West Point Military Academy & Museum

We pulled out of Locust Lake State Park and pointed the motorhome toward Highland Hills, NY where the West Point Military Academy is located.  It was a fairly uneventful drive except for fueling up at an Exxon station and being limited to $100 per time.  Not only that, but the last $5 took about 4 minutes to complete.  I used our other credit card and put another $100 worth of diesel fuel and that filled the tank.  Good to go for another 1100 miles.

Campgrounds are few and far between in that area and we lucked out and got a site at Round Pond Campground.  It was water and electric only, but that was fine since we only needed two days there and were going to be visiting West Point Academy for the bulk of the time.

It was decided that we take a guided bus tour of the Academy and then come back in the car for more in depth checking out of the place.  The car tour didn't materialize, but we did enjoy the bus tour.  The tour guide knew her stuff and talked non stop for over an hour and threw out more facts than I could ever remember.  We saw the complete grounds where the classrooms, chapels, sports stadiums, parade grounds, housing for cadets and professors and everything in between.

The Plebes ( Latin for lowest of the lowest ) had arrived and there were 1193 young adults taking basic training, learning their way around and the things needed to graduate as a 2nd Lieutenant in 4 years.  This years class has 1002 men and 191 women starting the grind ahead of them.

There is a Chapel on the grounds along with a Catholic Church and Jewish Synagogue.  We spent some time in the Chapel and they had the most beautiful stained glass windows and a huge pipe organ.  At one time all cadets had to attend weekly church service, but recent court cases have made that invalid.

We passed by the outdoor concert stage that has the Hudson River as a backdrop.  The Army band plays there every Sunday, weather permitting.  Gerry wanted to wait until Sunday to hear them, but she was out voted.

 
After the tour of the Academy we stopped by the visitors center to see what we could see.  The gift shop was there with high prices and all things Army.  I was interested in one shirt, but at $70 felt it was out of my range.  Also, I worked for the Navy for years and owe my loyalty to the Midshipmen of Annapolis.  We did get a visitor drop in on us while we were there.

 

 

The grounds and buildings where the Museum and Visitors Center are located was a Catholic Girls College until the Academy bought them out a number of years ago.

The building below is the Museum that has a huge collection of weapons dating back to the Revolutionary War, along with weapons from other countries.  We found it amusing and sad to see the Large Weapons collection area shut down due to the SEQUESTER cuts.  Only the section that was one floor down from the entrance was closed.  I won't say what I think of that foolishness in the blog.

Cadets on Parade

Part of Large Weapons collection

The house above must belong to a real patriotic person to paint his residence this way.  It actually looked very nice and not out of place for Highland Hills.  Super!

There was time for a short swim in the lake for Grant when we returned and a little 10 year old girl really wanted his Geico beach ball.  She threw a fit and stuck her tongue out at her grandmother who was watching her and told the girl it wasn't her ball.  That kid would be on the way back home to her parents if she was with us.  Grant handled it well and kept the ball away from her.  Kids!

That was our day, how was yours?  I don't think anyone is reading the blog anymore since I rarely get a response to my question above.  Are you out there?