June 28th to July 5th
The Catskills are a range of low mountains that sweep across New York state and are part of the Appalachian range. They stretch across New York from the Hudson River in the east to the Delaware River in the west. The area was well known in the mid-20th century as a resort area for New York City, and particularly as an upscale summer destination for Jewish visitors.
It is a long drive (860 miles) from Hilton Head, taking two days of Interstate travel. Although we avoided the misery that is the coastal I-95, by taking an inland route using I-77 and I-81, that skirt the Appalachian Mountains, the highways were incredibly busy and stressful for a long journey. We arrived at our destination, Villa Roma, in the western part of the Catskills by 4pm on Sunday. The resort was first built in 1944, and eventually expanded to include 24 timeshare buildings and 139 hotel rooms. Each of the timeshare buildings has 6 units. The timeshares are of varying sizes, ours was 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and had a kitchen and a generous lounge area.
The resort includes a surprising variety of facilities that cater mainly to families, including an enormous swimming pool, playgrounds, bowling, and an 18-hole golf course. We are not usually as surrounded by families with small children as we were on this occasion, generally choosing to avoid the season when schools are out and families take holidays.
We planned to play 3 rounds of golf, beginning on Monday, but New York and much of eastern USA was gripped by a heatwave. We enjoyed 18 holes the first day, but by Wednesday we had an earlier tee time and only played 9, and we ultimately cancelled the final planned round on Friday. The course was very typical of this part of the world, with a lot of climbing up hills and down. Great when you could enjoy hitting from an elevated tee and watch your ball roll down the hill, not so great as you hit uphill and slogged after it in the heat and humidity!
Food in the main dining room of the hotel was generally excellent. Each evening offered a 5-course menu with choices, for a flat per person rate. You could buy a meal plan, which Dick did for 4 dinners. Fortunately, he did not buy a plan for breakfasts, as we discovered that the breakfast in the dining room was only a buffet, with a limited selection of tasty but cold (in spite of steam trays) food and not even toast or cereal. There was another restaurant that offered a la carte breakfasts, but by the time we discovered it, we had already bought what we needed to eat breakfast in the timeshare.
The great challenge with the dinners was wine. Each evening, we had to ask for a wine list, and instead of being handed to us as we were seated, it was brought (usually after some delay) by a cocktail waitress. For the first two evenings, we ordered a bottle of wine, and by the time it arrived we were eating the main course. By the third evening we decided to refuse to order our dinner until we had our wine, but then we discovered another glitch. Although the wine list gave a per glass price, the waitress explained that none of those wines could be served by the glass, instead there was a different selection available. And no, there is no list. The young woman did not know anything about the wines she had to offer. Eventually she ended up bringing bottles on a tray so we could see them and choose. Unsurprisingly, most of the choices were nowhere near the standard of the wines that were offered by the bottle. It was very clear from the somewhat chaotic service, that very few guests order wine, or any liquor, at all.
The food was excellent, and the menu was different each day. Each evening a basket of very nice bread was brought to the table, followed by a modest “appetizer” such as a pate with crackers. There was a choice of salad or pasta, and then 3 or 4 options for the main course. Dessert was usually a choice between 2 different cakes. We were certainly pleased with the quality of the food, and the portions were just right. Service was friendly, if somewhat brisk, and the dining room manager made a point of visiting each table to ask if everything was okay. We could see that he and the chef ate their own dinners at one of the tables later, a good sign when they are given the same food as the guests!
On Tuesday we began an investigation of the local attractions, driving to the town of Callicoon. We passed near Bethel, the site of the famous Woodstock Festival in 1969. The site now houses a museum and a large outdoor amphitheater. The week that we were there, Paul Simon was performing one evening, and another evening the headliners were Santana and the Doobie Brothers. Simon and Garfunkel were invited to Woodstock, but declined as they were making a new album. Santana appeared at Woodstock. The Doobie Brothers were not formed as a band until 1970. Dick had zero interest in any of them, and I am always put off by the thought of crowds, not to mention small biting insects! Interestingly, the town of Woodstock is over 60 miles from the site of the famous gathering.
