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uniquejt

Driving to Long Island


Navigating large metropolitan areas in a car can be a problematic adventure but doing it with a 35 foot long fifth wheel trailer behind your one ton truck takes this endeavor to a whole new level! Now I've driven in congested cities with the rig before, so traffic and confusing interstate exchanges I can deal with, but what the New York city area adds to the mix is their parkway system.


The Long Island Parkway System was envisioned as great ribbon parks, stretching east-west and north-south across Long Island, providing scenic access and linkage between the state parks then under development, such as Jones Beach, Bethpage and Sunken Meadow. The Long Island Parkway System followed the same design characteristics as the parks themselves; the two visually linked through common design. The system employed stone-faced arched bridges, turf shoulders, bracketed-arm wood light posts, post-and-rail fences and guide rails, naturalistic road alignments and plantings, and unobtrusive black-faced signs.

When New York State’s picturesque parkway system was built early in the twentieth century, it was designed for automobiles. Some bridges on the parkway system have posted vertical clearances as low as 6’11”. Commercial vehicles often strike low bridges causing serious accidents and long delays while they are removed as well as damage to property.


Taking into account our height of 12" 8", we drove with a hyper-conscious level of awareness to avoid the parkway system's on ramps as we navigated from Croton on the Hudson to Battle Row Campground in Bethpage, Long Island. We arrived in the afternoon on Friday, August 18 and set up in site 51. The campground sites are spacious with water and 30 amp electrical services.

We invited my sister's family over for a picnic dinner that evening so they could see our rig and hang out in the park. We drove over to the Costco nearby to pick up a couple of rotisserie chickens, corn on the cob and salad, then we got together for a lovely visit and started making plans for the remainder of the week.


Saturday, we visited the Old Bethpage Village Restoration near our campgroun for a few hours in the early afternoon. The Old Bethpage Village Restoration is a 209-acre recreated living museum village in Old Bethpage, New York. The village opened in 1970 with dozens of historic structures that had been saved from demolition by Nassau County. Costumed actors provide demonstrations of 19th-century life. There are currently 51 preserved and seven reconstructed buildings arranged to simulate a typical mid-19th-century Long Island farming village. From there we headed over to my sister's home for more visiting and a steak barbecue with all the fixings.

Sunday, we went to Calvary Chapel Hope in Amityville and then met my brother-in-law Jeff Sheehan for a bike ride on a section of the Bethpage/Massapequa Preserve bikeway. We finished our ride around 4 PM and proceeded to my nephew Kevin's for dinner and a visit. Kevin pulled out the stops, like his mother, and prepared a lobster bake feast for the whole family.

Lobster, clams, mussels, shrimp, sausage, potatoes, mushrooms, corn on the cob... I mean it covered the table from north to south! We stood around the table and feasted until we could consume no more. What a treat and a great way to experience this culinary experience with the ones we love, just awesome!

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2件のコメント


Elisa Edgington
Elisa Edgington
2023年8月22日

Looks amazing! So glad you guys got to visit.


いいね!
uniquejt
2023年8月30日
返信先

It was great to be with our NY family! KT

いいね!
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