day 12: cheektowaga – seneca falls – new paltz - new york
we awoke to another delicious scent wafting from the kitchen. buenos dias, the huevos rancheros seemed to say to us for our final morning in cheektowaga. after breakfast, we said our goodbyes to eric as he left for school, then packed our bags and prepared to depart. after having been hopping from one town to the next for the first part of our trip, the sixty hours we’d spent in northwest new york felt like we’d practically moved in, and because of that we were sad to go. we took our last pictures with the kids, said our goodbyes then piled into the buick.

on the road again in the east really just means that you’re going to have to start paying tolls again. and new york is pricey. we hopped on the thruway – which we would follow to its terminus, arching through albany – and prepared for a day of driving.

just hours after we set out, r saw the signs for seneca falls and the women’s rights national historic park. the park consists of a museum that sits next to the ruins of wesleyan chapel, where the declaration of sentiments was ratified at the first women’s rights convention in 1848. although the museum intended to portray the plight of women, we have found to be less than interested by the
style of the single-subject historical museums. the empty grounds between the structures allowed for a moment of contemplation and reflection. the plan at the park was to secure the remains of the chapel as best they could, but the two walls and roof provided just enough of a resemblance of a shelter that it felt warm and welcoming.

a short drive away from the park is the home of one of the organizers of the convention, and a elizabeth cady stanton. although the doors were locked and the windows provided just a glimpse into the sparsely furnished home, m took delight in sitting on the porch, as if she were imagining listening to a possible conversation between stanton and her fellow suffragettes, including susan b anthony lucretia mott.

after fueling and lunching we got back on the thruway, still heading east though such scenery as syracuse and the beginnings of the appalachian mountains. our destination was new patlz, one of the outer-most suburbs of new york city. r's mom's cousin maggie and her family live in the town where she owns a boutique. the shop features the work of local artisans - including maggie - who knits chic caps, elegant scarves and wonderful blankets. her business partner lynn (where the name for the shop comes from: maglyn's dream) also greeted us and the two ladies run a top notch store. r had not seen maggie in years and it was nice to be able to catch up in such a great location. m fell in love with a purple beanie and couldn't live without it. after grabbing a cup of coffee from mudd puddle brewery in the factory-turned boutique mall, r passed the keys to m for her first drive of the day: into the metropolis of new york and on to astoria.

the approach from the north of the city is quite thrilling. the suburbs become more developed as the woods slowly fade away, but even just a few miles outside of the view of manhattan the roadway is covered in a small forest of trees, lending a natural feel to the concrete roadway. we were amazed at how the highway we travelled on had driveways to businesses and bus stops all along the side, while the cars whizzed past at interstate speeds. although we had been warned of a traffic-choked approach, we didn't meet red lights until just before the george washington bridge. but the slow pace we traveled as we prepared to cross the world's busiest bridge was enough to make up for our clear drive thus far. that the gw bridge costs 8 dollars to cross just added to r's frustration, but the topper came when just a few miles later we were asked (i say it in a nice manner to avoid ranting at tollbooth workers) to pay another five dollars to cross the rfk memorial bridge, now called the triborough bridge. that put our tolls at nearly thirty dollars for the day, after having spent more than sixteen on the thruway. the garmin gps device didn't let us down, and we found maggie's sister linda's apartment just above queens with ease.

once into the apartment we met linda's cat cody, who, despite his show-quality looks was not nearly the host that linda was, as he tended to hiss at us and sniff through our belongings with an inspectorial air. we were all quite hungry as it was past eight so linda showed us her favorite greek restaurant, which we followed up with a trip to baskin-robbins. we took the opportunity over dinner and while walking around to catch up with linda, as well as ask for her help in scoping out destinations for our forays into manhattan. after a long day, we crashed on the couch just in time to watch the pittsburgh penguins win the stanley cup. perhaps those construction signs that cheered on the pens were effective after all . . .