Woodstock! and the Hudson Valley, New York

Dates visited: July 20 - 27, 2022

By Marty

As we wrapped up Rhode Island it was time to say goodbye to the Atlantic coast and aim the Beast west for the final leg of our 39 month journey. In just over three months, on October 31st, the Beast will be parked in front of our Livermore home. We have eight states yet to visit, or revisit in some cases, in that time to cap off our 48 state adventure.

For those of you who appreciate statistics you'll be interested to know that our Rhode Island RV park was the 150th unique RV park since we started this gig three years ago. That doesn't count the 20 or so times that we've stayed at the same park more than once or have boondocked.  As you might expect, on travel days we've gotten pretty efficient with the set up and take down of the Beast.

 

Woodstock

Well, I came upon a child of God

He was walking along the road
And I asked him, "Tell me, where are you going?"
And this he told me

 

Said, "I'm going down to Yasgur's Farm
Gonna join in a rock 'n' roll band
Got to get back to the land
Set my soul free

  

By the time we got to Woodstock

We were half a million strong
And everywhere was a song
And a celebration

 

 

Lyrics from "Woodstock", recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and released on their 1970 Deja Vu album about seven months after Woodstock. I didn't realize it until researching for this post that the song was written and also recorded by Joni Mitchell. Joni was not at Woodstock but she had a romantic relationship with Graham Nash at the time. Hearing Graham wax enthusiastic about the Woodstock experience afterwards inspired her to write the song.

Here is the CSNY recording set to a photo montage from Woodstock:

The Woodstock concert was in Bethel, NY, an hour east of our KOA campground in the Hudson Valley. I couldn't be that close and not go see one of the most iconic sites in rock and roll music history!

The site of the festival: the stage was located at the bottom of this slope just in front of the trees.

The festival was expected to draw 50,000 fans. The attendance was over 450,000! 

This link has FAQ's and the performer line up and bios that will quickly get you up to speed on the concert that you may have attended but perhaps have little memory of...

Woodstock Music Festival Museum

The stage was about 100 yards in front of the marker, on the left side of the photo. The previous photo was from the top of the slope on the right (where the white pavilion tents are). It's hard to imagine that 450,000 people fit in the space that you are looking at!

The festival organizers originally intended to hold the event about 60 miles away in Woodstock, NY (thus the name) but were rebuffed due to concerns from the community. 300 acres were subsequently acquired for a venue in Wallkill, NY with the expectation that "only" 50,000 people would attend. Construction work on the venue commenced. However, local opposition surfaced and intensified to the extent that the town officials ultimately pulled the plug on the concert. 

The August 15,16,17 concert was only a month away, with 50,000 tickets having been sold, and no venue! Max Yasgur saved the day by leasing a portion of his 600 acre dairy farm in Bethel, NY for the festival. The short time frame left the venue woefully unprepared for the 450,000 people that were to descend upon it.

The Museum at Bethel Woods does a really great presentation of the Woodstock story

We sat inside of the hippie bus (in the RV world they are now called "schoolies") to watch a short video about the means and modes in which young people - including more than a few hippies - traveled from all corners of the U.S. to attend Woodstock.

Groovy man!

Another museum video exhibit that provided period appropriate seating!

 Take a seat Johnny and let me explain how we communicated during the dark ages...

The "Information Booth" was a tree to which people attached messages in an effort to connect with others.

Tickets were $8 for one day or $18 for all three days. Ahh, the good old days...

Actually, music was played for four days because the concert didn't end until Monday morning, largely due to rain delays on Saturday and Sunday. Jimmy Hendrix took the stage at 9:00 a.m. Monday for a two hour set that included his iconic version of The Star Spangled Banner. By this time the audience of a half million had dwindled to "only" 40,000 people.

Credence didn't come on until 1:00 a.m. Saturday night (i.e., Sunday morning). I'd pay $8 all day (or night) long to see that set! 

Fun fact:  CCR does not appear on the Woodstock movie or soundtrack album because John Fogerty refused to grant permission. Fogerty felt that the set "wasn't remarkable" because "we were on so late and the audience was asleep mostly caused by hippie dysfunction and the fact that we followed the Grateful Dead."

Fogerty said "we actually played a really hot set, in spite of the fact that the audience was in such disarray in the middle of the night."

CCR was followed by Janis, who, we learned at the museum, had been biding her time with adult beverages and wasn't in top condition when it was her turn to perform. Consequently Janis' set was subpar for her.

After our visit we were inspired to watch the Woodstock documentary later (all four hours of it...)

Here is the movie trailer:

 

The Pavillion concert venue is located on the Bethel Woods grounds. There are 5,000 seats under the canopy plus room for 11,000 on the lawn. The night before our visit Dave Matthews Band played and the two nights after our visit Phish was scheduled to play.

