Day 92: A New York Frame of Mind

We're back in the Empire state! Our low spirits of yesterday stayed in Connecticut, and we had a great day of driving and then doing. We're settled near the Hudson River, in an area that saw heavy flooding in the last couple of weeks. We passed bridges that looked seriously jeopardized by all of the debris piled up against them, and the still-standing water has created a bumper crop of mosquitos. Needless to say, we were pretty motivated to get the outside set-up tasks on Teensie accomplished as quickly as possible.

Tasks completed, we headed 20 miles south to West Point, the U.S. Military Academy. Our hour-long tour brought us into the cadet chapel, a neo-Gothic church built in 1910, and a couple other spots on campus. West Point's setting, overlooking the Hudson, combined with the European flavor of the chapel and our German-accented tour guide made us feel as though we were in Bavaria. The location of the school actually is central to its history...signed into existence in 1802 by Thomas Jefferson, and built upon fortifications laid during the Revolutionary War. The point of land, jutting out into the Hudson River, was a strategic spot for preventing the British from sailing down the river and gaining a foothold in New England. The spot was so important that in 1782, Washington moved his military headquarters from his beloved Mount Vernon to the West Point area. His troops slung a huge, 84-ton iron chain across the river and had a formidable array of cannon and other defenses in place, and the British knew it; an advance on the Point was never attempted.

The cadets were all over the place today, including the air. While viewing the heart of campus, the parade grounds in front of the mess hall and dorms, five cadets parachuted from a hovering helicopter onto the grass. It was fun to see the action up close...and we didn't let on to our fellow tourists or the guide that we're spoiled by seeing countless parachutes nearly every day in the skies over Colorado Springs, thanks to our proximity to the Air Force Academy.

We enjoyed hearing about some of the school's traditions and funny bits from its history. One method of instilling discipline in the cadets is the use of demerits...given for infractions ranging from a messy room to insubordination. Only one cadet in the school's history graduated without having received a single demerit: Robert E. Lee. And the cadet with the highest number of demerits in school history: George Custer. Since the school's earliest days, the graduating cadet with the most demerits is called "the goose," and up until recent years, that person was the last to cross the stage and receive a degree. One remaining "goose" tradition is that every other cadet in the graduating class gives him (or her!) one dollar. That usually adds up to more than $1250.00!! I feel sorry for the guy who comes in second in the demerit count.

The beautiful cadet chapel

The view of the Hudson from West Point

new recruits