Callicoon was settled by Dutch hunters in the 1600’s. Settlers arrived around 1756. It became a centre for lumber with transportation to the east coast on the Delaware River. Tree trunks were lashed together and floated down the river to sawmills. The Erie Railroad opened up the area after 1840, linking the Great Lakes with the Eastern Seaboard. Summer visitors arrived in the town and stayed at the hotels and at resorts in the area (including Villa Roma). Passenger trains stopped coming in 1966, and the economy of the town was destroyed as the railroad gave way to the automobile and most of the large resorts in the area closed. Eventually the much-reduced town became a centre for vacationers arriving for camping and fishing and many of the houses became second homes, occupied only at weekends and for brief periods in summer.
Unfortunately, while there were a few interesting shops and several cafes, only the cafes were open. In fact, most of the shops had their hours posted on the door, and are only open Fridays through Sundays. This shows what a weekend place the area is, when store owners feel it is not worth opening during the week, even in high season.
Tuesday evening, we drove 20 miles to The Eldred Preserve. This is a relatively new hotel and restaurant in beautiful grounds. It is a popular destination for weddings, and in fact a rehearsal was taking place (oddly) in the open-air lobby of the restaurant as we were arriving. We were a little early and enjoyed a drink first in the bar that overlooks the beautiful grounds. The food was excellent. We both ordered steaks, and they were perfectly prepared and beautifully presented. The dessert was a very interesting version of chocolate mousse, very dense and not at all sweet.
On Wednesday we were out early in hopes of a pleasant round of golf, but we decided that 9 holes would be enough as the temperatures were already rising. It was also quite slow, as it was men’s day and the course was crowded. Neither of us played particularly well. Afterwards we repaired to the grill room and ordered a really tasty lunch, a chicken ranch wrap for both of us.
The next day was another sightseeing day. Dick had identified two towns that showed promise, but once again we were disappointed. While there were plenty of the sort of shops and services that local people would need, there was nothing for tourists.
We did enjoy visiting the Livingston Manor Covered Bridge. One of the iconic features of the northeastern states, most covered bridges were built during the 19th century. Wooden bridges generally have a lifespan of only about 20 years due to weather, whereas a covered bridge can last more than 100. Most of the remaining bridges are now considered historic monuments and are looked after and renovated as needed to preserve them.
The Livingston Manor bridge was built in 1860, and restored in 1985. It is the oldest covered bridge in Sullivan County. Also known as the Van Tran Flat Bridge, the Motts Flats Bridge, or the Van Tran Bridge, it is about 117 feet long. Strangely, there is disagreement on the length of the bridge, with 3 different lengths claimed by 3 different authorities! The bridge was closed and abandoned in 1972, but by 1984, the local authority decided to rebuild and restore it using original construction techniques.
From there, we made our way to Stone Arch Bridge at Kenoza Lake. This is a very picturesque stone bridge, now closed to vehicular traffic. It was built in 1882, after an earlier wooden structure collapsed, sending a load of bark into Callicoon Creek and drowning the driver. (I am slightly amused that the loss of the load of bark was apparently more of a tragedy than the driver drowning, as that is the order they are listed on the information board!) Stone for the bridge was hand cut, quite an effort, but the road was an important connection between the valley and one of the major north south turnpikes during its heyday.
A footnote on the information board notes that the bridge was the site of one of the few hex murders committed in the Upper Delaware Valley. Of course I had to look this up, and there is surprisingly little information. Hex murders were committed by people who thought they had been wronged by witchcraft. A local farmer and his son believed that George Markert had put a hex on them, after he patted Adam Heidt three times on the shoulder. When his cows began producing bloody milk, Adam and his son decided that Markert had cursed them, and the only way to lift the curse would be to kill him. Note that this is not an uncommon issue for dairy farmers, with several possible causes, none of which are today considered to have been caused by witchcraft. The prescribed method for killing the witch required an attack using 3 different methods (shooting, stabbing, bludgeoning in this case) over running water. Markert’s body was then thrown into the river. The father and son were caught and pleaded guilty. Joseph, the son, was sentenced and served 15 years in prison, while his father was declared insane and died in an asylum. The ghost of George Markert haunts the bridge to this day.
