Butler 4

I'd been planning a trip to visit Eleanor Roosevelt house for months. May 14th was the planned date. It was easy to get everyone together to go because... well... I was the only one that went. I have a knack for getting myself where I need to be. Where I needed to be on May 14th was on a train going north along the Hudson River. The train left from Grand Central Station at 9:54AM. I rode by bicycle from my Brooklyn residence to Grand Central. I arrived with two minutes to spare. The train ride north was just under one hour and forty minutes. During that time I read The Right Stuff by Thomas Wolfe. Turns out... Chuck Yeager is a man's man.

Upon arrival at Poughkeepsie I mounted my bicycle and started peddling the remainder distance of 5 miles to my destination of Hyde Park Ny where the Eleanor Roosevelt home is located. Before reaching the site I had to take care of something vital to the success of the trip....
find two chilli and cheese hot dogs to purchase and consume.
On the road I found this hotdog truck. A seemingly nice old lady is the proprietor. Turns out that she is a hustling old lady. I told her I'd like a ('a' when used as unit of measure means one of such unit) chilli-n-cheese hotdog. She served me up two. I thought to myself, "well played old lady... I'm not going to complain just buy what I didn't order and never do business here again." She already knew this. She also knew that I'm not from these parts and wouldn't be a return costumer anyway.
The reason that I wanted to eat hot dogs is because of the historical significance of this porch. This is Top Cabin where FDR would go to get away from everything and everyone. It's located a mile behind Eleanor's house. This is the porch that FDR served King George VI of England and his wife (the parents of the current Queen of England) their first hot dogs they had ever had.
It was a lovely hike up to Top Cottage through the woods of upstate.
This is Eleanor's house. It is built inside the defunct furniture factory Val-Kill. The house is situated next to a stream and large pond. It is really beautiful with birds and trees all around. Eleanor had the most wonderful sleeping porch. You can see it on the left of the picture below. It over looks the wetlands that surrounds her house. This house was the get away house for Eleanor's family. There was a pool, tennis court, and bbq. FDR's main house was really his helicopter mother's house and so they had to follow her rules while there. But this house they could remove their leg braces.
It was so lovely to be out in the forest and breathe the fresh air and take in some historical sites. It was a grand day trip.

Labels: Eleanor Roosevelt