Baseball, Soapbox, Farm, Candy & A Book

Saunderskill Farms is less than a mile from our campground in Accord, NY. This is the one that has been in the family for 12 generations, since 1680. It was our second time to visit this week. We purchased some lettuce, kale, cucumbers, mini peppers – including purple ones, and onions. At home (footnote 1) I made a salad and it tasted so fresh and full of flavor. By the way, the purple mini pepper tastes just like the other colors.

Wide-Screen Shot Of Front Row, Hudson Valley Renegade’s, Minor League Baseball, Wappingers Fall, NY 08/24

A gray and rainy looking day. We wondered if it would rain in the afternoon. Hope not, Kevin bought our tickets yesterday for today. HA We drove about an hour to watch Hudson Valley Renegades. They are a minor league baseball team here in New York and are High-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. The stadium is in Wappingers Fall, NY and this day they played Crawdads. We were there around 4:00 (game started at 5:05) and were surprised how many people were already there. Glad we had assigned seats. We went through the light security. As Kevin grabbed his stuff to put back in his pocket, I kept walking ahead just to get out of the way. I turned around and I saw a lady scanning Kevin’s phone for our tickets. Apparently I had walked right past the two ticket ladies with their scanners! HA Oops. I am deaf so I didn’t hear them call out to me. So much for trying to be nice and getting out of the way. HAHA 

Hudson Valley Renegades, Minor League Baseball, Wappingers Fall, NY 08/24

We found our seats – front row, just barely to the side of home plate so we could see the batter and pitcher. Awesome seats and so fun! Of course, this place had food and the smell from the burgers made our stomachs growl. Before the game started, we left our raincoats on our seats and went to check out the food. Surprisingly, the cost of the food wasn’t bad. A kid in the seat next to us had nachos and they looked delicious. We decided to get helmet nachos. I will tell you, there was so much beef meat on there, I was very impressed they didn’t skimp! And tasty. It was good, filling, and fun for a ballpark. 

Us Having Fun At The Baseball Game, Wappingers Fall, NY 08/24

Right before the game started, we had the “air is too full of humidity” that we call it. It was light but thick rain. We put our raincoats on and continued to eat and watch. Didn’t bother us at all. It stopped shortly and didn’t rain again while we were there. The game was a pleasure to watch! So close to the players around home base. The Renegades lost but still an exciting game with 3 home runs. On the scoreboard, I noticed that a few of the players pictures had NY Yankee uniforms on. Kevin said they probably played with them but for some reason was sent down to this one. The stadium is quite small, we were surprised. But then Kevin said, “Well, you have two major baseball teams here – Yankees & Red Sox – so people probably go more to those games. We had a really fun time.

By this time, we had done everything we want to do in this entire area. It was too muddy for us to enjoy a hike in the trees. The other day I was looking for something for us to do and when I looked up events this weekend I saw 29th Annual Kingston Artist Soapbox Derby. A soapbox derby would be a blast to see! I showed Kevin and we saw that it isn’t a race. That is fine. We left at 11:00 a.m. and drove to Kingston, about 1/2 hour away. We saw several soapboxes around and some people in funny clothes and costumes. We continued walking down the street and soon found a long bench in front of a store. We sat there. The ground dropped down so dramatically that my feet touch the ground just fine! (I am short.) HA We sat and people-watched for about an hour. It was very entertaining, let me just say! That is part of the fun of traveling to new places – the styles, size, manners, etc. can be very different from what we are used to and that is cool. 

Girl’s Face, Lady’s Face! HA Pushing Uphill To Start Line, Kingston, NY 08/24

My favorite soapbox was actually before it started. A girl in a soapbox just grinning and an adult, not grinning, pushing it up the long hill. HA As it started, we were very surprised to see that it wasn’t what we thought it would be. We knew it wasn’t a race but it wasn’t even a “look out here it comes” downhill ride. Nope, not even close! The soapboxes, one at a time, would slowly come past and each had a person holding it back with wires or rope.

So it took a long time between each one because each moved so slowly down the long way from start to finish. We watched for an hour and only 12 had gone past. No big deal, just interesting. We had a fun time and it was nice to have something to do and see today.

We decided to stop at Walmart for a few things. I had to take a picture of the long collector aisle that everyone has to go through before getting to any cashier or check out. The entire length is all candy, all three sides! Just shocking to us. Plus behind us were 4 large bins full of candy and it wasn’t Halloween packaged candy.

Later in that week…Nothing got done today. Why? Ear pain, headache, vertigo? Nope! A book. HAHA I had it on hold on the library and it came yesterday evening: The Only Plane In The Sky: An Oral History Of 9/11 by Garrett M Graff. I hadn’t even read much about it, just wanted something about 9/11. This book blew me away! It is the words from people 9/11 affected: air traffic controllers, ticket agents, victims, families, hijackers, flight attendants, Condi Rice, Cheney, Card, Bush, etc etc etc. I think it is one of the best book I have ever read. THEIR words!!! Mr Graff did a great job putting it together in chronological order. Needless to say…I read it all day. It is such a good book that I want to read it every year right before Sept 11.

1. “Home” is where we park it. Home is our 2022 Alliance Avenue, 36 ft, 5th wheel.