Off to the Catskills

"Road Trip!"





Kelly & I will be taking a weeks vacation together next week to go see the Catskills. Meanwhile, my parents have offered to catsit Ditzy. I'm looking forward to seeing the land of Irving's Rip Van Winkle. Interestingly enough, my favorite author, HP Lovecraft, set two of his stories: "The Lurking Fear" and "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" in the Catskills.



I've been practicing how to drive a stickshift since my Kelly's AWD is a manual and we'll be taking turns driving. We'll do some camping and stay in some B&Bs later when we're tired of tents.

In my research of things to do for next week, I found some great resources.

Google Earth, of course, is great at viewing the maps of the region, but the 3D feature just adds oh so much to the visualizations. Also, check out the Panoramio buttons on the map. Each one is a picture taken at that particular spot. The catskills are loaded with snapshots... so much to see, so little time.

Wikipedia has a really good entry on the Catskills. What I found most interesting, spatial scientist that I am, was the geologic history of the region. Turns out it's the easternmost portion of the Allegheny Plateau. I grew up in the westernmost portion of the Alleghenies, so I'm sure I'll feel right at home nestled up amongst the eroded mountain peaks. NW Ohio is too flat. Sometimes my thirst for hills drives me crazy out here in the flatland.

Also, the Catskills are a place for fossils! We're be staying for a few days around Gilboa, where they found fossilized tree stumps... the oldest discovered forest known on Earth! I'm planning on seeing them and I'm going to take along some fossil hunting equipment - hammer, brush, etc.. I hope I can find a place where I'm permitted to dig in the rocks.

Now to start the arduous process of making the final preparations.