June 19

  Wow -- the Mohonk Mountain House did not disappoint. It's like the Biltmore with tennis courts. Ridiculously pricey, of course. I was okay with the number of elderly people I saw tooling around but the kids provoked more than a little plebeian resentment --  Vandy kids of the future, probably. Apparently it's so exclusive they habitually charge people $20 just to roll up and see the place. What?! I didn't find this out til I got home and told across-the-hall roomie where I'd been. He was totally taken aback that I'd managed to penetrate the hotel's airtight defenses of a lone guardhouse at the foot of the mountain.

What? How'd you get in with out having to pay?

I... I just kept rolling.

  Pictures apparently obtained at great personal risk coming soon.

  Also went letterboxing on the rail trail -- two out of four boxes in about two hours. Not bad, plus met a talkative walker who wanted to tell me all about the decline in the area's bat population. Unfortunately underestimated the power of mosquitoes in cool weather -- totally covered in bites and probably look like I have some strange sort of jungle skin virus.

  Today has actually been pretty good. LL cornered me at breakfast with news that he thinks he can get someone else for the room immediately, and asked when I could be out. I told him Tuesday morning, which is a day before I see the new place. I can bridge the gap with couchsurfing and when the lady asks when I want to move in, maybe she won't be too creeped out when I tell her I have everything in my car. I'm not too worried about it, which is typical of situations that actually I should be concerned about. But I have a locking car that is at least as big as my room now (although awkwardly partitioned), with the added bonus that it does not include a LL who smokes on the porch and leaves the door open, or tells me I'm parking my car incorrectly or driving to work wrong on a daily basis.

  Whoa, I meant to tell you about the good parts of today. The library didn't open til one, so I killed some hours at the Water Street Market, an antique shop/ pretentious eatery type of area in NP. The big antique store had all kinds of good stuff, including a ceramic teapot in the shape of the White Tower that I really wanted. But the price and practicality of keeping something like that unbroken through this moving sitch and the trip back home prevented me from getting it. As with most antique stores, there were clip-on earrings, but most tended toward the old-ladyish. But I found a cool pair that are tiny golden bells with actual moving clappers -- I think they're hilarious and I can't wait to wear them around and look like a fool!

  Letterboxing attempt part deux was a failure. Couldn't find any and the onslaught of rabid mosquitoes prevented me from trying too terribly hard. Went back to the Market and had a freakin' delicious sandwich at "The Cheese Plate" that I may have weirded the cashier out about just because I was sooo enthusiastic about real food. The lunch I packed this morning is chilling (or more realistically, cooking) in the car for dinner after I see the world's biggest garden gnome in Kerhonkson, NY.

  This is my life and suddenly it's not so bad.