Hex murders were not uncommon, although only a few were documented as such. They were tied to Hexerei (witchcraft), and took place in the Pennsylvania Dutch regions of the northeastern States. The most recent two on record occurred in 1928 and 1934. The area also saw a number of non-fatal attacks that included arson and gravesite mutilations. I found it surprising to learn that this kind of superstition survived well into the 20th century.
After our wander around the park at Stone Arch Bridge, we drove to the town of Roscoe. Today it is a destination for trout fishermen. In its heyday, in addition to being a fishing mecca, it was in the area known as The Borscht Belt. The O & W Railroad brought Jewish vacationers to the town’s dozen or so hotels. Nearby were larger resorts. So popular with Jewish visitors was the area that it gained its nickname, and most of the local resorts served kosher food. In fact, Villa Roma, where we stayed, was unusual in that it was run as an Italian resort, attracting Italian visitors from New York, and it did not serve kosher food. There are still a number of synagogues in the area, and the accents we heard at Villa Roma were overwhelmingly those of New York City.
Roscoe calls itself “Trout Town USA” and has always been a destination for fly fishing. The shops in the town feature fishing gear, flies, and outdoor clothing. I saw a sign on one of the B&B porches directing guests to the place to hang up their waders. Although it is a stop on the main highway between New York City and Binghamton, there is little to offer non-fishing visitors who are not looking for food or fuel. There is a small railway museum, but it was closed when we were there.
Thursday evening, we drove to Resorts World Catskills near Monticello. This is a huge casino resort, with a large hotel and several restaurants. We have lived in New York State twice, and my recollection was that casinos were not allowed, with the occasional exception of a few on Native American reservations. I was surprised to be visiting a large casino, but times have moved on since we lived there. In New York State, casinos have been allowed since 2013 with the creation of the New York Gaming Commission to oversee them. Casinos are considered to have had a positive effect on the economy of the state.
We booked a meal at their Italian inspired steakhouse, called Cellaio. Passing the enormous floor filled with electronic gambling machines, pounding music, and pulsing lights, we were glad to find the quiet restaurant. Unfortunately, the seating in the booth was very uncomfortable for me, although usually we find that a booth is more comfortable than a table. The room was extremely dark, and phone flashlights were required to read the menu.
Dick enjoyed his choices, charred octopus to start, followed by skirt steak. My shrimp cocktail was very nice, with a generous 6 large shrimp, but my filet steak was dry and disappointing. Vegetable options were interesting and innovative, but I found the whole meal was generally tasteless, in my opinion, due to a lack of salt. A bread basket was served to start, and butter was offered as an alternative to balsamic and oil. The butter, sprinkled with flakes of sea salt, came from a pretty mould on a tiny slate plate, and was probably the best part of the meal. I ordered the Italian donuts with strawberry and chocolate toppings for dessert. They were nice and crispy and somewhat enjoyable, but they were extremely sweet and in fact they both tasted the same. We would be unlikely to return, or recommend the restaurant.
Friday and Saturday were the height of the heat wave, and we stayed in and relaxed instead of braving the heat.
Friday evening was Prime Rib Night at the restaurant. Dick was very pleased with the special, while I enjoyed the evening’s chicken option.
Saturday was July 4th, and America’s 250th birthday, so we expected a celebration. Early evening was misty, but the mist cleared and the rain held off for a very enjoyable fireworks display. Most guests were down at the pool area, where there had been live music during the afternoon and evening, but we chose to sit on the small terrace outside our unit. We had an excellent view, and enjoyed the display.
Our week in the western Catskills was an enjoyable break, and the timeshare resort was very well run, but we would be unlikely to return. The eastern area of the mountains offers more sightseeing and interesting small towns near the Hudson River, and we try to avoid “family friendly” resorts in general. Autumn will be pretty with the changing leaves, but there is still very little to do in the area. There are more interesting resorts further south in Virginia that we would return to first.
Scene and Done 
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