My story?  At 12 years old I remember sitting in our living room in 1970 listening to the Woodstock album (a three record set) that one of my older siblings had acquired. It was a vicarious thrill for me, and particularly so when Country Joe McDonald performed "The Fish Cheer".  This is a G rated blog so you're going to have to Google it yourself if you don't know or remember that "song".

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum is located in Hyde Park, just north of Poughkeepsie overlooking the Hudson River.

It is America's first Presidential Library - and the only one used by a sitting President. Designed by FDR himself, it opened in 1941 on the grounds of the Roosevelt estate.

From the library pamphlet:

 

"By donating his papers to the Library, FDR established the precedent for public ownership of presidential papers. His library became the model for the nation's presidential library system, now part of the National Archives. With more than 17 million pages of documents, it is the world's premier research center for the study of the Roosevelt era.

 

Prior to FDR, Presidents or their heirs often dispersed Presidential papers at the end of the administration among other libraries, historical societies, and private collections. Many materials have been lost or deliberately destroyed. 

Today there are 15 Presidential Libraries, one for each President since Herbert Hoover, all erected with private funding and subsequently turned over to the National Archives and Records administration to operate and maintain.

The FDR museum is much larger than you might think from this photo. There is a lower level below the main floor. The museum was very well done with more information than we had time to absorb. It doesn't have the architectural impact of the Clinton museum we visited in Little Rock, AR but was well worth the visit. 

 

 

This is FDR's actual office. Located in the Library/Museum building, he used it when working from Hyde Park.

 

Janell is listening to one of FDR's "fireside chats"

FDR's Hyde Park home, a National Historic Site, is located a stone's throw from the library/museum. FDR was born in this house in 1882. 

From the NPS:

 

Franklin accompanied his father on daily horseback rides. During these times he became immersed in the land, its history, and particularly the trees. In later years he expanded his parents' land holding to nearly 1,500 acres and planted over half a million trees. His interest in tree farming translated into a New Deal program, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC provided jobs to unemployed men age 17-28. Over 10 years, enrollees planted over three billion trees and built over 800 parks nationwide.

Alas, we were not able to tour the home because the tickets were only available in person but were sold out when we arrived at the park.

 

The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Mid-Hudson Bridge as seen from Poughkeepsie

Originally opened as the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge, the first train crossed in 1889. Known as "The Great Connector", the bridge linked the industrial Northeast with the raw goods of the Midwest. At the time the span was the longest in the nation. At peak, more than 3,000 train cars crossed each day. Railroad traffic continued until a fire in May, 1974.

 

Dormant for 35 years the bridge was reborn as Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park in 2009, now the longest elevated pedestrian bridge in the world, welcoming over 600,000 visitors each year.

We broke out the bikes and went for a 20 mile ride across the bridge eastward and then onto the Dutchess Rail Trail

Hudson River Valley looking south (at FDR Mid-Hudson Bridge) from the Walkway

From the "did you know?" file:

Did you know that almost half of the 315 mile long Hudson river is actually an estuary? From Troy to New York Harbor, 153 miles, the river is subject to the Atlantic Ocean's tidal pulse. Twice each day the river flows upstream as the rising tide pushes the water back from whence it came! Salty sea water also pushes up the estuary, diluted by freshwater runoff as it moves north. In drought years the salt water reaches as far as Poughkeepsie.

Bonus fact:  The Hudson River is the only sea level breach in the 1,500 mile long Appalachian Mountain Range. Ponder that for a minute!

Hudson River Valley looking north from the Walkway

 

In the center foreground you can see (albeit barely) an eight person shell and crew rowing downriver with a coach alongside in a launch (motor boat).

 

The Hudson River at Poughkeepsie was the site of the Intercollegiate Rowing Association's National Championship Regatta each year from 1895 - 1950. The four-mile straightaway at that point in the river made the perfect natural race course for collegiate rowers.

 

At the June 1936 regatta the University of Washington freshman, junior varsity, and varsity crews all took first place. The varsity team went on to Berlin later that year to compete in Hitler's 1936 Olympics.

I won't tell you how they fared in that Olympics because I encourage you to read the book "The Boys in the Boat" about the young men on the UW rowing team. Janell and I both feel that this is one of the best books we have read.

The Dutchess Rail Trail was in great condition, rather flat, and tree shrouded for most of our ride. It was one of the best bike trails on which we have pedaled in our three years on the road!

Yes, we did whistle as we pedaled past the graveyard...

 

The Dutchess Rail Trail is part of the Empire State Trail, a 750 mile long network of trails from New York City northward to the Canadian border and from Albany to Buffalo in the east/west direction. About 60% of the trail is dedicated "rail trail", and the remainder is on road.

 When you camp you make a fire, right?  Even when it's 90 degrees outside! 

 

We surreptitiously took this photo of our neighbors as they enjoyed their roaring fire from 15 feet away. When you carted the wood all this way you gotta burn it...