Day 3: April 22, 2012 Ferryland Castle

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Once, when I was looking over maps back home, I noticed a promising looking winding road north of Port Jervis called Skyline Drive. I totally forgot about it when I was out and about yesterday but remembered it in the hotel room. I went off to take a look before I left town this morning. It no longer goes all the way through Elk-Brox as DeLorme indicates but it does lead to the Peter Point overlook. The point offers some great views of Port Jervis, the Delaware River, and surrounding areas. I even got one last look at the hotel where I slept last night. The building next to it is the 1892 Erie Depot.

The goal for the day is Framingham, Massachusetts, from whence I can dash into Boston (weather permitting) for my tour tomorrow. The expressways in these parts aren't ugly but they are still tiring after awhile. While stopped at a rest area west of Hartford, I again called on Roadside America to rescue me and was soon heading to an attraction I'd already seen.

I've mentioned somewhere a 1975 (I think) drive that was mostly on US-22. That drive resulted from a visit to a friend who was working in New York. While he was at work one day, I made a day trip to Westport, Connecticut, to see another friend. We did some aimless driving and ended up on a ferry going to a castle. Neither of us previously knew anything about the castle or the man behind its construction. As I recall, we saw a sign to a ferry and thought that would be cool then decided it would be even cooler when we learned it went to a castle. That may not be the exact truth because I soon had evidence of just how bad my recall is. I remember looking up at the castle as we crossed the Connecticut River and believed that we were surprised by it mid-stream. That hardly seems likely since it would be really difficult to not notice the castle from the western ferry landing.

When I fired up the Roadside America app and saw Gillette Castle listed and around twenty miles away, going there was almost a no-brainer. My strongest (though perhaps inaccurate) memories of that previous visit are of the inside. I was saddened to learn that the castle's season would not start until May 20 and that I would not get inside today. That was quite disappointing but the memories awakened by the ferry ride and walking around the outside of the castle were most pleasant in spite of it. And in spite of the rain.

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