Day 16 – A day of rest

We had an easy day today and I think we all needed it.  We rode a total of 18 miles and traveled to a place called Poughkeepsie, NY.  I spent the day taking it easy mostly, but rode by and looked at the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site and the F.D. Roosevelt Library that are located in Hyde Park, NY.  I pretty much just walked around and read the information and quite enjoyed the things that I learned.  It was interesting how the Vanderbilt’s accumulated all their money through the railroad industry and how the third generation of Vanderbilt’s pretty much squandered the money.  They were saying that at their peak, in today’s money, they were worth about 4 times what Bill Gates has.  After the Vanderbilt that built the mansion here died in 1938, having no children, he gave all his money to his servants and left the estate to his favorite niece.   He didn’t want to leave any money to his family because they already squandered what they were given.  The niece tried to sell the estate, which cost $2.25 million to build for $350,000, but because of the depression, couldn’t get it sold.  She lowered the price to $250,000 and still couldn’t and FDR talked to her and talked her into selling the estate to the government for $1 and that is how it became a National Park.

We are staying in a motel again tonight because no campgrounds could be found around here.  I had to help cook tonight.  We made tacos, which I must say, tasted pretty good.

A beutiful reservoir in Conneticut

 Tobacco hanging to dry

Vanderbilt mansion above
Me cooking dinner tonight