The Rhinebeck Craft Fair ended at about 5 PM on Sunday, so I got there about 2. Something I'll never understand about the Dutchess County Fairgrounds parking - they start parking cars in the fields near the entry gate, and spread out from there. As the day wears on, the cars are being parked farther and farther from the gate, BUT, people who came early have left! The parking geniuses don't direct any cars to any of the spaces now open near the gate. When I arrived, there were only 4 or 5 cars in the 2 acres near the gate, but they directed arriving cars way the heck out to the "north forty". I walked a half mile+ over lumpy fields to the gate.
Moving fast, I got through everything. I bought a decorated cane, a fringed duster, some chai marmalade, vegetable dip mix, and a necklace. There's a photographer who sells photos he takes in Provence (France), from whom I try to buy a print every year (one of these days I'll hang them), but he wasn't there this year. I wish I had talked May into going. I suspect she was thinking "crafts, uh-huh - plastic beads strung on pipe cleaners". This stuff is all so good it doesn't look handmade any more, which is a bit of a disappointment. It's not easy to take "I-can-do-that!" ideas home. It's all getting too expensive, too, and unlike the antiques fair, these people don't bargain. But I can't not go.
I got home about 5:15, and I was so very tired. I'd done a lot of walking and standing over the past three days, and had been sleeping badly. I was falling asleep over the keyboard. I debated whether or not to go to the fireworks. They were going to be at 10 PM. The entire Rondout was going to be blocked to cars. You could park at any of several uptown lots and take a shuttle to the Rondout, but the shuttle let you off at the top of the hill, several blocks from the creek. Given how much I hate crowds (they tire me), the walking and hills involved, and how tired I was, I decided not to go.
At about 6:30 PM I discovered myself standing at the front door in a caftan, with a large raw silk Tibetan monk's shawl and my purse over my arm, and car keys in hand, ready to go. I swear I must have dressed in my sleep. I think what happened was that I went into the bedroom to lie down, went into the closet to take off what I was wearing, and then forgot why I was there, so I changed clothes.
I parked at Kingston Mall in uptown and took a trolley-bus (Kingston's attempt to charm tourists - it looks like a trolley, but it's a bus) free shuttle to the Rondout. The place was already packed solid with people, and booths selling food and junk, and wandering vendors with glowing or blinking thingies. All the way down lower Broadway you had to edge through the crowd. Being short, my nose comes to the middle of other people's chests, so I wanted to find an open space somewhere to stand, so I could see without getting pummeled. George and Robin had mentioned that they had a friend with a boat who had invited them to watch from the boat, so I went down to the creek to see if maybe I could find them. I didn't find them - too many too big boats, too many people - but I did find a clear spot in front of a signboard which would protect my back, right on the edge of the path along the creek, so I could watch the crowds go by and have an unobstructed view of the bridge. I stood there from about 8 until the fireworks were over at 10:30. I was starving, but I was afraid to move or I'd lose my perfect spot.
And it WAS the perfect spot for the fireworks. I'll tell you about them in the next entry (running out of space here, I think).
After the fireworks, I headed for the food booths, and was shocked to find them packing up! No food. A gazillion restaurants around, and none open. I headed for the shuttle pickup area (UP hill!) and found everyone else there too. It's only maybe two or three miles to the lot where my car was, and I was so jazzed by the fireworks (the best I'd ever seen, I'm so glad I dress in my sleep!) I seriously considered just walking to the car, with a stop at the McDonalds halfway up Broadway - and stopped dead at the "up". It would be all up hill to uptown - I guess that's why they call it uptown.
Trolley-bus to car, stopped for an omelet at what used to be the Texas Diner on Albany Avenue but now has some other name (placed was packed - I sat at the counter and kept sliding off the stool!), home a little after 2 AM, and eventually to bed.
My right knee was swollen and had a hot spot Monday morning, but it seemed better by afternoon - just a little ache left.
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