Monday morning, June 28, we woke up after not a great night on not a great bed, noting to ourselves not to stay in that hotel again. I was hungry and scarfed down the cold pizza from the night before, 'cause that's how I roll. We got coffee at the little coffee shop across the street, then went to a deli where John could get a "civilized" egg sandwich to eat on the road as we headed toward the tri-state area at the northern end of the Delaware Water Gap, about 4.5 to 5 hours away. We selected that location because it was about an hour from New Paltz, NY; we could spend the night there and arrive fresh to see John's family the next day. We also wanted something close to High Point State Park which has a lake with a swimming beach. We were fixated on swimming.
After John took over driving, I started surfing the web to find us a place to stay. I picked what looked like a little gem of a place, Myer Country Motel in Milford, PA, and put that into the GPS as our destination. It was a Monday so we weren't worried about getting a room, and didn't call to make a reservation. Stupid mistake #1 for the day.
About an hour from Milford, we saw a sign for Tobyanna State Park, which also has a swimming lake, and went to check it out. The setting was inviting, and the water and sand felt good on our bare feet.
We debated about swimming, because thunder was rumbling not too far away, and we weren't sure we really wanted to hassle with changing into our swimsuits. In the end we decided we'd just wait to swim until we got to High Point, and drove on. Stupid mistake #2.
So we got to Milford in the late afternoon. Needless to say, the motel I had picked looked quite charming in person, and was fully booked. But the kind lady at the front desk called her friend at the motel down the road, and said they still had a room. So we checked into the Scottish Inn. It's a fairly generic chain, but the price was right and the room was spacious and comfy. We had a little stone patio overlooking a grassy area bordered by woods, where we observed deer, bunnies, a woodchuck, and some birds. The traffic noise from the highway didn't really bother us.
After checking in, we changed into swim suits and high-tailed it to High Point State Park, across the border in New Jersey. Couldn't wait to swim!! I had verified that the park was open till 8 pm, but when we got to the beach parking area at 5:30, everybody was leaving. We didn't understand. It was hours till sundown, and still hot and perfect for swimming. Then we saw the sign. The beach closes at 5:30. Whatever, I said. Let's just pretend we didn't see the sign. We strode quickly to the beach, took off our shirts and headed for the water. We were intercepted by a ranger who was quite firm in instructing us that there would be no more swimming that day. The lifeguards get off at 5:30, and you're not allowed to swim after that. Gah!!!!
Luckily, Pennsylvania doesn't have such stupid rules, and Milford has its own little beach on the Delaware River. So back to Milford we went, and finally, finally immersed ourselves in the water.
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