Lyndhurst

Okay...back to Tarrytown. My roomies had been running around shopping. Parties and con stuff to deal with. Somehow the lack of a local Pep Boys became a running joke for the rest of the weekend, and everything tended to end with, but is there a Pep Boys?

Anyway I was shacking up with Nancy K., Malia & Kristi, and a great amount of paraphernalia and travel junk. We walked around, apparently casing the place somewhat, seeing who was about I guess...later we checked out the local grocery for probable party supplies, and ended up around the hotel bars. I pretty much just followed people around, like a lost puppy...taking mental notes. Mostly a chat-and-cool-down before the storm kind of evening. I finished coloring stuff. I was going to give out bookmarks to all purchasers of my Dr. DNA book, and that gave me something to do with my hands while still being social, lol. A few war plans were made, but nothing really started until Friday. Looked like the action would be on the other side of the hotel, in a hallway next to the ballroom. Julie came by to show her cool little tribute-to-JF-video to us, and I showed Richard III back, but it was more of a get-yer-bearings evening. I did get an art request and scribbled out a little Sarah Collins for someone, and showed off a couple of photos via my camera. Wasn't just wasting my time, ya know.

Friday morning I made some room coffee and rooted around, literally, with my sad leftover carrots. Since Nancy was having a party Friday night and I'd gotten a banquet ticket for Saturday, I figured I could exist on those meals sufficiently to get through the weekend if no one kidnapped me to run off to eat. Always too busy to leave the hotel at a con, it seems, unless there's a cheapie place next door, and rarely can I afford hotel food. Fortunately my hypothyroid constitution lets me operate on crumbs for days (just ask Lorraine). Nancy needed to get her party off the ground and expressed a need for coolers. I said I had a couple in the car, a regular one and an electric one. I got out the electric one because it was easier to fetch and nicer, brought it in and plugged it in to cool it off. Nancy talked about getting ice to cool down stuff and I said just don't put the ice in this thing! Malia chuckled and they spoke of using the tub and I went on a search for my bat pin, which suddenly vanished. Backtracked...or bat-tracked...and finally found it under the car (fell off when I got out the cooler). So, everything together and simpatico, and hopefully, with any luck I'd be back at an appropriate time to help with stuff, I headed off to take the Lyndhurst tour. I'd seen it before, in '85, but I figured I may as well go for all the bells and whistles since this trip might have to last me a while, being now gainfully and traditionally employed full-time as a library technician. A condition which has a lot of pluses and minuses, for an artist.

A mass of bodies were accumulating by the front door of the hotel lobby, and someone led us out towards the drop-off curb. Then we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited...wouldn't have been so bad if we knew just why we were waiting, or if my feet weren't killing me, but there seemed little more than that to do. I saw Julie but not many others I could put a name to, except later, Jim with a clipboard trying to get things underway. I gathered we were awaiting shuttles, but the shuttles weren't shuttling or something. Then they finally started, but one would fill up and go, come back, fill up...if you had other means, you could request your pass from Jim and go on. I thought about it, but since I really didn't know my way around, I figured I'd just let someone else do the driving for awhile. Finally, considerably later than all this was supposed to start, I got a spot on a shuttle bus and our human sardine-mobile puttered off to Lyndhurst.

At the estate, we disembarked, and were instructed that it was a do-it-yourself tour. Go forth and play and come back here to catch the shuttle back. That was certainly different from '85, and I wasn't sure what to think about that either. That is, it sounded more like a pass than a Tour...I had no problem with the roaming around part, though, and started to see what I could see on the property besides that big pile of neoGothic blocks, lol.

Of course one needs to get down the basics. So I got my share of 'foundation' shots. Lyndhurst is a nineteenth-century mansion and estate on the Hudson River. http://www.lyndhurst.org/history.html It is of interest to Dark Shadows aficionados because of its use in the Dark Shadows movies as the Collinwood estate. But even if you neglected to see House of Dark Shadows or Night of Dark Shadows, there is a fair amount of historical, architectural, botanical and artistic points of interest to keep one occupied for awhile.

And it was a nice summer's day. Lookee all the Greeeen! Both the verdant kind and the financial sort...

A cluster of Dark Shadows fans walking out on the Lyndhurst lawn.

Naturally I was attracted to all the natural bits not often promoted in brochures or movies. This is a nifty windbreak of trees.