Upstate Wanderings 3/9/2021
Hi friends! A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I wanted to start telling you more about where I live. I've done that in a couple of posts but recently the Mister and I took a long drive around and looked at some covered bridges. Our area has lots and lots of covered bridges. Well, bridges in general. We live on the upper Delaware River and so there tends to be bridges crossing over the rivers (the East branch and the West branch and then the Main Stem). Anyway, I wanted to share that day with you. First, here's the map of our journey. It was a long one but it was so worth it. We saw some of the backroads that we haven't been on in years.
Beaverkill Covered Bridge
Our first stop was the Beaverkill Covered Bridge. We took the long way to get there starting from Roscoe and going on the back roads. We missed our turn, but that was okay since we got to drive by the Dundas Castle. I didn't know it even existed but the Mister did. He grew up going to Lew Beach so he was familiar with the area. Anyway, we saw the abandoned castle from the road. Unfortunately there's not a good photo opportunity since you can only see parts of it (it sits way up on the hill). It's an interesting story though.
Anyway, the bridge is at a State park and campground. Apparently it is a very popular one too. I've never been there so I don't know. Obviously it was closed but we were able to pull over and I jumped out and got some pictures. Isn't it beautiful?
Livingston Manor
Next we went from the Beaverkill Covered Bridge to Lew Beach. It's probably been close to 20 years since we've been there. I can't believe that! It's so close and it's got some hidden gems. I remembered a store that used to be there that had all organic groceries. And this was in the early 2000's! The Mister didn't want to drive over to Lew Beach but I was pretty insistent. He kept telling me that the store was in an old gas station but I didn't remember that. But he was right! Unfortunately it was closed, whether permanently or just for the day I'm not sure. I can't find anything about it on the internets. But you could see beer taps and the store (from the window as we were in the parking lot). Literally. Can't find any info about it! I guess that just means we'll have to take another drive up there. But Lew Beach boasts such places at the DeBruce and the Beaverkill Valley Inn. I think I'll make another trip and do a post on just Lew Beach. Here's an interesting article from Ralph Lauren Magazine about The Manor and Lew Beach.
So from Lew Beach we backtracked down to Livingston Manor, known as "The Manor". It was time for lunch and a beer! Our area has no end to local breweries and I'd been wanting to try Upward Brewing Company. I didn't take a ton of pictures, but it was a very nice spot for lunch! They even had a fire in the outdoor firepit (but I was all about eating inside. Where it was warm). It's funny to think back to this now that the snow is gone and it's been warmer, but this was only a couple of weeks ago! HA!
Anyway, food and beer. I has the pheasant pickled dog with fries. The Mister had a burger. He drank an IPA and I had a dark beer (sorry I don't remember what the names were!), but I really enjoyed my beer. It was well worth it. It wasn't crowded or at least it didn't seem crowded. We sat in the back near the brew tanks. All in all, it was a nice lunch spot.
Roscoe
After lunch we went back to Roscoe. I'm not sure what brought us back that way (we'd already stopped in town that morning) but it must have been so we could visit the Do Good Spirits distillery. We've driven past many times but never stopped! But that day was the day. It's in the old fire station and it was super cute. They have a lovely tasting room (although the tasting room was moved to the back for social distancing purposes. It's temporarily located where they do the distilling). Anyway, they had a lot of local products plus their own products. They even had tasting boxes to go. They said that when COVID first happened and everything was shut down, they moved their distilling over to making hand sanitizer but people still wanted to do tastings. So they came up with tasting boxes that they sold through a window! I love that.
We did a tasting and bought a ton of stuff, including that coffee from a local roaster. The employees were super nice and I highly recommend you stop in if you're in the area. The distiller is currently doing a cocktail contest. I'm tempted to enter the Lumberjack into the contest (or my newest creation-the Cracker Jack). Anyway, it's a nice distillery and we loved the spirits too!
The Way Home
Since the trip was all about taking pictures of bridges, we took the long way home so we could go over the open grate bridge near where we used to live in Hankins. I don't like the bridge because the open grate freaks me out! HAHA! But it's a pretty bridge. And it always indicates the way home.
There you have it friends! A little more detail about where I live. What's your favorite thing about where you live?
'til next time
-k
xoxo