2427 Sunday's river tour

Monday, June 8, 2009

I went on the singles' group Hudson River tour yesterday. As usual I was pretty antisocial, kind of stand offish. I was there for the boat, not for the mingling.

When I arrived at the Newburgh waterfront, there was some kind of festival going on. Crowds. No parking spaces. Tents and booths all over the place. I ended up parking a half-mile away.

It was something called "Flotilla Day". Some tall ships were due to arrive that evening.

We were on a paddleboat. The tour was from 3 to 5 pm. Down the river, turned around at Cold Spring, just above West Point. Lots of boats on the river. (I saw a guy on a jet ski who looked just like The Man. He doesn't like getting wet, so I'm reasonably sure it wasn't him.)

I took up a position standing at the rail near the front. Three women pulled chairs from somewhere and jammed in behind me. I was very aware of them because one woman literally rammed her chair into my behind. When the boat got moving, she loudly said to her companions, "She's gonna block my view!" I was very tempted to respond, "Perhaps you should have thought of that before you poked that chair in my rear", but I didn't.

Bannerman Island, and the east shore. The "castle" was used to store explosives way back when, and well, they exploded. So now the building is just a shell. The island is administered by the state park service, and it's very dangerous, so you have to go with a tour group. I want to find me one'a them tours.Yes, it is an island. There's more river behind the light green trees.

Above West Point, the Hudson is very wide and deep, lined with rock bluffs. In the following photo of the west shore you can just see a horizontal cut halfway up the bluff. That's route 218 (I think). Someday I'll have to drive it. Railroad tracks run along the length of the river, at the waterline.
On the boat, there was one guy who tried manfully to pick me up, even told me he noticed me right off and that I was beautiful. Imagine that. I did talk with him a bit, but I also casually mentioned "the guy I'm dating". Turns out he spends winters in Florida and summers in New York, and, uh, there IS a woman in Florida. He wants one in NY. No sh*t, fella. Anyway, after a while I guess my negative vibes finally got through. I turned my head to look down the river, and when I turned back, he was gone. No goodbye, no nuthin'. Well, that was easy. No problem.

I confess I don't know how I would have reacted if he were anywhere near meeting my minimum requirements. There were about 90 people from the (age 40+) singles group on the boat, and I didn't see any males that looked likely to meet my requirements, and they're not that high. What hair they have must be clean, no goop or gels, no comb-overs. No chunky gold chains visible through the neck of a shirt unbuttoned halfway down the chest. No brilliant Hawaiian shirts. No T-shirts with not-as-cool-as-you-think writing on them. Sober. Don't be loud. If I can hear you across the room, I'll stay across the room. Please sound intelligent. No panting at me. Above all, DO NOT TOUCH ME without permission.

Crowds at Cold Spring, too, waiting for the flotilla.
After we got off the boat I went to dinner with two of the women from the boat. I like them both, and hope to see them again at future events.

Fire boat from NYC:
Replica of Henry Hudson's "Half Moon", sailed up the river with the flotilla:
"Half Moon" on the right:
I wore a lightweight long-sleeved shirt over a shell, and slacks. I forgot my hat in the car, but there was so much wind I couldn't have worn it anyway. I was wearing a makeup base with 35+ sunscreen in it. I didn't burn much, except for the top of my nose. But I noticed today that I have scattered spots of a blotchy bumpy rash on my chest, where the sun didn't even hit. I wonder if the sun poisoning from 5 weeks ago has sensitized me.
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