Low Expectations - Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome
A Trip With Low Expectations to the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome
I ride a lot. I mean every weekend and quite often I ride on both Saturday and Sunday. I have made a number of friends on these rides and it is always a welcome sight to see them pull into the origination point of the next run. It means that I won’t be alone at the refreshment stops. I enjoy each and every one of these rides but nothing can compare to the enjoyment that I get when I ride with Low Expectations based in Albany, NY. That is my club and these are my fellow members. When you are riding with your own club, you know the rules and pardon the joke but you also know the expectations. I have not had a chance to ride with Low Ex since May. It seemed that every time they would schedule a ride, I was committed to covering a ride locally for the magazine. I was quite excited to discover that the club had planned a ride on July 25th and I had no other commitments.
I met with Nicole at the exit 18 Stewarts and we proceeded down I87 to Route 7. We crossed Route 7 and exited onto I787 and then onto I90 East. We exited I90 East at Exit 9 and swooped into the East Greenbush Dunkin Donuts parking lot. Mike who was this rides Road Captain and Matt the Low Ex VP were already there. Since “America Runs on Dunkin” and we were already there, some of us chowed down on some of the Dunkin Donuts products that were so readily available.
We left East Greenbush and headed east through winding country roads. You know the type, smooth with long radiuses that you can just carve your way through. We eventually intersected the Taconic State Parkway and headed south towards Red Hook and Rhinebeck. Our target for the day was the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome where we were to attend an air show featuring reproduction and or restored World War 1 Fighter Aircraft. Before we went to the Aerodrome we had lunch at the “Historic Village Diner” in Red Hook NY. This is a classic piece of American Heritage and is one of the first dinners in the Nation to be placed on the National Historic Registry. The service was excellent as was the food. It was like we had climbed into a time machine and gone back into the 40s and 50s. Just a fabulous place to have lunch and if you find yourself in that neck of the woods, I would suggest that you give them a try.
After lunch we went to the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome. We were an hour early for the air show and that gave us plenty of time to tour the museum at the top of the hill. The museum consists of three hangers and the museum building itself. The place is loaded with vintage flying machines from both Europe and the United States. Inside the museum proper there we even some old bikes on display including a 1930 4 cylinder Indian that appeared to be in excellent condition.
The air show itself was both entertaining and amusing. To give some life to the air show the ORA has over the decades developed a little skit featuring Trudy Truelove (the heroin), the Black Baron of Rhinebeck (the villain), Sir Prissey (the hero) and an entourage of World War 1 German soldiers. Even though the skit was a little on the hokey side, it added greatly to the entertainment value of the air show. It was exciting to see the various World War 1 Fighters in flight, performing mock dog fights and mock bombing runs. Now if they could just get the fake bombs to land near the ground based pyrotechnics it would be more realistic but I doubt that it would be more entertaining.
It had been overcast all day with an occasional sprinkle of rain but just near the end of the air show it began to rain steadily. We left the air show and everyone dug out and donned their rain gear. We had not driven 8 miles when the sun came out so we pulled over to get out of the gear. Weather can be such a pain.
We drove north on Route 9G and missed a torrential down pour by only minutes when we sought shelter at a handy convenience store near Hudson NY. As soon as the storm passed, the sun came back out and we continued to drive north on Route 9G until we intersected with Route 9J. We followed Route 9J to Troy where we intersected with I787 and the ride terminated. Yes we actually terminate some rides while on the fly.
I do so love riding with my club and am hoping to be able to catch a few more trips with them before this riding season ends. I have already missed the ride to the top of Whiteface and subsequent visit to the Village of Lake Placid and just this weekend they rode to the top of Mount Equinox near Manchester Vermont.
As Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz, “There’s No Place Like Home”.
Some of What We Saw:
Special thanks to Gail O. and Don C. of Low Expectations for providing some of the pictures below.
Comments(1):
-
airshow
Monday, August 02, 2010 Gail