Where do I begin? We are back from Rhinebeck and I must apologize for not blogging en route. The days were long and the wi-fi limited. The trip was all and more than what I expected! I think day 1 can be summed up with squeals of delight as we circled the statue of liberty. 
OK it’s not the picture you would expect but there were still squeals of delight for the four of us as we knew we were well on our way to a fantastic adventure. Bags collected and car rented we headed North about 2 hours to our accommodation at the Buttermilk Falls Inn. The twinkle lights were an amazing ambiance guiding us to our residence, the pony pad. A quick cup of tea and off to bed as Saturday was going to be big.
Allow me to introduce my travel girls: Judy, left and Marijane, right. Do you think they are a little excited. Judy named us. She was Ms. Entertainment (she got that right!) and Marijane was Miss Sunshine (bang on again).
This is Kathy or Mom as Judy often reminded us. We would have been up the creek without a paddle many a time if it hadn’t been for Kathy’s expert navigation (with the help of Maggie – the honorary gal in the car better known as the Garmen GPS.
On entering the gate we were aware very quickly that we were in over our heads. There are about 300 vendors at this event and along with that comes about 50,000 crazed fiber enthusiasts.
Then there was the OMG moment as we made our way through the vendors to the Goldring stall to make sure that we got our coveted drop spindles.
Plenty of people and yarn!
What to see first!
Can you say ooooooooh, ahhhhhh!
As much as it was about going to the festival, it was about the people moments. Four Gals together laughing and sharing the love of the 
wool and each other. This was the end of day 1 when we all needed to play with our treasured new spindles (Judy was still in practice mode here, after a few moments she was able to graduate on to her Goldring).
Judy summed up our moments best this morning with her email:
Just a quick note to say thanks to all of you for such a wonderful trip!! So
many wonderful memories…
1. Judy just making the flight….(to the extent that they were calling to see if they should allow her through and then she wasn’t sure if they had put a tag on her bag. We said we would share, undies and all).
2. MJ hopped up on adavan and gravel in the backseat of the car….so
blissfully relaxed and happy…sparkles and unicorns…ahhhhhh….(Marijane is an infrequent traveller and we wanted her to enjoy…apparently a little too much joy 
3. Sam having a laughing breakdown after trying to park the car the first
night. (Hey! I got you there shiny side up and rubber side down – I was drivin’ New York Honey!)
4. Spindling with our new Goldring spindles in the living room-Judy really
needing to be over a carpet!!
5. Kathy and “the hat”-and modeling “the hat” with MJ in Judy’s pic of an
alpaca. (This was a photo that I will need to add another day as Judy was blissfully taking pictures of baby alpaca – Kathy and Marijane were picture bombing in the background. – Judy never noticed until she looked back at the pictures).
6. Sam on her hands and knees of the plane-in full awareness that we would
probably not see her in that position again unless she dropped another
needle on the floor!!! (I lost the needle! Thankfully it wasn’t the one of the $65 Signature needles).
7. Kathy’s casserole…just what the doctor ordered for our last night!! (We had a kitchen in the B&B we stayed at so were able to have some “at home” cooking. – more money to spend on Yarn).
8. The view of Sam driving towards the NY city skyline
9. Flying by the statue of liberty….
10..and last but not least…..”Maggie”…. (The sister with all the driving directions).
Oh, and the very last memory that I have, was saying goodbye to all of you at
the airport, finding my truck and realizing that the battery was dead….to
which I flopped my stuff on the back seat, snacked on a granola bar I had
stashed in my bag….and waited for AMA to come and give me a boost…!!!
Autumn arrived while we were there. This is part of the 70 acres that the B&B was located at. I love the Prairie fall but I must admit the New York Autumn was amazing!
Okay everybody, make a note that they gave me Gravol! Not gravel they picked up somewhere :0) Plus, the landing was really rough, I wasn’t the only one with a green tinge, I wouldn’t have wanted to mess up the lovely Jeep we rented! I had a lovely time with you guys! Thanks for taking such great care of me and not propping me up in a corner somewhere. You are awesome shoppers! I am in awe. I can hardly wait to see what you guys do with all the fibre and yarn and toys you brought back. See you soon!
XOXOXO Mj