The trees had been putting on their autumn colors starting about Acadia NP in Maine, but nothing like we saw here. We stayed in Wurtsboro, New York, about 90 miles northwest of New York City in the Catskill Mountains. This seasonal display was awesome and it was astonishing how you could see the same tree change every day. There wasn’t anything particularly we wanted to see here and were looking for a bit of relaxation. We met one of our neighbors, and found out they were from Rocklin, Ca. and their camping membership home park was Canyon Creek Resort in Winters, Ca., which was the very first stop of our trip. They also gave us a heads up on how we should visit WOODSTOCK. We didn’t realize that it was that close, but they said it was well worth the visit.
Yes, we walked the hallowed grounds of the 1960’s Woodstock, the three days in August that is said to have defined a generation. It is also said, “if you remember Woodstock you weren’t really t
here”. For those whose memory may be a little fuzzy, Woodstock was a music & art festival held in upstate New York, August 15th ,16th and 17th, 1969, where iconic musicians like The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Santana, Joan Baez, Jefferson Airplane and Arlo Guthrie, to name a few, played for three days and nights rain or shine.
Woodstock festival did not take place at Woodstock because it became too small to hold the 100,000 or so crowd that was expected to attend. They found a spot in Middletown, N.Y., but permits were revoked 30 days before
the event. Frantically, they looked for another venue and were told about a “bowl-shaped alfalfa field in Bethel, N.Y., owned by Max Yasgur. They negotiated the deal and began setting up for the concert. The crowds started showing up two days before the event, and
the fences and ticket booths were not complete, so folks just made themselves comfortable in front of the stage. They were unable to control the crowds as more and more started showing up, swelling the crowd to almost a half a million, so the promoters decided to make it a free concert. The four guys that put on the show lost millions of dollars in the deal, but were able to recuperate all but $100,000 from the movie that followed. Whether this was a life changing event, or just simply a muddy, disorganized debacle, facilitating almost half a million people for three days with food, medical, sanitation and other necessities was quite a feat. Just a side note: 2 people died, one was run over by a tractor on the road and the other from a fall…probably drug induced. There is a museum dedicated to the Woodstock festival in what has become a massive complex with music and performing arts stages and amphitheaters.
As we were exiting the museum and gift store, who do we run into but Richard Walters and 
Diane, members at Bass Lake RV Resort. Three thousand miles away, both of us on vacation, what were the chances! I had to do a double take to make sure. It turns out Richard was from the area, so they had come for a visit, and Diane wanted to see Woodstock. It’s a small world, that’s for sure.
The feast of St. Francis was celebrated while we were in Wurtsboro, and the St. Joseph 
Parish happened to be doing the blessing of the animals while we were there. Cody is not always known to play nicely with larger dogs (at previous blessings, we always stood way in the back), but this time he was truly a little prince, and we were right in the middle. There was this giant collie that kept barking and stirring up the other animals, but Cody was just silent. Maybe the blessings are finally working!!
Next stop, Philadelphia.
Craig & Arline's circle the U.S. trip 