekskill.
I packed up the car while everyone was gone and they all left to go see How to Train Your Dragon 2 at the noon showing so I left at the same time that they all did. So that worked out really well that it wasn’t such a big “goodbye” to the girls as they were leaving to go do something too. It was sad goodbyes, though, we are getting way too little time together. Liesl understands that a week is only so long. For Luciana it is really rough. Dominica said that she wakes up crying sometimes at night asking for me. L
So I was on the road at around eleven thirty. I took the Thruway thinking that I could hop over to NY 9 south somewhere partway down the Hudson but before I even made the turn from 90E to 87S I was already in stopped traffic! Not good.
I bailed at the first exit that I could get to which let me take 787 to downtown Albany and cross the river there on 9 & 20 from where I worked my way south on 9 all of the way down to Peekskill. It is a much slower road but very scenic. I got to see all of Rensselaer, Columbia, Dutchess and Putnam counties. Columbia is a county that I am not sure that I have ever driven through before, actually. Beautiful countryside. And some really cool historic areas like Hyde Park and Rhinebeck. Places that I know but have never been to, at least not in my memory. There are a lot more major colleges and universities along that route than I had realized too.
It took me probably four and a half hours to get home. Had to stop for gas once and stopped at the little roadside place called Grandma’s Deli just south of Fishkill on 9 for a sandwich before getting home.
On the drive I finished reading “Foundation and Empire” and managed to start reading “Second Foundation.”
It was mid-afternoon when I got to the house in Peekskill. I hunkered in and didn’t really leave the bedroom all afternoon. I mostly relaxed today, did very little work. But I did a little.