Exploring with Intuition: RPI to Caledonia State Park

Auditorium at RPI

The real reason for the trip to Brenda’s was so we could tour the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) campus in Troy. A combination of very old and ultra-modern buildings sit on the side of a hill overlooking the Hudson River Valley. We were a bit disappointed in the school since they only offer one language, Mandarin Chinese, and Noah is interested in minoring in linguistics. The other disappointments were that our tour guide didn’t know if they had the latest technology, like 3D printers, and they are the most expensive university we’ve visited – even more than MIT or Harvard! The new auditorium with multiple concert halls was an impressive building with great views. In contrast, the computing center is in an old stone church. We’re glad we visited, but RPI is at the bottom of Noah’s list. We made lunch in the parking lot before heading out on the road towards home.

The route took us through New York and into Pennsylvania. We discovered we were very close to New Jersey when we pulled off at an exit to get diesel and there was an attendant pumping fuel! New Jersey is one of the few states that isn’t self-service.

That night we stayed in the Hosack Run Campground at Caledonia State Park near Gettysburg. We arrived after the office closed at 3:30, so just picked a spot and filled out a form saying we would pay for it in the morning. So far, we much prefer State & National parks to private campgrounds. They generally have much more privacy between sites and often have trail systems and scenery that can’t be beat. The pleasant ranger at the office explained that the campground would be closing this fall for major renovations. They plan to add more handicapped accessible sites and more sites with electric service.

It was Beth’s birthday, so we pulled some small presents out of the tire well and had ice cream to celebrate. Noah made one of his interesting paper sculptures that unfolded into a card.