June 10 - From Poughkeepsie, I went up to Hyde Park to make sure the station in the gift shop at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum was still alive and well, which it is.

Across the river, near New Platte, I was thwarted from visiting the Lake Mohonk contract branch. It is located at the Mohonk Mountain resort that still operates much as it did 100 years ago. Day visitors are allowed on the extensive grounds, for a fee, but are not allowed to enter the hotel building. Only overnight guests and restaurant patrons are allowed inside. Meals are by reservation only and start at $20 for breakfast. They weren't about to let any sloppily dressed riff-raff like me inside. I might have been willing to pay the $7 day use fee, but at around $200 per night, I'll probably continue to camp.

At Ashland, N.Y., for the first time, I found a postmaster genuinely interested in PMCC. He was interested in providing some information to some of his "collector customers." I couldn't quite tell whether his customers were actually postmark collectors or just stamp collectors, but I gave him Membership Manager Bob Milligan's, address, and an old PMCC Bulletin that I had for exactly that purpose.

I went to West Copake, CPO Copake -- the last new office I'll be able to visit until well into Vermont. I'd been to West Copake some years ago, but it has since become a CPO, and I'd never been to the CPO. If I remember correctly, that is another error in the PMCC New York postal directory, that West Copake is listed as an independent, but apparently it has been a CPO for years.

At Copake Falls, N.Y., which is about as close to home as I'd been yet, the postmaster's daughter goes to Smith College in Northampton, and he was familiar with the town. Finding somebody who recommended one of the local restaurants made me feel closer to home!

June 20 -- Started in southern Washington County, N.Y. -- a county I've been in before, but never been to a post office there. Victory Mills is in a town called Victory. There is not another post office in New York called Victory, so I'm not sure why the post office isn't just called Victory, but maybe there used to be another Victory.

Katskill Bay is on the east side of Lake George, a resort area, up a dead-end road. It's a long dead end with a lot on it, but it doesn't go anywhere else. The county line is drawn in such a way that Katskill Bay is in Washington County, but you can't get there without going through Warren County.